THE FORGOTTEN ORPHANAGE
CHAPTER SIX

Headlights flashed brightly onto a large stone sign that read "FERNWOOD". Although covered in vines that had grown over it over the decades it had been abandoned, the sign was hard to miss. Its evident old age, conveyed by the moss and dirt covering it, added onto the area's mysticism. It also weighed onto the curling feeling in Olivia's stomach as they pulled into the large open area in front of the orphanage.

The building stood large and tall, towering over them like an intimidating giant. It almost looked Victorian, and Olivia would have believed it was that old considering the masses of green that had grown in front of it. The tall trees that had formed almost a jungle around the orphanage blocked the car from driving any further. As the car came to a stop, they all piled out of the car one by one, each stopping the moment they exited to take in the bewildering sight.

"Alright," Nancy muffled after a moment of hesitation. "Everyone ready?" Her voice was steady, but by the breathy sound of it, it was clear to the others that she was as uncertain as the rest of them. She glanced back briefly before returning her wide-eyed gaze to Fernwood and switched her flashlight on, beginning to walk toward the building.

The door creaked as Nancy pushed it open. Her foot on the old wooden grounds caused a loud grating sound as she emerged through the doorway and into the home. Her flashlight, although strong, barely allowed any clear vision until the others entered the orphanage with their phone flashlights shining brightly. The light highlighted the flying dust particles that consumed most of the air around them, signifying just how old this place was.

Olivia's arms stiffened, squeezing tightly into her sides as she took in the massive cobwebs filling every corner of the hall. She furrowed her brows, taking in the sight of unevenly placed chairs and pieces of furniture that were splayed across the floor, as though someone had trashed the place. Bess gasped suddenly, making Olivia flinch. She sighed with relief when she realized Bess had just been shocked by a bird's chirp.

"Somebody worked hard to make sure this place got forgotten," Nancy murmured, her head moving slowly from left to right as she took everything in.

Olivia followed close behind, ducking past a large branch growing through the cracked window on the right. "They did a good job at it too..." she added, looking at the center of the hall where a long dining table was covered in dirty dishes and cutlery. Spiderwebs hung from the ceiling lamp all the way down to the used plates, covering every inch of them.

"Looks like they left in a hurry." Nick's eyes never left the messy floor.

When Bess gasped, Olivia flinched instinctively. She sighed with relief when she realized Bess had just been shocked by a bird's chirp.

"Looks like they straight up vanished. I'm getting serious Roanoke vibes," Ace said, his hand trailing over the head of a dusty chair.

Olivia wrapped her arms around her own torso, rubbing them with her hands to try and rid herself of the goosebumps. Everyone's comments about the place raised the hairs on the back of her neck. Horror movies were things she once loved– a tradition she had carried out with her father. Some nights, she would even sit alone and watch, completely unbothered. But now that her entire world appeared to be turning into an escape room or haunted house, she wasn't so sure she wanted a part of it anymore when what once fiction now appeared to be real.

Nancy walked further into the room, taking note of the several doors around them. "We should all split up. We'll cover more ground," she declared as she turned around to face all her friends who stood behind her. Bess nodded and began to lead the way back toward the entrance, motioning for Ace to follow. The blonde man nudged Olivia's arm with his elbow, interrupting her from her brief trance. She forced a faint smile before walking behind him, George and Bess as they made their way up a staircase in front of the entrance.

Each step sounded hollow as they ascended on the wood. Olivia was certain that with one person too many, the staircase, if not the entire building, would collapse. She gripped tightly onto the wooden railings to give herself a sense of stability in her world that was falling apart.

"Hey, you okay?" Ace whispered, lowering his head slightly as they walked.

Olivia nodded. "Yeah," she replied, "something about this just feels off."

"Might be the fact that we just broke into an obscure abandoned orphanage."

"Oh really?" Olivia rolled her eyes and elbowed him lightly in the side for his attempts at being humorous in a serious situation. She quickened her pace slightly to catch up with Bess and Geroge who were slowly entering through a door on the left side of the hall.

Two sets of bunk beds were racked against the sides of opposite walls. Olivia could see even in the dark that the comforters and sheets were stained and coiled together in a bundled mess. Much like the rest of the building, everything appeared to have been untouched for several years. The walls were the most disturbing part– what used to be light grey paint was mostly green as moss and dirt formed over it. Olivia assumed that was the source of the stench that filled her nose as she walked further into the small room.

"This place smells awful," Bess groaned, squeezing the bridge of her nose with her index finger and thumb.

Ace grimaced and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, not looking forward to checking out the bathroom."

"Well if we stop wasting time and find something in here, we won't need to check the bathroom," George snapped, uncomfortable by the very thought of being in the orphanage any longer. Understandably, she wanted nothing more than to find what they were looking for and leave. She grimaced as she picked up a light piece of stained clothing with her pinky finger.

Olivia scrunched her nose up in disgust and looked around as she walked toward a wooden dresser. She traced her hand over the wood, letting dust collect on the tip of her finger. As her finger reached the edge of the table, Olivia took notice of a pile of cards and papers. She spread them over the table to scan them, and furrowed her eyebrows when a polaroid came into sight.

She reached her hand over to pick it up and look at it. Two boys and three girls around Olivia's age smiled cheerfully in the picture. "Hey guys?" she called quietly, too focused and drawn into the photo.

"You find something?" Ace hovered over Olivia's shoulder with Bess hurrying behind.

"Hey, that's Rita," Bess said in confusion, frowning as she leaned over to get a closer look.

Olivia remained silent, her eyes narrow as she looked deeper into the photo, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. "I saw this," she trailed, "in my vision."

"The picture?" George asked, rushed and uncertain.

"No, the tattoo! Look at the arm."

"Wait, what do you mean vision? Isn't your ring supposed to make you immune to those?" Bess pulled away to look Olivia in the eyes. Bess' words reminded Olivia of the cold platinum material sitting on her finger. Its weight on her finger was suddenly noticeable and she glanced down at her hand, taking in the mesmerizing blue color.

"This was before we got the ring," Ace stated, pulling back as the brief memory flooded his head. He paused and then his frown deepened.

"Those must be the Aglaeca victims."

Bess held her hand forward, signaling for Olivia to drop the polaroid picture onto her palm. After analyzing it, Bess let out a sigh which Olivia only recognized as one of exhaustion– one that signified that things kept getting added onto an already stressful situation. The British woman rushed down the staircase with everyone following behind her. "Guys!" she yelled, her voice piercing into George, Olivia, and Ace's ears. "You're gonna want to see this."

They returned to the lounge area to find Nick and George rummaging through drawers. The pair looked at Bess with their heads cocked as she handed Nancy the picture.

"We found it in one of the bedrooms," George mentioned as Nancy and Nick looked deeply at the photo.

"Hey, there's my good friend Mac!" Nick laughed, although it was clear he was seething at the sight of his attacker.

"Yeah and that's Rita." Olivia watched as Bess pointed at a girl in the picture.

"The ghost who tried to kill me during the Nor'easter," George scoffed, folding her arms over her chest.

"Wait, what?" Olivia frowned, struggling to make sense of everything everyone seemed to know but her.

Nancy let out a shaky breath, her eyes rooted to the picture of the five friends, and realization took over her body. "I've seen all these people before... There's Javier from Larkspur; Autumn and Perry from outside Claire's house, Rita at The Claw– they were all ghosts."

Olivia watched closely at the faces that Nancy pointed at as she said their names. It all came off as insanity to her, the idea of ghosts and the prospect that these people believed in it all. Yet, being in an old, worn-out, abandoned orphanage put it all into perspective. She looked down at her right hand, her sight filling with the Irvine ring and her mind filling with reminders of all the visions she'd had so far. And as much as she wanted to believe that her new friends were crazy for talking about ghosts like they were real, Olivia knew herself that they were.

"What day did Mac die on?" Ace reached into his pocket to pull out his phone.

"July 17, 1975." The keyboard of his phone clacked as he typed things in. Everyone watched him in silence, seemingly patient and quiet, when truly, their minds were racked and their teeth dug into their lips until they drew blood.

"Check it out." He tilted his phone so everyone could circle around him. "Autumn Curtis, Perry Barber, Rita Howell, Javier Perez, and Mac– they all died on the same day." He swiped through pictures of an old newspaper as he said each of their names.

"What, all in freak accidents?" Nick scoffed, not willing to buy into it so quickly.

"Those were the people that called to the Aglaeca with Mac." George gawked as the realization struck.

"But then who was the sixth?"

"The guy with the tattoo," Olivia whispered, frowning as her brain filled with a new wave of shock and understanding.

"AJ," Nick confirmed before pulling away and looking at Nancy for input.

"I don't think I've seen his ghost before..." She suddenly gasped when a memory struck. Spinning around, she reached for a file on the table behind her. "I did find a registrar..." She opened it to a page of names. "Akira Jacob Nishiyama."

"AJ..." Bess whispered to herself. She raised her hand to cover her mouth as she took in everything.

"So he was an orphan here too?" Olivia asked, shuffling next to Nancy so she could get a clearer read of the names on the page. The redhead nodded in verification.

"Right, so were all the others."

Ace returned his gaze to his phone and typed something into the search bar of a browser. "Can't find an obituary for AJ. 'Cause maybe he died in another country?"

"Or they never found his body," Bess said.

The thought raised hairs on the back of Olivia's neck. But then she frowned and took a step back to divert everyone's attention away from the picture and registrar to herself. "If I had a vision of his tattoo then he must still be alive."

"I'm not sure..." Nancy mumbled, staring at the wall in front of her as she considered it.

"It checks out," George declared. "Every vision Olivia has had so far of the Aglaeca was of the future. What says this isn't?"

"But the Aglaeca got to the others. Why not AJ?" Ace joined in, uncertainty dripping from his voice. Olivia wanted to interject, to say that she had a gut feeling that she was right. That there was some significance surrounding AJ and defeating the Aglaeca, but she couldn't bring herself to open her mouth and speak. All of this felt like too much– like she was being suffocated by an entirely new world that was being thrown at her. And in addition, she wasn't sure if she could bear the possibility of her claims being wrong. If Ace, Nancy, George, Bess, and Nick died after following one of Olivia's hunches, she wasn't sure if she could handle it.

"Where'd you find that photograph?" Nancy's voice was rushed as though she was onto something.

"Upstairs."

"Could've been Mac's room?"

Nick flailed his arms slightly in realization. "That's where he would've hidden the '45 if he came back here." Nancy nodded and dropped the registrar on the table before leading everyone back up the weak wooden stairs.

The stench of damp clothes and moss-covered walls refilled Olivia's nose. Even despite having entered the room before, the smell still hit like a fast train. While Olivia stood at the doorway, taking in the appearance of the room again and trying to adjust, everyone had already sprung to their feet and began searching through drawers and boxes. She felt useless in a room full of people who appeared to know exactly what they were doing.

"Uh... hey guys?" Nancy was crouched beside the bottom bunk of a bed. "There's a vent under there."

Nick and Ace didn't hesitate to march toward the bed and pull it aside. George hurriedly lodged a thin bent pipe between the vent door and the wall. She grunted, forcing her weight onto it until it fell off, landing on the cold hard floor with a clatter. Instantly, the foul smell in the room strengthened, and when Olivia knelt over to get a closer look, she realized why.

Her eyes sprung wide and her hand raced to her chest when she saw what was inside. The room filled with gasps and Olivia stumbled backward in terror, although she was unable to detach her eyes from the skull sitting in the vent. She couldn't stop the unbearable pounding of her heart in her chest and the tears that glazed over her eyes as she took everything in. All she could think about was just how many more closeted skeletons she would have to face.

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Her legs were heavy, each step up the porch steps of her house feeling like a hike up a mountain. While her body hadn't undergone heavy physical activity, her brain had taken up enough activity for itself and all her muscles. Olivia had never felt more drained in her life; it felt like every time she learned or dealt with something new before she could find the time to absorb and process it, something else more awe-striking was thrown at her. It felt like an unending spiral of events she couldn't control, from the visions to the revelation about her aunt and that her dad might have known– and to top it all off– the skeleton in the vents of Fernwood. At first, she had hoped they were fake; a Halloween prank maybe. But when the police and Detective Tamura came and collected the bones in a body bag, her fears were confirmed.

Olivia's body wracked with chills at the memory of what had happened not more than an hour ago. Her trembling hand made it harder for her to find her house keys in her bag, and although most of the lights were on inside, Olivia preferred struggling to find her keys than having to face her dad by ringing the doorbell. She threw her head back in exasperation and closed her eyes to hold back the frustrated tears desperate to pour out. "Okay," she whispered, trying to calm herself down. She knelt down on the floor and placed her bag down before taking a deep breath and continuing her search through her handbag. Under the porch light, the silver of her keys glimmered in the darkness and Olivia sighed with relief and reached in to pick them up.

As she stuck her hand into her bag, the keys weren't the only thing sparkling under the light. Her sapphire ring was suddenly illuminated, bright light reflecting off of the majestic blue. Olivia pursed her lips and held her hand close up to her face to stare at it closely. Although her brain was yelling at her to keep it on like Ace had said, for her own protection at least until the Aglaeca was defeated, Olivia's actions went against her forceful thoughts. 

As angry as she was with her father and as much as she wanted answers from him, with everything that had happened today, Olivia wasn't in the mood for confrontation. She couldn't even bear the thought of looking at him. So, slowly, she reached her left hand toward the ring and after a moment of hesitation, she slid it off. She pocketed it, and just as she rose to her feet to unlock the door, her breath hitched in her throat, and her eyes suddenly flickered with the golden-red flames of a vigorous fire.

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