Chapter 1
"AHHHHH!" The shriek of a young boy filled the room. A few minutes later, the boy emerged from the door, red marks all over his body and tears rolling down his cheeks. A small girl with bedraggled black hair took a deep breath and went into the other room as a loud voice called, "NEXT!" A loud CRACK! followed the door slam, the girl screaming. Bree Hollister gulped. "I-I-I'm up next." Lori Beth, her friend, was shivering with fear by the time the person yelled "NEXT!" and the girl came out, looking like the boy. Bree decided she had had enough of this cruelty with a smile mask that named itself "Happy Faces Orphanage".
The secret behind the smiling faces and flowers is a cruel one. A select number of "good" kids who eat the foods that make you regurgitate and follow the orders from the Leaders are chosen to go on the television commercial. They plaster on fake smiles and sing little nursery rhymes, playing with colorful toys that are usually in the storage room. Well, for the bad kids that refused to do the horrible bidding of the Leaders, they get sent to 2 rooms: the Waiting Room, the one Lori Beth and Bree are in now, and one that is only known as the Room. In the Room, one masked figure has a leather whip with fishing hooks and metal beads on one end that was used to whip the kids that were seemingly "bad"; but if you were a child in Happy Faces Orphanage, you would know that the bad are the good.
Bree hated everything about the place. If only she hadn't complained and made her parents so infuriated... She wanted to make a break for it. "NEXT!" the voice called once more, sounding agitated. Pushing her oval glasses up onto the brim of her nose. "Lori Beth, I hope you have the same fate as me." Before Lori Beth could respond, Bree had sprinted off, the Leaders racing after her. "COME BACK HERE YOU LITTLE-" The angry shouts of the Leaders overrode each others'.Bree's straight brunette hair flapped around her face, once in her life feeling freedom as she crashed through the doors and into the misleading flower garden with azeleas and roses. |