“Dreaming about a camel means you are ready to lead people and use the work of others to your own advantage.”

At some point, still inside the small room, I just slept and I woke up in the next morning feeling completely exhausted. All over my face, arms and shirt were small bloodstains and Carol was nowhere to be seen. I looked at everything inside the room and there was not a single another drop of blood, they were only on me.

I get out of there and I didn’t see anyone around. I entered the orphanage through a window after finding the back door locked. When I was on the second floor, I found some boys getting out of the bathroom and I saw James with them. I was expecting him to trick me, but leaving me alone in there all night wasn’t something I thought about it.

— Look if it’s not the smart donkey! — He giggled at me.

— She died… — and I turn around to go to my bedroom.

— What? — He held my arm. — Who died?

— She said her name was Carol and that you send her to scare me, but the thing inside the small room ate her.

— Who’s Carol? — He asked puzzled.

— I have no idea who she was, but that’s all I have to tell you. By the way, I passed the whole night there and I hope you comply with your word.

— Haha… — he laughed. — Expect my orders then…

— I hope you don’t mind if I don’t try to save you from the shadow things…

— Hun… — he made, mocking me. — Shadow things! They are so scary!

— That’s exactly what Carol did before the shadow thing ate her…

— Dude, I don’t know who Carol is and I don’t care!

Suddenly, one of the monitors passed and asked about a girl who was missing. Her name was Caroline.

— She died… — I simply said, leaving them thinking about it.

__________

— What did you do about it? — asked Doctor M.

— Exactly what I could do about it… — π12-45 said. — …nothing.

— Nothing? How you were supposed to just be there and do nothing?

— I never have found anything that could do anything about it. Those things, they seem to manipulate persons, to change their minds in one way or another. Like… they could change people’s perceptions and even memories. Everyone who has looked directly at them simply disappeared or people who cared about those persons never minded looking for them after it. It’s almost as if… some shadows could eat their existences.

— Are you sure about this?

— I can’t say it for sure, but what I have are my conclusions about it. In theory, no one around David ever remembered seeing those people who died, except for me and for some other people. There was even one person at the orphanage who knew about one of the shadows, but never would say anything about it…

— Who was this person?

— Let me tell you about it properly…

__________

I told those things to Gabriel and helped him have his bath that morning. He said he dreamed again with the tall dark person again and was worried about me and I told him about Carol and the small room.

— Pi… — he said, looking at me with sad eyes. — I was just thinking about this, but I think some people from here already have disappeared without no one noticing.

— Really? How was that?

— They try to make some of the other kids befriend with me sometimes, but I only see them once… Then I never see them again. James tried to make me go to the backyard at night. He was with nine other boys from here. I counted, ‘cause I was scared. On another day, when someone helped me with my bath, I saw them again, but they were only eight.

— Interesting… I only counted seven with us last night.

— Oh… They probably got another. Every time one of them disappears, there is beef stew in the next day…

— Did you try to eat that?

— I was hungry… but then, I found some people hair in it… Not only one strand, a whole tufty of hair. I swear I will never eat.

— They didn’t give me dinner yesterday…

— What? Already? What did you do?

— I was just asking for some food…

— Oh… It was because of me… I’m sorry Pi.

— Don’t worry about that… but when I looked at the cook; she was pretty mad at everything here. When this happens, the person seems to attract those shadow things and I can even see them on the back of their necks.

— Really? How do they look like?

— The ones I saw before were like butterflies. Huge orange-ish butterflies. I even killed some and after that, the person who was possessed became good again. Eventually, I did that with David’s father and he stopped drinking too much alcohol. Unfortunately, the shadows just thought he would be a great meal as at least five different ones have attacked us almost at the same time.

— I’m sorry for you…

— If you see any butterfly, try not to get near them, principally if there is a cloud of butterflies around.

— I will, but… did you see the butterfly on the cook’s back?

— No… That’s what is making me worry about it. If I couldn’t see it, then what was making that person so mad at everything?

— Maybe she is just a bad person.

— Well… maybe, but being so irrational about it like she was insane and unreasonable… that’s really hard to understand.

They called us to get out of the showers and we kept talking about it for some time. After some weeks, trying to get along with what the cook made for lunch and dinner, she never has cooked any beef for us. Until one day. James and other six boys came to me and they said I was supposed to steal something from the kitchen.

— Wait… Where’s the seventh boy?

— What you are talking about? — Complained James. — All the seven troubled boys are here!

— I’m not counting you! That night I saw you and another seven boys with you! Where’s the seventh?

— We were always seven, only seven!

— Really? You couldn’t remember Carol, now you can’t remember your own friend!

— You are the crazy one here, smart donkey! I know how to count!

— Really? Then you can tell me what we will have for lunch today?

— The cook said we were having her special beef stew. My favorite!

I almost vomited.

— I can’t believe you didn’t notice anything!

— I’m not a fool. You are the fool! You will get there and you will steal some for me! Or you will face the consequences! — He showed me his fist clenched in a menacing manner.

— If I were you, I would try to remember how many friends you have. You will discover they are disappearing.

— Stop saying things! You do what I want and you will steal something for me!

— I will, but when she catches you, I will not even bother to look for you.

The troubled boys left me and, as the time passed by, one by one of the kids disappeared and James was always thinking they always were that number. Not even the others noticed.

One day, after some months, when James was alone, he started to look around multiple times, finally realizing there were supposed to be more people with him.

— Feeling alone James? — I asked.

— No… I… I have my palls… — he stuttered, nervously.

— Who?

— They are somewhere else!

— Really? Where?

— School! Yeah. They are at school!

— I don’t think so, James. You probably just ate them all in the beef stew… — I grinned and left him alone.

— You aren’t smarter than I am, smart donkey! — He shouted at me from afar.

From time to time, the orphanage received new kids and no other kid wanted to be his friend. James was getting more and more hallucinated, thinking someone was after him. He was so afraid of his own shadow that, when I asked him something, he just jumped and screamed out of nothing.

— AH! — He saw me and could have some peace of mind. — Oh… It’s just you.

— Did you think it was a shadow person? — I grinned.

— How did you…

— I know you had friends, I saw them, but, if you don’t want to believe in me, that’s your problem. We have beef stew again today. You can sit with me if you don’t mind.

— I don’t sit with losers! Get off!

— Okay, but if I call you when we ate the beef stew, you will need to talk with me personally.

He just left me alone, without talking with me.

At lunchtime, after school, I sat at the dining room where I normally sat, with some random boy on both of my sides. As Gabriel said, I would find some clue inside the food that would lead me to know that it was indeed made of other boys or girls from the orphanage. I didn’t succeed at it until the moment when I found a white small piece of something there. Then I call James to talk to me. He denied it at first, but I was so insistent that he just stood up pretty mad at me.

— What do you want? — He shouted muffled, as he didn’t want to call anyone else attention.

— Just look at this… — I said and showed him what was on my plate, among the beef stew.

— A tooth? What do you want, smart donkey?

— Do you remember what I said? Okay, you probably didn’t… This is from someone; this can’t be from any animal.

— And what?!

— This is from another person! — I almost shouted at him but I kept whispering.

— I have nothing to do with that!

— Not even if I said it’s from one of your younger friends?

— I don’t have friends…

— Okay, I really must have thought about that… You don’t think about them anymore, so you don’t even think you ever had a friend. This is really a problem…

I thought for a moment and then I said:

— Can you keep an eye on something for me?

— What? Do you want more?! I will not do anything for you! You do things for me!

— Oh, don’t you worry. It’s something simple. I will take my plate to the cook and you will need to look at what she will do with the tooth. Can you do that for me? She probably will hide it in the pocket, so it isn’t something hard to do. Just keep looking at her all the time.

I stood up before he could say anything and talked with the cook, letting the door open. I showed her my plate and she just yelled at me, like I was trying to trick her and she said I wouldn’t have lunch at all that day, promising if I didn’t behave, she wouldn’t let me have dinner later. I didn’t question her and I went to the hall, waiting for James to get out. When he came out, he was shocked:

— How did you know it was she? — He asked.

— Well, I don’t know if it is her for sure, but I’m sure she isn’t complaining about the kids disappearing and she is always cooking beef stew after one of the boys disappears. What did she do with the tooth? Did she hide it?

— No… She threw it inside her own mouth like it was a candy… Then she noticed the door was open and closed it right away. No one saw it, just me…

— Interesting. I didn’t think about it but… now that you mention it, I was thinking about it the wrong way. She isn’t making the kids just for us to eat; she is also eating them for some reason! But which one?

— Maybe because she is religious.

— Religious? I never thought she would believe in God. She is so desperate to get rid of everyone here I didn’t think she has any affinity with God.

— I don’t know… She kissed something that was on her neck after eating the tooth. She was even praying or something… — James showed me how she did, looking up and with his hands open, in front of himself, as if she was praying.

— She wasn’t praying for God, I’m sure of that… Unless… — that possibility wasn’t something I would be sure, but it was the best one I had. — Unless she knows for who she was praying…

— Who?

— I don’t know who it could it be, but just think for a moment, what on Earth would like to see people being killed and even consumed like it was a meal? Certainly, it wasn’t one of the good ones!

— You mean… — James swallowed it dry — can it be… the devil?

— Maybe, but I don’t think so… Well, it could make sense, but she sure seems to believe on it as if it was something as serious as the devil.

— Do… Don’t you think it was the devil?! — James couldn’t believe how much I was rational.

— I can’t be sure unless I see it for myself… but I have this feeling that everything that I saw wasn’t something… demonic. It was more as if I was seeing a human… a human being twisted into being something inhuman.

— Did you see the devil already? — James was frozen.

— I don’t think it was the devil, it never showed itself as some kind of devil… they were shadow things and sometimes I could see their eyes glowing… like red, yellow, orange…

— Green, it was green…

— What? Did you see them too?

— I don’t know! — He lowered down his voice, looking to our sides. — I don’t remember! Let’s get out of here.

He got upstairs and I was right after him when I saw it, something on his back, it wasn’t a shadow, it was…

— When you got a hump on your back? — I asked. He wasn’t even walking differently from the others.

— What? I don’t have a… — he touched his own back. — Oh, noes… This means I will have a hunchback! No, no, no… This can’t be happening!

He ran to a mirror in the corridors and he looked at it, trying to see the hump on his back.

— No, no, no… I’m too handsome to have a hunchback!

I followed him, worried, and then I finally saw it, the shadow thing that was following us, Gabriel’s tall man. James wasn’t seeing a thing, but all I could see on the mirror was a tall shadow figure with green eyes looking down at James, who was pretty tall already. I noticed the shadow person should have a hunchback himself and it lowered its head to be on the same height as James’s eyes were, but its shoulders remained at the same height.

— James! — I shouted… but it was too late.

— WHAT DO YOU WANT? — His voice changed completely to a lower and hoarse voice. It wasn’t him talking anymore.

— Leave him alone you damned thing!

— OR WHAT? YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING! — He laughed a lot and I saw the thing not moving at all on the mirror.

— Leave him alone! — I shouted and then I picked the first thing a saw, a small vase that was near us without any plant on it and I threw it at the mirror, shattering it.

James fainted like when I killed one of the shadow butterflies. The sound of the mirror breaking caught everyone’s attention. They looked only at me and they blamed me, assuming it was I, just for seeing James lying on the floor…