Read Terrible Secrets | Tapas Web Community

They always told the children that the orphanage was haunted. I never stopped to think that they were right. Of the staff that worked there, Missus Nellie was my favorite. Even if she did believe that there were ghosts in the place, she was kind to me and the others and didn't punish us for spilling our tea or waking in the night. I was told it was a “silly and childish thing to believe in that foolishness,” from Missus Harris. They taught us strict manners and punished us horribly for the slightest mishaps, at Missus Harris’s Home For Orphan Girls. Missus Harris was our headmistress at the orphan home, and she was a rotten one. She believed that harsh punishment and strict rules raised us to be proper women, although it really probably just traumatized us, they would even lock us in the dank, dark cellar if we misbehaved. At Missus Harris’s, they only gave us lukewarm, if that, tea, and stale bread with cold soup or expired jams. It was practically inedible. I was around eight years old then, so of course I didn’t understand everything, I thought that that was how to treat ‘misbehaving’ children, now I’ve realized that was just abuse.

One day, late in the fall, December fifth, I think, I was in my room with my friend Katherine, I believe we were doing schoolwork. It was early in the night, and we were ordered to our rooms and to dress and get ready for bed. The orphanage had children that were ‘out of their minds’ as the staff called them, lots of them, actually, I suppose it’s because thales are children likely to be abandoned by their parents. Although I thought some were bound for the loony bin at their rate. The lunatics sometimes managed to get out of their rooms at night, by the staff's incompetence, that is. So that ment, by the rules us children proclaimed ourselves to follow, one. All doors shut at night. 2. Never leave the orphanage at night. I suppose they were for our own safety. I must have forgotten to lock the door, because before I could cry out, a girl grabbed me by the hair and dragged me out the door.