No one in the orphanage, including the authorities, knew where she came from. One cold, cloudy morning, she suddenly appeared at the door, claiming that she is the girl they expected. But the administration did not know they should be expecting anyone.
Nevertheless, it’s unheard of an orphanage turning down an abandoned little one, so the admission paperwork was ready in a couple of hours.
In truth, they assumed that she was “abandoned”. Why would she be there, if she was not?
“ We’ll need your photo for the papers, sweetheart “
So easy it was to ask, but how could they have known that Anaïs was not comfortable with sitting in front of the camera at all?
But she knew that resisting would be pointless, and there was no need to attract attention on her first day, especially when everyone was strangely insisting that they had not heard a word about her arrival from authorities, or anyone. So, Anaïs walked into the dusty studio, which apparently was being neglected for years. She sat on the old, tired chair, half expecting it to break. And she waited anxiously.
By then, rumour has already started to spread around the whole facility. She was a child, for sure, but there was something… that just didn’t sit right. Her eyes were a bit too wise, her manners too sophisticated, the way she walked… too cautious, too experienced, not like a child would walk around? How she stressed certain syllables in the only sentence she spoke so far, “I am told I am expected today” was the most unsettling. There wasn’t anything sinister about her, as far as they could tell, but something was undeniably peculiar. Because, well… She was a child, but everything about her was not.
The orphanage waiting room was made for waiting only, indeed. There was nothing that could distract one from the dreadful experience of waiting and experiencing the dread while they waited.
All of the waitings are known to seem endless for their owners, waitings for the unknown in particular, that is for sure. But the waiting Anaïs endured that day was especially eternal. Somehow the room got darker and darker, despite the sun was shining outside. Her only companion the Bunny was not really pink anymore. She seemed to be…”greying”..?
The only thing she was able to find a bit of joy in was the old painting on the wall above her head. Until even that began to disturb her some time later. The contentedness on that girl’s face, holding her dog happily in her arms, contrasted so strongly with her surroundings, it started to feel very wrong. So wrong, that her smile either was fake or must be definitely hiding a sinister motive underneath. After all, she must have seen too much to easily believe the superficial.
Not that she could exactly remember at that moment what it was she has seen, but she had the feeling that it was somewhere in her mind. No, thank you. She was not going to fall for smiles so easily anymore. Even if it is only a painting. One never knew.