by, Black-Haired Girl

The gentle snores from the other little kids worked great to hide the sound of Duo's flat, hard shoes as he snuck through the darkness towards the window. He glided past rows of bunk beds that held the other oblivious, slumbering orphans. He was always good at sneaking around. It was one of his favorite games. The other kids didn't like to play hide and sneak with him because he always managed to get to the 'safe spot' before the kid who was 'it' could even spot him. Tonight he was using those stealthy skills to sneak out.

He approached the window at the far side of the dark room. It had been nailed shut weeks earlier to prevent such an event as this from occurring again. That didn't stop the long-haired boy. Upon seeing the nails the little imp cracked a huge smile. Then he retrieved a small bag from his back and began digging around within it silently. He found what he was looking for. A pair of pliers he had pilfered from the gardening shed. He wrapped his small hands around the handles and began going to work on the nails. It took quite a bit of effort to do considering there were so many nails and he had to be super quiet in the process. After a five or ten minutes he had freed all of the nails from the wood frame of the window and had left them in a neat little pile on the window sill. He dug his fingers under the small lip at the bottom of the window and began to pull fiercely at it. It was still stuck. He stepped back from the window and began to chew his lower lip nervously.

The faint sound of footsteps echoed from the hallway. Duo crouched low to the ground and held his breath. He could hear Sister Helen's soft, confident steps as she came up to the bedroom door. Light from a flashlight glowed faintly from the doorjamb. Then the sound of keys being fumbled with. Finally a loud click sounded. The door swung open. Duo flattened his body against the cold cement floor. He could see the bottom of Sister Helen's long, black habit rustling around her black leather shoes as she strode inside. The beam from the flashlight tracked from one corner of the room to the other in silent inspection.

It was customary for Sister Helen to do night watch of the children once in a while. What confused Duo most was that the sister had all ready been in their room that night and he couldn't recall the last time she came in more than once in one night. He began to grind his teeth in agitation. His plan was about to be ruined if he couldn't sneak past her!

He watched as she wandered up and down the narrow aisles to check and make sure each child was safe and sound. His body grew tense as she approached his bed. He looked from Sister Helen to the door to the hallway she had left ajar.

I can sneak out that way! The little boy had begun to crawl under the beds towards the door without a moment's hesitation. He shimmied across the floor in silence and pushed his way quietly through the hidden messes and boxes from beneath the other children's beds. His face pressed through a large, sticky cobweb. He bit his lower lip and grimaced as he began to tear it away from his eyes and nose. In his desperate attempt to pull the web from his face he bumped the top of his head against the underside of another little boy's bed frame. The sound caused Sister Helen to turn and point her flashlight towards the bed under which the braided boy was hiding. Duo curled up into a ball and tried to pull a pair of dirty pants he had found under the bed over himself to shield his body from view. The nun had begun walking in the direction of the noise.

Nonononononono!! Duo's mind raced as he began burying himself under the pile of dirty clothes. He peeked through the armhole of a shirt and saw the curtain of black habit hanging right at the side of the bed. One of the leather shoes was tapping impatiently.

"Duo. Come out right this instant!"Helen said sternly. She knelt down beside the bed and directed the light right in Duo's half-hidden face. "Escaping again, huh?" The woman's usual round and friendly face showed a hint of disappointment. The sight made Duo feel guilty. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up." Then the sister held out a delicate hand for the little boy. Duo hesitated before taking the hand. She pulled him gently from beneath the bed and led him quietly out into the hallway. Once in the hall she looked down at him and began picking cobweb out of his disheveled bangs. She didn't lecture him or scold him. That was never her way. Instead she wiped down his face with her sleeve and smiled down at him.

"I am going to have to tell Father Maxwell about this." She said in her light, airy voice. Duo nodded and frowned down at his feet. "Okay then. Goodnight, Duo…" She said sweetly before turning the little boy around and urging him into the room. "I'll see you tomorrow morning at breakfast, right?"

Duo looked over his shoulder at the nun and nodded with a deep frown. This made the woman laugh. The corner of the little boy's mouth sprang to life into a crooked smile before he padded back into the room. The door closed behind him and locked.

He looked around the dark room at the other orphans. Most were asleep. A few of them peered at him from beneath their blankets, having woken from the noise. Duo scowled at them before wandering over to the window. He stared at the neat pile of thin, black nails on the window sill. He couldn't bring himself to open the window. He couldn't understand his sudden change of heart. It was how children worked. One minute they did something, without knowing why, and then the next they change their minds about the entire thing. So, having decided he didn't want to escape tonight after all, he began to slide the nails back into their little holes around the frame of the window. After a few minutes he had slid the last nail into its shallow hole.

Duo took a step back and placed his hands on his hips as he surveyed his work. Every nail had been replaced. Then he leaned in close to the window and looked out into the dark night. The colony's lights were dim to give the appearance of night on earth, but were still bright enough to see just about anything you needed to. The view from this window was of the cemetery behind the church that the orphanage was attached to. The gravestones were relatively new compared to some Duo had seen in books. They were all upright and uniform in long, perfect rows. They stood as reminders of those who had lived. The oldest one was a little more than 100 years old. There were no bodies beneath the memorials, either. Everyone on the colonies was cremated.

Duo wondered what it was like to be cremated.

The thought made him grin. He could see a ghostly reflection of himself in the window. He turned away from his reflection and skipped over to his bed, removed the little bag with his belongings from his back and slid it under his own bed. Then he toed off his shoes and let them fall to the floor with two loud bangs. The sound made a couple of the kids shift in their sleep.

I won't escape tonight, he decided, tomorrow morning is pancake breakfast.

And with that thought the little boy fell asleep.

To Be Continued.