We had created a huge mess. There were books shattered glass pieces everywhere on the floor and the carpet was torn.

I looked at Kiara. She had some dirt on her face and her auburn hair were dishevelled. Her forehead was bleeding. She pierced her glance from the mess and turned to face me. I could see both loss and victory in her eyes.

Overburdened with emotions, I felt at a loss of words. Fortunately, Kiara broke the silence.

“I bet it was worth it.”

I smiled at her remark. She could see the positive in every situation. The current scenario drew a mixed response from me. Finally, I spoke my mind,

“I guess. I hope the victory is worth losing everything.”

“We have the proof now, Damon. We know their secret.”

“And that doesn’t scare you at all?”

“It does, but big revolutions require big loads of courage. I bet this is going to change the way they function here. We can save the lives of all students here.”

I smiled at her courage. She had bucket loads of it. At times, I drew some bravery from her.

Actually, most of the times.

It had been three years that we came to know each other. I was sent to St George’s Boarding School in Rotterdam by my parents as a fourteen year old. My family had to move around in Europe a lot due to my father’s business. My parents held the opinion that my education suffered due to the constant travelling. My father had come up with this idea of sending me to St George’s ever since I turned nine. It took my mother five years to muster the courage to part with me. And it was not easy.

Kiara had been here since she was eight. Her parents were the richest people in Barcelona, but they didn’t have enough space for their only child in the mansion. They had sent her here so they could spend more time doing charity luncheons and dinners.

We were just seventy students in the whole school, from different parts of the world, which was odd. It was the least populated school I had ever seen.

Kiara nudged at me and pulled me back to reality.

“Come on, let’s call Dr Simmons and tell him everything.”

She took the lead and I followed. We sprinted to Professor Evans’ office. It was always unlocked. He believed in an open-door policy, especially for his students. His office was filled with books on three walls and floor-length windows behind his ebony desk. The moonlight pouring in from the windows was enough for us to carry out our task without hitting anything in the dark. Kiara headed straight to the landline sitting on the desk and dialled Dr Simmons number. She had it written on a piece of paper.

She smiled at me and dialled. Her eyes had the same twinkle that I had seen the day we met.

The first time I met Kiara was in our French class. I had selected the language to please my father, even though I was miserable at it. He always pointed out,

“You will find it useful in business dealings, Damon.”

Kiara had helped me polish my understanding of the language.

“He won’t pick up, Damon”, Kiara slammed the receiver on the phone. She had tried reaching Dr Simmons four times already. I asked her to keep quiet. We were lucky no one heard us in the library, but Professor Evans’ room was right next to the girls’ dorm.

“Errr..people are usually asleep at two in the morning, Kiara. How about we call Natalia, his secretary. She might help us.”

“That’s true! You are getting smarter, Damon.”

She dialled Natalia’s number and waited for a few seconds.

“Natalia, hi..this is Kiara from St George’s....yeah, I am sorry to bother you at his hour, but I am afraid the news I have couldn’t wait. We have something urgent that we need to discuss with Dr Simmons, but he won't pick up....ummm..let's meet somewhere private away from the school. We have information about wrongdoings by the school."

Kiara turned to me and winked. I gestured at her to speed up before someone heard us.

She nodded and went back to giving the details to Natalia and hung up.

We headed out and went to our respective dorms. About two hours later, the lights were turned on and I was called to the Principal’s office. The students glared at me while I walked towards the door of the dorm with Regina, the Principal’s secretary, in tow.

When we approached the door of Professor Gibbs, the Principal, I saw Kiara already standing there. Her bleeding forehead had been tended to. We looked at each other and saw the same fear in both our eyes.

I knocked and we were called in. The moment I and Kiara stepped inside, we saw someone else siting with Professor Gibbs.

The person turned to face us and we both stopped in our tracks. It was the end of our mission, as we knew it.

***

Exactly ten months ago, Kiara had convinced me for a round of the school at night just for fun. It was unlike me, but I had agreed. Even after two years, she was my only friend at school and I didn’t want to miss any activity with her.

We had started with the teacher’s room. It was locked, but Kiara had managed to get the keys somehow.

She was resourceful, to say the least.

We entered the room and looked around. I wasn’t sure what to do, but Kiara always had a plan. She pointed to the heaviest-looking closet in the room. It was made of iron with intricate carvings on the two doors. It belonged to the Head of Staff, Professor Machin.

Honestly, it looked like it kept the juiciest secrets worth our time and escapade. It took us ten minutes to open the closet, but we didn’t give up. There was a drawer inside, which was locked. Curiosity got the best of us and we went at it nail and tooth.

Kiara set out trying every key in the bunch of probably a hundred. After struggling for about half an hour, we managed to open it.

At first, we didn’t know how to react. It was filled with files on each student in the school. We were about to close the drawer thinking how boring it would be to go through our own records at this hour when Kiara had an idea.

She pulled out the file names marked D and K. We first opened my file.

As young teenagers, our knowledge of the human body is very limited, but what we saw in our files that nights didn’t seem good. It contained our personal and medical records.

The first page of my file mentioned that I had the genes for an auto immune disorder called lupus. The symptoms hadn’t started showing yet, but they could in the future.

It was the second page that brought my world to a standstill.

Name of Birth Parents: Jack and Martha Schitz

I could feel Kiara’s gaze on me, but was too numb to react. An unknown fear was taking over the excitement of our escapade. The only obvious question arose in my mind,

‘Jack and Martha Schitz? Who are they? Why are their names mentioned against my birth parents?’.

I felt the pandora’s box opening inside my head. Another question tried to force its way out,

‘Am I adop…’,

but I immediately blocked it.

Kiara put a hand on my shoulder and gestured at her own file.

I knew she did not have anything better to offer right now, so I plainly nodded.

The first page of her file said she had Wilson’s disease, which had not manifested yet. I made a mental note to look it up online. Then we turned to the second page, only to have our hearts broken.

Name of Birth Parents: Unknown

Kiara couldn’t pull her gaze away from the page. I stood still, unsure how to react.

‘We are adopted?’, the question finally rooted in my mind.

I put a hand on Kiara’s arm and a teardrop left her eyes to fall on the document in her hands. She refused to look up at me.

Unsure what to say, I pulled her face up and held her by her shoulders. For the first time, I saw grief in the eyes that were usually brimming with mischief.

And, suddenly, words formed in my head, “We don’t know if any of this is true, Kiara. If anything, this could be some eerie business of the school. We need to find out the truth.”

“But my parents never felt my own, Damon. And I guess I now know why.”

I tried to shake her out of this chain of negative thoughts, then took her file in my own hands.

It had other details of when she was taken in by the school, her medical records of the day she joined St George’s. In the end, it contained her adoption certificate, proving the worst of our fears.

Kiara winced at the certificate and wiped away her wet cheeks. I took both our files and moved to the computer placed on a table next to the room entrance.

I turned it on and opened the web browser. Google homepage showed up.

Then I froze. It wasn’t a common cold that I had to run a search for.

It was something called lupus and Wilsons’s disease. And they sounded dreadful.

I kept gawking at the screen until I felt a soft hand on my shoulder. I looked up. Kiara was trying her best to fake courage, when she was as scared as me. Or, probably more.

I managed to type in lupus first. I needed to rip the band-aid off myself first before I could comfort my only friend.

“Lupus is a long-term autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system becomes hyperactive and attacks normal, healthy tissue.”

After the first hit, I lost the courage to read further and quickly closed the browser window.

‘Normal, healthy tissue? That’s my whole body!’ my mind screamed at me.

Realising that I was took dumbstruck to move, Kiara pulled the keyboard towards herself. She typed in ‘wilsons d’ and clicked on the first hit.

“Wilson's disease is a genetic disorder in which excess copper builds up in the body. Symptoms are typically related to the brain and liver.”

We didn’t have the courage to read any further but somehow managed to look at each other. I saw a reflection of my own pain in her eyes.

We both had immunity disorders that took time to manifest. Our lifespans were limited from the day we were born.

I knew we would need more knowledge of the diseases. Before she could close the browser, I snatched the mouse. Mustering some courage, I started reading further on both our medical conditions.

Kiara went back to the medical files. While I increased my knowledge of the diseases that plagued us, Kiara gave out gasps and muffled screams. I turned at the first four, then became used to her reactions. Each one of us at St George’s was adopted and was suffering from a life-threatening ailment. And Kiara could feel the pain of each student.

I was plagued by a million questions,

‘St George’s is a school, not a health centre. Why did our parents send us here?’

‘What if they don’t know about our medical condition? I am sure my mother would never have sent me away if she knew.’

Suddenly, a tiny nagging thought found its voice in my head, ‘Until, they didn’t want to spend another dime on a child who never was their own…’

I couldn’t breathe.

‘They don’t want me anymore. I am damaged goods to them. That explains the reduced number of calls from them too..’

The last thought squashed all feelings within me. I didn’t realise when Kiara came over. She took my face in her hands. The throbbing in my head took over and I lost control of my tears.

She didn’t speak, just bent down and hugged me.

The pounding in her chest told me that she’d had the same realisation.

Our bodies trembled at every sob. We were trying to control our tears and comfort each other, but failing miserably. We wanted to scream, but had to maintain silence. We cried until our eyes went dry.

“My parents…..they dumped me here…..to die, D…Damon..that’s why they never call me..”, she finally managed to form words.

“Our parents, Ki….You….You are not alone in this.”

We took some time to collect ourselves and pledged to find out the truth. We rummaged through all other cabinets, but found nothing worthwhile.

After that revelation, we stopped calling our parents. There was nothing we could say to them.

Jack and Martha Schitz kept rolling in my head, but there were things I had to do before anything else.

A few weeks later, some of us started showing symptoms of our own diseases. While we knew most were incurable, soon we realised the school had given up on us too. Every time a student fell sick, they were asked to simply pray on it.

We were truly left here to die.

Until, one day, I had had enough. Our lives weren’t over, yet. The symptoms hadn’t manifested yet for most of us. I found that a reason to celebrate.

Three months ago, I took the lead and invited Kiara for an escapade in the night. I planned to roam the halls together before sneaking out to the pool.

We met in front of the Teachers’ Room at 11 pm and began our stroll. Kiara had become adept at hiding the angst in her eyes by now.

We were crossing Principal’s bed chambers when we overheard “Wilson’s Disease” and halted in our paths. We pinned ourselves to the door to listen ahead.

“Only six students are showing symptoms right now, but I am worried about the rest. I hope we are able to save them…..yes, Dr Simmons, we have welcomed two cases of lupus, four of Wilson’s, six Huntington's and nine HIV/AIDS this year alone…..yes….yes, I understand. Thank you. Good night.”

He hung up, but we could hear him dialling again. This time, his voice had a different tone.

“It’s me. I spoke with Dr Simmons. Told him about the fresh cases. He insists on spending more on trying to save the children…..I know what a waste it is. How will WE make money? I guess we need to take care of him.…..the financial statements are with me…..why?....why would you want their location? Umhmmm…well, they are in the library here……sure. Bye.”

I couldn’t move my limbs. His words ‘what a waste’ kept ringing in my ears. We were a waste for the school.

Were we the same for our parents?

Kiara tugged at my hand and pulled me out of the passage. We had to put some distance between us and the principal who looked at his students only as a means to make money. We came out of the building to breathe. There was suddenly a stench of deceit in those walls. We settled down by the pool.

While I focussed on forming the right words to say to Kiara, she came up with a plan. She had a strong feeling that the financial statements held the answers to a lot of questions. For if they didn’t, the principal wouldn’t have sounded so protective of them.

Our minds churned out different hypotheses.

‘The documents might contain proof that the school is minting money off our illnesses..’

‘Maybe the school offered to take away the sick adopted kids from the parents for money..’

‘All our parents were pretty affluent and hence could afford getting rid of the problem, us.’

The low number of students at the school suddenly made sense. There were very few parents in the world who would have left their kids to die in this place, even if they weren’t their own.

But there were seventy of us. Together, we could survive this.

We spent the next few weeks sneaking into the library often to find out the documents. We kept hitting a dead end, until tonight.

In a fit of anger, Kiara threw two of the glass vases on the ground, breaking them instantly. They joined the sprawling sets of books on the floor. Either we were too lucky to not be heard, or this was the silence before the storm.

She was about to squall out of the library when her foot got stuck in a corner of the carpet and she fell face down. Her forehead struck the broken vase pieces.

I sprung to help her and pushed the carpet away from her foot. She got up and was brushing herself when something caught her attention on the floor. I followed her gaze and noticed a small hatch peeping out from under the carpet.

We yanked the carpet out with great effort, tearing it in places. We managed to open the foot-wide hatch. The documents were inside.

It took us three hours to read them. The papers held details of every monetary donation ever received from parents and the money spent on medical care of the students.

The peculiar part was the donations received were at least ten times that of the medical expenses. Were incurable diseases that cheap to treat?

Or was the school stealing?

***

Natalia smiled at us. Professor Gibbs had a peculiar look in his eyes that gave me the creeps.

“Gibbs told me you guys created some ruckus in the library tonight. I am happy you found what you were looking for.” Natalia stood from her seat and walked towards us. Towering above us, she continued,

“I am sorry you were unable to reach Dr Simmons. I am afraid he is sleeping rather peacefully in his house right now. He had the same questions as you.” My heart sank as the wicked grin on her face grew wider.

“What should we do with these notorious children, Natalia?” Professor Gibbs asked without taking his eyes off us.

“Why us? Nature is going to punish them soon enough. Let us leave them to its mercy. We can withdraw the little amount we were thinking of spending on these creatures.”

© Ishita Nigam Garg





@salestors
#youngadult #drama #thriller #mystery