The Children's Home

Chapter 8: A Plot is Hatched

TWs: None that I know of

CWs: None

It had been a week now since we began to plan our escape. After Agatha caught us scheming, I'd decided to wait for some time—preferably a week—to see if her promise not to tell would be kept. When Lady Folman did not ban our free time at night, I assumed everything was still fine.

Today, more than ever, I felt stir-crazy. I barely managed to control my pyrokinesis, which was definitely not good. So, I called the rest of the orphans to tell them we could plan our escape tonight

Right after dinner, I raced to my room. After a bit of rapid searching, I pulled out Firebrand. I gazed at my sword, wishing I had a sheath for this noble weapon.

No time for dreaming, Arwen, I scolded myself.

Soon, the others arrived. Once everyone had found a comfortable place to sit, I began to speak.

"A week ago, you wanted to be free. Now, do you still want that?"

"Yes!" all the children yelled.

"Okay, so you guys actually wanted this. That's good. Well now, we have to come up with an escape plan." I gestured towards Winnie, who pulled out a large sheet of paper. "Our plans will be written down here. Okay. Who's got any suggestions?"

Vanessa Cooke's hand shot into the air.

"Yes, Vanessa?"

"Well, I was thinking that when we escape, we ought to have a decoy. You know, someone should stay behind temporarily to throw Lady Folman off the scent. I could be the decoy. I'm one of the youngest kids here, so naturally, Lady Folman would assume the rest of us would still be in the manor. I also can fly, so as soon as it's safe,

I smiled. The girl was smarter than the rest of us. "Honestly, Vanessa, you've got a good point. It would only be logical to assume that the rest of the orphans would stay behind. But for this to work out, . Leah, are you all right with this?"

Leah took some time to think before answering, "Yes."

"Excellent. Now do we have any other suggestions?"

"Ooh, I know!" Amiyah blurted. "We can use our clothes to make a rope! Our old ones, of course. We can then tie the rope to the oak near the wall and clamber our way up."

I muffled a groan. Amiyah seemed pretty persistent with her idea. "It might work. But you'll need to make your rope nice and thick with large knots or something for handholds. It also needs to be long enough to be tied to an object and still have a decent length. Are you sure you can do this, Amiyah?"

"Of course I can do all that, Arwen," Amiyah countered. "And I can do more too, if necessary."

I threw up my hands in surrender and paused, waiting for more suggestions.

"Well, I think that Toby, Amiyah, and I ought to test the rope to confirm it can hold weight," Alyssa remarked boldly, toying with her dark brown hair. "We need to be on our best behavior to mask any of our plots."

"An' we gotta find a satisfactory reason to be 'messin' 'round' with rope," added Toby.

"All very true," Winnie admitted. "I suggest using a distraction to aid you. For example, Alyssa could attempt a purposefully futile escape."

"Okay, great." I nodded, enjoying the enthusiasm.

So many ideas! This is really going to work out!

It was time to reveal my contribution. "I'm a pro at this escape-planning business—not that I'm proud of it. We should start working on strengthening our abilities and skills with weapons. I still have my sword, Firebrand, from our battle thing a while back." I produced Firebrand from its hiding place. "However, I don't know about you regarding weapons. Therefore, we need to get more weapons. And especially if your power doesn't double as a weapon. So, Toby, Leah, Vanessa, Hallie, Alyssa, and Amiyah, you need to focus on weaponry."

Toby grinned. "Leave it up t'me and ye'll 'ave an entire armory, that's fer sure. Ain't that right, Ness?"

"Yep!" Vanessa confirmed.

"Gee, thanks!" I said.

After several more (and rather useless) suggestions, we finally completed the plot. We would make no actual escape attempts for the following couple of months , except for Alyssa's distraction. We agreed to follow all the rules and stop whining about how terrible our life was. Lady Folman would be sure to let down her guard.

I felt a twinge of worry. Why did I ever give my approval to this? I have no idea how I'm going to pretend life is wonderful when it's not. I need to be on my guard.

I shoved it away. There were more pros than cons to our plan. We'd actually be training during the dark—fighting with both weapons and powers. After the month, we would scale the wall and be free! It seemed awfully easy.

After all, what could possibly go wrong?