The Sad Tale of Gore Orphanage

My name is Elizabeth and I’m 6 years old. My mother and father died a few months ago, now I live on the streets of Vermillion, Ohio. It’s November and the nights are so cold. Right at this moment I’m sitting under a tree with an old blanket I took from someone’s back yard. I had heard of the Orphanage in this town and that’s why I came to this town. I’m going to go check it out tomorrow but right now I’m completely exhausted.

In the morning I started walking quickly down the street trying to avoid people’s stares. My clothes must have looked a mess and my hair was tangled.

“Hey girl” A police officer said.

“Y-Yes sir?” I asked.

“Where are your parents?” he asked.

“They died so I came here because of the orphanage.” I said.

“You’re headed in the wrong direction, I’ll walk you there” he said.

“Thank you sir” I said.

“You seemed to be a very mannered child. I’m officer Fenton, What’s your name?” he asked.

“I’m Elizabeth after my grandmother.” I said.

We walked down the street and people waved to Officer Fenton. After a while we came to a big two floor house. Officer Fenton knocked on the door and a lady opened the door.

“Hello officer is something wrong?” she asked.

“I have a young girl here who needs some shelter.” He said.

“Oh well we can take her.” She said.

“Her names Elizabeth, Both her parents have passed away” he said.

“Come on in child, thank you very much officer” she said .

“Have a nice day” he said and walked back towards town.

I walked into the house.

“You there find this girl something to clean.” She told a boy.

“Yes mommy Sprunger” the boy said.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me to another room.

“You shouldn’t have come here.” the boy said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“This place is awful, you’ll see. By the way I’m Thomas.” He said.

“Elizabeth.” I said.

“Well Elizabeth you can help me with the floor.” Thomas said.

“Okay” I said and grabbed a rag.

We scrubbed the floor on our hand and knees with old rags. A big man came in and stared at us.

“Where is Richard?” the man asked after a while.

“In the kitchen cleaning windows sir” Thomas said.

Then the man turned around and walked out of the room.

“Who was that?” I asked.

“Mr. Sprunger, always call him sir and try to stay out of his way. If you don’t he’ll hit you with his leather strap until you bleed.” Thomas said.

“W-what? I don’t want to be here.” I said starting to cry.

“Calm down crying won’t help.” He said giving me a pat on the head.

“One day we’ll be old enough to leave.” He said.

After we finished the floor I followed Thomas up the stairs. It was all one room and there were old smelly blankets on the floor. A group of kids were huddled in a corner looking at something. Thomas ran over and pushed people out of his way. There was a boy laying there staring up at the ceiling. I walked closer and looked over Thomas’s shoulder. The boy was so thin and looked like he would brake if I touched him.