Chapter Three; Sad Birthday Gifts

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Lloyd sat up, rubbing his eyes. He had a bad dream again.

Surprisingly, it wasn't about the accident this time.

Most of the dream was in black in white, Lloyd recalled. He saw people around him but he never saw their faces. But somehow he still knew who they were.

He saw blood in its crimson color, though. He squeezed his eyes shut. The vivid flashes of bruised skin and puddles of blood flooded his vision. The limping person, trying to get to the door, before something terrible happened.

But Lloyd always woke up before he saw what.

Before he saw who.

He tried talking about the dream with one of the careladies who was kind of the "nurse" or "therapist" of them all. She thought it was just him remembering something about his childhood before he came to the orphanage.

But he was a baby then. There was no way he had any recollection in his brain of that night. Or any night before that. He barely remembered his last birthday.

Today was the day his mother brought him to this place. They considered it to be his birthday since they didn't know the official date. They never did anything special. He was only turning 17. Only another year his mother didn't come back for him.

Another year of being treated like garbage. Being belittled by everyone. He felt like the runt of the group, even the ones he was bigger than. They all made sure to put him in his place.

Sometimes it was bad enough to the point where he would rather run away and live in the streets. At least he could do what he wanted. Sadly Lloyd worked enough for the title of a pushover. His confidence just slowly broke down. He let everyone walk over him.

But it was his fault, wasn't it? He caused this nightmare.

'I should have never been born.' Lloyd thought to himself.

"Not a happy birthday Floyd." A guy said as he passed by.

"It's Lloyd." Lloyd muttered. He dreaded this day. It was something worse each year.

Flashback

"It's my birthday!" Lloyd said excitedly.

Mrs. Gineeve looked unenthusiastic. "What are you happy about?"

"Uh...that it's my birthday...?" Little Lloyd felt shot down.

"Lloyd." Mrs. Gineeve glared right at him. "I don't know one person who is happy you were born." She turned abruptly and stormed off.

Lloyd felt tears in his eyes well up. He sniffled and tried to shrug it off, just when he saw him, watching him from behind a wall. His head was poked around. Lloyd's eyes widened, and he quickly felt embarrassed for crying. He wiped his eyes, and when he looked back up, he was gone.
•••
There was also a time where friendly "birthday spankings" turned into everyone throwing bars of soap at him. Tenth birthday. To this day he finds himself struggling to use anything but liquid soap.

"Bite the bullet Lloyd." He took a deep breath and got up out of bed, sloppily making it and then cautiously going downstairs.

Everyone else was in the rec room, doing things teenagers do with each other amongst the random younger aged children. They tend to find Lloyd the least scary.

He waved good morning to the few little kids he saw. They smiled big and waved back as they ran around the room and played.

Lloyd sat down with a book in the far left of the room. It wasn't the corner, but near it. A window sat on the other wall to the right.

He started to read the page, but something kept tempting him to draw his eyes upwards. He didn't want to give into that urge; but he failed. He looked up slowly, and instantly saw the face in the shadows on the other side of the room.

The glowing eyes.

The glare.

He let out an "eek!" And jumped a little, causing some people to look over. They started whispering. That only fed into Lloyd's paranoia.

"Lloyd's going crazy again!" One said.

"Lloyd saw another ghost again!"

"Oooo scary!"

"Boo!"

"Wooooo woooooo! Boo! Hahahaha!"

Lloyd covered his ears. There were the flashbacks again. And the random scenes from his nightmares and dreams were cutting in. He couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't.

Then, in front of everyone.

He started sobbing.

~Orphans~ {A Ninjago GreenWind Fanfiction} Where stories live. Discover now