Free Bad Land by Jonathan Yanez

in. They were always orphans, with no one who would miss them.
    Every day I became increasingly nervous. Would I be next? How would I be taken? Did they come in the middle of the night? Where was I going? One night, a few months after my arrival, as I lay in bed wondering about these questions, I heard a noise.
    It sounded like a muffled scream, but I had barely caught the noise. I tried to pass it off as my imagination but I knew better. I had heard something and it sounded like it came from the room next to mine. I lay in my large bed debating what to do. Everything inside me screamed to stay there and go to sleep, but I just couldn’t.
    I slowly rose from my bed and padded across the wooden floor. With each step I said a silent prayer that the floorboards would not squeak. My luck held and I reached the door in a few seconds. I turned the knob as slowly as I could, then craned my neck to the side and peeked out of my room into the darkness.
    There was nothing there. No demons or monsters. There was nothing but a dim light being carried by someone further down the hall. I squinted, trying to make out who would be carrying the candle, but whoever it was turned a corner and the light was gone.
    An immediate urge to close the door and go hide in my sheets grabbed at my heart. I think I would have had I not seen the room next to mine’s door ajar. I knew who stayed in that room. It was Melissa Nixon. She was the nicest girl I had met since I had arrived at the estate. She always had a smile and she was the closest thing I had to a friend. My hand shook as I forced the door open wider and took my first step into the dark hall. I gently opened her door further, only to confirm what I already knew to be the truth.
    The room was empty. The sheets and blankets were strewn across the floor as if someone had been clawing at them for safety. The fact that Melissa had been ripped from her bed became very apparent. I knew what I had to do. I had to follow that light if I could and find out if she was safe.
    Before I could think of the hundred reasons why I should just go back to bed, my skinny legs were carrying me down the dark hall at a run. The only light to make my way by was the light from the half moon and stars that shown through the large windows on the left wall.
    I shivered as I ran, but not from the cold. My heart beat faster and faster as I turned the corner. There was nothing. I fought to keep my breathing under control as I peered down the stairs and into the large room that served as a library.
    I peered into the darkness, struggling to see or hear anything. Just when I was going to give up, pat myself on the back for trying, and return to my room, I heard a muffled cry. It was Melissa’s muffled cry.
    With only my pajamas for warmth, I crept barefooted down the steps to the ground floor. Following where I thought the noise had come from, I reached a brick fireplace. My small mind was torn in two. On one hand, I knew this was where I had heard the noise come from. On the other hand, I knew that it was impossible to hear cries coming from fireplaces.
    My small hands ran over the rough stones. Up and down I searched for a lever or loose brick, anything that would signal a secret passage behind the fireplace. There was nothing. I had come too far to turn away this easily. I got down on my hands and knees and looked into the huge entrance that was large enough for a man to stoop and walk through. And that’s when I realized that it had been built large enough for a man to stoop and walk into.
    I gently removed the steel curtain that kept sparks and embers from escaping and pushed the fear that had made its way into my throat deep in my belly. Inside the furnace was pitch black. My hands and knees were soon covered in soot. I reached the back and pushed on the stone wall.
    I pushed harder and harder, knowing Melissa was in need of my help and I had to get to her before it was too late. I pushed and pulled, but still there