The stick rolled and rolled until a hand with large joints and a rough texture gently stopped it and picked it up from the ground.
But the moment the stick lifted off the ground, the entire backyard sunbathing area suddenly became quiet.
In fact, at that moment, Little Tia actually didn't notice that a strange figure had appeared not far away... No, it wasn't just her, probably none of the children present at this moment noticed it.
Then…
"thump."
Little Tia, who was pulled up by her braids, felt her eyes suddenly blur, and then she sat down on the ground. She saw that the face of fat Johnny, who had just twisted himself hard and was laughing happily, had become more confused than before.
The next moment, all the children with different expressions in front of them seemed to suddenly remember something. They completely ignored their companions and even more ignored Little Tia, and they dispersed and left in unison.
To be honest, a sudden and strange change like this is actually not much better than being surrounded and bullied - at least little Tia was scared! Although the expressions on the faces of the children when they left were different, they also had a very similar dullness, which made Little Tia feel a numbness in her scalp as she watched this scene unfold.
After she fell to the spot and was stunned for a while, she finally came back to her senses, and saw her intuitively turning her head and looking in a certain direction behind her—
nobody! There was no one there, only the gentle breeze blew over the sparse and yellow grass tips there, swaying a few times.
"call-"
Because nothing shocking happened, Little Tia finally calmed down a little and turned around again silently.
But at this moment, she used her unskinned hand to support the ground and planned to get up from the ground, but unexpectedly, her palm was suddenly hit by something hard.
Tia lowered her head and saw the stick.
"ah?"
Looking at the small wooden stick that appeared in front of her again, Little Tia was startled again - when the wooden stick fell from her hand just now, although she was pinched in great pain by Johnny, she could still hear the sound of the stick falling to the ground. heard. Even if she wasn't absolutely sure, she still remembered that the stick should have rolled some distance away.
So why? Why did it appear in front of me again now
She had been frightened by the abrupt change of the crowd just now, and now there was such an unexpected doubt, which made Little Tia's heart skip a beat.
"What on earth...is going on? Is this what happened today?"
The extremely flustered Little Tia's head was already empty. Apart from "weird", perhaps there is no word to describe it. The very nervous and confused Little Tia could not even breathe smoothly, as if she was worried about the sound of inhalation. If it is too big, it will startle something again.
And it was at this time...
"Ding-dong-ding-dong-ding-dong-"
Suddenly, the sound of a hand-bell ringing from the direction of the front yard came slowly. Because it had been used for a long time, the ringing that should have been clear and crisp seemed a bit dull. This was something Tia had heard since she was a child, and she was very familiar with it.
But this time, the sudden ringtone startled Little Tia again.
Fortunately, it was just a ringtone after all. Little Tia, who reacted quickly, stopped the exclamation that had risen to her throat, glanced left and right quickly, and finally suppressed the panic in her heart and ran as fast as she could, even faster than when she started running away. A few minutes faster.
She ignored the inexplicable and strange little wooden stick on the ground.
…
In orphanages affiliated with the church, children do not have much free time. In addition to the regular cultural classes, there are also church-specific morning and evening classes, as well as more religious content and etiquette classes, and the latter are even more strict and important than the former.
When the bell rings, no matter the bully or the bullied, they will return to where they should be like everyone else. Because no matter who is late, he will be punished - late is late, and the old nun Taylor, who has a straight face all day long, will never listen to any excuse.
Naturally, Little Tia also went to the gathering, and no one could miss the prayer before dinner, otherwise they would definitely be hungry at night.
But the good thing is that after the thrilling experience in the afternoon, there were no other accidents until the end of the evening class when I returned to the dormitory to turn off the lights and go to bed. Those children who bullied me and watched me before seemed like nothing happened, as if everything had returned to normal.
Yes, there were small things like being squeezed deliberately when fetching water, or having her wrists slightly burned, etc. Tia was already used to it. Apart from the pain, there was no more fear. This was already a relatively peaceful evening for her.
Until nightfall, thinking about the weird scene this afternoon, Little Tia, who was mentally and physically tired, gradually fell asleep wrapped in a damp quilt - the quilt had probably been watered by her roommate, or perhaps It could have been something more extreme, but it didn't matter because Tia was already very sleepy.
"Click, click, click..."
She didn't know how long she had slept, but when Little Tia was awakened by this strange sound, she opened her eyes and found that it was completely dark.
Not far away, the curtains were half-closed. It might be a cloudy day tonight, and it was almost pitch black without stars or moon outside the window.
What is that sound? Why... does it feel familiar
Relying on the dim light of the street lamp that was only on in the distance, Little Tia, who was a little unable to open her eyes due to sleepiness, squinted her sour eyes and turned to look in the direction of the sound.
"ah."
The exclamation failed to pop out of her throat happily. Instead, it was cut off by Little Tia covering her mouth.
But no matter what, at this time, Little Tia had completely woken up from her half-dream. Because she saw that the small wooden stick that she had picked up and discarded during the day appeared in front of her again at this time.
What's even weirder is that the small wooden stick on the bedside table is trembling slightly without being touched by anyone, and is pointing in a certain direction.
It's the window behind me! The tip of the small wooden stick was pointing to the window behind him!
After realizing this, Little Tia, who was huddled in the quilt and her whole body was already a little stiff, was startled. The cold little hands in the quilt were clasped tightly, and she suddenly turned over with her elbows and looked towards the window. past…