The Revenge Of The Stolen Children

Revenge Of The Stolen Children - 
A short story By Paul McCann

In the darkness of the night they came in trucks to take away children from their poor parents who lived in squalors along the riverbank . The parents were helpless to stop the well armed thugs who were hired by the slave labour training camp . 
All of the children were taken to two large cloistered buildings on a large property for the first assessment and then processed into groups for lodgement into the huge dormitories that would be their home from them on . 
The staff who worked there at Riverside Training school were cold and ruthless people who frequently punished the children with harsh words and slaps from  bamboo sticks across their hands and buttocks . Daily punishments were carried out in front of all the children who were there at the school which drove fear into their innocent hearts .  
Some of the children tried to escape but the property had high walls and guards dogs patrolled the grounds . Those who were caught trying to escape were locked up in the morgue  for a week without food . This terrifying experience discouraged any other children’s attempt to break away from Riverside House .
The children were allowed free time on weekends however their free time was to be used to benefit the agenda of those who ran the cruel institution .

Every Saturday morning the children were given a small breakfast and afterwards they were brought out to the grounds around the property were they were instructed to frighten out all the rabbits from their burrows so that the male staff could take pot shots at the rabbits with their loaded rifles . After the shooting spree was over the  children had to collect all of the dead rabbits . Then they had to skin them and gut them . The meat was used to feed the children during the week and the pelts were cured and sold . The most sought after pelts were foxes . Another job that the children had to do was to set traps around the property with half dead rabbits as bait to try to catch any foxes that would come around .
Most of the staff enjoyed their bit of fun at the weekends but for the children it was a very scary experience having to race around ducking from bullets that were fired .      
On Sundays the children would be dressed up in fine clothes and marched in single file into church were the local people admired how well the children looked . All of the people in town had no idea that the children had been stolen from their parents and were being mistreated .The training school had always been supported by the business end of town with donations and many families brought clothing and food hampers to help the children who were known as orphans .
Usually every three years the staff of the training school took away all the children from the school for delivery to their future employers . 
After this had occurred the thugs were hired once again to go and steal some more children from the poor people who lived by the riverbank . Parents who refused to give up their child were beaten and thrown into prison . Most of the parents were too frighten to speak to anyone about what was going on for fear of getting punished by those who were behind this cruelty and so this inhumane treatment went on unopposed.

When the war came the training school was closed down and the site now was to  used as a hospital and convalescent home for injured soldiers who returned from the battlefields .
It was at this point in time when strange and eerie things stared to present themselves . Some nights the sound of children screaming was heard from the store room that at one time had been the morgue on the old training school . 

Soldiers who were recovering from their wounds had told the nurses stories about the little children who came into the ward during the night . The nurses secretly laughed it off and attributed it to soldiers going through delirium . 
As time went on other weird everts began to happen at Warhope Hospital .
Lights often flickered on and off , some doors seemed to open and close by themselves. Arguments and fighting became a regular behaviour with nurses and patients. Other incidents like falls with the patients and nurses making mistakes as they administered medications . Then there was a string of suicides and tragic accidents in the hospital which eventually had to be reported and it was only a matter of time before the government health officials and police came to investigate what was going on at Warhope Hospital . 
After of interviews and checks were made it was decided that Warhope Hospital would be closed . All the buildings were to be demolished and the land then would be subdivided and sold to landlords and developers who immediately stared to build homes on one acre blocks which were put on the market for sale to the public .
In a passage of time many people purchased their dream home on Riverside Estate.
but the dream homes soon turned into nightmares with the new owners loosing their jobs and the stress of not being able to pay their mortgage saw many loose their homes . Relationships suffered and families were breaking up .
In one of the homes on the Estate lived a man called Jack . He was a single man with no family and his only companion was his dog Mullet . Jack was gifted man who had physic abilities . Ever since Jack moved into his new home he had been aware of a dark presence around . Some nights he saw the faces of young children appear at his window before he went to sleep . Almost every night and day Mullet was barking at something . Then one day Jack discovered dozens of dead rabbits on his lawn . He knew this had to be a message and started to do some research into the land where his house was built . 
After he spoke to some locals who had lived there all their lives Jack discovered some of the history that surrounded the place where his house was built .
Then one night as he slept he was awoke by three loud high pitched screams from a spare room in his house . When he went there to see what was going on he saw the ghosts of three children walk out into back yard where they pointed to an area under his garden shed . This prompted Jack to start digging around that place and as the weeks passed Jack found the bones of three children who had been buried there .
After Jack reported this he had the help and support of the some of the welfare agencies on board as well as the police and government departments .
A large site was roped of for excavation purposes and pretty soon some items of interest that were buried had been uncovered . A punishment book was found that held information on the names of all the children who had been beaten and how often this occurred.  With the help of the local newspaper and some photos of the children were discovered along with interesting stories about those who ran the Training school .

With the assistance of police forensics evidence was found and the cause of death was presented in all the human remains that were found , Then came the day when  the most enlightening information was found inside a wooden crate that was discovered . Some books inside the crate contained the names and addresses of the  employers were all of the stolen children had been sent to work  .
Eventually those who ran the training school were arrested and questioned about their time of service there at the School .
After the dark past of Riverside Training School became known , all of those involved were sent to prison for crimes against humanity .
Jack had won the respect of all the local people and from that day everything went well in Riverside Estate with many prospective home buyers grabbing their dream home at a very cheap price .
Soon children were playing in the streets and a new school was built .
Jack found a wife and secured a job as the school librarian . 
One day at work Jack was surprised when a young child approached and asked if there any books about the parents of the stolen children of Riverside .
Jack looked at her and smiled then he watched her disappear in front of him . 

The End

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