The woman was concealing her face with a scarf and slowly making her way through the darkness. Her rhythmic steps echoed down the tunnel, gently fading away into the distance. She was slightly ashamed of what she was about to do, but that wouldn’t stop her. Going down a few steps, she paused near a simple metallic door, adjusting the bundle of clothes on her back. She put her gloved hand to it, slightly heating up the metal. Light was seemingly leeched from the surroundings, making the already darkish colors loose more of their vibrancy. After a moment, the colors brightened again, and the darkness receded. A white neon light lit up, circling the place where the doorbell was located, the only glowing spot in an otherwise inert world. Ignoring all this, the woman retrieved the bundle from her back, touched the circle, activating a seemingly complicated mechanism, judging by the amount of whirs that could be heard, and waited, tapping her foot.
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A few minutes later, a young man with calm eyes opened the door, and looked at the woman tiredly.
‘His name is Karl. He was born exactly a week ago. Please take care of him’ the women quickly said, her indifferent eyes meeting the man’s.
‘Of course. That’s our job’, he nodded, taking the bundle the women was holding to him. He curiously peered into the wrinkly face, instantly determining that the infant was healthy and that nothing was wrong with it. The baby was fast asleep, just as it should be at this late hour.
When he looked up, the woman was gone.
‘Now, what do we do with you?’, the man smiled slightly, walking into the orphanage and putting the child into the nearest crib. It was still sleeping, not having made a single noise.
The man looked around the quiet room full of sleeping children, checking that everyone was in place. Not finding anything out of the ordinary, he retreated into his office and resumed reading his book. He would sort out everything come day.