I’m startled awake by a voice yelling in the hall.
“MOVE IT OR LOOSE IT! IT’S BREAKFAST TIME EVERYBODY!!!”
I hear some pounding on doors, and then other people yelling back
“WE GOT IT, YOU DON’T HAVE TO WAKE US UP EVERY DAY LIKE THIS!”
The room is black with a light purple glow coming from the window. The panic from being startled awake fades as I swing my legs over the side of the bed and sit up. I look around… I’m still in the mansion. A part of me was hoping I’d wake up and this was all some bad dream, it wasn’t. I am hungry. I think to myself I might as well grab the food while it’s here.
In the darkness, I fumble to the desk and find a small box of matches and I light the candle on my desk. I notice something that I didn’t see the night before sitting on the desk. It’s my phone. I pick it up and click the lock button and it doesn’t light up. I hold the button and it doesn’t even show that low battery icon telling me to charge it.
I make my way over to the wardrobe and change into some clean clothes. Last night I was so tired that I fell asleep in the clothes I have been wearing since I got here and at this point, they smell.
The thing that caught my eye was this bright red sundress with short ruffled sleeves and a v-neck line. Something about the color makes me smile and feel more at home.
As I change into my new dress I think, I really have to ask Jacqueline how do I shower? Do we have a bathroom? I just realized I went the entire day yesterday without using a bathroom once.
I open my door and look down the hall. There’s nobody there. While I was getting dressed, I heard footsteps run by so maybe they all left already. Panic grabs me as I realize that I don’t know how to get to the dining room. We took so many different paths yesterday and I was completely lost in this mansion. So I take a deep breath and just go right.
As I pass a few rooms one of the doors on my right opens. Looking in I see one of the guys I wasn’t introduced to the night before. His medium-length black hair, falling just above his ears and a bit longer on top, is slightly tousled. He’s wearing a well-fitted brown leather jacket, the kind that’s broken in but still in great shape. The jacket is smooth and tailored to his frame, hugging his broad shoulders and tapering slightly at the waist. Beneath the jacket, he is wearing a simple, grey t-shirt.
He steps out of his room and says, “Hey, new girl, where are you going?”
“I’m heading to breakfast,” I say.
“Yeah, I figured as much. Breakfast is the other way. Care if I walk you there?”
“If you don’t mind.”
“I’m Landon.” He says as he extends his hand.
“Nice to meet you Landon…” My words trail off because I don’t know what to say. Should I talk about where he came from? Should I ask what he is doing here? Should I ask about the weather?
“I’m sure you have a lot of questions.” Landon says, “Ask anything you like, I’m an open book. Just know that you may not always like the answer.”
“Now I’m not sure if I want to ask anything,” I say with a smile on my face.
Landon laughs, “Yeah, that’s a valid response. I’ve been here for about six years and,” He leans in and whispers, “I don’t really do that much around here. I’m kind of lazy, to be honest.” He straightens up and continues. “I work with Frank, we do maintenance on the place and take care of things, not that there’s much maintenance to be done, but between the two of us, it seems to work out well. I’ve got some random projects in the shop that I work on. Honestly, not that exciting, but somehow working with my hands gives me a little more peace. I can lose myself to my work. Using hand tools to saw through wood, plain it to smooth it out, or just taking time to chisel out a design. That’s actually one of my favorite hobbies. Chiseling out little things that I can picture in my head.”
We make it to the familiar doors of the dining room and Landon holds it open for me. It was a similar sight to the night before. Everyone sitting at the end of the table, the table covered in food. Although this time the food wasn’t the same, it wasn’t steak, potatoes, and chicken. Instead, it was fried eggs, bacon, pancakes and cereal. The cereal caught my attention because it was sitting in a massive bowl. I’m so used to it being in boxes. Part of me expected it to be filled with milk already, but I’m glad it wasn’t because that would make it soggy.
I eat more than I normally would for breakfast and it’s good but not as good as dinner the night before.
“So Samantha, what did you do before you got it here?” Landon asks as we take our seats at the table.
“What did I do?”
“Yeah, were you still in school, were you working or did you just bum around and stay at home all day? Do you have any hobbies? What was your life like before you came here?”
“Well, I honestly didn’t do that much. I was in school, but I didn’t really pay attention I was just getting my degree to get a degree. Nothing else really to it.”
“What degree were you getting?”
“I initially was going for an architecture degree because I wanted to design things then I realized there was a bunch of math involved and yeah, I’m not that good with math, so I, uh, stopped and yeah. I was just going through basic prerequisites, trying to figure out what I wanted.”
“She plays some killer piano,” Frank says from across the table. “She played for us last night and it was amazing.”
“We’ll have to hear you play sometime,” Alan says looking up from the head of the table, he smiles at me, a perfectly genuine smile. He doesn’t seem to have any malice or any ulterior motives with the smile, but something about this smile just doesn’t seem right. Like on paper everything seems right, but my spirit saying something is wrong, and I don’t understand why.
“How does that sound?” Lila says.
Darting, my head back up I look at Lila and ask, “How does what sound exactly?”
“Playing for all of us again?”
“Um. I’m not used to such a big crowd, but sure; I don’t mind.”
“Then it’s settled,” Alan says, “in a couple of days after you get settled we’ll all meet up and enjoy a night of music after dinner.”
“Yeah, that that sounds fine.” This time when Alan spoke everything seemed fine. Like there were no warning bells going off in my spirit. I shake off the thought and look at Landon saying, “What did you use to do Landon?”
“I was a high school dropout. I worked for a carpenter my senior year and about halfway through I just kind of dropped out and worked full-time.”
“And he’s been a fine carpenter for us for the last six years,” Gage says with a belch, “and here’s to another six more!” He raises his cup. No one else raises theirs. An awkward silence fills the room and I think to myself.
I keep forgetting how much time people have spent here and how much time I might be stuck…
After a few seconds, Landon half-way lifts his cup and says, “Six more.” He looks at me. “It’s rough sometimes, but we make the best of it. Just because we’re stuck here doesn’t mean life is over. I hate to say it, but the more people that show up, the better it gets, it’s rough at first. The people are what matter. They may not be the people we want,” He glares at Gage, “or even the people we choose to be around. Rather it’s the people that we have no matter what.”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” Alan says.
The rest of the meal I hear people talk about little things they’re working on. I hear Lila has a new dress that she’s been working on. She’s taking some of the glowing plants and making them into a dress that glows. She can make it last for a couple of hours, but it begins to fade after that.
Jacqueline bursts into the room, breathing heavily she says, “Thank God you’re here.”
Porter bolts up and asks, “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, “Jacqueline says between breaths. “I couldn’t find Samantha. She wasn’t in her room and I was worried, she got lost.”
“Landon walked me here this morning,” I say.
“Good,” Jacqueline says breathlessly as she takes a seat. “Sorry, I slept in a little bit and… Everything’s fine. Thank you, Landon.”
“It’s my pleasure.” Landon says.”
“That being said,” Alan speaks up, “Jacqueline, just to be clear you aren’t responsible for Samantha, I hope you know that.”He turns and looks at me.” Samantha,”
“Yes, Alan.”
“I know you still have a lot of questions. Normally how we do this is that the new arrival chooses someone to shadow. Then the new arrival will follow them around for the day and that person will be in charge of taking care of them. They teach them about the mansion, show them their job, and help them get used to the place. Is there anyone in particular, you feel like you would like to shadow for the day? You’re welcome to change your mind at any point if you need time alone or would rather shadow someone else. We have found that it is not beneficial for someone to be left alone for hours on end as a new arrival. So we do highly recommend you shadow someone.”
“Yeah,” I say taking this new information in. “I can choose anybody to shadow?”
“Yes, you’re welcome to choose anyone.”
“Okay, Jacqueline, no offense to you. I’ve been with you all this time and I’d like to get to know a few other people.”
“No offense taken,” Jacqueline says, “I completely understand.”
“Good, so… Porter, that’s your name, right? I’d like to follow you around for the day if that’s okay.”
Porter laughs, “That’s perfectly okay for us.”
“Us?”
“Yeah. Gage and I are more of a pair. We spend the whole day together so as long as you’re okay with that then the more the merrier we say.”
“Yeah, I’m good with that.”
“Then it settled.” Alan says, “You will shadow Landon for the day and you can continue to do so tomorrow if you wish or you can shadow some other people. That is up to you.”
A few minutes later I lean over to Jacqueline and whisper, “Hey Jacqueline, thank you for being so worried about me, it’s nice to know that you care.”
“Of course, I care. I know what you mean and you’re welcome. It’s not easy being here and… I know you’ve seen that the mansion looks in really good condition, but the whole place isn’t like that. That’s what Frank and Landon do, they repair the place, but they mostly just repair and maintain where we stay. There are certain areas, like the east wing, that have fallen into disrepair or were never repaired in the first place. That’s why I was so worried when I couldn’t find you this morning. People have gotten hurt out there by broken floorboards or falling ceiling tiles, or just uh… One person found a hole in the wall that was open to the void, and… You know how that goes.”
“I do,” I say, “well, thank you for being concerned about me.
“I’m happy to.”
The rest of breakfast was uneventful. Landon mentions something about a carving he’s been doing. Frank says he’s finished repairing the door for another room so It can be prepared in case we get another guest. The way he says the word guest sounds sad. It almost sounds like he’s regretting even saying the word.
The food disappeared from the table into a purple mist.
I walk over to Porter and ask, “So uh, uh, what’s next?”
“Well, we spend most of our time in the dojo,”
“Like from the karate kid,” I say with a hint of excitement in my voice.
“Yes, that is technically a dojo, but we don’t practice karate often.”
“Oh, that’s a shame I kind of was interested in karate. My parents would never let me do it because it was too violent.”
“We can teach you some of the stuff we’ve learned if you’d like, but I practice many different forms of martial arts. Whatever you are interested in we can teach you.”
“That sounds great! Do you guys do like actual martial arts classes?”
“Well, to be honest,” Gage pipes in interrupting Porter and slapping a hand on his shoulder, “most people are not that interested in it, so we end up sparring the two of us most of the time.”
“Well, consider me interested!”
Authors Note:
This chapter was a little shorter this week because I managed my time poorly, but on the bright side, I know that I can post one of these every two weeks so that is the plan.