Chapter 5

  “Scarlett! Scarlett! Wait!”

  I had just gotten to the Northern side of the castle. This side of the castle has built-in dance floors, gym and weight room, and yoga areas.

  When I heard Avalynn calling my name again. I turned around to see her running up to me.

  “What’s wrong? Why are you running?”

  “Mom says “we’re leaving”. She wants you down at the car immediately.”

  Great. I honestly thought she would be longer.

  “Don’t worry, mom told me to come and get you. She wants me to take you down the elevator in the Miller’s area, then straight through the garage.” My eyes widened.

  The Miller’s area, also known as the miller’s room, is off limits to all servants and Blood servants a like. It is the one hall that has an elevator that can get you to any level of this castle. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to walk a distance to get to your destination, but it saves you 30 to 40 minutes trying to get to, let’s say, from the west wing to the Eiter Wing. I think they started this rule a year or two after I got here.

  Avalynn took my arm and led me to the outer parts of the northern wing. Which holds both the kinder and miller room (the Kids bedrooms). I would only go down a few doors in this part of the north side, before changing wings altogether. The castle is a maze, and unless you know how to get from place to place, you are lost until someone finds you.

  The Kinder wing is where the eldest kids lived. These included Aaron Blackwood, Margery Blackwood, age 26, Collette Blackwood, 24, Eli Himmel Blackwood, 23, the only adopted child of lady Blackwood’s and Micheal Blackwood age 20. The Kinder wing connects to the Miller Wing where the younger children reside, Like Avalynn.

  I never truly see Eli; he hides in his room more often than anyone else in this family. Eli is a mystery to most servants. Eli has been with the family since he was 3 years old. No one knows exactly where he was adopted from. However, what I do know is that Eli keeps The Blackwood’s finances in check. Anything the younger Kids spend, needs for school, or outside needs, like equipment for sports, Eli is the one that disperses the money to them. We walked through the hall quietly; Avalynn held onto my arm tightly. I kept up with her walking pace.

  As we passed Eli’s and Margery’s room, I heard a loud smash and a scream coming from behind us.

  “What was that?” I stopped and asked. However, AvaLynn pulled me closer to her.

  “Nothing! When you are in this area; the things you hear, you didn’t hear them. The things you see, you never saw them. Remember Scarlett?”

  I looked down at Avalynn. Avalynn came up to my chest. She is almost tall enough to look straight into my eyes. I can tell exactly what she meant, we have already passed the threshold where only blood relatives or family members are allowed in. In this area, I heard nothing, saw nothing, and I will never tell anyone I was over here.

  “Right.” I replied and let Avalynn pull me down the rest of the hall.

  The hall was not as I remembered but I also haven’t been down this hall since I first started here. This area is very run down; the paint on the wall is chipping onto the ground. The ground was in no better shape, even the oldest parts of the building look less unkept then here. There are empty pillars lined up at every doorway.

  The hall looked, in the best terms to describe it, Abandoned. Avalynn pulled me in a zig zagging motion, like we would step on something important if we just walked straight. Avalynn held onto my arm tighter and tighter the further we moved.

  “Did you hear something?” Avalynn asked as she slowed down her pace. Avalynn never looked back but she gripped harder on my arm. I wasn’t sure whether to answer the question or not, but I did hear scratching of some sort. I could now see that Avalynn was getting nervous.

  “Stop. Scarlett, do you see that elevator at the end of the hall?” Avalynn’s voice was shaking. The elevator was in sight but still a little way away.

  “Yes, I do.” I heard something knock over behind us.

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  “Scarlett, you do as I say and nothing different. You only listen to me.” Avalynn’s voice was now calm. Which made me feel uneasy.

  “Walk as slowly as possible straight to the elevator. Do not turn around. I’m going to turn around and talk to him.” Avalynn, gestured for me to start walking. But all I can think about is who she is going to talk to.

  “Eli, what are you doing up? You are usually asleep until 3.” Avalynn asked.

  I heard a low growl; it almost sounded like an animal not a human.

  “Why, are there people, that I don’t know, in our hall?” I walked as slow as I could, I could feel eyes on my back.

  “I’m just taking her to mom.” Avalynn’s voice sounded hesitant.

  “Who is she, Ava? I would truly, like to know.” The voice sounded dull and like their words were slurring but also sounded angry.

  “She’s… uh… she’s a friend of mom’s.” I kept my pace; Eli stays in this area more than the other kids, for reasons not really known to us servants. The kids never actually talk about him unless they are asked. However, I know very well that Avalynn is scared for me more than herself.

  “She’s also a Friend of mine and Aarons. So, we…”

  “Really? What’s her name? I hear all of you talk about your friends, close and not close. So, which friend is she, Ava?”

  I couldn’t hear Avalynn talking anymore. I wanted to turn around but I wasn’t instructed to. I was told to walk until otherwise.

  “She’s…”

  “Ava… Are you lying to your older brother? You know, Lying is bad right. Ava!?”

  “Eli, mom said to leave others alone or you will get in big trouble.” I could hear tapping noise. It was like someone was hitting the pillars with something metal.

  “I wouldn’t have to discipline people, if everyone would follow the rules. Am I right?”

  Eli’s voice sounded angrier by the second.

  “Mom said she could come through here as long as I am with her!” Avalynn was raising her voice.

  “Well sis, you’re not with her anymore. Are you?” I heard the malice in his voice.

  “Run... Scarlett run!” Ava screamed.

  I Sprinted toward the elevators, I didn’t realize how far away it was until I started running to it. I heard commotion behind me. I think Avalynn was trying to hold Eli back. I turned around to see what was going on. Eli threw Avalynn into the wall.

  “Avalynn!” I screamed out. Eli’s eyes locked on to me.

  “Scarlett Evette Thanna, I will teach you what it means to follow the rules.” Eli was drooling and breathing heavily.

  I turned and ran as fast as I could. I could hear him knocking things over almost as he ran towards me. It was like he wanted me to know how far behind me he was. I was getting closer to the elevator when I felt something smash into my head. It knocked me off balance but not enough that I didn’t regain the ability to run straight. I slammed into the elevator doors and started pressing the button for down multiple times. However, it wasn’t coming fast enough.

  Eli grabbed a chunk of my hair, pulled me backwards. I lost my footing and when he saw this, he pushed me forward toward the elevator’s doors. I lost balance fully, and the left side of my face hit the elevator’s door at full force. I fell to the ground, holding my head.

  “Shit!” I screamed out.

  I heard someone approaching me slowly. It was Eli, he was laughing under his breath. I looked up and saw Eli crouched down in front of me. Eli was very tall so even crouched down, he towered over my body.

  I looked up at him, the whites of his eyes were bloodshot red, his skin was paler than the rest of the kids. He was still drooling but it was more excessive now. I couldn’t move, my head throbbed and my eyes were hurting.

  Eli smiled at me, then grabbed my throat. His strength was something unreal, he dragged me up off the ground and threw me against the wall to the right of the elevator. I couldn’t even regain my balance before his hand found my throat again.

  “You made me work to get you, how dare you. I, too, am your employer. That means you listen to me. Right Scarlett? You, ungrateful waste of space! You are not worthy to run from me!” I struggled to get away from his grip.

  “You listen to me; I will brand you the filthy you are!” He tightened his grip. When he threw me to another wall. The elevator door dinged. I looked over at it when Eli hit the wall near my face. He smiled at me.

  “Eli!” His eyes widened. I stared at him as he backed away from me and turned to the entrance of the Elevator. “Get away from Scarlett. Now!” I recognized the voice.

  It was Lady Blackwood. I heard her heels clicking out of the elevators, Eli stepped back as she moved forward.

  “Mother I…”

  “How dare you hurt your sister?”

  “Mother I’m…”

  “How dare you undermine my authority. I told you to never touch a servant. Blood Servant or regular.”

  “Mother she…”

  “I TOLD Avalynn to bring her through here so she could get to me faster. So, I could get to work. Now you have also delayed my departure time for work.”

  “I didn’t realize.”

  “No, you just thought you could do whatever you wanted. You have royally fucked me over and yourself over, today.” Lady Blackwood walked towards Eli.

  Eli kept backing away. Lady Blackwood stopped and looked at me. My eyesight was getting blurry.

  She turned back to Eli and waved her index finger at him, to come closer. When Eli basically was inches away from her, Lady Blackwood grabbed his face in her hand.

  “What did you take?” She squeezed his face in her hand.

  “Livadine.” She let go of his face and laughed.

  “Mother I’m so…” Lady Blackwood gave him a wicked slap across the face. Knocking him on the floor.

  “Get into your room.” She said cold and firm. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one who was falling onto the floor. My eyes were so heavy I couldn’t keep them open anymore. When I finally just closed my eyes, I felt heavy, but I couldn’t feel the floor anymore.

  I only heard my name being called.

  “Scarlett.”