by S C Thomas
Her eyes lifted to the sun, a hand raising to shield her gaze as she squinted above, shaking her head at the brightness. For somewhere so secluded up in the mountains, the sun sure did reach it well enough. It was still bright and sunny as ever before. A thud of her luggage dropping by her feet grabbed her attention and she turned to the driver. He was a grouchy little man, with a balding spot shining on top of his head. He had barely spoken three sentences to Emma on the eight-hour drive here. He had kept mostly to the music, trying to keep it up as loud as possible but not too loud. Just enough to show her to keep her mouth shut and don’t bother him. No longer equipped with a cell phone as it had been turned off due to no one being able to provide a bill, she’d had nothing to do except stare out the window on the drive. Or doze off for the couple hours that she had done so. It was better to fall asleep then be bored out of her mind, that was for sure.
Still, she wished she hadn’t been given such a grumpy cab driver to bring her here. A place she had thought only existed in fairytales and fictional stories made up by authors who preferred to live within their own minds. Then again, it was just a school. Castles existed everywhere. No doubt this one had just been found and renovated to provide the comfort (yeah right) of a school building where parents could ship their kids off for eight to nine months and forget they existed while they had a life of their own back in place.
Except Emma had no one to forget she existed. She was here because it was either this or a juvie station before she could get into a group home for delinquents. With moving as many homes for as many months she’d been in the foster system for looked bad on her. In order for foster parents to even look at you, you had to provide a track record of at least three or more months, a way to be stable in one home. Or so she’d been told, she wasn’t even sure if that was the truth. But regardless, her track was bad for only being in foster care for three months. So, the juvie station was next in line simply because no group homes had an opening for a few months. And Emma hadn’t really wanted to go to juvie – better known as jail.
So, school it was. Provided by a man who claimed to be her uncle, who she still didn’t entirely believe, but free of charge. All she had to do was behave, keep to her schoolwork, and age out and she would be on her way. It sounded so simple, but even she knew it was easier said than done.
“I- “Emma stammered, fumbling at her pockets, trying to find any amount of money to pay him with. Why hadn’t she thought of this before getting in the cab? “I-I think I have some money,” she stammered, panic crossing her face as she realized she really didn’t have anything to give him.
He held up a hand and a half smile, or what looked like one anyways – it was barely a twitch of the lips – turned a corner of his lips upwards. “Don’t worry about it.” He grunted and motioned at the castle. “Paid for with tip.”
Emma dropped her arms, nodding at his words, but relief surged through her. She wasn’t really sure what she would have done not having money to pay for such a long ride. Would she have requested time to go find that man and ask him to pay or just run off, hiding in the woods off to the side, waiting to come out after he left? She’d never dealt with this sort of thing before and was a little grateful she didn’t have to start now.
He pulled out her backpack from the backseat and dumped it on the ground next to her suitcase, giving a grunt and a jerk of his hand in what she assumed was a half wave and slipped back into his car, taking off without another word. He was leaving her to fend for herself. Now she was certain that taking the man’s word for it, she had made somewhat of a mistake. What had she gotten herself into this time?
Tilting her head back, she looked up at the sky, lifting out her arms as if she were going to try and fly and turned in a circle. “I don’t know what to do.” She cried up to the heavens above, closing her eyes.
But only silence enveloped her. No one was around to tell her what to do. Her mother was gone and Emma was beyond certain now she had made a grave mistake. Why hadn’t she just chosen juvie? At least then she’d know where she was headed off to, instead of some foreign place that made no sense to her. On the words of a man who claimed to be family but was nowhere in sight.
This will be good for you. Better then jail, Emma. Your marked-up records don’t give you an opportunity to be in a regular household. Foster parents will be hesitant to take you, you know that. Her social worker had been excited for her for this opportunity, to get away for a fresh start. To finally have somewhere to call home longer than normal, somewhere stable that wasn’t going to just ship her away the first chance they got. The castle that towered overhead did seem more appealing then jail would, she had to admit that.
Still, where was her so-called uncle? Why wasn’t he out to greet her?
With a shake of her head, Emma reached down and hoisted her backpack on her shoulders, and grabbed hold of her suitcase, yanking it off the ground. “Umph,” she huffed, muttering obscene words beneath her breath that her mother would never have allowed to escape from her lips had she been there to hear her.
Tugging the suitcase behind her, much easier if it hadn’t been grass beneath the wheels, she walked up the steps and lifted a hand, pounding on the iron wrought doors. A groan of protest and before she could do another round of knocking, they creaked open. Her fingers fell open, releasing the suitcase that fell with a plop next to her feet, her mouth falling agape in shock. Before her was a massive hallway, the wooden flooring set off by the stone walls. On each side, torches lined them, flickering in flames to keep light going. When a gust of air had accompanied the opening of doors, they reared up and flickered dangerously but didn’t go out. As the dancing flames settled down, drawing in the shadows they had flicked around, her eyes began to adjust to the dim light within. There was only one table on each side, both long and rectangular and matched the wooden floor she suddenly didn’t want to walk on in fear of scuffing it up. On the tabletops were lines various plants as if to give the place some life, not that it was doing any good, it was still dank, but in a good way. Fumbling, Emma retrieved her suitcase and pulled it over the threshold. As she crossed into the hallway, the door slam shut with a clang. Startled, Emma jumped and spun around, but seeing no one around she chalked it up to a gust of wind having shut the doors.
Taking in a shaky breath, she pulled her suitcase with her once more and began the long descent of the hallway, deciding it was better to follow it down then go astray. More iron wrought doors popped up, lining the halls, leading into other rooms she knew nothing about, all closed so she couldn’t even see within them. Her footsteps echoed, bouncing in every corner they could reach and hitting her ears all over. She had no idea where she was going or what she was even supposed to be doing. Should she be looking for the man claiming to be her uncle? That seemed plausible and maybe even the right thing to do, but he had never said to go looking for her. Besides, the suitcase she was dragging was getting quite heavy and she wanted a place to put it down. As she came to a stop, realization dawned on her. She had forgotten about the map! Setting her suitcase back down, Emma reached into the back pocket of her jeans and pulled out two folded up papers. They had arrived last night, right before dinner had been meant to be served. She had looked it over for at least an hour before falling asleep, but once stuffing it into her pocket before hopping into the cab, she had completely forgotten they had even existed up until now. The map gave clear directions and shown exactly where everything and every room lay. All the way up through the towers. One area was circled in red, which brought her to the second piece of paper: her room assignment. While the map was to help her navigate around, to find her classes and the works, for now it was to help her get to the appropriate room.
Scrutinizing the map, she decided on the best route to take and began to backtrack her steps in order to do so. A low chiming in her ears told her that somewhere on the grounds was a big old clock she would have to see one of these days for herself. Her mother had always loved antiques, especially cloc
ks. This one sounded like one she had only ever heard of in stories. It would be a beautiful sight to go and check out. Once she learned everything and everywhere of course. She didn’t want to get lost just to check out an old clock and look like an idiot if she wasn’t found for days in the woods.
The cacophony of voices entered her ears and her heart skipped a beat as they were followed by thundering footsteps. Laughter rang loudly, but Emma moved quickly to the side, tugging her suitcase with her. As she pressed into the wall, bodies flooded from a massive doorway just feet away from her. Students of various ages, sizes, and even color swam out in front of her like a school of fish. They were headed for the front doors, anxious to get out into the warm air, to take in the nice day that the sun had brought them. Eyes looked at Emma, fingers pointed at her, and whispers in friends’ ears brought more attention to her. She could feel her cheeks heating up and Emma ducked her head, letting her hair fall over her face so she couldn’t see them all staring at her – gawking at her. She was the new kid fallen into the middle of semester. Of course, she looked funny, especially since she wasn’t wearing the same uniforms, they were all equipped with. She had jeans and a shirt on, they had school uniforms and matched one another. She looked out of place and even felt like it to. Her face grew hot beneath embarrassment. She hated feeling out of place. If there was one thing Emma was good at, it was blending in.
That was the thing about moving so often. You had to learn quickly to adapt, especially to blend in. That way, when you did leave again, no one would notice you were gone. If you stood out in anyway, they’d notice and that’s when the situation would get sticky. From an early age Emma had learned it was best to stay invisible while in plain sight. That surely wasn’t what was happening right now though. She was sticking out like a sore thumb, and it was making her extremely uncomfortable.
As the crowd began to lessen, clearing up, she examined her map once more and pulled up her suitcase, hauling it behind her. She wanted to find her dorm and change quickly, so people couldn’t stare at her anymore. Then she would find her uncle, that was the plan. It was the only thing that made sense. She had to find him in order to know what was going on. To find out where it was, he had brought her exactly and to ask questions she desperately needed answers to. He had promised her answers and as he was the only person actually able to give them at this point, she was putting her trust that he had been telling her the truth. She just hoped she wasn’t wasting her time with any of this.
As the mess she had gotten into with the jumble of kids began to lessen up and she wasn’t shoving her way through piles of others anymore, Emma stopped to take a breather on the corner of another hall, this one less lit up then the main hall, but she ignored it, clutching a stitch in her side. As she stood there, her eyes lifted, and met his. Her breath hitched, she actually thought her heart may’ve stopped for a second or two there, and her lips parted. Her mouth felt dry, her feet suddenly glued to the ground, but knew if she had to, would allow her to melt into the ground itself. Maybe that’s what she should’ve been doing though. Just falling through because even she knew she looked like a complete idiot in front of him.
He smirked, tilting his head to the side, and lifted it. He gave her a slight nod, as if indicating he acknowledged her presence but wasn’t coming near her. He strongly reminded her of the rock stars she had seen on tv, his hair was shoulder length and a chocolate brown that was swept back to accommodate his look. His rolled-up sleeves gave way to one single tattoo she knew her mother would’ve died from a heart attack about if she had ever brought that kind of home with. A nudge at her foot made her look down, the spell on him broken. Her suitcase had fallen against her leg, tipped over in her absentminded state. She drew her eyes back but couldn’t find the boy again. She blinked rapidly, rubbing her eyes with her palms, searching frantically everywhere she could see but he was no longer in sight. Had she imagined him? Maybe, it was possible in the amount of stress she was experiencing from everything. Shaking her head to rid herself of thoughts, though she couldn’t get him out of her mind no matter how hard she tried, she grabbed hold of her suitcase, and headed down the hall. It was on her map, drawing her to the stairs she was to take to get up to the second floor. A set of stone stairs that seemed to reach up forever. As she came to a stop in front of them, her heart sank at the sight. She had to lug her suitcase all the way up them.
Groaning in despair, she pulled the suitcase up and heaved it onto the steps, climbing with it. It took several huffing minutes, but finally she reached the landing. Maybe it was closer to an hour, forty-five minutes perhaps. It took forever, that’s all she really knew for sure. Breathing in gasps of air to try and catch her breath, the stitch from before back in her side, Emma took another peek at her map, trying to figure out how much further she had to go. Not paying attention to where she was walking, Emma began to move forward once again and slammed into another body.
“Hey, watch it will you?” A shrill voice snapped, sending Emma backwards and tumbling over her suitcase, feet over head.
Landing flat on her stomach, she gasped, and pulled herself up, trying to shake herself, blinking the dizziness away from her eyes. “So-sorry.” She muttered, realizing her map was no longer in her hands.
“Whatever.” The girl sneered, not bothering to offer any help as Emma looked wildly around for her map. “What are you doing anyways?”
Emma looked up, noticing the blonde standing with her hands on her hips and the boy standing behind her, looking at her curiously with a slightly tilted head. He didn’t bother trying to help her though and she knew from experience the kind of girl that stood in front of her was definitely not going to help her. So instead, she returned to her search and found that it had fluttered beneath her suitcase. She grabbed at it and shook it out, examining the map.
“I asked you a question.” The blonde snorted, irritated by Emma’s lack of communication. “Are you going to answer me or not?”
Emma let out a heavy sigh and looked back at her once more, shrugging. “Sorry, trying to find my dorm.”
The girl laughed, rolling her eyes. “You’re pathetic. I really hope you’re on the fourth floor.” She turned on her heel and descended the stairs with her friend in tow, he who looked back only once, confusion on his face before being forced to pay attention to what he was doing as he had almost missed a step and would’ve went face planting into the stone stairs.
Emma’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion, unsure why she had just been threatened by a floor of the castle but guessed that it wasn’t a good place to be up on the fourth floor. She wasn’t sure why but hoped to find out soon enough. Pulling out her room assignment once more, relief surged through her to find out she was on the second floor. What the difference between them was, she wasn’t really sure, but there had to be if the girl had used it as a threat to her. Shrugging it off, Emma gathered her suitcase once more and pulled it behind her, trying to be sly about the fact she was headed to the next floor in search of her dorms.
“Hello,” a small voice greeted her, and had it not been for Emma having stopped rising up the steps, she was sure she would have missed it.
Emma turned to a see a mousy haired girl smiling up at her from below two steps of where she stood. She raised a hand and waved slightly at her, turning to return to what she had been up to.
“I’m Kelyn.” The girl greeted and, in a couple, steps was next to her. “I can help you. If you don’t mind of course.” She reached her hand out and willingly, Emma handed over her room assignment.
As the girl looked over the piece of paper, something like surprise flitted across her face, something Emma didn’t miss to see, but kept her mouth shut about. Because whatever had surprised the girl, she wasn’t going to talk about just then. She nodded, her bun bobbing on the back of her head and she pointed down the hallway at the top of the steps. “Of course, you’re on the second floor. No more stairs, just down that hall. I’ll show you.”
Emma
looked at her skeptically, not sure what she had meant about her comment about the flooring situation but grabbed up her suitcase one more time and followed.
Five
Hungry didn’t even begin to explain how she was feeling. Her stomach was growling, and she was nearly convinced it was about to start eating in on itself. She hadn’t had anything to eat since the night before. Her nerves had kept her from shoving the measly little breakfast for a bowl of cereal down her throat. Her foster mother had wanted her to eat as fast possible. So, while the others were served eggs and toast, she had what could be eaten the quickest to get out the quickest. Emma was just grateful she was out of there. Even if she was starving. She could smell the food wafting through the cracks of her door. It seemed that no matter where she was in the castle, or anyone else at that matter, when meals were made, they could be smelled anywhere. The mixture of all the foods made her mouth water and her stomach yell at her even more. She wanted to eat, needed to at that. Her tongue flicking involuntarily over her lips said just that.
But she couldn’t go out in her simple clothes and though her uniform had been delivered and sitting on her bed in a nice folded pile, she was still hesitant about putting it on. She wanted to see her uncle, to ask him questions she had been promised answers to. She also wanted his comfort. If he really was her uncle as he claimed, he could give her comfort while she felt lonely. She had never felt this lonely before, even when she and her mother were constantly moving around. She’d lost friends, lost touch with them. She couldn’t make friends, didn’t see the point when she’d up and leave sometimes. She knew lonely from that perspective. This was different though. There was someone who could actually give her comfort and she had no idea where to even see him at.
