Secret Aversion

Chapter 6

*Ari’s POV*

The cells unlocked as per usual the morning after, and I followed my regular routine with the bathroom and breakfast periods. I had to be at the mansion by nine, in roughly ten minutes. There was no clock nor phone—mine dead. How did Emerson expect me to arrive on time? I had to be careful around him.

          The Platform members took the exit to the fields while I took the exit to our section. I knew the way to the mansion, but dreaded to walk for twenty minutes. I’d be late for sure since I didn’t have much stamina. My legs ached by the time I reached the mansion wall. Did the other maids, if there were any, take the same route as me?

          NR Agents asked for my ID card at the entrance doors and I retrieved it from my pocket. They allowed me to go through and I met with the ballroom of a lobby. I was clueless to where I should go. An agent approached me, calling me a new ‘ticket’ appointed by Mister Donegan. He led me towards a maze of corridors into a full living room with an open kitchen and family room.

          “Please wait here,” he said, and left me standing at the very centre of the room, right under the grand chandelier.

          I saw one other girl behind the island of the kitchen, cleaning the granite counter with a spray and cloth. If she was a maid, God, she’d pass for the perfect model. Dark, silky hair, olive skin resembling a natural tan, and an slim body underneath the maid uniform she was wearing. From a distance, she seemed familiar.

          My exploration of her, and our surroundings was interrupted when Emerson strode towards me. My back straightened at his sight. “You’re late,” he said. I took a second to tell him we didn’t have clocks at the cell. He nodded slowly. “Good. And your name is?”

          “Arial,” I said. He wanted my full name. “Arial Cordell.”

          “Cordell. You’ll work in the kitchen with Chandra.” We went towards the girl I’d seen earlier. “Share your work with her. You’ll be given a costume to wear, and a locker room.”

          He led me to the facility not too far away, and opened a random lock. I was given a package with sizes on the corner and a key to the lock. He had me change in the room and come out. I was fidgety when he examined me. The maid outfit was typical to any other black and white outfit, but with a shorter skirt and a built-in b*a. How did they find all these numbers for my sizes? 

          “A bomb too short for my liking,” he reviewed flatly, with a tsk. “Anyway, go back to Chandra and she’ll tell you what to do. I’ll come back later.”

          I’d seen that girl somewhere before, but I couldn’t put my finger around it. I joined her in the kitchen and introduced myself.

          “I heard,” she said. “Ari, huh? Is it spelled ‘a’, ‘r’, ‘i’?” I nodded with confusion. Her dark, coal eyes met mine. “I’m Apsara. Apsara Chandra.” I had the blankest expression on my face, unable to figure out if I was surprised, angry, or perplexed. She was the girl who was next to my cell. She was a maid.

          “Have I seen you before?” I asked, and she shrugged. She told me she was an NR on one of our notes to each other. “Wait, you don’t happen to come from…the dead-end of Brilliant Cove?”

          Her hands stilled, and we both went into a moment of recognition. “You were lost,” she said. I was, and it was her who told me where I was. It was ages ago—not too long, but my life in Brilliant Cove felt like history. “Why did Emerson want you here as a maid?”

          “I don’t know,” I said honestly, leaning against the shelves. “Aren’t you supposed to call him ‘Mister Donegan’?”

          “Maids should call him ‘Master’ Donegan,” she corrected. “But he’s not here, and he doesn’t deserve that kind of respect.”

          “Did he find the best-looking girls to be his maids?” I pondered.

        She shrugged and picked up a duster from the bin under the island. “Use this to dust the windows, and decorative pieces.”

          “You’re an expert already,” I teased, taking the duster.

          “When the life you had before is worse than this,” she started, eyes mirrored with memories, “you have to make sure you do your best to stay in the better world.”

          I had no words as I went to the windows. It made me think about her, wonder if her tables had turned for the better. Was she confident in the notes we sent to each other because she thought the cell was better? I remembered the thick brown skirt and shawl wrapped around her at the bus stop, ash on her cheeks and holding a grocery bag. Even then, the way she spoke was unfaltering, and placid.

          It might’ve been a coincidence to be working with her as maids, and have her next to my cell. But I was curious. About her. About everything.

          Through the microfibers of the duster, a group of men made a circle outside the window. Lowering the duster, my brows puckered at the sight of about five agents against the turret of the mansion. There were four with NE coats on, and one with a black NR suit. The sun blared into vision, as I tried to make out their faces. One of them was Arian, the only agent standing silently as the others seemed to argue.

          I did not expect to see this when I woke up today. I’d never seen any agent this anxious, disturbed to the point they behaved like ordinary civilians with uniforms on. Outside the window, five of these agents seemed like regular Platform members and not a force working under the Project.

          I continued to watch, until one of the agents caught me at the window. By reflex, I pretended to dust the frame of the window. He didn’t bring me to light, but his eyes narrowed. Whistling, I wandered off to another window far from the sight of the group. I kept myself busy with the vases of plastic flowers and centre pieces on coffee tables. Every now and then, I glanced at the window in puzzlement.

          “They’re gone,” Apsara called from the kitchen. I turned to her and she nodded at the window.

          I scuttled there to see empty space where the group of agents once stood. Putting a hand to my head, I finished dusting the window. What the hell was that about?

          “They met there every day, for some days now.” I went to Apsara, putting my elbows on the island while listening intently. “It started with three agents.”

          “The same people?” I asked, and she replied with a ‘yeah’. “You’re not curious about it?”

          “You shouldn’t be either,” she said, her hands dipping into a bucket of soap water. “For the sake of living.”

          “It’s hard for me to control my thoughts,” I murmured. Her lips tipped up as she squeezed the water from the sponge. “Is it just us two here?”

          “They’re about three more,” she said, “on cleaning duty. They’re in the building somewhere.”

          “Three? Gosh, don’t you think that’s too many for this monster mansion?” I said with sarcasm.

          She wiped the refrigerator door. “Don’t worry, we’ll join them after you’re done dusting and I’m done with the kitchen.”

          “Well.” I didn’t mean for it to end that way, but I wasn’t refusing since what I did and didn’t do in this prison would reflect on me in some way.

          Let it be from a rainy field of mud to a luxurious home of golden statues, but being under the supervision of the Donegans, or the Project, was always prison to me. I didn’t know about Apsara, but this had to be everyone’s prison.

*

          She and I had returned to our cells together after our shift. She had long legs, but since I was used to walking with Arian, it was easy to keep my pace with her. That night in bed, I recollected the first day of my maid job. Wow. I never thought I’d become a maid. The job was not as harsh as the crop-field, but either way, I had plenty of experience in cleaning along with gardening.

          Cleaning the house and maintaining it all by myself reminded me of Dad, and the day we had moved into Brilliant Cove. I remembered the boxes in my room all devoted to Mom’s memorials, the untended lawn I spent hours to refine, the dog who interrupted my sleep late at midnight, and a picture I’d always kept in the kitchen.

          I inhaled the dull, dry detergent smell of the rug-like blanket. Before I could fall asleep, the screen of my phone lightened up. Sitting up, I had to make sure I wasn’t dreaming as I saw Arian’s message. Come outside, your door’s unlocked. It was? I never heard the beep.

          Thrilled, I crept out the cell and practically ran outside the Platform. My head turned side to side in search of a bike on the bare road. I received another text. Under the Platform C board. I flipped around and saw him under the shadow of the sign. Clutching my phone, I slowly made my way towards him.

          “Why’s there Wi-Fi here in the first place?” I said, glancing at my phone.

          He started the bike and I got on. “The agents and squads need it.”

          “You haven’t given me Ally’s contact,” I said through the wind. He didn't speak. We took a different road that diverged from the forest road. Hopefully, I wouldn’t get another view of those stumps. “I…” I was on the verge of inquiring about his weird meeting I saw out the window, but the fact he didn’t know I was a maid stopped me.

          “What?” he said, and I told him it was nothing.

          The road ended at a large, drunken forest. In fact, it wasn’t a forest at all. The trees drooped and barely had life in them. The whole area reminded me of an aging human, with his hair greying and falling, and wearing a coat of wrinkled skin over weakened bones. Amidst the abandoned territory, a shallow pond caught my eyes. Its water was inky under the night, appearing poisoned. It was a sad place, and I wanted to know if all of Nightingale was similar to this.

          We sat on the bike sideways when we came to a stop near the pond. Middle of April never felt this cold with the howl of wind rushing past our ears.

          “What did Emerson tell you?” Arian asked, breaking the silence as he stared ahead.

          I rubbed one of the buttons on my shirt. “He made me a maid.” No reaction, but I felt the need to explain. “I didn’t want to be. I had no choice.”

          “You have to go by feet there,” he stated, and I nodded. Shifting, he put his leg up on the footstep of the bike. “It shouldn’t be worse than the field.”

          “It isn’t.” It wasn’t, and if he knew this, he had traces of reservation. “How many times did you get in trouble for seeing me like this?”

          His gaze was solid on the calm water. “None.” I had another number in mind, but zero wasn’t it.

          “Are the Platforms doing well…so far?” I asked. A dark aura formed around him as a result to my question. “Were there bad incidents?”

          “Crazy people, crazy ideas,” he said, making no sense at all. “You don’t need to know anything. For now.” Ah, the secretive Arian was back—the guy who kept me in the dark longer than I could keep my sanity.

          The darkness around him took a while to wear off, and carry on with the wind. I shuddered, smoothing a hand down the goosebumps on my arm. I didn’t think Arian noticed when he unbuttoned his NE coat. He didn’t remove it, though.

          “You’re a maid, huh?” he said, holding my eyes steadily. “It’s not too bad since I’ll see you more often.”

          “Really?” This was good news. He waited a second before twisting and bringing me into a seamless hug. I shuddered again, and it wasn’t the wind. “You won’t let me wear your coat?”

          “You don’t need it.” He was right. I slipped my arms under his coat and around him, feeling an unbelievable warmth radiating from his body. I was in a moment of awe when that warmth hit me.

          “Do you have a fever?” I mumbled against his shirt.

          He could easily take the role of a blanket. “No.” Hesitating, he said, “We should go back.”

          “Already?” I wasn’t ready to go, and leave this bliss.

          I couldn’t be the only one feeling this, the only one taking this as a break from our cruel reality. But I strongly believed we were also real, and I wanted more of it. If it made me selfish, than I was glad to admit I was.

          “I-If you’re going to get in trouble, we can go,” I said finally. It was the last thing I wanted happening to him.

          I started to pull back but his arms resisted. I needed no other indication permitting me to stay—stay a little longer with him.