He mock gasps at me and finishes his sandwich with a slight flair. The knife creates a satisfying crunch sound on the bread. He tucks away his knife and takes a big bite of it. He moans with satisfaction, and I stare daggers at him. He's doing it on purpose now.
I stare at the suitcases and sigh. At least I have more in there. I asked the girls to pack extra food in my suitcase and among my clothes. I've heard enough horror stories about boarding school to prepare for the worst.
Sasha would have been laughing up a storm at me for all of this. Cackled like a witch. Behind her back and to her face, the sisters at St.Agatha's would call her the Antichrist. Totally undeserved.
Hard wooden pews would've made me shift uncomfortably as I told her about this. A world beyond a world. Maybe in another dimension. Where talking robotic birds, heretical gods, heathen lifestyles, witches, ghosts, demons, and madness coexisted alongside discipline. Feminine virtue. A mad world preaching modesty and domesticity.
She'd say something profound like. "A world that lies together. Will lie forever. Until they die together." She'd throw her head back and laugh some more. About how wordy she was.
Then she'd take out something bizarre like a rock. Then do what most people would with it. Bounce it off the head of Ophelia, that blabbermouth. Blood will flow. Screams would commence. Sasha would get pulled away, and I'd get called into the office. Where I'd skillfully feign ignorance under the doubtful eyes of a collared man until they let me go.
Sasha would sneak out the back door indigo hair flying in the wind as we escaped down an alleyway. She never quite got why I still went to church even after my stepfamily was gone. It was quite simple. I didn't have a lot of friends. Scratch that. I had two friends. Sasha and my dog. Both got sent away to a 'farm in the country'. Both made me feel sane. Both had no problem sinking their teeth into people until they'd wake up and smell what was cooking. She'd have clocked the bullshit and lies of omission.
Eric follows my line of sight and says between bites, "We should start packing before she comes back. She probably just wants to make sure that you're settled in and ready." I blink and take a deep breath before nodding in agreement.
Erichean devours the last remnants of his stolen sandwich, and I remind myself to have a talk with the others. We don't know how long we're going to be here. They can't keep devouring my snacks like this. How long are we even going to be here?
Erichean brushes off his hands and opens a suitcase. Gingerly, he plucks a shirt up and sniffs the air. Then he shakes it, and a little package full of food comes loose. Bread. Not just bread. It smells like iron and salt. Maybe a sandwich?
"..."
He raises his eyebrows. "Miseria, are we not feeding you enough?"
I avert my eyes, and we continue unpacking. Unstably, I crawl off the edge, drop to the floor, and start sifting through my luggage. Towards the bottom, three thin wooden boxes sit. Carefully wrapped in luxurious red fabric.
His eyes light up, and he grins, revealing his sharp teeth. "Is this a secret diary? Or some royal jewels?"
I tilted my head as I tried to remember what the boxes contained. Jewelry? I usually keep that in the space just in case to sell.
He undoes the latch on both sides and pulls it open. Oh! That's right. Sometime ago, I had become curious as to what Eric gave me for my birthday. So I opened the inventory booklet, leafed through it, and had them delivered to me from the storage.
"You kept them?"
A chemical odor lifts off the paper, and I lean over. Although I'm not very interested in painting, just a glance reveals the skill of the one who created the image. A satisfied bunny lying on its back on a grassy knoll bathed in sunlight.
A butterfly lingering on a desolate branch. Then my favorite. A luminescent elk wanders around a sea of red roses set in a snowy background.
"They're beautiful. I never thanked you properly for them. Do you know who the artist is?"
"..."
His fingers linger on the edge of the paper, and I nudge him to get his attention. His gaze flickers, and he shakes his head no.
With deliberate care, he places the paintings back in their special boxes and places them on the floor so we can sort everything else out. Tea sets, clothes, a worry doll, shoes, pillows, blankets, books, ink bottles, snacks, toiletries, incense sticks, and a bundle of Nightshade Parchment later. We were done sorting out my mess.
I was allowed to take one rug from the 'forbidden room' to place next to my new bed. Crafted from a soft type of darkwood and big enough to accommodate me for a couple of years. A large satin pigeon blue pillow sat at the head and was accompanied by smaller pillows of similar colors.
The white and blue rug strangely matched perfectly with the bed coverings my staff had chosen. Across from my bed was a large window that jutted out so that a section of it could be sat on and turned into a reading nook. Next to it was a desk taller than me and made of dark mahogany.
When I placed books over the edge of the table, I noticed scratches on the underside. Kaerel. Phiomen. Nakii. Ione.
Names. Previous owners? My fingers dug into the little divots left behind and then trailed away. It's a bit dusty.I suppose no one's lived here in quite some time. Eric placed my worry doll on the windowsill, and I cringed. It's a cute bunny, I just don't like how wide its button eyes are and how it's always staring.
After that, Eric filled the kitchen with my other essentials while I rolled around on the carpet.
Once he's done, my temporary home away from home is looking lived in.
"Phew."
We decided that the official bedroom would be shared between me and Kissae. The living room and kitchen would be turned into a room for the boys. And the prayer room would go untouched.
I was seriously tempted to just turn it into another bedroom for the others, but Erichean shot me a glare that told me to drop the idea. He seems really avoidant of anything witch-related.
By the time Hypatia had come back, we were both exhausted and lying spread-eagled on the rug in my room. She gave the house a cursory look and nodded to herself like she approved.
Then she ordered in a no-nonsense tone."Get up. It's time."
I groaned and got up from the ground. Erichean tried to get up to follow, but she dismissed him. "Not you. Just her."
I gave Erichean a help me look and he shook his head without hesitation. "I'll be right here. Shout and I'll come get you." Coward.
Hypatia huffed, offended that we were so guarded against a random woman we just met. I followed her out of the bedroom and across the living room into the prayer room. She already had a table and a couple of pillows set up on the floor.
"Remove your shirt."
"..."
I crossed my hands over my chest, and I looked her square in the face. "Not without dinner and some flowers." And maybe a movie.