by Ella Goode
4
Summer
Colby stares at me with wide eyes. I soften my features so that he doesn’t worry.
“Come on. Don’t you want to see the castle?”
He’s been going on about it since we pulled up and he got his first real look at it. The place really is breathtaking. It always has been, but since the new owner took it over and gave the place some attention it looks like it is coming back to life. If they added some colorful flowers out front, I might even call it welcoming.
Colby‘s eyes flick back to the box where the angry man’s voice came from. He’s not looking so sure about all this since that jerk scared him.
“I don’t think he wants us to come in.” He takes a small step back.
Shit. If I wouldn't lose my job I’d march inside that house and wring that man’s neck with my bare hands. Colby has had enough instability in his life. This is supposed to be a fresh start, and I refuse to let the man behind the box ruin it.
“The box,” I remind him with a gentle whisper. “Don’t you think we should take it inside?” He nods his head, suddenly remembering. I adjust the box against my hip so I can hold my other hand out for Colby to take and he steps inside with me.
I suck in a sharp breath when the door closes shuts behind us on its own. As though we are being locked inside some sort of prison. I’m thankful that Colby is looking forward and misses it. Thank God. I almost peed myself. He would have nightmares. I think that jerk did that on purpose. I’m not so sure I’m doing the right thing anymore but I don’t really have another option.
I did this to keep Colby safe. That’s not going to work if he’s scared of this place. “Here. Let’s get some light in here.” I set the box down next to Colby’s feet, letting his hand go. I don’t see a light switch, but there is a small amount of it still coming from outside through both sides of the door. I walk over, grabbing the curtain and giving it a pull. The room floods with warm light.
“Wow,” Colby says. I walk to the other side and do the same with that window.
“Yeah, wow,” I agree with him, coming back to his side. The whole entryway is a beautiful white marble. Right in the center is a staircase that leads up to the next floor, but it stops midway and parts so you can go up either side and then meet again at the top landing. I drop my head back to look up at the giant chandelier that sparkles when the light hits it just right. I’m sure it’s more breathtaking when you actually turn the light on.
“It really is a castle. I thought it was like the time you told me reindeers were real but it was really just a dog with a new nose.” He touches the tip of his nose.
That was a lovely day at the mall we had last year. I drove into the city to take him to see Santa. He ended up pulling the dog's nose off and made all the other kids cry in horror. A security guard suggested we leave. Colby suggested he not be a bully to me before he threw the nose at the man’s head.
“I was just as shocked at that revelation as you.” He rolls his eyes at me but smiles. “Come. I think the kitchen is that way. I need to grab some stuff Tina left, and then we’ll find our quarters.”
Colby reaches into his pocket, pulling out two quarters and a dime. He puts the dime back in his pocket and tries to hand me the quarters, making me laugh.
“You keep those, Bub. I mean we’ll find where we’ll be staying.” I snag the box off the ground to head toward the kitchen.
“Is this a restaurant?” Colby asks as we enter the massive kitchen.
“It is big enough to feed an army.” It all has been clearly updated, but they left a touch here and there of the historical parts “See, back when this was built I’m sure the owners entertained many people with parties and so on. The home would have been full of life with people coming and going. I bet this kitchen was fully staffed.” I gaze around, my eyes going to the windows that line the other wall to outside. It’s such a waste.
A small meow comes from the inside of my box, reminding me we need to get a move on. I sit the box down on the counter and venture around the giant island in the center of the kitchen in search of a pantry.
When I find it, I’m happy to see it’s fully stocked. I grab a couple cans of tuna before picking the box back up along with the folder Tina left for me. Colby is wandering around the kitchen looking curiously at everything.
Startled, I jerk around to look down the long hall that leads out of the back of the kitchen to the east side of the home. I stand silent for a moment, almost positive I heard something. The hallway fades to darkness at the end with no lights on. I stand there wondering if it was him or if my mind is playing games with me. Tina said don’t be surprised if he’s never around. He enjoys his space. Plus, there is that long list of rules that pretty much tell me that I won’t be seeing him.
After our introduction minutes ago, that sounds perfect to me. Still, curiosity has me wondering about the angry man that hides away from the rest of the world. It sounds lonely, if you ask me. I’d probably be angry too. Colby walks over toward me, taking my hand and looking down the long, empty hallway.
“It’s creepy.” He leans into my side.
“How so?” He shrugs, looking up at me. I drop down on my knees to be eye level with him, running my fingers through his short dark hair.
“Don’t fear the unknown. You’ll miss out on some of the world's most beautiful things.”
“I know.” He sighs, peeking back down the hallway.
“Come. We’ll find our room and then we’ll explore.” Colby takes off ahead of me over to the box with our new little friend. I stand, looking back down the hallway. I don’t scare so easily Mr. Schulz. Not after some of the things I’ve been through. You’ll have to try a whole lot harder than that.
5
Kale
A cat. They brought a cat to my house. I redirect the camera and zoom in on the striped furry creature. Wait, that thing isn’t a cat. It’s a kitten and it’s tiny with a smushed face and fluffy tail. It’s cute as hell. I hate that it’s here.
I push away from the panel of security screens in utter disgust. It’s bad enough that there’s a hot, soft woman wandering my halls, opening my drapes, and perfuming up my dank rooms, but now I have to deal with a bundle of fluff? I knead my temples and try to formulate a plan because I can’t stay in my east wing quarters and jack off for the rest of my life. I need to get her to quit and take her cat and her kid away from here.
She didn’t like me yelling at her, so I guess I’ll have to be a loud-mouthed asshole. I grab my sweatshirt and flip the hoodie up. It’s too hot to be wearing this fleece and I’m going to suffocate with the hoodie on, but if I don’t wear it, she might see me, and I can’t risk that.
While she and her minion and the hairball are touring my house, I slip down the back stairs and out the door. To my surprise, there isn’t much in her car. I wonder if there’s a moving van coming.
It only takes me three trips to get all the stuff from her car into the house. I stack it outside the maid’s quarters just off the kitchen and let myself in. This part of the house has been used by the housekeepers ever since I bought the place five years ago, but this is the first time I’ve been inside. It’s a set of three rooms—a bedroom, a sitting room, and a small kitchen. Off the sitting room is a patio only big enough for one chair and a small iron table. The walls are white and the furniture outdated. No wonder the previous eight housekeepers quit. This is a soulless place. Someone like Summer, who likes soft things, pretty things, cute things, will hate this place. I’ll need to make some changes. I start hauling her stuff inside and have three of the boxes inside the drab set of rooms when I hear her voice.
“Oh, I think it’s down here, Colby. We missed it the first time.”
“This place is too big,” the kid groans. “And I need to go potty, Summer. Why couldn’t I use one of those other bathrooms?”
“I don’t know, honey. That man has a lot of rules, and we don’t want to get in trouble on our first day, right?”
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“I guess.” The kid sounds petulant, but I’d be in a bad mood, too, if I had to piss and saw a toilet but was told I couldn’t use it.
The voices are growing closer, and if I don’t get out of here right now, I’ll be trapped. Reluctantly, I set down a box and slip out onto the terrace just before Summer and Colby come in.
“Oh, someone brought our stuff in,” she says.
“There’s only one bed here.” The kid is annoyed. “I can’t sleep with you, Summer. I’m too old for that.”
I notice that he calls her by her first name. Are they siblings? How old is she? Tina didn’t slip jailbait into my house, did she? Immediately I feel dirty and not in a good way.
“Too old? How is that possible? You’re my boy.”
There’s a light scuffle as I presume Summer tries to foist some affection on the kid, who resists. Eventually, he gives in, though, because who wouldn’t? Summer’s the type of woman to melt the hardest steel. Of course my cock disagrees. It’s hard right now and would like nothing more than for me to bust down the door, shove Colby in a closet and bend Summer over that rickety two-decade old bed and break the headboard with the fucking I’d lay on her.
I leave before I do anything dumb. Upstairs in my lair, I call Tina again. “How old is she?”
“Hello, Kale! Nice to hear from you, Kale. You’re welcome, Kale, for all the hard work I do for you.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose and draw on my tiny reservoir of patience. “Hello, Tina. Thanks for hiring a teenager as my housekeeper. I’ll be sure to send you letters from my prison cell after Chief Dane learns that I’m employing children out here.”
“She’s twenty-two, you melodramatic ass,” Tina retorts. “She’s twenty-two, has a brother who is seven, and has like a half dozen nursing credits. She said she had to drop out because of other obligations at home, which I took to mean she had to take care of her brother.”
So they’re siblings. That’s a relief. I don’t examine why that’s a relief, but it is.
“It sounds like you’re getting along?” Tina asks, hoping to color her words.
How do I answer that since I’ve not officially met Summer and have no plans to, but if I tell Tina that, she’s going to give me some lecture about how I shouldn’t let my physical scars define me. That’s easy for her to say. Her mirror doesn’t cringe in fear when she stands in front of it. I’m not upset about how I look. I accepted it a long time ago, but acceptance isn’t the same as pouring hot acid down your back, which is essentially what I’d be doing if I waltzed downstairs, sat at my massive dining room table, and let everyone in the world including the goddess who is currently bedding down in my house see the true me. I wasn’t much to look at before the accident, and now I’m a horror show.
Colby would probably have nightmares for years and need therapy or some shit like that if he laid eyes on me. Summer would pass out in shock and horror.
“You need to find someone else,” I inform Tina.
“Come on now. Give Summer a chance,” my sister pleads.
“I will, but once she sees me, you know she’s going to run. Might as well start looking for her replacement now.”
“You don’t know that,” Tina protests. “This one could be different.”
“She won’t be. Not at all.”
6
Summer
“I still don’t know why Beast couldn’t come with us.” I stop what I’m doing at the stove to look over to where Colby has been pouting since we got down to the kitchen. He’s not looking at me; his attention is focused on the paper he’s been working on for a while now.
“You picked a name?”
He shrugs. I put a lid on the sauce I started. The pantry came stocked with basic stuff, and I found things that I could put together to make spaghetti. I also found a fresh loaf of bread I can toast to go with it. Spaghetti is Colby’s favorite.
I figured it would comfort him if I made something he liked. I also had the thought that maybe the smell would lure my new boss out of hiding. I knew it was a shot in the dark, but I know food can get me moving often enough. It’s worth a try. Maybe if he meets us—which I know is against that list of crazy rules—he’ll warm up to us. No one could be mean to Colby after meeting him.
I rest my hip on the island, watching him. When we stumbled across the kitten in the driveway I wasn't sure what to do with it. She’d looked so small that I knew I couldn’t just walk past her. I was thinking maybe she belonged to someone, but there wasn’t anyone around.
There is no way that cute bundle of fur belongs to the man lurking these halls. The other option I had was to take her into town for someone to find her a home. My initial thoughts were that I couldn’t possibly adopt a kitten because I’m barely keeping my own head above water.
That plan was shot to hell as I watched Colby and the kitten play this afternoon as I was unpacking some of the boxes. At one point I saw him cradling the kitten like a baby. I watched him kiss her little head. At that moment I knew there was no way I could take that kitten from him. Too many things have been taken from Colby already for someone his age. I won’t add to that list.
“I wish Beast could have come too.” I wonder if he’s given the kitten the name to make it seem tough. Colby looks up at me. “We talked about all the rules here. I know there wasn't anything specifically about kittens on it, but I’m guessing if they find out we have one the list will be updated rather quickly.”
He drops his head. “We have to get rid of her?” His voice is so soft I barely make out what he says. I quickly make my way around the island, coming to his side. My fingers go to his hair. It’s a habit of mine he doesn't like me to do when others are around. It’s hard not to. It's how I used to get him to sleep when he was a little younger.
“I never said that.” He jerks his head back up at me and I see hope there. “I’m just saying she’s our secret. We can take her out sometimes, but she stays mostly in our living area.”
“Okay,” he agrees quickly. The small knot that I didn't know had formed in my stomach loosens when I see he's relaxed again.
“How are you feeling? Is the dust bothering you?” I keep my voice light.
“It’s fine.” He tries to shake off my question.
“I’m going to get to work on it after dinner.” This is a lot of house, but I already hit the areas I know Colby might be more often first. I try not to let it overwhelm me.
“I’m fine,” he says again, annoyed with my mothering. He is fine until he’s not. I tap my finger on his inhaler in my dress pocket to make myself feel better.
“What is this?” I look down at the paper he’s been working on. I get one of his it's no big deal shrugs.
“Making you a map so you don’t get lost around here. So you can find your way back to… ” He pauses. “To our room.” I think he made it so that I’ll always find my way back to him, but I let it be.
“You worried about me?” I ruffle his hair.
“Stop.” He wiggles out from under my hand, but I see him smiling. The oven dings, letting me know the garlic bread is done. “There anything you want me to do?”
“Just wrap up what you’re doing. I don’t want you to get spaghetti sauce on my map.” I tell him to pull the bread out before finishing up dinner.
As I thought, no one showed up to join us for dinner. I did, however, put the leftovers away and scribble down a note about how to heat them up for best results.
I’m thankful when we get back to the room that after a bath Colby pretty much passes out as I’m wiping down everything and removing the dust from our living area.
When I know he’s out for sure, I hook up the old baby monitor I brought with us. I have no idea how far the range of it is so I don’t venture far, scared he’ll wake up while I’m gone and panic. This place is still too new to him.
I don’t know what time it is when I finally call it a night. My feet are fine. I’m used to standing for hours when I worked check-out at the groce
ry store. My arms, however, are not so lucky. I know I’ll be paying for this tomorrow.
When I go back into our room, I smile when I see the kitten and Colby cuddled together, both sleeping peacefully. The bed is nothing to write home about but right now it looks so inviting. I glance to the bathroom. If I want to crawl into the bed, I need to shower.
“Fall asleep standing up,” I murmur to myself as I grab a pillow and blanket instead, dropping them on the floor. I’ll wash them and myself in the morning. I don’t bother getting undressed. I kick my shoes away and lie down.
It doesn’t take long for sleep to take me. I don’t know if it’s because I’m exhausted or I know for tonight I don’t have to worry about my mother showing up with God knows who with her in the middle of the night. It will be the first peaceful night's sleep I’ve had in a long time. The man I work for might be an asshole, but that keeps everyone away. Even from us…. while we’re here at least.
7
Kale
Watching someone sleep is a new low for me, almost as low as the time I bought an apple pie from Connie’s bakery and didn’t share it with my sister. My dad took me behind the shed and blistered my ass. I don’t know that I deserved a beating over pie, but when had my old man needed a good reason to lay a hand on me? This, however, this is the type of behavior that should be met with a cane across my shoulders.
A person should be able to sleep in peace without a stranger peering in on them. I did turn on the maid’s quarters cameras intentionally. All the unoccupied parts of the house are monitored so that if there’s an intruder, the security system sends me an alert and the video feed starts recording. When someone comes to stay at the house like my manager or my sister, I deactivate the system in those areas. I’d forgotten to turn it off before my new housekeeper and her kid wandered in, the cameras started rolling.