Chapter Three
1154 Words
Giorna understood and also looked at Adrianna. "Adrianna. Come clean this up" he instructed.
"What?!" Adrianna's voice was louder now, defiant in the face of her bleak sadness.
Leila put her hands to her mouth, faking some devilish shocked expression. She looked from Adrianna to Giorna. "Did a maid just talk back to the eldest son of the DESANTOS family?" she asked out loud. Leila knew what she was doing.
Giorna was a facetious man, a man who cared what others and his family thought about his character, but more importantly, his competence as the heir to the family. His face flushed a dangerous red, and he removed Leila from his lap.
"What is it exactly, that you do not understand, Adrianna?!" he asked, his voice rising to a bark.
Adrianna took one step back. The same voice, the same voice that had called out to her so sweetly before, that praised and lavished and moaned her name 'Adrianna', that had told her the meaning of the said name: "It means an angel, from the City Hedria. An ancient city of prosperity and wonder in our homeland" he had said.
Now the voice called it out with a profound disgust, like a line in a boring textbook you wouldn't be reading if you didn't have to. He pointed to the spilled Ashtray once more. "Come - Clean -This - Up - Npw" he enunciated.
Adrianna squeezed her hands tightly. She was a human being. Not a piece of meat. Not some plaything to him. She was a human. She looked at him fiercely, and replied: "I won't do it!"
"Wait. Giorna. Wait!" cried out Leila. Giorna had already risen from his seat, and he was a quick man. Before Adrianna could process what was going on -- SLAP!
He had struck her square across the jaw, and she gave another yelp of pain for the second time that day and staggered before dropping down to her knees. Leila was doing her best to keep up the pretense of being shocked and restraining Giorna.
"Get off me, or you'll be next" he warned Leila. And she happily backed off. Meanwhile, Adrianna held her jaw on the floor, whimpering. Giorna took one scoop of her mid-length hazelnut hair, a prime sunset color that he had once had on his bed ruffled it against his chest, and pulled it upwards to hold Adrianna by her head alone.
"For your sake, we're going to repeat this one more time. So that we're clear." he started. "Who am I?"
Adrianna had closed her eyes, wincing from her hair being pulled, whimpering from the pain of the strike, her lips quivering, and a couple of teardrops leaking from her eyelids.
"Who am I?!" screamed Giorna.
She cried, but said "Giorna. Desantos" "
And what are you?" he asked next.
"A- Adria--"
"Incorrect. What are you?" he repeated.
"A m-maid," she said slowly.
He shoved her to fall forward. "And don't you forget it. Or I might not be so lenient next time. Now clean that up!"
Adrianna crawled on all fours, slowly to get to the ashtray, using her bare fingers to cup the dust back into the small ceramic cup.
Her eyes were wet all through, and by the time she was finished, the drops had pooled to form a blackish liquid mixture in the ceramic cup.
She gathered strength and stood, and turned to leave.
"Pathetic" murmured Leila with vain eyes. She looked at Giorna, who held the door open.
"Hurry up, and get out. You were never in here, understand? And this goes without saying, but do not approach me without approval from the head maid, or my mother. Begone" he said, and slammed the door once she was outside.
Adrianna wandered about the cold empty manor, not sure where to dispose of the ashtray. She gravitated like a zombie, and found her way downstairs, to one of the outdoor kitchens.
Inside were more maids, cleaning, but also packing pots, pans, and related utensils.
One of them spotted her. "Adrianna!" she said.
Adrianna quickly used the back of her sleeves to wipe off any more incoming tears and tried to steel her expression as much as possible.
"Lucille" she responded. Lucille was also one of the maids Adrianna was lightly acquainted with. She was part of the Kitchen team, and they usually didn't see much of each other, but the vibes had always been pleasant and polite between them.
"I take it the Mistress just woke up" Lucille pointed heartily to the bandage covering Adrianna's forehead.
"Oh yeah" laughed off Adrianna in pain. "Yeah, she's on the prowl today. Are you guys already closing up?"
"Let's throw that away, shall we?" Lucille said, taking the ceramic ashtray. "Yes. The head maid told everyone to gather by the main lawn this evening. Acrobatics."
"Oh. That sounds like fun" replied Adrianna cheerily. "I've been attending outside, so I might have missed the memo. What time are we gathering?"
The entire kitchen stopped, and turned to look at her. Lucille had an uncomfortable expression.
"What?" Adrianna asked.
"Listen, Adrianna. Me and the girls talked, and don't take this the wrong way, but we really wanted to relax for this evening. And you have a habit, of being picked on by the Mistress, and the head maid--"
"And ruining it for the rest of us!" finished another maid at the back.
Adrianna wore a rictus smile. "But, that's not my fault," she said softly.
"And no one's saying it is. It's just, we would like to have an evening, where--"
"Where a bad luck omen isn't ruining it for everyone." finished Adrianna, getting teary again.
Lucille patted her with a fake smile: "I knew you would understand. Bye, Adrianna"
Adrianna watched them pack up and leave the kitchen, leaving her alone in the manor again. She wandered again, leaving through the outdoor exit of the Kitchen, and walking around the manor to find her safe spot, the small backyard with a small sheng fui fountain, overlooking the mountains.
She sat beside the fountain, and everything came pouring down. She began to wail like a wounded animal. I must have done something in a past life for the heavens to despise my existence so much, she thought. Have I ever had a moment's happiness since I was alive?
Giorna? But he said all that was fake. I can't even distinguish between real happiness and the fake? I suppose I should give up on living as a normal human being, deserving of love.
A dark shadowy figure appeared and stirred within the fountain. She looked up, and he was standing there casually, with both hands in his trousers. A man around Giorna's height, and age, loomed over her, wearing a dark navy jacket and an expression she could not really understand.
"Your tears are polluting this fountain water, you know," he remarked.
- Writer
