Chapter 003
1051 Words
Chapter 003
Elena’s POV
The first thing I noticed when I woke up was the cold. It was not the gentle coolness of morning air, but a stinging cold that made me curl under the small blanket. The hands of the old clock on the wall crawled towards 4:00 a.m. and ticked louder than normal. It was time to leave.
As I woke up, Alice stretched across the room and gently rubbed my eyes. She consistently kept one step ahead, seemingly anticipating the events that were about to unfold.
"Come on, Elena," she said, voice soft but firm. If we don't return downstairs in five minutes, Darya will be waiting for us."Right,
"Right, right... I wailed as my feet touched the frigid floor. "Why is it always this cold here?" I murmured more to myself than anybody else.
"Because Grigori Antonov keeps the heat low when he's away," Alice said, snatching her apron without looking at me.money,"s money; they say. More like it saves him the difficulty of caring."
I heard Mila and Yasmina whispering down the hall as they hurried from their room. Following them, Marina buttoned her blouse yawning and barely kept her balance. Everyone looked half-asleep, moving on autopilot.
We all knew the drill: wake up before dawn, clean every inch of this oversized estate, and pray we didn't mess anything up. The pressure felt somehow lighter, as Mr. and Mrs. Kozlova left, as though invisible eyes watched our every step.
The mansion loomed above us, its tall ceilings swallowing any trace of warmth from its many hallways. The dust mocked our efforts in areas we couldn't reach.
"Alice," I said as we arrived at the great staircase, "what precisely are we cleaning today?"
"Everything," she repeated again. "Andin."It's highly probable that you'll encounter it again tomorrow. Just go fast and keep your head down; avoid obsessing over it."
Darya stood with her arms crossed and her eyes sharp. She didn't feel compelled to shout. One glare from her could cause anyone's blood to freeze.
She immediately pointed"You"" "You," "take twing. "Andng."Never consider neglecting the windows." I wish they would glitter. Made sense?"
I choked hard. Indeed, ma'am.
Alice quickly rushed off to her own work. Turning eastward, I gripped the cleaning cloth so tightly that my knuckles turned white.
The corridor seemed to go on indefinitely. Tall windows covered the walls, each drenched in a fine layer of dust that appeared to grow by the second. Outside, the heavens remained black, only faintly illuminated with dawn.
My mind veered as I worked. For what reason am I here? How did I get here at all? Despite pushing it aside, the response weighed heavily on my muttering.
uttering, coughing as I cleaned another pane of glass, "Ugh, this dust is endless..
A voice behind me said, "That's because you're doing it wrong."
I whirled around to find Mila grinning and arms laden with cleaning agents.
Really? Show me the magic trick then, Mila."
"Easy," she said, approaching closely, "you threaten the dust. always works every time.
In the middle of this dream, we laughed quietly, a brief respite. Still, the laughter didn't last long. staccatoccaceous voice sliced across the hall.
Milo! Get rid of your time-wasting! Elena, attention!
Mila's smile disappeared as she hurried off, leaving me alone with my thoughts and the never-ending windows.
As the hours crawled by, the mansion felt more and more like a maze. Every turn seemed to lead to another corridor, another room full of faded images of people who looked just as frigid and unwelcome as the house itself.
I once found myself standing before a fairly ajar heavy wooden door. I felt curiosity pulling at me.
Should I? In my chest, my heart hammered.
"What then are you waiting for? Open it," my thoughts urged, careless and seductive.
I just enough pushed the door open to glance inside. The room beyond was dark; shadows like living entities curled along the walls. In the corner stood a grand piano with ageing yellowed keys. Besides it, almost as if someone had left quickly, were towers of books and papers stacked high.
"Elena! I snapped back from Alice's whisper. Are you crazy? Get far from there!"
I jumped, backing out of the gateway as though it had burned me.
"What is that room?" I asked, breathless.
"It’s the Young Master Kozlov’s private study," Alice hissed. "We are not let in there. Always. You won't simply lose your job if Darya finds you spying. You vanish.
"Disappoint?" My voice cracked.
You picked up what I said. Now move!"
My heart still pounding, we hurried away. Questions whirled in my head, noisy and unrelenting. This place has secrets. What Why would one feel as though someone is constantly observing?
The tension stayed in the air like smoke later as we gathered in the kitchen for a brief break.
"This place is cursed," Marina murmured, hugging herself. "I can feel it."
"Don't be ridiculous," Brina said, failing but trying to sound brave. "Just old and creepy; that's all."
"No," Yasmina said in a low voice, "it's more than that." Not noticed, Haven? Doors closing on their own, whispers in the hallways late at night..."
A cold ran down my back. Whispers?
"Maybe it’s just the wind," I offered, though I didn’t even believe myself.
"Wind doesn’t sound like voices calling your name," Yasmina replied, eyes dark.
The conversation ended there, silence heavier than before.
As we cleaned late into the evening, exhaustion settled deep in my bones. Still, I couldn't get the sense of anxiety wriggling in my stomach away from tiredness.
I caught Alice by the window gazing out into the unceasing darkness before bed.
"Alice," I said, "do you think something bad is going to happen?"
She did not reply straight away. Her fingers tapped the frigid glass while she looked far away.
"It already is," she said softly. "We merely haven't yet seen the worst of it."
I sucked hard, her comments weighing heavily in my chest.
Actually, what are we caught up in?
Pulling the thin blanket over me as I crawled into bed, I felt as though we were all caught in a story just beginning and that the next chapter would be darker than any of us were ready for.
- Writer
