Brother's Betrayal

Chapter Four {Abused}

At the same table I ate at the day before, Eloise slapped down two sheets of paper. "You'll need these for your first duty and the rest."

I frowned. I hadn't finished my bowl of cereal yet and she was already demanding things of me. Plus, it was only nine in the morning; my eyes were still drooping. I had finally figured out how to adjust the alarm on my clock after hours of struggle and had set it to an earlier time so I had longer to fully wake up, get changed then leave my room.

Chewing slowly on the cereal, I slid the sheets closer to myself and skimmed over the first page. It was a fortnight's schedule of how I would be contributing to my stay here. I groaned in my head; I had forgotten Eloise was giving me chores. My first task was at half past nine that morning, washing the dishes used for breakfast. Thankfully, there wasn't any porridge so it shouldn't take me too long. It didn't really matter; I had nowhere else to be.

"Do you have any washing gloves?"

Eloise gripped onto the back of a chair, the one Leander had been swinging in previously. "Unfortunately not." She sounded genuine. Maybe other people she liked had asked before and she really didn't have any. Still, I narrowed my eyes at her before studying the sheet once more.

Luckily, Fridays on Week A, as she had labelled it, only had one task - the washing up - and on Week B it was a free day. It was Friday. What I could do with my spare time though I had no idea. Thoroughly doubting Eloise would let me import anything, such as new books I could spend my time reading for my own entertainment, made me slouch. Why didn't I bring anything with me? Oh, right - escaping was a higher priority.

Eloise clasped her hands together. "I'll be back to check up on you. Don't lose the sheets. You're not receiving another copy."

I didn't watch her walk away, too busy studying the plan of my life. Most days I was tasked with laundry duties, then room cleaning for those who wanted it (which I wouldn't mind, especially since I was freely able to nose around), occasionally cooking and handing out the breakfast and then the washing up. Cooking was going to be a disaster, I was already sure of it; there was a reason Dillan did all of the cooking.

Folding the sheets up and tucking them into my jeans, I crunched on more cereal. I felt like a housewife, which was the exact opposite of what it was like with Dillan. In fact, I was out more than him. Or more than he allowed me to believe.

Suddenly, my appetite was gone. I slid the bowl towards the middle of the small table and held my face in my hands. It was far too early to be up and after nostalgia had hit me when I had woken up, memories of sleeping in until midday, missing breakfast was something I knew would become a common occurrence.

"Are you Anya?"

I raised my head slightly so that my eyes were visible over my fingers, which were still bracing my head. "Yes."

"Hi, I'm Tracy." She was the woman who had handed me the porridge, wearing a hairnet (thank god, her hair was a lot longer when it was held back in a simple ponytail and it didn't look too clean). "Follow me. I'll show you where you'll be doing the majority of your kitchen duties and canteen duties."

As I came to the conclusion that the staff had been waiting for me to finish, I wondered if they were people who had also had traumatic experiences which sent them here. Begrudgingly, I made my way around the table, grabbed my bowl and trailed Tracy. She walked surprisingly fast and I was almost at a jog trying to keep up. When we reached the counters, she swung back a small door carved in them and let us both through.

After finding out how deep the building was when Eloise was lecturing about the room I wasn't allowed to enter unless given her instructions, there was no surprise when I turned and there was yet another door leading back.