The Other Side

Chapter Eight

CHAPTER EIGHT

I kept walking, and the closer I got to the far fence, the closer I heard Ben's footsteps. Dropping to the ground, I curled up and burst into tears. Ben came after me, dragging my crutches behind him. “You shouldn’t be walking without these yet.” Ben said as he approached me. “Can you please just tell me what you saw?” Turning to look at him, I took a deep breath to calm myself down. “You hurt me.” Was all that I could allow myself to say. I watched as his face went from worry to confusion. His eyebrows furrowed, making him look as if he were deep in thought.

 “I haven’t hurt you, Janessa. What did I do?” He questioned, his eyes meeting my gaze. I looked away and rolled my eyes, staring at my hands. “I told you already. It’s not what you did do, but what you will do.” I sighed.

 I looked up and to my left, watching as the rolling hills carried on for what looked like forever. We have to go into those trees. That’s where it’s supposed to happen. A woman was thinking earlier that the woods were now forbidden to all people, so are the slumps and the whole side of the mountain. I have to find him.” I muttered, mostly to myself. Ben’s eyes widened. “What woman? Was it a woman from the troops? Is that why you had your eyes closed? What is supposed to happen?” At first I just nodded, and then I turned and looked deep into his purple eyes, saying only a few words. “You leave.” Upset again, I closed my eyes to push away the tears. I slowly stood up, my baggy sweatpants ripped on a small stick beside me. Walking back to my house, I stared at the rip on my calf.

 When I finally reached the front door, I turned to see Ben hadn’t moved at all. He was just staring blankly into space. I reached the dresser and searched for something nice to wear. In the few clothes I had, I managed to find a dress with an A-line skirt that fell to my knees. Around the waist were a light pink ribbon and a small bow. The light blue of the dress brought out my eyes when I wore the dress. My master had given me this dress to wear when I worked for him at parties, making sure it looked like his slaves were at his every call. I reached for a small backpack that lay in the corner of the room. As I unzipped the bag, I tossed the dress, two pairs of sweats and two shirts into it. I quickly put on a thick wool sweater and another pair of sweatpants along with a new T-shirt.

I sighed as I looked at my reflection in the small mirror. Walking out of the house with my bag, I marched towards my master’s gigantic house. The door was unlocked so I easily opened it and walked in. Turning around to look at Ben, I saw him slowly walking towards the house. As I entered the foyer, tons of dust flew up from the welcome mat. I coughed a small, quiet dry cough and headed towards the stairs. Once upstairs, I heard Ben walk in and close the door. He followed me up the stairs as I walked towards the mistress’s room. When I walked in, everything looked just as I left it. The only difference was that when I left to be killed, the room was a bit dusty. Now, the floor was polished and the tables were cleaned. The bed was made with no flaws other than a small wrinkle in a pillow. I approached her gigantic wardrobe, not exactly sure what system it was.

 The mistress was very wealthy, so I expected it to be an automatic electric wardrobe. As I stepped onto a small platform, lights lit all around me as the closet doors opened into a large carousel type thing. Being new technology, the wardrobe had a small screen that lit up, showing an animated face. “Hello, and welcome to Madame LeBlanc’s Automatic Wardrobe. Please state your name as we scan your face.

 “Janessa Monte.” I stared blankly at the screen as a small red line scanned my face. “Hello, Janessa. For what would you like to receive clothing?” The machine asked. I thought for a second as the little animation looked at me expectantly. “Camping in the mountains.” I said with no emotion in my voice. Suddenly, hangers came shooting out from every direction. There were a few choices of jeans, sweat pants, shirts and sweaters to choose from. There were also the occasional dresses or skirts in the bunch.

 “Please enter our fitting station, Janessa.” The machine said. As I stepped into the fitting station, many measuring tapes came and wrapped around me, taking my sizes. As I stepped back into the viewing room, several items were gone from the selection.

 “All the choices you see in front of you should fit. Would you like to try anything on?” The machine blared in my ears. Without thinking, I said, “All of them please.” The animation smiled and nodded. Next thing I know, I’m being dressed and undressed, trying everything on. As the machine finished putting clothes on me, a small camera would take a picture of me in the outfit. After the machine had returned my original clothes to my body, all of the photos appeared on the screen.

 “Please say the word ‘Scroll’ to move to the next photo.” The machine said as one of the photos zoomed in to cover the entire screen. “Yes. Scroll. No. Scroll. Yes. Scroll. Yes. Scroll.” I said as I went through all the photos. In the end, I had picked two more shirts, three more pants, another dress and two pairs of leggings or tights. I requested my clothes to be packed in a backpack. The backpack appeared in front of me just as the machine shut down and said, “Goodbye.” I stepped away from the closet and walked towards the bed. Putting my two bags down, I shoved all the clothes into the big bag the closet gave me.

 Hearing a questioning moan behind me, I spun to see Ben staring at me. We locked eyes for a long moment before I picked up my backpack and headed downstairs. I was already in the kitchen by the time he reached the bottom of the stairs. Digging through the cupboards, I found non-perishable food items on every shelf. Walking into the giant pantry, I filled my second backpack to the top with food. I walked out of the pantry and switched off the light.

 Walking back upstairs, I heard Ben groan in annoyance. I just turned and looked at him expectantly. Still downstairs, he took a seat on a tall stool. As I walked towards the bathroom, a fragrance of body washes and soaps filled my nose. I was walking into the washroom now, the smell of perfumes entering my nostrils. This room had always smelled so good from all of the expensive soaps and candles Mistress and Master had laying around in there. Opening a small closet, I found three unused toothbrushes, a brand new hairbrush and tons of face washes. Grabbing a toothbrush, hairbrush and a face wash bottle, I walked towards the sink. I brushed my teeth for what seemed like forever. Afterwards, I brushed my hair and washed my face. Then, in the mirror I saw a beautiful shower with the world’s finest shampoos and soaps. I quickly closed the door to the bathroom and locked it. Turning on the shower, the hot water ran down my arm, dripping on to the floor after reaching my elbow. I stripped and took a long shower. It’s been a long time since I had even bathed. After standing in the shower for almost twenty minutes, I stepped out and turned off the water. Drying off and stepping into new, clean clothes, I tossed mine down the laundry chute.  

 In took a seat at a large, automatic vanity. I pressed a green button with wind on it, and a hair dryer began drying my wet hair. At the same time, a hairbrush appeared and brushed through my blonde hair. It took only five minutes for the machine to styles my hair nicely. I grabbed hair elastic from the counter, and I pulled my hair into a tight ponytail, only my bangs hanging loose.  Looking in the mirror, I was smiling at my appearance. I grabbed the toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste, a hair brush, a mirror and five hair elastics and stuffed them into a make-up bag before throwing them into one of the backpacks. Marching downstairs and back into the kitchen, I opened the fridge to find four bottles of sports drinks and eight bottles of water. I reached into the fridge and shoved all twelve bottles into the food backpack.

 Glaring at Ben – Who was still sitting quietly on the stool—I marched out of the house. I could hear him walking behind me, stopping to close the door. I was surprised when I realised how light the bags felt compared to how I thought it would be. Heading towards the mountains, I saw the fence and clenched my fists in annoyance and anger. Suddenly, a large hole appears in the fence. The second I unclenched my fists, the piece of fence stopped moving. I froze in place, staring at my hands. Turning around, I grabbed Ben’s hand and ran at top speed through the fence. Apparently my ankle healed in only three days.

 I ran up the hill, stopping only when I heard the crushing of leaves around me. I froze in place, terrified to move.

*****************************************************************

A.N: Haha, you must hate me for not bringing up how Ben hurt Janessa yet... Don't worry, the next chapter will explain EVERYTHING. I love leaving you hanging like this :)