Masquerade ✔

Chapter 6

Harsh, artificial light paved the way for Clara as she hurried home. Her body ached after the long day, but her mind was too preoccupied to feel the pain too badly.

Everyone was home by the time Clara entered the quarter, or at least, everyone should have been home. Ezra still poured over bills, Emme played with an old, battered toy, and Archibald dozed off against the wall. Amyeliana was unaccounted for.

"Amyeliana?" Clara mouthed to Ezra when he looked up at her.

Ezra raised his eyes to the ceiling and then shrugged.

Clara's stomach rumbled as she looked at her rations box sitting next to Emme. But she put her oxygen filter back on, wrapped her head back up with her scarf, and left the room without a word.

Clara climbed back out of the dwelling, but instead of going back outside, found the staircase at the far end of the building and kept going up. She pushed open the trapdoor that led to the roof and climbed outside.

As expected, Amyeliana sat with her legs dangling off the side of the building, looking up at the airships that circled above. Clara approached and sat next to the teenager.

"You're lucky."

Clara closed her eyes at Amyeliana's words. Clara knew she was lucky. She only wished Amyeliana could be as well.

"I know," Clara said. "As much as I try to keep Emme from romanticizing things, it is better working up there than down here."

"It's not fair."

"I know."

"Any of it." Amyeliana wasn't angry, but her voice sounded broken. "Work, it's just so hard."

Amyeliana worked in a factory, where everyday she carefully assembled fancy hairbrushes that would eventually be sent to the families living in the air. It was a job often held by those first entering the workforce; the process needed nimble fingers. But Amyeliana often came home with stiff, aching hands and pain in her back from bending over all day.

She worked too hard for someone so young.

"You know I keep my ears open every day for a job opening," Clara reassured her. "You'll get into the fresh air, eventually."

"I know, I know, and I love you for it, Clara," Amyeliana whispered. "I'm sorry I'm like this, I just can't help it sometimes."

Clara put her arm around the younger girl's shoulders. "Don't apologize," she said. "It's not your fault."

Amyeliana sniffed, and Clara's heart broke. Amyeliana and Archibald used to drive her and Ezra up the wall with all of their antics, constantly cracking jokes and playing pranks. But now, both of them just seemed too tired.

"Alright, enough of me," Amyeliana said. "Please tell me you have some sort of crazy story from work. You always do, even if you won't tell Ezra and Emme."

It was true. Clara told Amyeliana the most about Araminta's antics. But she was still unsure as to whether she should tell her about Harrison. "Well, it has been an eventful week," Clara said.

Amyeliana let out a laugh, and Clara could picture the devilish grin that she wore under her head cover. "I knew it! I knew something was up the other day when you got home. And if you didn't tell Ezra, it must be crazy."

"Oh, it's crazy all right." Clara bit her lower lip and then spilled everything to Amyeliana.

It felt good to finally get everything off her chest. And Amyeliana was the perfect audience, gasping in all the right places but not interrupting with questions.