KY$ ✓

Six | Right-Hand

SOTC: Starboy by The Weeknd

<><><>

Present

It was a trauma-inducing whoosh with the audacity to awaken Satan that made me catapult up from Drake's bed.

That was a simile. Finding myself in Drake's bed in a Justin Bieber fanfic would be more likely than my state of affairs.

What was I saying?

Oh yeah.

Two guards jerked me upward by my shoulders and forced me out of the room, compelling me to run fast with them as they marched about as considerably and slowly as World War I trains with an ear-shattering horn and wheels of the uniformed battling opposers quicker than humanely possible.

Until I was back in the office I almost died in.

"Hello," the man said as the guards sat me in one of the beige chairs facing him.

"What do you want?" I yawned.

He sighed. "Your sense of urgency is admirable. But that's not why I had guards drag your ass out of your slumber. Which is surprisingly deep for a foreigner."

"Thanks," I muttered, my eyelids holding Arnold Swarzenegger's weight.

Then his words sunk into my head like the bullet was supposed to.

I voiced my realization. "Hold on, where am I?"

He raised both eyebrows as he lifted a pencil. "Did Polly not tell you?"

"Who's Polly?"

"My aunt. She's greeted you foreigners at the Dining Hall with vegetables."

"Great. Now where am I?"

The man grinned. "Clara Stratton, you are in Agios Nikolaos, Greece. Here with the rest of the inner city schools in Washington D.C. because your country is the aggressor of a conflict. The Greek-American War, one kept out of the eyes, has been lasting for over a decade. The causes take forever to explain, but it's time for it to officially end."

Well that was a lot to swallow.

"So... are you a rich government worker in need of staff?" was all I could get out.

"No."

"What are you, then?"

"That's where the other secret comes in. About a century ago, Greece has given the most noble houses rule in every individual city. Each House is run by a family and more specifically, the head of the family. Staff live with them as well. There's House Agate, House Hestia, House Josephine, and many more."

Stumped to my highest level, I asked, "So who put the order to kidnap kids out?"

"All the Houses came together and made the decision to pick an inner city, raid an upper-grade school of its students, and force them to into servitude in the Houses. We'll only use abuse if they don't comply with our demands. The parents pay us a ransom to get their precious entitled assholes back. We're hoping it'll prompt your government to put their aggression in a coffin."

I couldn't believe this dude. "So you kidnapped high schoolers from their families?"

"Either that or we keep sending men to graves and drain our economy, resulting in families dropping dead from starvation. Casualties would come in the war America refused to tell their citizens about either way, whether it be in the battlefield or the paycheck. Loss of men is breaking an arm. Loss of your country's well being is breaking both.

"Then what do you have to hold as a nation?" he finished.

My eyes met the floor. The deranged, sexy man had made an unarguable point.

"Look at me."

Hazel eyes met my black as I tilted my head.

"Do you understand why what's being done is being done?" the man asked afterward.

"I understand."

"Now onto why you're here." He interlocked his fingers and set his fist on the desk. "To aid the war effort, this House decided to seek aid from the Russian government in exchange for goods discussed at board meetings, where we'll discuss what these goods may be, and I'll swoon them with the views of the home extending beyond walls."

Now the Russians were going to be involved?

The man continued. "And I need a right-hand. Someone who writes down information swiftly as the board meeting goes on, and I can terminate directly after the deal is completed." He smiled as he said:

"Congratulations, you got the part."

I needed to pause.

He didn't kill me because... he wanted me to hang with government people all day?

"What do you say?" he asked, all smiles.

My answer was immediate. "No thanks."

He sighed. "Let me rephrase. If you don't accept, you don't win your reward."

"What's that?"

"Someone who gets a bullet in their head."

I snickered, not contemplating his words' meaning in time before he went:

"I'd laugh too if I had to complete a deal to die."

Saliva morphed into a sour taste on my tongue. Each word out his mouth pierced their fangs into my cortex, sucking out any disagreement with each vowel.

He was right.

Not a thousand weapons could kill me in my grasp. Not the Sun if I could control it, not the nightfall in my makeshift habitat in a stolen rental car if I had the last breath over it. If I had power over the world, I'd be a slave to my mind for the rest of my hours on Earth.

But I had no power over the world, therefore none on a human with a chance at ending this life.

So I didn't even try to fight the whisper of a:

"Fine."

"Then it looks like your my right hand," he only replied.

I exhaled as I glued my eyes to the desk again, numb. But I couldn't help realizing how many times he's said my full name.

Speaking of names...

"Wait, what's your name?" I nearly exclaimed, shooting my head up to him. I could've just spoken to Ryan Reynold's spokesperson. Or the spokesperson for the spokesperson of Ryan Reynolds...

"Xerxes Massimo Polzhka-Christakos," he said with the softest rumble of a voice. "I am the leader of House Christakos."

"I don't think I'll remember that long of a name."

"Xerxes will do."

"Ok," I blunted.

A curve formed on his face. "Have a good sleep, Clara Stratton. Your job starts tomorrow without any exception. Or else."

I nodded, preparing for the guards to leave finger bruises again.

"Don't restrain her unless you have to. Just make sure she gets back to her new room," he then said, looking at the guards.

"Thanks," I muttered. Then I got up from my seat and walked across the beautiful office with not a bullet pierced in my skull, but a deal pierced in ink staining my mind into a mental void draining me to fatigue. I would sleep tonight.

"You know, I pity your soulmate," Xerxes goes after a pause, making me turn around as I opened the golden door ajar.

"They could be dead for all I care," I said.

The guards followed me as I then walked out.

Teaser: Clara meets the Christakos family, two members earlier than expected...