An alarm clock started shaking Wist’s bed just before dawn. Her eyes immediately flew open, and she sat straight up in the plush bed. It had felt so good. Like heaven. Maybe if she just closed her eyes again, she’d never wake up. For a moment, she forgot where she was. But she wasn’t able to relish in the confusion for long. Soon she was flung back to reality. She climbed out of bed and walked over to the makeup counter.
She had no idea how to use any of the makeup, so she didn’t bother. But she had noticed Maries’s schedule sitting on the marble top. Wist wasn’t even positive of the day’s date until she looked at the electric clock sitting next to the calendar. January 10th 2107. She looked at the corresponding date on the calendar and read, “lunch with the hoity-toites: 12:00” and then next to it was scrawled, “casual but fancy enough to outshine”.
Wist stared at the writing with interest. Who had written that? Surely it wasn’t Maries. Her hands had probably never even touched a pencil before. Wist thought about it for a moment longer and then shrugged it off. Probably another maid of some sort who knew her stuff. She stared at the paper for a long time, trying to decide what exactly was meant by ‘casual but fancy enough to outshine’.
She figured that she’d sort it out once she got into the closet. Wist dressed herself hurriedly, fumbling with the buttons on a teal blue shirt. She pulled on a pair of black shorts and couldn’t help but swallow back the bile collecting in her throat. It felt good to wear ‘normal’ clothes. Too good.
The new slave girl slipped quietly into Maries’s room trying to be as silent as possible. Luckily, Maries was snoring rather loudly. Wist glided over to the closet on the other side of the room and slipped in. She was once more astounded by the size of the closet. She glided around the room trying to sort through everything. “Casual but fancy. Casual but fancy,” Wist kept repeating with a totally perplexed look on her face.
She finally settled on a bright yellow sundress. There was a sticky-note on it saying to pair it with a belt. Wist scratched the top of her head and hurried around the closet trying to find where the belts were. She finally found one. Relief came over her when she realized they were just plain, old belts. Wist had only seen belts with guns hitched to them. This made much more sense. She stared at all of them and huffed in frustration.
She finally just picked up a tan belt and hung it with the dress. Wist picked up a pair of flats and then a gold, long-hanging necklace. She tried to envision it on Maries and decided that it would be ok. She just wasn’t positive if it would fit the criteria that she wanted. Wist sighed again before leaving the closet and the outfit inside.
She made her way out into the hallway and locked left and right. She spotted one cleaning maid down the hall and rushed to her, “Ma’am!” She called.
The maid didn’t pay her any heed. “Ma’am,” Wist said catching up to her. She put a hand on the frail girl’s shoulder. She jolted and looked up at Wist.
Her eyes were big, blue. “M-ma’am?” She stuttered in a whisper. It was as if she was shocked anyone would address her in such a way.
“Yeah, sorry. Can you tell me where I can get Mari- my mistress’s breakfast?” I asked the young girl. She didn’t look to be older then thirteen. Probably younger if Wist had to guess.
She immediately avoided Wist’s eye contact. “So you’re the new head slave?” She whispered.
Wist narrowed her eyes slightly and then said, “Yes. Can you tell me where I can get-?”
YOU ARE READING
The Life of a Tere Slave
FantasyWist lived in poverty and filth until her parents sold her into slavery and into the hands of the wealthiest woman in all of Tere: Maries Reinhold, the President's daughter. In a world were technology is taken for granted, poverty and disease run r...
