Book one; Left for mercy

Chapter two; Headquarters

~

The shining black car rolled into the big golden gates at the entrance of Black Manor. The participants of the car sat in silence, still slightly uncomfortable around each other.

The conversation that had been held on the streets of Michelle's hometown was still fresh in the young minds and they couldn't wrap their heads around the meaning of Cora's meaningful words. Of course, they weren't stupid, they knew Cora had thought of the girl that she was handcuffed to as at least an acquaintance.

An acquaintance...

Cora didn't know what to feel about that prospect of things. A third part of the group didn't sound all that bad if it was up to her. But it wasn't. The system had a very complicated way of dealing with groups or bigger parties. It picks out random numbers, in which you have your own, that is not your ranking or age. If the groupings or parties are not personally by the boss, which Cora's and Aimée's was. She didn't know whether to risk getting in trouble or just leave it.

The drive up to the manor took almost a whole minute and the trio were feeling slightly nauseous about the constant repeat of neat looking trees on each side of the car. When the manor came into view said trio looked on in slight anticipation and nervousness. The car came to an abrupt stop right in front of the steps to the front door, and the huge size of the house was slightly overwhelming, at least for the newcomer.

Cora was the first one out of the car, along with Michelle right after her, still cuffed to her wrist. Aimée got out last and started to walk the path up to the house, slightly hesitating. The grain of the stony ground crunched under their feet as they reached the stairs. Michelle decides shes had enough of their hestitating and stomps up the first step. She immediately regretted that decision as the alarms in the entire manor went off.

"You absolute idiot! Why did you think we were hesitating? We didn't know if the system remembered our presence or not, and it certainly doesn't know yours!" Aimée screamed, "Cora, I told you we can't trust her!"

"Aimée, calm down. You remember what I taught you about the system alarms? Yeah, you need to get to the safety box and disable it. You know which ones to pull, don't you? Leave." Cora hurried her, and she immediately sprinted off to the back of the house. "What you did was reckless. You are basically on a wanted poster around here and you certainly have no business bossing over us." Cora continued, "I might consider you an acquaintance but that means nothing in this situation. We could die."

There was a thick tension lingering in the air between Michelle and Cora. The seriousness of the situation only just now hitting her.

The deafening sound of the alarms abruptly stopped, Aimée had remembered. Just as she came back, panting like she had ran a marathon.

"I underestimated the size of the manor again."

"I figured you would..."

This time when they stepped upon the stair no alarm was sounding and so they kept walking up. Cora and Aimée wondered about the children that were here a few years ago when they had last visited. They had been so innocent, but they doubted that innocence was kept after these four years had passed. If they were even alive, that is.

When they opened the huge door at the end of the staircase, which was lined carefully with golden lining handmade with a paintbrush and pearls, they were met with a huge entrance hall. A small fountain stood tall in the middle of an oval formed flower bed. It was certainly more than they had expected. The walls were as white as they could be with a chandelier of diamond reflecting a yellow light upon the walls. A dull door was at the other side of the hall, slightly open, just enough to peer through from the other side of the hall. They wondered if it was intentional just as the door burst open, and in stepped a familiar face to the two girls that had lived here before.