What Lies Beneath

Chapter Sixteen: Delphine

In a small French village located just outside of Mantes-La-Jolie, lives a young girl named Delphine. Unlike the other guests of the house, she has lived a life of privilege. You see, Delphine comes from a wealthy family. Her grandmother was a famous actress and her mother was a singer.

After her mother's passing when she was five, Delphine was left to be raised by her father. Her father, who spent most of his time working at his company, enrolled his daughter in the finest school's money could buy. However, it was soon discovered that she was not like other kids her age. Unlike most of the children in her grade, she was able to pick up language very quickly.

It got to the point where she had learned six different languages by the time that she was seven years old.

After the amazing discovery, her father pulled her from school and hired a private tutor. He didn't want her to feel like an outcast, or so he said.

When he pulled her out of school, he went to a great deal of trouble to hide her gifts from the outside world. Delphine, only being about eight at the time, was clueless as to her father's true intentions.

Her father who had spent most of his life being overshadowed by his wife's success, was not about to be outshone by his own daughter. He, like his wife and daughter, had grown up privileged. Unlike his late wife though, he was not very talented at anything. In fact, it was by sheer luck alone that his father left him the company after his passing.

Knowing all of this he made the decision to lock away his daughter that much easier.

During the years that she spent on the property with no contact with the outside world, Delphine was able to master every language known to man by the time that she turned fourteen.

It wasn't until she was nineteen that she had her first look at the world beyond the tall fence of her home. She hadn't meant for it to happen, but one day as she walked along the perimeter of the property, she found a large hole in the fence. Through the hole, she saw fields of tall grass and in the distance a small village.

She spent the rest of the night thinking about what was beyond the wall. The next day she made her way over to the hole, her mind racing with ideas of the many ways that she could squeeze through it. Unfortunately, when she arrived at the spot where she knew that the hole had been, she found that the broken wall piece had been replaced with a new one.

Even though she could no longer see what was beyond the wall, she could still remember. For the next couple of days, she did everything that she could think of to try and get another glimpse at the world from her childhood, but it was to no avail.

When she tried to ask her tutor about the outside world, she had just brushed her off. Why would she need to go outside when she had everything that she needed within these four walls?

Delphine supposed that she was right, but she had also studied enough books to know, that you don't know what you are missing until you experience it for yourself.

It had been two months since she had found the hole, when she came upon the letter mysteriously placed on the end of her bed.

Having only ever received mail from her father before, Delphine didn't know what to expect when she opened it. Her eyes ran across the thick paper as she read the invitation. As you probably would have guessed, she jumped at the opportunity to leave the confines of her home.

Unfortunately, leaving her house was not as simple as just sneaking out in the middle of the night. Delphine had to put her skills of chemistry to the test. Under the guise of a new scientific experiment she was able to brew a tonic that would put the staff to sleep long enough for her to make her great escape.

When the tonic was finished, she snuck into the kitchen and added it to the staff's supper. When she was sure that they were all asleep, she broke into her father's safe and took the 8,978 Euro (10,000 U.S Dollars) that he stashed there for emergencies. She packed as light as she could and then without looking back, she left her prison behind.