Heiress in Distress

•Chapter 21•

Clara's wild flailing weakens, her screams whittle down to incoherent whispers, and the rapidly beeping machine returns to its steady beeps, once Conrad draws the syringe back from her arm.

The three of us now stand in utter silence, with the machine's sound and our out-of-breath gasps making for the only noise in the room.
Even when watching her calm and tranquillised, I can't help but relive the past few minutes in my mind.

Where is my Clara ?

Elias is the first person I think about, and when I turn to him, my focus staggers at the intensity with which he's regarding me.

My voice breaks the same time my knees deaden, "This why you brought us here ?"

Elias calmly nods, reaching my side in the span of the next blink and guiding me back to the armchair, "We don't want the police intervening before we have an insightful picture of the incidence,"

I nod, knowing Clara would have appreciated that. I know I do now.

A soft knock on the room's door has Elias removing his hand away from rubbing at his forehead in exhaustion and me naturally turning to see who is joining the circle of bizarreness.

And to say I'm shocked to see Juniper standing by the doorway is beyond understating -my deeply furrowed eyebrows can prove that; despite the heads-up Elias gave me earlier.
Juniper is on me in a matter of seconds, with delicate, vanilla-scented hands cupping my face tenderly.

"I'm so sorry about your friend," She says, words swathed in sincerity, the same way her expression is themed by sympathy.

I'm stunned into a watchful silence, wondering what might my former boss and present good friend be doing here; or rather, what are we doing in her place.
In spite of the questionability of the situation, I nod my head, flashing her a smile, grateful for her concern.

Up close, I can see a centimetre or two of brown hair recently growing from her scalp, which blends with the inches long, chemically treated hair.
I already knew her hair wasn't naturally red.
Walking around with bleached hair made it easy to distinguish natural hair colour from artificially dyed, which is Juniper's case.

A strip of cold metal grazes my cheek and I have to wait for her to pull back to inspect.
Soon enough, she steps back, letting her hands slide leisurely down my arms to grip my hands. But it isn't until her fingers lazily intertwine with my own that recognise it. A wedding ring.

I don't think I've ever looked close enough to notice something on her finger, and she sure has never been touchy enough for me to feel it as she does now.
Her hand is warmer than my whole body, since I've spent the whole day in this air-conditioned room.

"Juniper, a word please," Elias says, brushing past the two of us.

With one more supportive squeeze of my hand and a sympathetic smile in my direction, she follows closely after him.
I exhale, realising that I'm left alone with an insensible Clara once again, so I take the seat next to her.

A few sleepy nods and drowsy head shakes later, I sit upright in the leather chair, feeling slightly parched.
It occurs to me that the last time I drank water was from a cup in Frau Marlene's kitchen.

I peek into the room Élise peacefully sleeps in, just to make sure she's still asleep, before I begin the hunt for the kitchen in this maze of a mansion.

On my way through the hallways, a few muffled voices prelude the silence in the house.
As I near a particular room with its door slightly ajar, my steps inadvertently falter.

Through the small crack, light from the inside of the room pervades the dimness of the hallway, illuminating a huge chunk in my path.

But the second I pass by the door, two of my senses heighten considerably -my ears catching the sounds of a female crying and my eyes glimpsing two figures standing very close to one another.