Slowly I make my way over to the dining room.
I just follow the noise as I don't know where anything is in this mansion.
Luckily I make it to the dining room on time.
I walk in and everyone goes silent.
I shift there uncomfortably as everyone stares at me.
I clear my throat and a boy who I haven't seen yet motions me to come sit down in front of him in the last open seat.
I do as he says while he smiles softly.
I sit down and quickly thank Vincenzo for the room.
He just gives me a curt nod with an almost unnoticeable smile.
I keep my hood up like I've been doing for the past 24 hours and look at the boy.
He looks like me only a male version, "I'm Atlas, your twin" he introduces himself while holding out his hand.
What the fuck
"What!?" I say confused.
"You didn't tell me I had a twin" I say while looking at Valerio.
He just smirks sheepishly while shrugging his shoulders, "oh I forgot" he chuckles.
I take a deep breath to calm myself down.
I have a twin.
My mom took me away from my twin
Why did she do that?
I turn back to Atlas- my twin
"Hey, I'm Athena" I say still a little confused
He gives me a warm smile, it's like he knows what's going on in my head.
I look down at my hands, as maids come in the room and start giving everyone their plates.
One gets put in front of me but I don't start eating.
Rule number 2: don't eat or drink unless you get permission to do so
I don't know why I'm still following John's rules.
I know he's dead and all but I can't help but think that I still have to follow his rules.
For if I don't follow them, I'll get punished.
After around a minute or two, I look up and meet my twin's eyes.
He looks down at my plate confused on why I haven't started eating.
He looks back up at me and I think that he can see the unasked question in my eyes.
He looks from me to my plate and nods his head, giving the permission that I so badly need to me.
Still a little hesitant, I reach out to my fork.
I grab it and slowly pierce through some pasta.
I look up once more and see my twin still looking at me.
Again he nods his head, encouraging me.
The food lands on my tastebuds and they explode.
I almost moan at the taste.
I don't think I've ever eaten pasta before, maybe when I was living here with my family but other than that I haven't.
When I swallow down the food and reach out with my fork for another piece, Valerio who's sitting next to me starts speaking "why don't you take your hood off?" He asks me.
I look up at him before shrugging my shoulders.
"Can you take it off? I haven't seen your face in years" he says a little sad.
No, I can't.
If I do they'll see the wounds.
But I nod my head, not wanting to get punished nor do I want them getting suspicious about it. Who knows maybe they'll take it off forcefully.
I look down and make my hair cover the wounds before I slowly take my hood off.
I don't look at him and just look at my plate as my hair covers my face.
In the corner of my eye, I start to see him reaching out to my hair.
As if he wants to move it to get a better vision of my head.
The slap mark is on that side.
No
I look at him before he can touch me.
The hair still covers my wounds while he takes in my features.
He smiles lovingly then we both go back to eating.
I release the breath I was holding for a good minute and make sure that for the rest of the meal, the wounds are covered.
———
I stopped eating when I had just finished eating a quarter of food on my plate.
The pasta is delicious believe me but my appetite isn't so big.
It never was really.
I've never gotten any food really.
I've always been finding food when I really needed it by stealing it, picking up things from the trash since my mom never bought any food.
The only time I got food was when John gave me a small piece of bread every week when I was locked up.
So even though this is the best thing I've ever eaten, it's too much.
I play a little with my food as I don't want to bring any attention towards me.
I do get some weird looks but no one comments on it.
Maybe they think I'm still adjusting or grieving which could impact my eating.
Around 45 minutes after arriving to the dining table is everyone finished with eating.
I refused some dessert when they offered it and just sat there while listening to the conversations that were occurring around me.
Everyone stands up and takes their plates to the kitchen where we place them in the sink.
While everyone starts to walk away, I stay still.
With John I always had to do the dishes after he ate.
I'll probably have to do that here too.
I don't mind though.
I turn on the sink and the few that are still in the kitchen look at me weirdly.
A maid walks in and looks at me like I'm crazy.
What?
"You don't have to do that Ena" Atlas says while walking back to me.
He swings his arm over my shoulder and I flinch not expecting it.
I don't think they saw it though, it wasn't a big one.
Just really small, that only a trained eye could catch something like it.
"Why?"
"Because Kenzie always does that. It's her job, she gets paid to do that." He tells me
I look at the girl.
She's like my age.
"She's young" I state.
"It's her student job, she wants some extra money and does it like this." He informs me.
I just nod my head and just follow my twin as he drags me with him.