Under My Skin (10 page)

One had a large plastic card that read: CONDOLENCES FROM THE MERCHANTS UNION.

I’d only seen black wreaths once before in my life—when the village representative had passed away. Danny had been five at the time, while I’d been a few days past my eighth birthday. When my uncle was murdered last year, no one had enough money to buy him one.

We passed two more sets of windows before we entered another wing of the house. As we passed by each set of doors, I peered inside. There were sitting rooms, the dining hall, and a bunch of somber places where servants dusted and tidied, their eyes focused on their work. A man who passed us as we went down the hall gave us a wide berth. He kept his gaze to the floor and didn’t answer back when Des greeted him.

It was that way with everyone. Des wheeled me through the middle of the hallway, yet everyone who walked our way chose a path against the wall. This place gave me the creeps.

Finally, I found my voice to ask Des a question. “Who...passed away?”

She pulled to a stop in front of a slightly opened door. Her fingers hesitated before she reached for the doorknob. “Master Dagon passed away a few days ago.”

My mouth dropped. From one mess into another. “So who do I work for now?”

“Miss Rebecca will tell you soon enough.” She left it at that.

The door creaked open to reveal a large office. In the center of the room sat a grand desk with an ornate chair behind it. A communications console was embedded inside. Would I have access to use it to contact my family?

Des pushed me inside, but the enforcers didn’t follow us. She quietly closed the door while I looked around. A beautiful piano sat in one corner. Not many of those existed these days, with music available through the comm-console.

But the piano wasn’t the most interesting thing in the room. The wall-to-wall bookcases beckoned me to touch them. I gaped at all the books. Owning books was illegal, yet the General had more than I’d ever seen.

“Did all of these belong to him?” I asked Desdemona as she fetched a wooden puzzle box from one of the shelves. Intricate golden magpies covered the top.

“Yes, he has a collection that rivals most of the Guild.”

“Isn’t it illegal to own them?”

“The Guild aren’t like the rest of us, Tate. I’ve seen many things.” She gestured to the wealth in the room. The ancient war maps next to the gilded globe on a pedestal. “His whole house is like this—just like the others.” She gently placed the box in my hands and turned me to wheel out of the room.

Des wheeled me back to the master suite. By the time we entered through the double doors, another obvious question hit me. If I were a servant and the master of the house was dead, what was I doing in a suite? They should’ve put me in a simple room.

I even had guards.
They weren’t protecting the master from me.
They were
protecting
me, but
from what threat?

None of this place made any sense.

Two days passed. Rebecca continued to sit by the bed. When she wasn’t staring at me long enough to see through me, she read from a compu-tablet. Des visited twice a day to check on my wounds, but she never came to take me out again.

Even with Rebecca in the room, the place was far too quiet.

Captain Fairbanks came once in a while, but Captain Belfry came every
single
day. His right hand rested on the hilt of a blade resting on his hip, almost as if he were waiting to strike if the moment came.

What bothered me even more was his imposing presence: his unwavering gaze, his stiff posture, and strong jawline. He made resting near impossible. He was just as tall as Captain Fairbanks. Even with their obvious age difference, he guarded the room as if he had the same amount of experience and training as the older enforcer.

And just when I thought I’d recovered from my concussion, the voice returned.

“Have you heard any more new voices?”
he purred to me that morning.
“At the rate you’re going, a few new ones should show up any time now.”

I turned away from Rebecca as frustration clawed at me. With a few words, I could tell Rebecca that I wasn’t feeling well.

“Stop it,” I hissed through clenched teeth. “I’m not listening to you anymore.”

Ignoring him was for the best. While Rebecca and Des thought I was sleeping yesterday, I’d overheard a conversation between them.

“Is she still acting strangely?” Rebecca had asked Des.

“Unfortunately, so.” Des sighed. “She told me yesterday she thought someone had changed her bar code.”

Rebecca tsked. Her foot tapped against the carpet. I strained to listen to her lowered voice.

“Keep your eye on her. If she shows any more signs of mental deterioration, we might have to consult the Master’s physician.” Her voice sounded pained. “She’ll be declared unfit to work and will have to be committed.”

“Committed? I think that’s a bit harsh, Miss Rebecca.”

Rebecca huffed. “We need coherent workers. We paid a fee for her and I don’t have the patience—or the budget to pay for long-term medical care.”

She paused before she finished. “I expect everything to proceed as planned within a month.”

While they continued to chat, many pessimistic thoughts sliced through me.
Was I going insane? Was I possessed by the Master who’d recently died?
I quickly shrugged off that idea. Ghosts were nothing more than characters in the stories I’d read. They didn’t exist—which meant my problem was psychological.

Their conversation had made it difficult for me to sleep that night, and now that the next day had arrived, the persistent pest in my head fed the fire of my self-doubt.

I wasn’t improving.

A knock at the double doors made me look up. Captain Belfry answered the door. After seeing who it was, he glanced at Rebecca and she rose from her seat and walked to the door.

“What is it now?” she snapped.

A small man was visible through the partly opened door. He wore the same black and white uniform I’d seen the other house servants wear. What little hair he had on his head was slicked back and appeared greasy.

“There’s been a request for an audience with the Master.” He craned his head to peek at me. “They also want one of the briefs he signed last week.”

Rebecca angled herself to block my view. She stepped outside of the door and Captain Belfry followed her—but not before he glanced at me with a look of pure hatred.

After a few seconds, I could still faintly hear them talking. Was it important? Curiosity flicked at me. They had to be talking about me. The wheelchair wasn’t too far away. Walking to it wasn’t the smartest move on my part since I had little strength, but I needed to know what they were talking about. Why did he ask for Master Dagon if he was
dead
?

Each footstep made my heart beat faster—what if Captain Belfry came back and caught me? Would he kill me as promised? I got to the wheelchair safely though. By the time I wheeled across the room, they were still arguing. I had to get out of the chair—slowly and painfully—to put my ear against the door, but my efforts were worth it. Or so I thought.

“Just because the Master isn’t available doesn’t mean any of you can get out of line,” Rebecca said.

“I was only trying to help, Miss Rebecca,” the man replied.

She snorted. “You won’t impress him or me with this type of zealous behavior.”

No one spoke for a moment. I prepared myself to dart back to the wheelchair, but Rebecca spoke again.

“No one, and I repeat, no one, is allowed in the Master’s private bedroom or the study unless they know the Master’s passphrase or his bar code.” Fury lined her words.

“Yes, Miss Rebecca,” Captain Belfry and the man replied.

I pressed myself harder into the door. The muscles in my legs shook. What little strength I had held me up.

“Make sure those documents are forwarded to me, since the Master is resting,” Rebecca said.

The man’s voice hastily replied, “Of course, Miss Rebecca,” but I barely heard him. Every part of me collapsed into the door from her words.

Their master
was
dead. He wasn’t alive. Yet she’d said he
is
resting. Resting
where
?

I slid farther down the door, choking on my breath, straining to find a bit of oxygen as panic smashed into my chest.

The Master was dead. Yet all the servants were afraid of me. Rebecca had called me Master when I first woke up. She’d asked me for some passphrase. I shouldn’t have known what she was talking about. Yet she’d asked me for that information.

My head swelled painfully with the answer, but I didn’t want to face it. I couldn’t face it. The shear idea of what they’d done to me made the back of my throat burn with bile.

The old man, the dark cave, and that metallic necklace someone had attached to the back of my neck were all pieces of a puzzle that suddenly came together into a dreadful picture.

Don’t let them use the Vorhees Unit on you!
Claire’s warning echoed through my head. It was too late. Far too late. Who’d do such a thing to people?

My trembling fingers searched every contour of my face. Touched my lips. Pressed into my dry cheeks. Nothing had changed. Yet my life had taken an unexpected turn.

I’d been bought and sold and now I knew the horrific truth: General Dagon wasn’t dead.

He lived inside of me.

“He can’t be inside of me…” I whispered. “He can’t.”

“Took you long enough to figure it out, girl
,” the General said.

If I could’ve hit him, I would’ve been tempted to do it.

My existence now belonged to someone else. The very idea that an old man lived in my head made me want to wash every inch of my skin. I wanted to do something, anything to take away the feeling of violation.

As I continued to recover in bed, a hundred regrets and should haves hit me. I should have told Zoe what Claire said to me. I should have grabbed Zoe and run away. I should have done
something
to stop this from happening to me, to all of us.

General Dagon’s voice interrupted my thoughts. “
I made the perfect choice.”

Rebecca sat in her seat as usual. Captain Belfry took a new spot. Right next to the door. This time I didn’t care if they heard me. I’d have to speak out loud for the General to hear me.

“I can’t believe you did this to me,” I said. “It’ll take some time for me to ignore you, but, sooner or later, I will.”

Rebecca’s head whipped up.

“You’re not the first person to try this.”
He chuckled. “
Although, I will admit my fourth host did put up quite a fight. I dissolved his mind until he was a quivering puddle of brain goo, perfect for me to rebuild as my own.”

Rebecca opened her mouth to speak, but paused when I tilted my head to glare at her. When the anger subsided, I only had bitter words for everyone in the room. “You’re all a bunch of liars.”

“Welcome to the real world. It’s a cold place, and nothing’s promised to anyone.”

“Bite me,” I replied.

“Your impudence is nothing new to me. But you need to get used to reality. I am here now and soon you will be me.”

“If you’re trying to frighten me, you’re doing a fabulous job.”

“Why should I lie to you? You’ve been through the ceremony. You saw the auction. The Guild has done this for centuries for the good of the people.”
He spoke as if I should be proud of the gift I’d given him. As he spoke, I imagined the teen boy whose brain he dissolved into goo. Did he have to listen to the General yip-yap like this all the time?

My parents had lectured Danny and I like this before. It wasn’t as if I didn’t know how to tune people out, but it was rather hard now. He spoke in my ears, and, with the pain in my back, I couldn’t focus for too long.

“Have you ever wondered how the Guild have managed to maintain peace in Myria for so long? It’s because our leadership is wise and that wisdom comes from living beyond what the human body can sustain.”

My eyes narrowed to slits.

“Your family lives freely because of people like me who defend our island from invaders,
he bit out.
You’d be a fool not to realize what freedoms you take for granted. What sacrifices I’ve made for Myria.”

What nerve. “Do you really think I’d find the sacrifice of my life as a good enough excuse?”

For the next half hour, he continued to rant. When someone knocked on the door, Rebecca left her seat to answer it.

Des came in, with another woman, pushing a cart of food.

“Good, I needed someone to relieve me for a while.” Rebecca sighed and leaned in to whisper to Des, “She knows.”

These people were unbelievable. Why bother whispering anymore?

Des tentatively approached the bed as Rebecca left. When I didn’t acknowledge her, she checked on the medical equipment.

“I wish I could’ve told you the truth from the beginning, my dear,” she said softly. “But it’s like this everywhere.”

A spiteful part of me wanted to remain silent, but I asked a question instead. “Where are we—I mean within Myria?”

“We’re in the far north. In the mountains.”

Hardly anyone lived in the far north because there were not as many trade routes to the coastline.

Des continued, unaware of my private thoughts. “Master Dagon forces us to do many things we don’t want to do. He keeps his household in line like his troops.”

While her assistant brought over the tray of food, Des tried to pry more words out of me. “Miss Rebecca told me you come from the south, on the coast, right?”

“Yeah. My home’s a nice place.” I wanted to say more, but the pain from missing my family made it hard to continue.

“I come from a small town in that area. Not many people, but they’re good folks. I’ve worked in this particular house for the past ten years, but, before that time, I was employed in other homes as a nurse.”

She continued. “Each house had a different member of the Guild, but everything turned out the same. The Master or Mistress would leave for a few days and return with someone new. The transfer ceremony would take place, most of the time in a family crypt or a private room. And that’s when the takeover began. A few kids last a week or so. Most of them succumb without fighting at all.” Des sighed. “I remembered another girl. You remind me of her, very sweet and innocent. My mistress couldn’t wait to get ahold of her. And she did. Day after day, the girl would wander the halls crying out for the voice in her head to go away. She’d claw at her face—pull out her hair. It wasn’t pretty. My mistress hadn’t made the best choice, but, after a week or two, she showed up more and more.”