I woke up to blinding sunlight blaring through my curtains. I was snug inside my covers, which is surprisingly, because half the time I usually just plop on my bed and drift off.

I'm shocked I made it inside the covers, although I don't remember climbing inside my bed.

I looked over my right to see Essentia lying on the nightstand, right next to her sheath.

Still better than tea, I thought to myself.

You know tea is actually quite beneficial, a voice chimed in my head. It clears your mind and relaxes you, something I would say you desperately need.

That doesn't change how disgusting it is, I replied. The benefits don't outweigh the taste.

Can't say I didn't try, Ms. Mya said. I couldn't see her, but I'm pretty sure she shrugged as she said that.

Whatever, I guess I'll just relax and take it slow. I'll start packing in maybe an hour or so for the journey to the Amazons.

Journey to the Amazons, I thought. It sounds like I'm in one of the adventure novels. What's next, the goddesses are in the city, living amongst us?

At least I have some free time before the trip though. I'll just keep my door closed and rest.

Sadly, right as that idea came into my head, the door swung open and Tucker came running inside. Almost instinctively, he shot to the right and behind him a knife came straight at my head. It was so fast that I had no time to dodge.

Is this how I die? To one of Tucker's antics? I always knew he would cause my death, but I figured it would be him screwing up on a big scale. Not just pissing off the wrong person.

The knife was literally centimeters from my face before time seemed to slow. Control of my body slipped away from me and my head jerked to the right, barely dodging the knife as it returned to normal speed and impaled the wall right next to the window. The force of the throw was so strong that the blade was actually stuck in the wall.

I caught my breath...Thank you, Ms. Mya.

She didn't respond but I could envision her letting out a sly grin as she read, thinking, you owe me one.

Veronica ran inside, practically steaming with anger. But when she saw the knife in the wall and me sweating, she practically jumped. Her emotions took a one-eighty and she went from mad to concerned, almost terrified.

"S-sir Arthur, I'm so sorry!" She bowed in front of me.

That fear she exhibited wasn't towards me though. I guess she's scared I'm going to tell my father on her and get her fired. It wouldn't be the first time I've been given an abnormal amount of respect because of him.

"I'm fine but...please be more careful," I told her.

Ms. Cecilia probably would've killed her if this happened in her room.

"Yeah! Watch where you're throwing that!" Tucker said.

I looked over to Tucker with a look of apathy that almost rivaled Mary's but didn't say a word.

Tucker looked away, avoiding any potential eye contact.

"Quiet you! This is all your fault!" She yelled, pointing to Tucker.

"What?! I didn't do anything!" Tucker looked at me, now pleading for help. "Arthur, I swear I didn't do anything!"

"You dare lie even to your brother! How don't you dare feign ignorance! I'm not stupid! You called me short!"

I mean, aren't you? I can't say that though. It would only lead to more problems.

"It was a compliment! I said short and cute."

Victoria blushed a little but held her ground. "Well all I heard was short. "Apologize! Apologize! Apologize!" She said, throwing a tantrum. She started stomping the ground, making it hard to discern her from an actual child.

I glared at Tucker and once again he looked away to avoid eye contact.

"Fine, fine! I'm sorry for calling you short." He held out his hand.

She smiled and shook his hand. "Thank you. I accept your apology."

Why is this my morning?

Not long after, Mary walked inside the already wide open door, saw me, Tucker, Veronica, and the knife in the wall and walked out without saying a thing. Mary is usually pretty hard to read but in this instance it wouldn't be too hard to guess what she was thinking.

Nope, not dealing with it.

I looked at Tucker and Veronica. "Can you two please leave so I can start packing?" I tried to be as sincere as possible.

"Oh yeah, I haven't started either, Tucker said.

"Right, you guys have that trip thing. To the Amazons or whatever? Sounds fake."

Tucker left and Veronica was following suit until she scanned her belongings and realized she was missing something. She looked back at the knife at the wall and ran over and pulled it out.

"Hehe, sorry, my bad." She apologized and scurried away. Sadly, she didn't shut the door, so I still had to get up.

I pushed the covers up, shut the door and examined my somehow still neat room.

I guess I might as well start packing now since I'm up. Not that I want to.

Despite how much I didn't want to start, it didn't take that long to finish packing. I got a backpack from out of my closet, which wasn't nearly as grandiose as my father's and threw some clothes in that somewhat matched. I didn't know how long we were going to be gone so I just packed two pairs plus what I was going to be wearing. I put in some deodorant and figured I'd fill the rest with snacks and water considering we're going to be walking.

I grabbed a pair of clothes and got in the shower. I sat in there for like five minutes, which may not seem long to most but that's usually three minutes longer than any shower I ever take. I figured I might as well enjoy it since I won't be able to take one for awhile. I dried off with a towel and put on my clothes, which consisted of a black shirt with a skinny blue and gray hoodie, blue jeans and a pair of blue and black socks.

I did all the essentials like, brush my teeth, wash my face, and put on deodorant and walked over to my bookshelf. I grabbed the same book I was reading yesterday and laid back on my bed. I flipped to a random page.

It talked about one of the weapons of creation, Kalliegró. This weapon historically has always been in the shape of claws and it's origins are unknown. It spoke of how it who wields it can grow an endless supply of food to where they never have to struggle again.

Sounds pretty useful, I thought. And relatively harmless. At least that's what I thought until I got to the next part.

It read:

"Kalliegró, is potentially one of the most destructive weapons. With the power to grow living things, it is a force to be feared. If cast into the wrong hands, it could cause chaos and mass destruction."

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

Well, that's not good. Luckily this isn't real. It can't be real...right?

My thoughts were interjected by Ms. Mya, whose curiosity was probably peaked.

Hm, Arthur. Answer me this. Who gave you this book?

Huh? I don't really know. I just always remember having it. As far as I remember, it was one of the first books I was given, and the first one I put on this bookshelf.

Hmm.

Is something wrong?

Nothing much, continue with what you were doing.

That's weird. Ms. Mya keeping things from me isn't weird, but her attitude was different from usual. It wasn't as if telling me isn't something she was doing out of personal gain, but more so that it's a taboo topic to discuss.

I was going to continue, but then my stomach rumbled and I remembered that food is a thing and I kinda need it to live. I put the book down and got up from my comfortable bed and out of my bedroom door.

I walked out of my room to see maids scurrying around. They moved fast enough to where they were heavily speed walking, but not fast enough to cause an accident amongst each other. I navigated through the school of maid traffic and made my way downstairs, headed towards the kitchen, not to be mistaken with the dining room.

Unlike most of the mansion, the kitchen was pretty standard, although I imagine slightly larger than a regular household kitchen. It had mocha brown walls and cold white tile floors. It featured the typical necessities of a kitchen: stove, microwave, and refrigerator.

I grabbed a box of cereal and some milk and sat down at the small table. I put the milk in after pouring the cereal in, because all those who put the milk in first are just wrong.

I tried thinking about the positives of going on this trip rather than the trip itself. If we live, and that's a big if, all four of us get a week off all of our duties. Although, Mr. Reginald will probably work anyway because he's so dutiful. Well, and a bit of a workaholic I guess. A small smile formed on my face just thinking about having a full week of laziness, a smile that was quickly called out.

"Well don't you look happy for a person being sent to the middle of the jungle," someone joked.

I turned around to spot Ms. Cecilia, giving me a half smile. She looked the same as always, with a standard maid outfit and her hair ties into the bun. The only thing she was missing was her maid cap, but that didn't make her look any less like a typical maid. I've told her once she should be in advertisements about maid service, to which she adamantly agreed. Then proceeded to fantasize about it for half the day.

"I'm trying not to think about it," I blurted out.

"Well, as much as I don't want to stress you out, you should definitely think about it. Come up with a plan in your head so you guys can come out of this alive."

"I mean I did," I said while eating my Cinnamon Toast Crunch™, "but every one of those plans can be ruined by Tucker."

"...Oh." Her face changed to one of concern. "Tucker certainly is a wild card, isn't he. One that I completely overlooked."

I didn't say anything and kept eating.

She clapped her hands together as if making an announcement. "Well I didn't come here to bother your alone time. I just wanted to make sure you were all right."

"I appreciate it Ms. Cecilia."

"With that, I shall return to my duties."

I began to hear Ms. Cecilia walk off before stopping abruptly.

"By the way you guys are scheduled to leave at 4:00 pm, so enjoy the rest of your morning," she said. Then she walked out of the kitchen.

I dug my right pocket for my phone, took it out, and pressed the home button.

11:00 am.

So I have five hours. That sounds nice. I wonder how the randomness of the house is going to impact that.

Huh. Maybe I can finally read in the backyard. It's always so quiet back there since there's no garden so not as many maids have to tend to the plant life.

As soon as I finished eating, I cleaned my spoon and bowl, ran upstairs to my room, grabbed my book, and ran downstairs.

I stopped before walking over to the corridor in the backdoor to see if Leon was there and sure enough it was vacant.

I opened the door and as I was closing it I thought I heard someone say my name.

Must be imagining it, I thought.

Outside, the weather was perfect. The sun was shining brightly and there was a nice, soft breeze that canceled out some of the sun's heat. It was the perfect day to sit outside and read.

I turned around to see dozens of long, life-sized blue bags. I would say they littered the whole yard but they were surprisingly neat and in organized rows.

A yard project, I thought. What could they be doing?

I started instinctively walking towards one as I heard the door swing open behind me, though I was too focused on the bags to care. I crouched down and grabbed a little piece of the bag and lifted it up and suddenly everything made sense. Why they gave us those off days, why the inside of mansion was so vacant yesterday, and why they restricted access into the backyard. It all came together.

This is where all the dead maids and butlers are being held. Every unfortunate soul who was slain by our hands is dumped here and forgotten about by the rest of us. Aside from last night, no one has even talked about how we killed half the employees working here. We just live our lives and act like it never happened. Aren't we horrible people.

A soft hand touched my shoulder. I looked back to see Ms. Cecilia with a downcast expression on her face.

"We tried really hard not to let you kids see this," she said.

"Mary and Tucker too?"

She nodded. "I know Tucker has been beating himself over it when he's alone. And as for Mary," she started, "as strong as she may seem, she feels guilt like everyone else."

"But we killed people. Don't you think we should remember tha—"

Killing is wrong. It's wrong, it's wrong.

A voice in my head said, interrupting my train of thought. Except, this time it wasn't Ms. Mya.

The voice kept repeating it over and over to the point where it was driving me insane. My surroundings were beginning to become warped and I couldn't see anything around me. Everything disappeared and all I saw was darkness. I heard Ms. Cecilia speak but I couldn't discern any of what she said. All I could hear constantly was how killing is wrong and what I did was horrible.

Suddenly, I felt a soft texture kiss my cheek. Grass? But I don't remember being on the ground. I couldn't think about it for long before the voice echoed louder, like it had a monopoly on my thoughts. It felt like my sanity was slipping away from me. All I could do was reject her words. Then something unexpected happened.

A pair of soft arms, devoid of any malice, wrapped around my neck and the voice whispered into my ear.

Killing people is wrong, Arthur.

Then everything went blank.

I woke up dazed and confused. I was in my bed underneath the covers. I sat up, trying to make sense of my current predicament. I turned to the right to see Ms. Cecilia sitting in a chair aggressively typing on her phone. She had such a pained expression on her face.

When she saw me sit up her face changed completely. "Oh Arthur, you're up! Do you feel okay?" She put her hand on my forehead.

"Umm, what happened exactly?"

"I don't know what happened," she admitted. "One second you were speaking normally and the next second you were on the ground having a panic attack. And then you passed out."

I looked down. "Oh, that did happen, didn't it? Does anyone know?"

"Only I know of this."

"Can you umm, not tell anyone about this?"

I looked at her and could tell she wanted to refuse. Luckily, she sighed. "I won't tell anyone," she said.

I eased up a little hearing that.

"But!" She started, "next time I will."

"Understood."

"Also, I believe we should cancel your trip. You obviously aren't feeling well. I'll go talk to your father." She got up to go leave but I instinctively grabbed her hand.

"Arthur?"

"I need to go on this trip," I said.

"But you don't even want to go, do you?"

"No, but I know I need to."

I looked in her eyes and she looked back in mine. No words were exchanged but I think she at least partly understood how I felt.

She got up and was ready to leave but stopped at the door. She turned back to me with a serious expression.

"Don't regret this decision Arthur."

And with that she left.

I lied back down on my pillow and closed my eyes.

Ms. Mya?

Hmm?

You made me pass out so I wouldn't have to endure that, didn't you?

I can't learn anything from you if you're broken, she said.

I smiled.

I closed my eyes to get some rest but the phone in my pocket buzzed.

My alarm? It's already four? Was I sleeping that whole time?

Whatever the case I need to get moving. I grabbed my backpack and Essentia and headed towards the kitchen to grab some snacks. It would seem Tucker had the same idea as I caught him stuffing snacks into his backpack.

"Great minds think alike," he said. He pointed to a pile of snacks on the counter. "Here, I already got your portion."

"Ahh, thank you."

"We should hurry, though. Mary and Ol' man Regi are already out back."

Out back? But isn't that where all the bodies were?

I loaded up my backpack and walked to the backyard with Tucker. To my surprise, all the bodies were gone and aside from some flowers and bushes, it was as empty as it always was.

Mary and Mr. Reginald were sitting on a bench talking about something, although I couldn't hear their conversation. As we walked towards them someone poked my back.

I turned around to see Sophia smiling.

Tucker instantly got jumpy upon seeing her.

"Woah, you scared us! Don't do that," he said.

"If that scared you, I don't know how you'll survive the Amazons," She said.

"Did you come to see us off?" I asked.

"Actually I wanted you to take this with you." She held out her hand to reveal a decently sized pocket knife.

I grabbed it and looked at it. It wasn't on the level of Essentia but it was pretty nice.

"I already have a knife though."

"It's just an extra layer of protection. More of a just-in-case thing."

"Well there's nothing wrong with having two I guess." I stuffed it in my pocket. "Thank you."

"I don't get a knife?" Tucker whined.

Sophia ignored him. "Have a safe journey you two." Then she walked back inside.

Immediately once she left, Essentia returned to normal.

We should go while it's still daylight out," Tucker said. "Come on, for adventure!"

He randomly bolted and headed for the woods behind our house. That is, until Mary tripped him and he fell face first into the grass.

He jumped up. "Hey! What was that for?"

"Don't get ahead of us. You'll just get lost."

"I agree with Mary," Mr. Reginald said. "Sticking together is probably best.

Mary and Mr. Reginald stood up and looked at me.

"Ready Arthur?" Mr. Reginald asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

And with that we made our way into the forest of the unknown.