CAMILLA
The rest of the floors pass in a blur. Shira showed me the training rooms and the cinema, the gardens and the hangars. She even showed me an entire floor that is just a maze. She told me that the Maze can be changed into different settings, like a cave system or city plan.
“Are we done now?” I ask as we enter the elevator again. We had just been inside the hangars, which Shira had told me were the last floor. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on my stuff again, and then go to sleep.
“Not quite,” Shira said with that usual cheer in her voice that reminded me of a more chaotic Erika. “We would be bad hosts if we just let you go to bed without dinner, n’at”
It was the first time I really noticed that Shira had an accent with the slur of words and that. I couldn’t place the origin of her accent. I am only really familiar with the English my mom used when I was younger. I realized that I must also have an accent when speaking English, and it was highly likely that I had inherited my mother’s Italian accent. It made me close my mouth, afraid that Shira or one of the others might suspect that I had deeper roots than just being Danish. Italy was my secret, it was my plan B if everything else failed. I couldn't give that away to any of them, and especially not through something so stupid as an accent.
Shira didn't notice my silence but continued. “I am sure that some of the others will show up, so it’ll be a chance for you to get to know the others”
She looks at me, waiting for something. A reply, a nod of my head, anything to acknowledge what she said. I continue staring ahead, waiting for the doors to open. As soon as they do, I step out into the Kitchen and Common Room. Erika, Zeph, and Aiden are all sitting by a dining table, talking quietly together. A girl that I hadn’t seen before is standing by the kitchen, possibly making the food. Her back is turned to me, but still, I can see something elegant about her, it's in the way she holds herself as if her feet aren't touching the ground. Her hair is such a light shade of blonde that it looks white. She is wearing a white dress with a silver belt, and her shoes look like porcelain. She moves around the kitchen with grace, her pale hands poking around in the cabins
Shira sits down by the table, so I follow her reluctantly.
“What do you think of the Pyramid?” Erika asked. She was sitting in front of me, with her hands folded neatly on the table.
“I like it” I lie. The only thing going through my mind is how much I want to leave and go back to my room.
“That’s good to hear,” She smiles genuinely. “You must be hungry then. Morrigan, won't you tell Camilla what’s for dinner?”
The girl with the white hair, Morrigan, looks over at me with gray eyes, up and down as she judges my worth.
“Pie with roasted chicken on the side,” She said with a smile that showed of her perfect teeth, her face radiating fake all over.
“Dips on the chicken,” Zeph says quickly, eyeing the oven.
“You are disgusting,” Lynn says simply from behind me. I had not noticed him joining us. I looked back and forth at Zeph and Lynn, but none of them said anything further. Morrigan sat the food down on the table and everyone began taking a piece of the pie, except Zeph who only took the chicken.
“Don’t mind Zeph,” Erika said to me, clearly noticing that I was still staring. “The only kind of meat that Zeph eats is chicken.”
“Is it a diet thing?” I ask, mostly to make small talk.
“No,” Zeph cuts in, mouth full of chicken. “It's cause it's fucking delicious”
“You are literally going to die of poisoning,” Lynn said
I looked at Erika for an explanation, but she only shrugged.
The conversation never died at the table. Shira and Aiden talked the most, and they talked loud, laughing and almost choking on their drinks multiple times. Zeph and Erika talked with Shira and Aiden from time to time, but they seemed more interested in asking me questions, all of which I avoided or ignored. Sometimes someone would ask Morrigan a question, and she’d answer politely, still with that edge in her voice. It was clear that Morrigan felt somewhat distant towards the others.
Lynn was situated between Morrigan and Zeph, and he kept glancing over at Zeph and his roasted chicken.
“So Camilla,” Erika started. I tensed, waiting for her question. “How come you are so good at English? Not to be invasive or anything, but you did drop out of school early”
I shrugged, making something up in my mind. “It just came naturally. Maybe it's a power or whatever. How come some of you have accents? Where are you all from?” I narrowly changed the subject and gave myself a mental pad on the shoulder.
Erika simply smiled at me, which didn’t make me feel good. I was beginning to suspect that she wasn't taking me seriously. “Both me and Shira are from America.”
“I’m Canadian,” Aiden said, not hiding the fact that he must have been listening to our conversation. “We are kinda like the American Trinity.”
“I voted for ‘American Gods’,” Shira said. “You know, like the book, but apparently it's an unsaid rule that we should not compare ourselves to gods.”
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“But your accent?” I asked Shira, who then began laughing. Zeph and Aiden both joined her, with Erika smiling along and the two others just staring at them.
“Americans have accents. Erika has an accent too, she just hides it” Shira shrieked, trying to stop laughing.
“As if Erika has an accent,” Aiden yelled, “You were fucking unintelligible when we first met you. All yinz and n’that. That! That was an accent like I’ve ever heard one”
“And you don't think you talk a tad bit funny, eh?” Shira teased right back. They continued going back and forth until I realized that I was no longer a part of the conversation I had originally started. I looked down at my food.
“Shira is from Pittsburgh,” Erika told me with her gentle voice. “They tend to talk rather funny there”
“What about the others,” I asked, trying to ignore Shira and Aiden’s loud and friendly bickering. “Where are they from?”
“Morrigan is from Sweden, so don't try to curse at her or anything in Danish. Lynn is from Australia, though I think he might also be Irish, I don't know, he never really talks about it. Adi is German.”
“And what about Zeph,” I asked, glancing over at the guy who was slowly chewing his chicken while smirking at a fuming Lynn.
Erika just shrugged. “Dunno. Somewhere in Europe?”
“Oh,”
“He used to be a Drifter,” Erika said, then explained when she saw my look of confusion. “A Tethered person who isn’t part of the Organization. There are quite a lot of them, actually. They usually operate on their own in territories. Both North Africa, Alaska and parts of India are controlled by other Tethered, which makes it extremely dangerous for us to enter those zones since Drifters tend to be quite territorial.”
“But Zeph was a drifter?” I asked, “For how long?”
“I don't know, like thirty years or something.” Erika wondered. “He teamed up with Javier in like the forties and they both joined the Organization in 1977.”
Everybody by the table went quiet at the mention of Javier’s name, and a few even turned to look over at Zeph.
“Who’s Javier?” I asked, maybe a bit too oblivious about the situation in front of me.
“Javier was the best thing that ever happened to this place,” Zeph said quietly, then laughed and ran a hand through his thick, dark brown hair. “Sorry, I just. I don't know. He died four years ago. Killed.” Zeph said with force. “He was killed four years ago”
I honestly didn’t know what to say. I knew I should properly offer comfort, but I barely knew Zeph nor this Javier.
“I am sorry,” I tried, but even I could hear that I wasn’t, that I didn't really care.
“It's okay, I am fine now,” Zeph said. “I just wish we had found out who killed him and Miriam.”
“It’s not like it could just be anyone,” Aiden said, glancing over at the other side of the table where Morrigan and Lynn were sitting.
“Only Tethered people can kill Tethered people,” Erika told me, trying to put the conversation back on track. “We are immortal unless someone takes our immortality, which takes a lot of power to do”
She clearly failed in keeping the others civil, because Morrigan shot Aiden back with a. “Why are you so quick to make up assumptions?”
“Because you never liked Javier and were clearly jealous of Miriam,” Aiden accused
“You don't know anything,” Morrigan yelled, getting up from her chair. Her silver-gray eyes were blazing with fury. “How dare you accuse me of murder. How dare you say to my face, in front of everyone, that I was jealous of Miriam. Miriam! She was my friend, Aiden, but clearly you don't know what those are, seeing as you always just third wheel on everyone else”
Everyone was quiet for way too long. I was about to open my mouth to say something, but then Aiden got up too and said with a calm I knew he was faking. “Thanks for dinner, Morrigan. It’s always a pleasure to hear your opinion”
Everyone followed him with their eyes as he left, his footsteps ringing loudly through the room.
“Morrigan,” Erika said disappointingly. “That was not very nice”
“He had it coming,” Morrigan answered airily. “He should know not to throw accusations around at dinner. Better wait till after dessert with wreaking havoc in the family”
Nobody said anything again. We all continued to eat or dinner and soon we moved onto dessert which was a soft chocolate cake that Morrigan had also made. Her cooking wasn’t anything extraordinary, but still it felt like the best meal I had ever had.
It wasn't until we were halfway through dinner before Shira said “I really hope we have it wrong. That it's not one of us, but someone or something else.”
I fell down onto my bed as soon as we were done. My brain was still buzzing from being around so many new people, and my vision was blurring slightly at the edges. Still, I couldn't sleep. The conversation between the others kept replaying in my mind. If I had understood correctly, two people had been murdered, which meant a murder was on the loose. It seemed kind of unsafe for my well being to stay in a place where there had been two unsolved murders. I knew how hard it was to end someone else’s life and I didn’t trust anyone who could do that to another human being.
I knew I had to leave before it was I who was dead.
Still, I knew I wouldn’t. I didn’t trust a single person here, I knew it was dangerous, knew that I could just leave right now and find someplace in the world, and then live peacefully for hundreds of years, but I was just beginning to learn about this new side of myself that I had never known existed. I wanted so badly to learn how to use my powers, I wanted that rush of power I felt when I was running or when I was swimming. I wanted to feel alive and to feel well, and I suspected this was the only place I might learn how to feel those things.
That’s why I came up with my plan. It is a compromise that will let me stay, while also making sure that I wouldn’t be in danger for longer than necessary.
The plan: Find the murderer.
It sounded unrealistic in my own ears, but still, I needed to try. It was the only way my own paranoia would let me stay in this place.
It was the only way I could live with myself.
I closed my eyes. Determined to do this and do it well. I needed all my walls in place, I needed to be able to be objective, to never get too close to the suspects, and they were all suspects. I needed to think quickly, but if there was anything that I was, it was fast. Faster than everyone else.
With my eyes closed, the only thing I could hear was my own heartbeat, fast but steady, never slowing down, never giving up. I heard as much as I felt two screams from far away, and just as the third was about to be unleashed, I woke to the quiet of my new room.
On my bedside table is the book that Shira had given me. A page for each member of this place, a page for the two people who are dead, and quite possibly also a page for the one who killed them. Now I just had to figure you who could have done it