Forget-Me-Not

Esther

                The doorbell rang loudly down the hall. Emily looked up from the laundry and saw Lucy rounding the corner on her way into the foyer. Emily sighed and continued sorting the laundry. She had only worked at the Smits estate for the last two weeks, but she could already sense that something was off about the place. For starters, her employer Esther Smits was a strange one. She rarely came out of the garage and would give orders in a sickeningly sweet manner with a strange Scottish accent.

Besides who would name their child "Esther"? Maybe it's a family name, but that still seems kinda cruel. Emily thought to herself as she threw a sock into the whites bin.

And the butler was even stranger. Lucy always wore a black suit, black gloves, and a smile that never truly reached her eyes. Emily liked to think of her privately as "The Doll." With her ebony black hair, gray eyes, and light toned skin, Lucy looked like one of those porcelain dolls. Some people found those dolls charming, but Emily had always thought that they looked incredibly creepy. So she tried to avoid Lucy whenever possible. Although to be fair, Lucy had never been cruel or antagonizing, and in fact Lucy was always on hand when the other maids needed help.

Emily had brought up Lucy before to the other maids to see if they knew anything about her or their employer, but that hadn't amounted to anything. In fact they didn't even seem bothered by their mysterious employer.

"She pays us well, and it's more fun not knowing. We like to make up stories about them. See who can tell the funniest one," Mary had replied, giggling.

"What kind of stories?" Emily had asked.

"Well, I've got money on Lucy and Miss Smits being secret lovers. I swear that I've seen the miss leaving Lucy's room late one night," Ally had added in a conspiratorial manner. "But Mary thinks that they're really secret agents sent here to investigate illegal aliens."

                Emily shook her head as she tried to put their silly antics out of her mind. The other maids were silly at best, but Emily supposed that was how they handled the strangeness of this place.

                Lucy came striding into the room, and Emily internally cringed but put on a brave face. "Is there anything that I can help you with?" Emily asked as she started to put a load into the machine, hoping that Lucy would get the hint that she was already busy.

                "Ah, not really. I just came here to ask if you wanted your mail personally or for me to leave it in the slot. I figured since you were down here already you might be happy to take a little break."

Lucy hadn't moved any closer into the room for which Emily was grateful. Emily was frustrated with herself for how hard to interact with Lucy, but she couldn't shake these weird vibes she got whenever Lucy was around.

"It's okay to just leave it in the slot. I'll get to it later," Emily said as she twisted the dials on the machine.

Lucy was no longer wearing her trademark smile, and Emily was startled for a moment. It seemed as if Lucy had something difficult to tell Emily, but then she smiled again and walked out.

Emily thought that was strange but kept working. As the sun began to set, she started walking to her room and grabbed her mail from the slot. She noticed one had her mother's address written on it and she felt dread in the pit of her stomach. Emily's father had died a month ago, and her mother hadn't taken it well. Emily opened the letter with shaking hands. Luckily this letter was like all of the rest. Her mother confided her loneliness with each letter and would always ask when Emily would be coming to visit. Normally she would just fold it back up and put it in her dresser, but this time she couldn't. Perhaps it was because of the fact that she was tired and so far from home, but she couldn't stop crying. She let the tears fall and sat on her bed.

Emily heard the other two maids laughing outside the room and decided to indulge her self-pity elsewhere. She sneaked out of the house, carefully dodging the other inhabitants on the way. She walked out into the woods and found a small clearing. She heard odd sounds coming from it and briefly wondered if she should go get someone else to come with her, but then she heard Miss Smits' voice and relaxed. She walked into the clearing and couldn't believe her eyes. There was a small hut, or rather it appeared small but as she looked into the opening she could see that it was much larger on the inside. She knew that she should probably walk quickly back to the house, but her feet seemed to have become rooted to the ground.

"Well then, hello, sweetie. Just what are you doing out here this late at night?" Miss Smits appeared in the doorway.

"Ah... um... I didn't mean to-" stammered Emily, mentally trying to find some way to make this all fit together.

"Now now. No need to worry. You and I are just going to have a little talk. And you're going to listen, and you will obey," as Miss Smits looked into Emily's eyes, and the world seemed to fade to oblivion.