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Ten | Yacht

SOTC: Pocketful Of Sunshine by Natasha Bedingfield

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"Shi- Hit!" I sang, clasping my eyes shut. Like it was a remedy for when the demonic light shone through the blinds a maid gracefully opened the next morning.

"All the flavors in the world and you continue to be salty," Xerxes said as he walked into my bedroom along with the other maids.

"You whoreson," I groaned.

"Get her ready," Xerxes ordered the maids and left.

Within an hour, my body pruned in a bathtub, my hair was straightened to perfection, and a white corset-like top zipped up my back and paired with a white pencil skirt reaching my cured ashy knees. Cream high heels matched the outfit (what was it with these people and white?), bringing my small figure three inches taller.

Again I was met with applause from other maids and was sent down the hall to Xerxes. A tailored suit possessed a sharpness perhaps more so than those sharp hazel eyes, and the teardrop staining one outer corner.

"Let's go," he said, directing me out a door into a hallway.

"Where?"

"The first meeting." Xerxes opened another door, shedding a blast of sunlight into my eyes as we went down a path outside the mansion.

I gawked aloud. "What? You didn't tell me about this!"

"You are like a soldier, Clara. Generals don't tell their opposers when they'll attack. You just know you were eventually going to do it to aid an effort, your reward for you. Plus you're my captive, so you do whatever I say, no?"

I sighed. Whether I wanted to die or not, there was that. This was his house, his country, not mine, and he had something I wanted. If it was too much to handle I could leave. Just rolling with it didn't make me empowered but it didn't make me a doormat, either.

"Now look up," he said.

"Wha—" My sentence burned to ashes in my throat for what we had walked into.

Bright blue encompassed the sky with slashes of white clouds. Structures of shops, from ancient restaurants to luxury brands, surrounded pedestrians along sandstone bricks making up sidewalks. Children ran around a waterfall, shop owners advertised their products in Greek, clusters of men and women and teenagers and adolescents spoke with delicacies in their hands, a family cheered as their boat took off in water glimmering the essence of the Sun. It was as if I smelled life through ten senses.

"Woah," I whispered.

It took me a while to follow after him again from shock over to a dock.

"So everyone in the Christakos family is your cousin?" I asked my random wonder as people from all around began to stare at us walking. Weird stares, too, ones that I didn't get to read well.

Xerxes handed money to a man. "Yes. Polly is my aunt, and those are her kids."

"And you're the oldest out of all of them?"

He got into the small boat, gesturing me to get into it. "No, Achilles is older. I'm twenty-three."

I raised my eyebrows. "So wouldn't Achilles be the leader of House Christakos?"

"No. My father and mother were the leaders of House Christakos." As he gestured for long paddles, I concluded Ms. Merrikat had a less monotonous voice. She opted out of every minor inconvenience and carried herself with splotchy foundation on her neck, so everyone knew she was fucking Principal Masters.

"Do they live somewhere else?" Why I continued this conversation I didn't know.

"No. They're dead," he said. "Don't tell anyone you know that."

Well that took a dark turn. "Oh. I'm sorry," I said sincerely.

Xerxes shook his head. "I was two. It's not like I remember it."

Xerxes started rowing the boat into the sea. Both my eyes grazed against the perfect teal as the paddles penetrated the water to heavenly ripples. It was calming, soothing.

If I only had this water for eternity I wouldn't be working to never see it again.

Then my eyes caught a structure in the water— a gorgeous white yacht. It was completed with wooden flooring and steel railings to grip so one's eyes grazed surroundings with ease. A plethora of servants resembling ants completing tasks in their habitat. Eventually, Xerxes and I were lifted onto the yacht by a guard. He touched a door at the dead center of it.

"Conduct yourself well," Xerxes said. "My Russian soulmate is joining us, too."

Next Chapter Teaser: This next chapter is going to make you die.