Keeper In Training

Vaults

By the time we started walking, a snow flurry had started. With the white crystals softly fluttering down on us, I squint and try my best to look up at the clouds without them getting into my eyes. Katerina is trailing behind me and Cori by a good five feet, and I can only assume it is either because she doesn't want to see her brother, or because she's annoyed with my general presence.

Glancing away from Katerina, I look back to Cori. The silence in the atmosphere is disturbingly uncomfortable.

I clear my throat, jogging up to walk alongside Cori. "So you think her brother will know what's going on?"

"Yes," she uses her thumb to scratch across the tip of her nose and stuffs her hands in her jacket's pockets, "he's a specialist when it comes to this sort of thing, so I have no doubt in my mind that he'll be able to help you."

"He also specializes in being an asshole!" Katerina sarcastically pipes up from behind us.

"Shut up, Kat." Cori whips her head and shouts back, irritated about her friend's commentary.

She turns her glance back at me with an apologetic look plastered on her face. I shrug, assuming it's just petty sibling rivalry.

"We should be there soon," Katerina chimes up from behind. I hear her run up towards us, "and something to keep in mind before you meet my brother; just know that he can be a tad... snobbish."

I can't help but scrunch up my face in confused amusement. "Oh, he couldn't be that bad–" I start to chuckle, but my laugh falters when it's met with silence. "Could he?" I furrow my brow together in slight concern.

"Well, he can be a bit much, sometimes."
"A bit? The least you could do is be more honest with the woman..." Katerina glances at Cori and then back at me "Just don't say I didn't warn you, Sienna."

...

I sit in the main lobby and quietly fiddle with my hands, nervously waiting for Cori and Katerina to report back to me. The quiet crackling of the fire is the only thing filling the silence of the room.

After what feels like an uncomfortable eternity, a quiet conversation starts to fade in from one of the rooms, presumably connected to a hallway.

The door across from me opens and I jump, violently straightening my posture out in surprise.

Cori, Katerina, and a man who looks like a masculine version of Katerina enter the room one by one.

White freckles sprinkled across his face like a sugar cookie, the spots oddly being lighter than his almond-toned skin. His hair was the same shade as Katerina's, just messy and wavy. He had thinly framed circular glasses that rested gently on his hooked nose.

He appears to be a couple of years older than me but looks down on me as if I were the same age as his sister and not a fully grown woman.

He quietly glances me up and down, taking in everything he can about me, like a deer making sure something is safe to approach.
He startled me a tad bit when he first spoke. "What is your name?" His voice is raspy and deep, yet it still has somewhat a sliver of boyish charm to it. I say nothing in return to his question as I get lost in thought, but before long he approached me and snapped his fingers in front of my face, bringing back my attention to him.

"Well? Do you even have a name? Are you a mute?" He bends down slightly so he can make eye contact with me. I remain silent. I tap the arm of the chair I'm sitting in, slowly getting more anxious. He puts his hand onto mine to stop the tapping.

"Stop it; you're acting like I'm interrogating you when I'm only simply asking your name." His eyebrows furrow as his eyes looks into my own. His judgemental stare gives me a sense of caution, one that I've never felt around someone before.