Seeing with the Shadows

Chapter 42

Calista:

         She hadn’t quite gotten used to the constant chills that would run through her during the night from having rooms so far from heaters, but Calistas was settling in. It was quite a change to not see anything electronic and to not really have anyone to talk to because she didn’t know who she could trust. It got lonely, but she knew that being there was important.

         It was dawn when she and some of the other girls had finished getting dressed and combing through their hair, all sharing a tiny bathroom with a pocket mirror hung on the wall.

         They walked down the hallways, feet quiet on the thick red carpets, and damp air seemed to creep in through the stones in the walls and have the one mission of making you freezing. Calista had been put to working in the kitchen and helping serve and arrange the food along with the six other girls she was walking with.

         The kitchens were on the opposite side of the mansion as the bedrooms for the maids, so walking there took about ten minutes, speed walking five, and running took about three unless you were unfortunate enough to crash into something or someone and break whatever they happened to be carrying.

         The cook, Mandy, was a really sweet person. She was probably still in her twenties, maybe early thirties if she just looked young. She had dark brown eyes and straight dark brown hair that she wore in a high ponytail or a French braid every day, and always got to the kitchens before the girls did, no matter how early they tried to get up.

         The girls at the front of the little parade pushed open the swinging doors, and they all quickly put on aprons. It was a Saturday morning, so everyone would probably want breakfast in bed.

         “Alright, good morning girls!” Mandy chirruped, smiling at them and put her hands on her hips, looking around to see if everyone was there, “Today we’re making strawberry muffins, scrambled eggs with sausage, and crepes with all of the usual toppings- caviar, sour cream, cinnamon, sugar, lemon slices, strawberry sauce, blueberry sauce, melted chocolate, and of course fresh blood that they just delivered to us. Let’s get this breakfast made!”

         Calista went to the back door and picked up the glass bottles full of blood, delivered the way they used to deliver milk to Humans.

         “Coming through!” Annette, a classic blue-eyed blonde, yelled as she carried a huge metal container filled with strawberries behind Calista and heaved it up onto the table. Two other girls immediately joined her and began taking the tops off of the strawberries.

         Calista set the blood down on the table next to Mandy so she could double check to make sure it wasn’t spoiled, and she went to help Rosemarie, a short girl with black curls streaked through with brown and a very loud voice with making the strawberry and blueberry sauce.

         After all the food had been made and arranged, a couple of the girls went to bring it to the members of the family that had already rung their bells for breakfast.

         They always made extra, and this time there were about fifteen more muffins, a gigantic bowl full of scrambled eggs, lots of extra crepes, and about a half a cup of all of the sauces left. The remaining people in the kitchen quickly set about cutting up fruit and making a gigantic pot of oatmeal. Most kitchens that make gigantic pots of oatmeal make it nasty and mushy, but the oatmeal Mandy made never seemed to taste bad or mushy.

         Calista grabbed a strawberry muffin, stabbed a hole in the middle, and poured a little bit of chocolate sauce in. She closed her eyes, “Heaven.” If people got up early enough, they could come in and eat leftover exceptionally good breakfast. If not, they still had a good breakfast of milk or old blood, fruit, and oatmeal, but not amazing quality food with all fresh ingredients.

         Calista loved working in the kitchen because she and the other girls got first dibs on all of the good food because they got to work with it.

         Once all of the people had come through the kitchen for breakfast, they cleaned everything until it shone, had about half an hour to an hour of free time, and then started to prepare lunch.

This was how most days were, with little breaks in between unless a family member suddenly had a craving for a certain type of food that absolutely had to be prepared and delivered to them as soon as possible.

Calista hadn’t actually run into the writer of the book, but she knew she would soon. She might have come a little bit too early, or they might just not have run into each other yet. She knew she would, though.

AUTHORS NOTE: ugh I ALWAYS do this Sunday night so sorry for the shortness... PROCRASTINATION lol happy mothers day! Love you guys THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 1000+ VOTES OMGGGGGG! VOTE COMMENT FAN!

tova