The Marble Tower

-6-

Aaliyah had started calling Ezme her Sanity when she turned fourteen years old.  Though the two girls had good fun with this silly nickname, in all honesty, Aaliyah didn't think that she would have made it as far without her.

Though Ezme was older than her by two years she was a quite noticeably shorter.  Aaly didn't stand much, but when she did Ezme was there.  She had kind, soft brown eyes and honey-comb hair that was always up in some sort of bun.  Whether it be messy or uniform, braided or not, always a bun.

Though technically Ezme wasn't supposed to be her best friend, that's what happened.  They could talk for hours on end or sit in comfortable silence.

And though AAliyah might have been a girl a very few talents, she wasn't dumb, and she knew Ezme.  So when she received the letter saying that her Nan had fallen deadly ill and that she wouldn't be there for a few weeks.  Aaly was immediately suspisous.

And her suspicious were only confirmed when Ezme's substitute walked in.

Though she seemed like she fit whatever criteria that had been set for her everyday aid, she was... silently stern.  She was older than Ezme, by at least five years, but most likely more, she had long dark hair and just as dark eyes that popped on top of her olive skin.  And she was always wearing pastel colors and a perfect, clean, white apron.  There was just something, not just about her but the whole situation, that was just... off.

The first day she walked in, opened the curtains and started cleaning around the room.  Which was strange in and of itself.  She never spoke a word, but took to humming while she worked.  The room was always clean, it might need a bit of dusting from lack of use, but other than that...

The only problem with Aaly's alluding suspicion was, quite simply, lack of human interaction.  Her aid and her doctor were the only people she saw on a regular basis.  And, not even knowing her aids name, she suspected that she wouldn't answer any questions she had.  Especially questions regarding her being there.

Janelle might have been another person to ask.   But there were two things wrong with that.  The first problem being Janelle liked to ask the questions, not answer them, and she made sure you knew when she was event the slightest bit annoyed, and she might resort to default answers.  The other problem being that her new aid had made it her job to sit quietly in the corner and observe when Janelle actually came in.  And asking about the weird aid in front of the weird aid wasn't ideal.  So Aaly kept her mouth shut. 

Until Janelle asked her.