Zero

5 : The Visitor Revealed

P A R T 5

"Wait wait wait," Elli interrupts. "Before you two go on, you should get Paige out of here, Aisling. One look at her and you know she's not from here. She could get robbed."

I nearly facepalm myself. A seven year old has much more sense than me. "Elli's right," I say. "We'd better go somewhere else."

"Back to where I came from?" Paige suggests.

"Where's that, exactly?" I ask suspiciously.

"Guess you'll have to find out," she replies, raising an eyebrow.

I sigh and get up. "See you," I tell Elli and she nods.

Now, nobody has ever told me that I should never go to a stranger's house, but I know it anyway. Yet Paige has an air of importance around her and my instincts tell me she is not dangerous.

I keep my guard up, though, and follow her to the town square and along the edge of the forest that separates the Central Government Firm from the outskirts of Four.

On the other side of the circular building that is the Firm, there is a boundary fence which stops us from entering Five.

There is a guard posted at a gate in the fence. Paige hands him a few money notes -bribery?- and he lets us both through, though he stares at me like I'm vermin.

Once we're on the other side, Paige walks over to a black car tucked neatly in a parking spot.

We get in and she starts driving. I've never been to the cities before, so I take in as many details as I can.

Unlike the small houses of Four, Five has Victorian style ones, which are larger and definitely better.

Six has bungalows and Seven is a mix of larger bungalows and spacious apartment buildings.

Eight and Nine are all glassy, modern buildings.

Paige parks the car and leads me to her high rise apartment unit. One unit alone has three levels! By the way, I have figured out that Paige is a Nine.

I hurry into the apartment to get away from prying eyes when Paige lets me in.

The spacious apartment inside is so clean that I am instantly conscious of my filthy state. I worry about getting the white marble floor dirty with footprints.

Paige glances at me and tells me to take a bath first. I feel so bad about tracking black footprints across the floor that I do not think about imposing on her and just agree.

The bathroom is amazing. I have never taken a proper bath before, so I stare at the buttons on a panel, wondering what to select.

In the end I pick shampoo, conditioner and body lather.

I end up looking and smelling fresh as a daisy. I am about to change back into my clothes when I realise they have been replaced by another set, probably belonging to Paige.

I change into the tee shirt and shorts which are slightly too big for my size but I do not mind.

Paige is in the living room, looking through files that were in the suitcase she carried at Zero.

"Now that you look presentable, let's get to business," she says briskly.

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A/N: another filler chapter :/ this is just to show her settling into Nine! In Chapter 6, things will be clearer hahahah okay thanks for reading! :)