It took about 3 days for me to recover but not fully. My ribs were broken, so they wrapped a tight bandage around them. The nursing staff kept me updated on how Avalynn was doing as I recovered. My worry is that recovery no matter what Harrison asked will have to be half assed. I will still have a limp but I’m not falling over anymore. I waited for the next round of nurses to come through.

  I could tell what time of day it was by how the sun was hitting the windows outside the room, it was 2 pm. A nurse should be coming in by 2:15pm.

  Mildred Hemary walked into the room right on schedule. The Hemary Family has been surviving the Grimshaw’s for well over 150 years. I think about 12 generations of women plus some women of their families they married into. Mildred is 54 years old; she is the kindest out of the older women in the family. Mildred is under Lady Blackwood’s set of nurses while the others are under her eldest sister’s rule. Which never made sense to me in the slightest.

  “Scarlett, is there a reason you are out of bed.” I laughed a little, I moved myself into the chair next to the bed so I could sit properly.

  “Sorry I wanted my feet to touch the floor, and my back not hurt at the same time.” I smiled at her; she smiled back and shook her head. Mildred is one person I could joke around with; outside of other Blood servants who reside here. There are very few people outside of the Blood servants you can …trust with the fun side of you. Not just the docile, meek, obedient thing you were made into.

  “I understand that, but the last time you tried this, you were hollering in pain. A dog might have thought you were dying. Let alone the rest of the house.” Mildred said, as she stripped the sheets off the bed.

  “Yes, well. At the time I was in denial that I had any broken ribs. I am sorry about that.” Mildred gave me the side eye. I always know when she is having a good time. Her face shows all her emotions.

  “Well, your denial made it easier for us to treat you without a fuss. I know you don’t give a physical fuss like the others, but we can tell when you are skeptical about what we are doing.” Mildred had already stripped all the bedding off, as well as the pillowcases. She walked to the door and rolled in the steamer.

  “I’m sorry,” Mildred lifted her hand in protest.

  “No more apologies. I know you have something on your mind. So, we can go back to the small talk later.” Mildred said. She knows more than she lets on and I am fine with this.

  “I was wondering if there was anyone who could help me get to the Pet Room. I would like to see Avalynn. I don’t want this to go on any longer.” Mildred had plugged in the steamer and walked over to me.

  “If you can walk from the chair to the wall in the hallway and back without falling or wincing in pain. Then I will personally go see if there is anyone to help…” Mildred proclaimed.

  “Really?” I asked more shocked than I thought I would be. I was going on a limb to ask someone. However, Mildred is one nurse I am used to hearing no from. She rather see results of her patients being able bodied before she lets them do anything reckless.

  “Would I rather you stay in bed and rest? Yes. Nevertheless, Avalynn’s health is also weaving, and I don’t like to see her so down. She is isolating herself; she comes out enough to satisfy her family. Other than that, she is in that room, waiting for you. Seeing you are able to make it there and back I am willing to let someone take you halfway to the pet room in a wheelchair and you can walk the rest of the way and finally talk to Avalynn.”

  Mildred is very close to Avalynn. When Lady blackwood was about 2 months away from giving birth, she was plagued with a variant of the flu. However, during this time Lady Blackwood started contractions 3 weeks early. It was Mildred who was the one who advocated for her to check the baby. Avalynn was born a month early. Unfortunately, when lady Blackwood gave birth, she was too weak to nurse. On top of this Lady Blackwood developed Pneumonia 6 days later, she was quarantined for 2 months. Mildred was the one who took care of Avalynn until: Lady Blackwood was ready to come home. Avalynn is Mildred’s child as much as she is Lady Blackwood's. No one can tell anyone otherwise. Seeing Avalynn not being a kid breaks Mildred’s heart.

  “You ready?” Mildred Asked. I nodded my head. I put both of my hands on each side of the chair and lifted myself up slowly. My chest feels like it was being set on fire when I go from lying, to sitting positions, as well as sitting to standing positions. I was finally straight when I looked into Mildred's eyes. She had a stern look, it meant she was studying me.

  “Is something wrong?” I asked. I wasn’t so interested in if something else was wrong with me but if she was going to make me get back into bed and abort mission. Mildred stared at me for another good thirty seconds before looking me in the eye.

  “You move like you’re an 80-year-old grandmother with a walking cane. When you are done talking to Avalynn. You will come back here, and you will be given antibiotics. Okay. Well, if you make this test, you will.” Mildred gave me a taunting smile.

  I gave her one back and straightened my body out.

  I started to the door, almost losing my balance on the fourth step leading to a normal rhythm. I walked to the main wall in the hallway and back to the chair I was sitting in. As I got to the chair I turned and faced Mildred with a smile on my face.

  Mildred nodded her head and left the room. She didn’t need to say anything, I succeeded and she went to do what she promised.

  Although I succeeded, I feel like my bones are trying to break from inside me. My body is firmly rejecting me being mobile. I find it cruel that I am in this state. Though I find my life cruel in the making, I fear something worse is ahead. I have this notion that I am prone to accidents, broken body parts and just pain through my body before my life starts to hit the fan like a balloon full of feathers. However, in this analogy the fan sparks and those feathers caught fire, and I must run again. This happened around the time my parents died, the time when I helped convict my sister, and when I first moved to the Blackwood’s residence. This pain doesn’t signify death is coming for me. This pain tells me another grim is walking in my path and to get ready.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Scarlett!” I looked over at the door. There Mildred and Micheal Blackwood stood. Micheal Blackwood is what I call a stand-alone Blackwood. He is timid around people, but smart as all hell. He is the kid that took both Lady Blackwood’s and Harrison Blackwood’s good traits and fused them together. Micheal and I have never had problems with each other, but he also was 10 when I came into the picture. He was told one thing by his family and society, but he also took note of how I work around his family. He is one of the only ones who made his own judgements.

  “Hello, Scarlett.” Micheal looked conflicted. “I will be taking you to Avalynn’s pet room. Are you okay to make it to the wheelchair.” I could see that the wheelchair faced the other direction outside of the door. I nodded my head and started to walk to them.

  “Wait.” Micheal said out loud. I looked up and he looked more conflicted in what he was saying. “I will bring the wheelchair in here I want you to have as much strength as possible. I can even see you have some pain.” Micheal walked out of the room and rolled the wheelchair back in. I turned around and sat back onto the chair. When Michael could tell I was seated he moved me out of the room.

  As Michael rolled me down the hall, he was silent. Though, his silence was louder than words. He doesn’t know everything that has happened, just like I don’t truly know why the whole family is sitting in Blackwood’s home. We crossed through the northern side of the house where servants’ elevators are. Micheal passed the elevator with a swiftness and went out through the garden area. As Michael slowed down into a normal walking pace I could hear him muster up his voice.

  “Scarlett, we have a good enough relationship, where you would tell me the truth, right? You wouldn’t lie to me, even if I asked you too?” Micheal asked. Micheal’s voice sounded old yet very young. He sounded like a twenty-year-old man, but his voice quivered as if he were the age of 10 again. Asking if he did something wrong.

  “Yeah, I will always tell you the truth. Whether you like what comes out of my mouth or not. I promised you that when I first met you and I had not changed my mind nor my attitude towards that promise. What do you want to know?”

  The air outside was thick, like something was heading our way. The trees were moving in the breeze, but the clouded sky says that it will not just be a breeze soon.

  “Do you know why my aunts and uncles are here?” Micheal asked.

  “From my understanding because they heard about the incident and they wanted to make sure that Avalynn was okay.” Micheal was quiet for a minute.

  “When you made your way to the room you heard them talking. What did you hear?” Micheal asked in a harsher voice.

  “I heard them talking about Avalynn and something about Lady Blackwood getting over a fight at a funeral. Or something along those lines. Lady Blackwood and her sister were getting into a heated argument and your uncle stepped in. Then I also heard about Hadley-Aria, and the death of her and her other family members. Other than that, I was woozy, so I only heard snippets, like Eli’s name and Avalynn. I was too fair and too out of it too to hear what was truly going on in those conversations.”

  “So, it wasn’t you.” Micheal Mumbled.

  “What wasn’t me?”

  “Eli was paranoid that day because you weren’t the first blood servant up in the Kinder wing in the last 48 hours of the incident. He was pleading with mom saying the Blood servants were moving around the place without permission and this was the third time he had seen them. His brain saw it was you, but he knew you weren’t the servant that was breaking the rules. That and the drugs is why he spazzed out so badly.”

  “Blood servants don’t have access to those rooms unless someone tells them too.”

  “Like Hadley-Aria bringing Aaron’s briefcase and suits up to his room without permission. Or Hadley-Aria saying she was told by Aaron that she needed to go to his room for a deck of cards because of his friends. Things he would never ask of her, even if he was being lazy.”

  I looked back at Micheal, shocked.

  “How… there is no way? I never knew she was doing that. If I did, I would have stopped it right away. I would have…” My brain stopped. This was planned for a while, Hadly planting things to make a villain. I was the unlucky victim; However, there was no way she planned it on her own. She was never that conning. Someone was telling her to do this and how to. I turned back on the chair and waited for the next question.

  But nothing came.

  * * * * *

  Micheal stopped at the corner of the library. I looked up at the wide double doors of the library and felt guilt running down my spine. If I hadn’t tried to make it to this area of the house, would any of this have happened? Ironically the pet room was three doors down from the library.

  Avalynn, when she was 5, said she wanted it there. So, if she couldn’t take care of her pets or if they needed something I would be around to help them. She told her family that I would never let anything happen to her, meaning I would never let anything happen to her friends. I remember that day as one of the scariest but happiest days of my life. No one has ever complemented a Blood Servant, let alone one with the savagery that my sister had committed. Avalynn was such a good child who knew what would hurt her before really understanding the meaning of it. So, when she said this at the dinner table in front of 6 other blood servants and her family. I was waiting to die, but Lady Blackwood laughed and so did Harrison. The next day they installed the pet room near the library.

  I started to lift myself when I felt Micheals hands rest under my rib cage of the right side and under my armpit on the left.

  “Thank you.” I said as we stood up fully.

  “Don’t thank me, just make sure my sister comes out and stays out of there for a least a week. Please.” I looked back at him, and Micheal was more relaxed then when he came to get me. I nodded and made my way to the pet room. It took a minute for my walking to look decent but that is probably why Micheal made me walk from the library to here.

  As I made my way to the door I started to bang on the wall in a rhythm. Two fist full bangs, two flat hands, then 3 fist then I stopped. 3 seconds of silence then reversed the rhythm. 3 fist, 2 hands, and 2 fist. As I got close to the door, I did both combinations together. By the end of the combination, I was at the door of the pet room. I raised my hand to knock when the compression door opened. The door moved open slightly, and I investigated the doors sliver of an opening. Just to see Mercy moving her head out of the door frame.

  Mercy is a Lancehead snake, she is one of the deadliest types of snakes around. However, Mercy in particular was a rescue snake who had an odd run in with another lancehead. The fight had obstructed the venom she produced. Meaning she doesn’t produce as much venom as a regular snake. Mercy is one of my favorite snakes out of Avalynn’s pet room, which is more like a reptile room that she keeps her dangerous animals in. Avalynn was testing who was coming in.

  “Well hello Mercy. It looks like you just shed your coat, you must be a happy snake.” I took Mercy out of the door, and not even too seconds later I found Avalynn on my shoulder. She hugged me so intensely.

  “I’m okay sweetie, don’t cry. There is no reason to cry over me.” She held me tighter. I forget the emotions of a 12-year-old girl. When everyone tells you something is okay, but you know damn well it’s not until you see it yourself. She has been waiting too long for me to recover and that is a Spector of my own doing.

  “Do you mind if I can come in?” Avalynn released me, wiping away her tears and walking back into the room with her head down. I took a deep breath and looked at Mercy. Mercy’s hazel eyes could either make you feel like friend or prey. Today it made me feel like she was crying for the three of us.