From, what felt like a million miles away, you could just about hear the sea from the kitchen. If the wind was right and the furnaces dulled, if the old windows (servant quarter windows that no one had seen fit to repair in tens of years) were cranked wide open, there was a gentle murmur, like you’d pressed your ears against the belly of some breathing thing, the excitable cry of gulls and a salty tang to the air. Kzuki’s mind was set on it, as always, days like this her work pace slowed to a fed up crawl and her eyes wandered, only today all of her mental images and scenarios were still tainted by the arrival of the new girl.<br/>She didn’t know her name, but already she’d dreamed all about talking to her, finally meeting someone that understood her and escaping together. A dull, painful hope which she revered with a near sacred vigour,<span style="font-style: italic">Maybe…. Just maybe… </span><br/><br/>Her eyes dropped back to her hands, even they were starting to look worn… her skin was… well, it wasn’t the subtle, milky variety blessed only to children any more and you could almost map out here years of servitude by the roads and crossing paths of pale scars, “How long has she been up there?” her voice barely fluctuated beyond a breath.<br/><br/>Which Veronika naturally took as the spoilt cow was sulking. Again.<br/><br/>“Who?” the matriarch slave snorted, “New bitch? Like you give a rats tail!” she stalked past her, heels snapping at the floor and started to stoke the fires in the oven, that’d kill her stupid fantasies for now, get rid of the sound of the outside world and you took away that leverage.<br/>Honestly!<br/>Was she the ONLY one that did any work around here!? The sooner these lazy gripers learned to just accept it, and perhaps get themselves in gear, the goddamn better!<br/>“You just want someone new to unload all of your emotional shit on! Don’t play the fucking martyr, it just isn’t attractive!” she continued coolly. Why did she even bother!? It’s not like these rich girls ever listened! All they wanted to do was mourn for their pretty, pretty hair! Served damn Kzuki right when the Master whipped away her immortality! Welcome to the world of everyone else, bitch!<br/><br/>“I’m not!” Kzuki howled a fresh wave of tears splitting across her cheeks, it was like Ronnie was just rubbing salt into an open wound, picking the most hurtful things to say to GET to her… what if Nea—<span style="font-style: italic">the Master</span>had put her up to this!? “I…” she swallowed dryly, trying to regain herself. If anyone else caught her crying instead of working there would be hell to pay… “Just… h-how long has she been gone?”<br/><br/>“Oh, if you like her so much, you tell me!” Veronika snapped, hair flicking over her shoulder as she turned. On some level whiny cow was right though… if the new thing fell behind it would land them all in hot water…<br/>She glanced over her shoulder and checked the clock on the wall. What she saw stole the colour from her cheeks.<br/><br/>“Gods alive! What, did the sheets eat her or is she eating the sheets!? It’s been hours!” Veronika dumped the basket of coal she’d been carrying , snapped at her comrade to clean up the mess before breakfast started and stalked back upstairs.<br/><br/>“Amora!” she hollered, throwing open the door to His chambers, “Am--” the word scarcely had time to leave her lips. The room whistled with emptiness. She scanned the room quickly, “Amora?” she repeated, a little cautiously now… one time they’d caught a slightly deranged angel who’d trashed the room, hid under the bed and slit his wrists with a piece of a mirror he’d broken… Lord only knew she did NOT want to find that… that mess again…<br/>“Amora?” She started  frantically digging around the room, flinging open the doors of the dresser, slamming back the door to the en suit—then a familiar sound caught her ears… that sound of waves, the caw of gulls…<br/>The window was wide open.<br/>Time turned slowly. Her pulse ached in her throat like she’d swallowed something live and kicking. A cold sweat broke out across her skin. Veronika ran to that window, but in her world she lurched in slow motion, feet clumsly. They’d forgotten how. Almost slipping. Bracing herself against the sill, she leaned out, part of her mind was already throwing reels of terrible images at her.<br/>A little crumpled body at the bottom, caught up in the brambles, clothes snared, limbs jutting out at odds and ends angles, everything slick with that wretched, wretched, even shine of clotting blood. In her head Amora had bygone the mirror wrist slashing and threw herself clean out to a more… violent end….<br/><br/>Wide eyed, she searched the floor, cursing her eyesight for not being better and hating her muscles for shaking—then something white flailed in the peripheral of her vision…<br/><br/>The bed sheets!<br/><br/>Goddamn! Goddamngoddamngoddamn!! The bed sheets! Those damned sheets! She’d climbed! Oh thank the Godess, she’d climbed!! A slow giggle started to roll up from the bottom of Veronika’s heart, she slumped against the wall and slid down, giggle growing into a relieved laugh.<br/><br/>“OH SILLY!” she chastised herself, grinning hysterically, jamming her palms into her eye sockets.<br/><br/>Then, after a moment, she went quiet… reality hit her.<br/><br/>“Shit!” she scrambled back to her feet, clutching the window sill again and glaring down the nearby woods, “SHIT!” she tore downstairs all the way to the back door, pulling on her jacket at full pelt and fumbled with the key.<br/>She’d escaped! She’d been under their care and escaped! The master was NOT to know!<br/>Veronika cranked open the door and started down the garden path. She’d find her. Oh god, she’d have to!