C5 Spotless and Serene yet Spooky

Swings and roundabouts are all that life is about as my father would always say. There were as many gains as losses in everything we do so it wouldn't harm to take the step. No pain no gain: another quote of his. Nothing good hadn't passed through something bad. Faith without deed is dead: his favourite bible quote. He would always say to help yourself first before expecting God to help you. His words 'God doesn't help the lazy ones. He only blesses the work of the hardworking ones'. If only he was still alive. He was an inspiration and a mentor; a lover of God and Christ. He would never let me do what I was about to do. Hell, I doubt if any parent would happily let their children do what I was about to do no matter how high the salary was. I could still vividly remember his facial expression whenever he was against something. His eyes would narrow down, his brows forcefully squeezed together and his forehead creased.

We weren't rich but we were financially stable to cater for our needs. We were happy in the little town we lived in with few or no friends. If only they didn't leave the house to further celebrate their anniversary somewhere else —if only. The unplanned situation made me become a parent. I never expected in my wildest dreams to be a mother and a father to a teenager and a kid at eighteen but this life was just full of surprises, one could only pray and wish for the good ones.

"Would you like me to walk you to the gate?" Cole, the driver Madam Rose asked to pick me up from my flat and dropped me at Gabriel's house said, a small smile playing on his lips.

"No thank you. I'll be fine from here. You can return now," I politely smiled back. Without another word, he gave a slight nod and got inside the car that was parked in front of the huge metal gate. I watched the retreating form of the car until it completely disappeared from my sight. I turned back to the gate and walk towards it, contemplating whether I should ring the bell or just turn around and go home.

The uneasiness was still present in the pit of my stomach which Dave's attitude caused two nights ago and Madam Rose's rules had tremendously added to it. Although she didn't give much away, I could still tell by the tone of her voice that she was happy I was taking the job, to say the least.

"I'm delighted you're taking the job Daphne". She had said. "And about your work timetable, you should only work at the house on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays and make sure to get there at 2 pm on dot and leave 6 pm on dot; not a minute before or after". She paused for a moment whilst I patiently waited for her to continue. "Under no circumstances Daphne should you ever go there on days you weren't supposed to or times you weren't supposed to. Obedience they say is better than sacrifice". With that, she hung up giving me no room to voice my own opinions or thoughts. Her voice had turned stern when telling me about my timetable which in turn, had made me shudder.

I got to resume work that day because it was a Friday. Any sane person would be ecstatic to work only three days a week, four hours a day and get paid that amount. I was happy but not as happy as I ought to be.

Standing there for what felt like an eternity, I looked to my left and right surprised to discover there were no other houses there apart from the one I stood in front of. The odd feeling of being watched was back but I pushed it to the farthest part of my mind. Staring at the metal that shield me from what was hidden behind it, I eventually lifted my hand to gently press on the bell. I had only pressed once when I heard some heavy footsteps from inside, a pause, rustling of keys and then the opening of the gate. The first thing that came to my view was a pair of feet covered in boots, a pair of legs covered in jeans, a sky blue shirt hiding what I could assume was a broad chest and finally, a handsome yet familiar face.

"Bernard?" I asked, a little bit surprised. He worked for Madam Rose and I didn't know he also worked for her son.

He didn't utter a word, only stared at me with a blank expression.

Had he forgotten my face so soon?

Of course, he would have. He had only seen me once.

He stepped away from the little space he opened, making way for me to enter.

"I'm Daphne. The new maid." I introduced myself in the most civilised way I knew the moment I stepped inside the compound.

"Oh right. Madam Rose informed me of your resumption today. This way please". He slowly turned around and sauntered towards the house that stood more than a hundred feet from where we were. He walked rather too leisurely like he had the whole time in the world leaving me no choice but to slowly trail behind him making sure to keep the same pace as him.

"And I'm not Bernard. I'm Brainard. His twin," he said after a moment whilst not looking at me.

They looked too identical: the same height, built, gait pattern and face. It would be really difficult to distinguish between the two of them. Made me wonder why they were also in the same line of work.

"Okay," was all I said because somehow, he made me a bit uncomfortable.

"Is Mr Ogden around?"

"No".

Madam Rose did mention en passant that he was on an emergency business trip.

I forced myself to ignore Brainard's attitude and let my eyes wander off to the beauty before me. A beautiful fountain stood less than a hundred feet from us directly on the paved path we were walking on. The streams of water pouring down from the open mouth of a lion statue standing on a rock with one paw raised fell back aggressively into the pool of water gathered at the bottom of it, creating a soothing splashing waterfall effect. Rays of blue light whose origins were hidden illuminate the statue making it more beautiful. It was indeed a sight for sore eyes. To my left and right were nothing but well-trimmed wet green grass: glistening under the sunlight.

Tearing my eyes from them, I looked forward to realising what I called a house wasn't a house. The closer we got to it, the bigger it became. It wasn't just a house after all—it was more of a castle.

Grabbing the door handles, Brainard pull the huge two doors apart and motioned for me to walk in first. I gave a slight nod of appreciation and cautiously walked in. I found myself in a corridor — a quite long corridor. Apart from the very few antiques that were hung on the wall, the corridor was pretty bare. Brainard closed the doors with a soft but heavy click and motioned for me to follow him again which I instantaneously did.

The dark marble floor was enough to make me awestruck and the creamy walls were in perfect sync with it. I couldn't help but be floored by my surroundings. It was beautiful and I could guess, also expensive. Momentarily, we came before another set of doors which Brainard opened immediately. Like the gentleman that he was, he let me enter first and I was gobsmacked with what I saw. The floor of the parlour was covered with black marble. The walls were dark grey instead and beautiful cream-coloured couches adorned it with a glass centre table in the middle of it; a small statue of a lion and a lioness cuddled together sat on the table.

Gabby boy must have a thing for the big cat family

A large television was moulded into the wall across me. The ceiling was the colour of the night sky with the sparks of stars scattered across it; the only source of light was the chandelier hanging from it. To my left was the dining room with a mahogany table in the middle and chairs perfectly arranged around it. A door in the dining room led to the kitchen. An island with a cloudy sky pattern stood in the middle, two washing basins stuck in it. The kitchen cabinet was also mahogany. This whole place was bigger than my entire flat.

My moment was cut short when Brainard told me to follow him. He opened another door which revealed a flight of stairs and turned right. I quickly followed him. He walked for a while and abruptly stopped in front of a door. Thank God I was walking slowly or I would have inadvertently bumped into him.

"This is the storage room," he said as he opened the door for me. I walked in to find different kinds of tools used for cleaning and gardening.

"Thanks," I said to him as he turned around to leave. He stopped suddenly and looked over his shoulder at me.

"Clean only the rooms you find unlocked and don't even think about breaking into the locked ones". With that, he disappeared. He didn't even bother showing me where to change to my work attire.

Not that I had plans of ever breaking into any room but the way he delivered the warning made me quiver slightly. I looked away from the door to survey the room. It was stocked with all kinds of tools which made me wonder what Gabby boy might need them for. I walked back to the parlour to drop my bag but something else caught my eyes.

The parlour was clean — too clean that it was spotless. There was absolutely nothing else for me to clean. I strode to the dining room and it was the same thing even the kitchen was not left out. The whole place looked like there was just a cleaning spree the previous day.

Then the silence. It was deafening. Even my heartbeat seemed to be too loud for my ears. I kept whirling around on the same spot, my eyes flickering everywhere around me trying to locate at least, one dirty spot to clean but only for my efforts to be in vain. Exhaling loudly, I headed to the stairs.

There might be a dirty room upstairs that needs cleaning

I slowly ascended the stairs, gripping the bannister tight with my right hand for support. It seemed to be a never-ending spiral staircase leading up to nowhere in particular. After several minutes of climbing, resting and climbing again, I got to the end of the staircase and total darkness welcomed me. I peered ahead with my hands searching the wall blindly for the light switch. I eventually found it after it felt like my fingers were beginning to hurt a bit from abrading them against the wall for too long. I hurriedly switched the lights on as the darkness was beginning to scare me. Only dim lights illumined the passage but they were bright enough to prevent me from walking into the walls.

Strange

I began turning the door handle of any door I could find to check if they were locked or not. I counted 16 doors in total and only one was unlocked. The unlocked one didn't do anything to ameliorate my feelings because it was also spotless. I couldn't understand why Madam Rose was keen on getting a maid for the house when there was nothing the maid could do there. There was nothing to clean in the house; the whole place was already sparkling.

I checked my watch and it was just 3:00 in the afternoon; three more hours. I decided to give myself a tour of the remaining parts of the castle since there was nothing to do. After roaming for some minutes, I got to a balcony; a very wide balcony. At a corner of it was a staircase that went straight down onto a paved path that lead into the well-trimmed wet green grass.

I slowly walked down the stairs and onto the grass removing my shoes and letting my feet feel the soft grass. The grass seemed to extend into the tall trees a distance from where I was standing but the trees didn't look artificial. They looked too real like they naturally grew there and weren't planted. It took me a moment to realise, I was staring at a forest. Everything about the castle was strange. Apart from the fact that it stood alone in the middle of nowhere, it also extended into a forest that appeared to have no end and then the strange silence– It was way too quiet even for someone with a personality like mine. Albeit the house exuded elegance and class, it also had an eerie feeling to it.

I looked around me but didn't even catch a gleam of any living creature. I sat down on the grass with my knees folded and my legs spread apart. My elbows rested on my knees and my fingers were intertwined together. I closed my eyes and let myself enjoy the gale of wind blowing softly against my skin.

The odd feeling of being watched resurfaced again. I shot my eyes opened and frenziedly glanced around me but I saw nothing yet the feeling still lingered. I was almost relaxing back when a tree branch snapping at a distance away in the forest caught my attention. Without further delay, I hastily stood and brushed some invisible dirt off my trousers. Taking small and calculated steps, I walked in the direction of the sound.

'Hello!' I called out

'Hello!'

'Hello!' But the silence was all the response I got. Not even the chirping of birds was heard and the tranquillity of the atmosphere was highly uncomfortable. I heard another sound and from the corner of my eyes, I saw something move. I stiffened a bit, scared of turning around to see what it was but no matter how scared I was, I still needed to find out what it was. Mustering up the little amount of courage I had left, I slowly turned around only to come face to face with small black eyes that belonged to a small fluffy creature with a large bushy tail: a squirrel. Relief washed over me. Well, what was I expecting? It was a forest after all.

Maybe nobody was watching me. For what it's worth, I could just be paranoid.

I whirled and quickly made my way back to the castle. It was quite a difficult task to find my way back to the parlour but after endless wandering about, I eventually got there. I checked my watch again and it read 5:50 in the evening. I had no idea I was out there for that long.

Grateful for successfully climbing down the stairs without dying of exhaustion, I roughly grabbed my bag that was sitting on the couch and headed towards the door. I was almost at the gate when I remembered I had no idea how to get home. I was pretty lost in my thoughts during the drive to the castle and I didn't even think of asking Cole before dismissing him after he dropped me.

Brainard gently opened the gate for me and I mumbled an inaudible "thank you" accompanied by a small smile. He gave a slight nod without a word and closed the gate behind me.

How the hell am I supposed to get home now? Maybe I should ask Brainard for directions?

"Are you ready to leave now?" The familiar face of Cole appeared before me with his registered smile plastered on his lips. I was already lost in my thoughts again that I didn't notice a black BMW parked right before me.

I looked at him confused. "What are you doing here?"

He laughed a bit at my question which wasn't in the least funny to me. "Didn't she tell you?"

"Didn't who tell me what?" I was confused beyond words.

"Madam Rose ordered to make sure you arrived safely here and back at home. In order words, I am to drive you to work and back home every day. And she explained your work timetable to me," he calmly explained.

Did he just imply I have my chauffeur?

"So you're going to be like my chauffeur?"

"Yup and I look forward to working with you," he answered bouncing a bit on his feet and a grin smeared his face.

Why does he look too happy?

Confusion didn't even begin to count for what I felt. I was mystified. The whole thing didn't make any sense. How and why would a maid have a personal chauffeur?. How and why would a maid ride in a BMW to work? Picking me up in the afternoon already arouse suspicious glances and whisperings from my neighbours who had special talents when it comes to gossip. I was employed to take care of the house I met spotless and then a chauffeur?. Maybe Dave was right about not working for them because a little suspicion managed to creep into my mind and I couldn't even shake it away.

What the hell have I gotten myself into?