THE DISAPPEARANCE
That night, Kei sat in her small servant's room. She looked at her phone.
Fay <3: Mrs. Luz? Why aren't you answering? I'm getting worried. Please call me back.
Kei stared at the name "Luz" on the screen. It felt like a lie now. She didn't text back. She didn't leave a note. She didn't go to Fay's house to say goodbye. If Fay knew she was at Elena's, Fay would come here with flowers and pity, she might even try to pay the debt herself and Kei's pride would shatter into a thousand pieces.
Kei open her phone and took her sim card, she look at it first with hesitant. But eventually she split her sim card into half.
I am not a project to be fixed, Kei thought, her eyes darkening. I won't let you see me broken and I don't want to trouble you. Looks like her pride is bigger than anything.
The next day
The gates of St. Jude's Academy were not like the gates of Kei's old school. There were no colorful banners or peeling paint here. These gates were wrought iron, tall and spiked, designed to keep the world out and the "elite" in.
Kei stood by the black sedan, her hands folded neatly in front of her. She wore a plain, charcoal-grey suit the unofficial uniform Elena had bought for her "minder." Gone was the schoolgirl with the glitter on her face. In her place was a girl with eyes like flint and a posture that was far too rigid for a seventeen-year-old.
The bell rang, and a flood of students poured out. They moved with an air of effortless belonging, draped in designer bags and expensive perfumes.
Then, there was Sofia.
Sofia didn't walk; she sauntered. She was surrounded by three other girls who hung onto her every word like gospel. She was beautiful in a sharp, expensive way, her hair perfectly coiffed and her chin held at a permanent, haughty angle.
When she saw Kei standing by the car, Sofia's expression curdled.
"Oh, look," Sofia said, loud enough for her friends to hear. "My mother's new charity project is here. I told her I didn't need a babysitter, but she insists on keeping the 'help' busy."
The girls behind her giggled. Kei didn't flinch. She didn't even blink. She simply opened the rear door of the car.
"The car is ready, Sofia," Kei said, her voice a flat, emotionless monotone.
Sofia stopped in front of her, leaning in close enough that Kei could smell her expensive floral perfume. It was nothing like the sweet, honest scent of Fay's strawberry juice. This smelled like cold, hard cash.
"It's Miss Sofia to you, maid," Sofia hissed, her eyes scanning Kei's face for a sign of weakness. "And don't think just because you live in the guest wing that you're one of us. You're here to carry my bags and keep your mouth shut."
"I live in the servant's wing," Kei corrected calmly, meeting Sofia's gaze with a predatory stillness that made the other girl's smile falter for a split second. "And my job is to ensure you get home without getting into the kind of trouble that makes your mother cry. Get in the car."
Sofia's face flushed a deep, angry red. "You think you're so tough? You're a dropout. A nobody. My mother told me your father ran away like a coward because he couldn't pay his bills. I guess the apple doesn't fall far"
SLAM.
Kei didn't hit her. She didn't even move toward her. She just slammed the car door shut with a force that echoed through the parking lot like a gunshot.
The silence that followed was absolute. Sofia jumped, her heart visibly thudding against her ribs.
"Get. In. The. Car," Kei repeated. Her voice wasn't loud, but it had a jagged edge to it the sound of someone who had already lost everything and had nothing left to fear.
Sofia swallowed hard. She tried to muster another insult, but the look in Kei's eyes, the look of a predator watching a particularly loud bird stopped her. Without another word, she climbed into the back seat.
The drive back to the estate was silent. Sofia sat as far away from the front seat as possible, scrolling furiously on her phone, while Kei watched the world blur past the window.
Kei's mind drifted for a second. Somewhere, across town, the final bell at her old school had just rung. Fay would be walking out now. She would be looking for a girl who wasn't there. She would be checking her phone for a message that would never arrive.
Kei's hand drifted to the drawer in her mind where she had locked the memory of the "Marriage Booth." She slammed that door shut, too.
"Why do you do it?" Sofia's voice broke the silence, sounding smaller now, though still laced with bitterness.
"Do what?" Kei asked without turning around.
"Scrub the floors. Follow me around. My mother offered to pay for your tutors so you could finish your exams privately, but you refused. Why would you choose to be a servant when you could at least pretend to be a lady?"
Kei looked at her reflection in the rearview mirror. Her eyes looked older than the rest of her face.
"Because a lady relies on someone else's permission to exist," Kei said. "A worker relies on her own hands. I don't want to 'pretend' to be anything, Sofia. I'm building something you wouldn't understand."
"And what's that?" Sofia sneered, regaining some of her bravado.
"A debt," Kei whispered, her eyes narrowing as they pulled into the gated driveway. "I'm paying back the world for what it took from me. And once I'm even… I'm going to start taking back what's mine."
Sofia looked at Kei's rigid back and, for the first time, she didn't feel like a superior. She felt like she was trapped in a small space with something that hadn't quite finished growing its teeth.