Artemis
-Past-
"ART!" the loud voice coming from the hallway. "Artemis! What's taking you so long? We're already ten minutes late!" it followed.
I hurriedly fixed my ruffled, long, flowy dress and ran as fast as I could, trying to stop my tears to fall. Miss Claudia's voice always terrify me. As I met her in the hallway, she noticed my disposition. She signed in defiance.
"Oh dear, I did not mean to scare you. It's okay, I just wanted you to move fast 'cause your friends are waiting for you already. Let's go?" She then offered her wrinkled hand.
I nodded silently, accepted her offered hand, then we walked through the dark, cold hallway of this huge home of ours.
My home... Our home... Is this really home?
I shrugged that idea. Of course, it is! You shouldn't think like that, Artemis! You ungrateful girl!
Our ride was kind of long and tiring. I hugged my doll and watched the green vegetations we passed by. The bus we used is owned by the orphanage.
As what I have heard last night, we are going to visit a rich family. I do not know exactly the reason why we are going there. I just think that maybe, they are looking for a child to adopt.
How I hope that's me.
"Look, Art! I made a dress for your doll," Anya said excitedly. She showed me the small yellow sundress she surely handmade.
I smiled. "Really? That's cute!" I hugged her and gave her a soft peck on her cheek. "You're so sweet. Next time, I'll make one for you doll, too. I hope this trip would end quickly!"
"Shhh!" Miss Claudia widened her eyes at me.
I pouted. "Miss Claudia, what are we going to do in this trip?"
"You did not listen last night, did you, huh? Father Erick told us to visit the Veil Family, they want to meet you all!" she replied.
Thirty kids? Are they really that rich to accomodate such huge number of people?! Wow!
"I wanna be adopted by them!" Anya chuckled. "For sure, they can be good parents!"
"Yes, I'd like to!" Crystal, another orphan interrupted. "I want to experience having parents that would read stories for me at night!"
Everyone argued, the nuns started to groan and make them behave. I looked at the road instead and thought about the possibilities.
I did not have any memory to recall about my parents. It seems like I have been sent in the orphanage since I was a newborn, or something. Where could my parents be? Did they love me? Or was I mistakenly brought here? Did they plan to have me?
Questions flooded my mind that I didn't notice that we already arrived at our destination.
My friends were so excited. They ran and screamed in happiness as they entered a huge, gigantic door of a very huge, out of this world house!
My mouth parted in awe. "Is this a house..."
"This is a mansion, Art. I know this is your first time seeing this, are you amazed?" Miss Claudia remained behind me, held my shoulders and chuckled at my ignorance.
I beamed and looked at her. "Yes, Miss. It's so huge! Are there thousands of people inside?"
She roared a laugh. "No, silly! Told you, they're extremely rich, only two of them live here, with their maids."
"That must be... lonely," I whispered.
"Yeah... They are. But anyways!" She patted my head. "Let's go in, little girl."
Still in awe, we walked in just to be more amazed by the intricate designs of the walls inside the house. A huge living room surprised me even more. It's as huge as our orphanage! I can not even believe it!
"Do not touch anything, everyone!" a nun reminded.
We sat on a very huge sofa. Juice and water were served by five uniformed women. I took a sip. Even their food screams wealth. It tastes rich and well made.
"Senior and Seniora Viel will be here in a minute, Sister. They're preparing in their room," a woman whispered at Miss Claudia.
"Thank you. We will be waiting here."
"Is there anything you'd like to eat, or perhaps, coffee?"
"No, we're fine. Thank you!"
Just before the woman could bid her excuse to us, a loud step of a heel echoed all over the place. I looked up and the first thing I saw on the grand staircase is a black, pointed stiletto. Worn by a woman who's as pale as the snow. Lips as red as the blood, siren eyes as dark as the night, pointed nose, elegance is obvious on her intimidating aura.
I felt my body tremble a bit.
Next to her is a tall, masculine man. Subtle beard covered his face, almond eyes as grey as ashes, nose as pointed as the Romans. He seemed really nice, wearing his bright smile. He guided the woman. The woman doesn't seem pleased at all, she looked very beautiful with her pale skin, pinkish high cheeks, red pouty lips, and small face.
I felt tensed for some reason. My sweat dripped from my temples. I looked at my feet. We stood up for respect to them. I still couldn't look at them.
The man laughed, pleased. "Oh my! Such lovely children! I'm so glad you made it here!"
The woman cleared her throat. I looked at her, our eyes met! My heart beated fast.
"A pleasant day, children..." She smiled a bit, eyes still pinned on me. Her eyebrows shot. "You look—"
"My dear, what about we take them to the garden for breakfast? Come on?" the man cut her off.
She looked at him, then nodded.
"By the way, I am Niko Veil, and my wife Lara Veil. You can call us auntie and uncle, children. You are all welcome in our home. Let's go have some breakfast first?" the man offered.
Everyone jumped at what they heard. They were so excited and happy.
And then, there's me, feet rooted on the tiled floor, feeling tensed for some unidentifiable reason.
Why do I feel like... I knew them?
I followed them. A huge in-door garden is where we ate our breakfast. The man, named Niko Veil seemed very jolly. He shared many stories, jokes, and interesting facts about their mansion.
"This mansion is built in nineteen twenties. My great grand father owns this, after he died, this house was given to us, in accordance to his last will of testament. This one is special, we take care of this..."
"Rich history! Of course, such a rich family," Miss Claudia added. The other nuns agreed with her.
"Yeah, exactly, but without the "rich family" term, please?" Senior laughed. "But some parts of this house were renovated. Needed some enhancement to maintain its strength."
I looked at Seniora Lara. She was eating her food silently. Her eyes darted to me. I was too stunned that I just put my eyes back to my food.
"Uh..." she cut the conversation off. "I'd like to know the names of these very well-behaved children," she added, voice calm as the evening waves.
Worried, I clenched my first.
Artemis! Why are you being so mean to this beautiful lady?! She seems... fine! She didn't do anything that could harm you!
"I am Anya! I'm seven years old, seniora!"
"My name's Crystal, I am six years old," Crystal added, shy, the unusual her.
The others followed and as the introduction neared me, my hands started sweating so bad. I pouted then bit my lower lip.
"And you... dear?" the woman urged me.
Nervous, I looked up at them. I saw the light of encouragement in her dark brown eyes. I gulped and looked at the others. Senior Veil smiling widely, waiting for my answer, Miss Claudia noticed my anxiousness, my friends seemed to not care and just continued enjoying their food.
"I'm..." Go on, Artemis! "Artemis... Seven years old." There you go! I did it!
"Art... Artemis!" Seniora clapped once, looking contented. "Artemis means safe, sound, and unharmed in Greek! Such a wonderful name you have, hija..."
I curved a smile. "Thank you, Seniora-"
"Do you know your surname?" she asked.
That sudden question shocked me. I blinked a lot to process that. I don't know what to say. I don't know anything about myself. I just know my name is Artemis. That's what I grown up with, I was called Artemis by the nuns. But... Surname? Do I even have one?
"Seniora, they do not know their surnames. They are orphan since they were new born babies," Miss Donna, another nun, said, almost a whisper.
"Oh!" Seniora chuckled lightly. "I'm so sorry... Uh, can we have the dessert, please?" She arched a brow to a maid.
The breakfast went really good. But I was a bit tensed. It was already twelve o'clock when Miss Claudia told us to just stay in the play room and wait for them to come back.
We were playing when I felt going to the bathroom. I went out of the play room and tried to look for the toilet area. But then, I got lost! The confusing hallways made me lost my track!
I tried to take more steps but I got lost even more.
I saw an opened door on my right side. My eyes lightened up. That might be the bathroom!
"Lara, please! This is not the right time to bring that shit up!" a man's angry voice thundered.
It was followed by a weak sob. "You don't understand, Niko. You don't understand! I've been trying to find him for years! I couldn't, we couldn't! My heart breaks every night, every day!"
"Ha! Are you saying that I do not care about our-"
"No! But at least put some effort on finding him! You are being selfish! We're running out of time, Niko! You do not care about-"
The man scoffed. "I am being selfish?! We're doing this to find him! I'm doing all my shit! I'm using my goodamn money for our-"
"Then where is he?!"
"Fuck it, Lara! That's why we're finding him, right?!"
The woman cried even more and I froze on my stance.
"If you won't fucking move faster, then I will raise hell to get him back! He's not one of those thirty kids... Bright them back to their trash of an orphanage!"
And then I heard a fast sound of foot steps, her high heels. I hid behind the wall and waited for it to fade away.
Confused, I peeked and saw Seniora Lara's back.
Who's him?