Chapter Two (Part One)

When Kaiden finally awoke, he immediately noticed the absence of the nightly chill that usually crept into his body and seeped down to his bones whenever he spent a set amount of time in his bedroom. The realization lost its pleasantness as he recalled the lead up to his present state, the bed and pillow still covered in blood around where he'd laid down his head.

Wait a minute, where's my shirt?

All he had on were his socks and a pair of briefs. How wasn't he shivering right now? He pushed himself up without much discomfort, surprised to find that his face and chest had been cleaned while he was asleep, though he didn't have a mirror so he wasn't sure if it was a thorough job.

Just as he was wondering why his face no longer seemed as swollen, a maid in her mid-twenties walked into the room carrying a bucket of warm water and a few folded towels.

Why did it have to be her? 

With a body that belonged on the cover of a swimsuit magazine and the heart of a benevolent angel, Carol was one of the prettiest women on the property and easily the biggest crush Kaiden had ever had. All of the maids on the Collins Estate were gorgeous, to the point that it wouldn't prove much of a surprise if it was found out that they were hired solely based upon their looks, and even the male employees were buff and charming. This said a lot about the type of people that had taken him in. Carol had the most unique eyes that he had ever seen, a forging of silver and steely grey, which drew focus amidst her long, black curls. She was one of the only people that was friendly with him, and had even helped him with his chores on a handful of occasions.

She jumped back when she saw him, and let out a relieved sigh. "So you're awake? They were saying that you'd fallen into a coma, and were about to take you to the hospital. I'll go tell Ma'am right away."

Kaiden let out a mirthful laugh. "Don't bother. They did this to me to begin with."

The young woman put on a complicated expression, as if she had stumbled upon an implicating scene and was hesitant to get involved. "Is that true?"

"It was Brent. And my grandpa too, I guess. A nice reward after washing a hundred sets of dishes, those scums."

She closed the door and then approached with concern, lowering her voice to a whisper as she set the bucket and towels by his bedside. "You don't have to answer this, but me and some of the girls have been wondering why you work here all day. Shouldn't you be in school?"

"You're asking the wrong guy," he sighed, a strong habit that had formed since he'd moved to this hellhole. "I'm basically a prisoner here, and I'm not being dramatic or anything. They took my phone and my laptop, and that shitty grandpa of mine even said he'd have me arrested somehow if I left. He also told me not to tell anyone, so I probably shouldn't be bringing it up."

Although he wanted to look mature and stoic in front of such a pretty woman, he hadn't spoken to anybody in the past two years about his abuse, which made him say things that he normally would've kept to himself. "You know, my dad died when I was nine, then my grandma a couple years back. A few months later, I lost my mom and then I wound up here. You think they would show me a little sympathy, right? But instead, I'm living in some rated R male Cinderella bullshit situation, except I've got a hundred evil relatives instead of just five, or however many there were."

"Kaiden..." said Carol in a soft, sorry tone.

"And this?" He motioned to his bloody sheets. "This happens all the time, this is just the first time it's somewhere you can see."

Her eyes had grown moist. "I had no idea. None of us did! If it's that bad, why not just leave?"

"I've tried. The guys at the exits never let me leave." He felt some wetness on his hand, and realized that he was crying.

Damn it.

Carol pulled him into a gentle hug, though she began to appear more disturbed by the second. "Who could have known that something like this would be happening at the Collins Estate? If news got out, it'd shock the country. Ah, this is complicated."

Kaiden pushed her away as gently as he could, so as not to offend her.

"Don't worry about me. There's no way in hell I'm sticking around here. I've already got a plan, so there's no need for you to risk getting mixed up with whatever's going on here."

He was lying about the plan, of course, since it was clear that something shady was going on around him. He'd learned a lot of interesting things while eavesdropping on his aunt's conversation with her son, things that created whisperings in his mind that his mother's death was somehow related to what they had discussed. With the situation worsening so quickly, he didn't want to endanger the only decent person he knew.

"This isn't right. I feel terrible not doing anything."

"You've been nice to me, Carol. That's more than anyone else has done."

He recognized the mixture of pity and sadness that filled her eyes, though she quickly collected herself.

"Well, if you say so." Still sitting on the bed, she pushed at his shoulders. "You'd better lay back, then. You've still got some blood on you. At least let me wash it off."

She grabbed one of the towels and dipped it into the bucket before bringing it up to gently pad at his neck and hairline. Soothing and slightly stimulating, an unexpected awkwardness settled into the room. Good things rarely happened to Kaiden, so he cleared his mind with much effort and forced himself to enjoy the unsuspecting attention.

As Carol was lightly washing his forehead, she said, "Donika wouldn't stop going on about how puffed up your face was, but it seems fine aside from the bruises."

"Bruises? Where?"

Carol took out her cell phone and opened the camera app, took a picture and then showed him. Fading raccoon eyes and a small blotch of green atop his right cheek.

It's not that bad? He'd been beaten many times during his stay on the estate, though he rarely healed this quickly.

"Guess I'm a bit more sturdy than I thought."

A message popped up on her phone as he held it, so he returned it to her.

"This damn woman..." she muttered.

Her reaction made Kaiden laugh. The message had been from his aunt.

"I've got to go. Apparently the head of the family just returned from Japan and I've got to go help clean up his compound." She stood up and prepared to go, though stooped back down and shocked him by giving him a light kiss on the cheek.

"Come talk to me if your plans don't work. I'm not sure what I can do, but I'll try to help you."

"I..." he said, his face heating. "Okay. But why the kiss?"

"Not everything in life is horrible, you know."

"Uh, can you do it again?"

She did, but he turned his head and stole a real kiss from her, which she quickly drew back from.

"Hey, that's not what I was—"

"You're right," he smiled. "Not everything is horrible."

She was only flustered for a moment, recovering her composure like the mature adult that she was. "This rascal..." She left the bucket and the towels behind, and promptly turned to leave. "Don't forget what I said."

As the door shut behind her, Kaiden felt like a new man. He'd just kissed a grown woman, and a gorgeous one at that. It almost justified his low-key captivity, and distracted him from all of his worries for a good ten minutes after Carol had left.

Thinking about his situation, he recalled something interesting that Carol had said. The head of the family had just showed up at the estate after a year overseas. He'd always been polite to Kaiden, and so had some of the people that lived in his compound. He had only spoken to the man a few times, but since then he'd learned that the family head had been close with Kaiden's father since childhood. He had been the one to pick him up from the Terry Fox Airport on the east end of the city, despite his incredibly busy schedule. The thing was, he'd only been around for about a week in total since that foreboding day, and he clearly didn't know what sort of conditions Kaiden was living under.