Page 45 of Mama Si's Paradise

“Look. There are animals out there. You can see them moving if you stand really still for long enough,” Amber said, pressing her hands on the glass and blowing her breath on it before she drew a heart and kissed the middle, leaving her pink lipstick on the surface.

“Wow,” I said, shaking my head. “I didn’t know there were so many trees on the property.” Just how big was this place? Because I’d seen a lot of the outside, and most of the yard was filled with pools, dining spaces, bars, and party areas, and I’d never seen more than palms lining a space or a bunch of much,muchsmaller trees separating pool areas. Nothing even remotely close to what I was seeing here right now.

“It’s a big mansion,” Amber said, stepping back to sit onone of the uneven stairs. She must have been here a lot of times before because she walked backward and sat down without even looking where she was going. I joined her, still a bit shaky.

“Have you ever been out there?” I asked.

“Nope. No idea how to even find this place from outside this room, to be honest. There are no doors that lead out,” she said. “Still, there’s something about it, right? It’s dark and scary, but sometimes there are butterflies sort offloatingin the dark, and then there’s fireflies, too. In pinks and purples and greens. I swear I’ve seen them,” she said, looking at me like she expected me to call her a liar any second. “I’m not crazy or anything,” she then added.

“Oh, I believe you,” I said, laughing—and I really did. “This place. This whole place…” The air itself in the Paradise was different. I sighed. “There’s something about it.”

“Of course, there is,” Amber said. “Why do you think they all come back for more? Why do you think people pay so much money to come here? They can’t get enough.” She shook her head but she was smiling. “Why do you think the idea of leaving the Paradise makes you sick to your stomach?”

As if to prove her point, my stomach twisted and turned uncomfortably. “Exactly,” Amber said.

“I was actually—”thinking about that,I was going to say, but then something moved behind us, and I all but passed out. We both turned to the top of the stairs to see a maid standing there, so silent until she cleared her throat that we hadn’t heard a single thing.

“Holy shit, you almost gave me a heart attack,” I muttered, holding onto my chest as if to stop my heart from flying out.

“I’m very sorry to bother you, but Miss Amber, your presence is required in the Medusa,” the maid said, and her voice seemed to be carried down the stairs by the air differently. Slower. Almostinwaves.

Yeah, the Paradise could fuck with your mind even better than I ever thought possible.

“Oh. That’s a surprise,” Amber said, jumping to her feet, perfectly composed already. “I’ll be right there.”

The maid was already leaving the room, and Amber was already climbing up the stairs, but I found I couldn’t even get up. I didn’t want to.

“Coming?” she called.

I looked at the forest beyond the glass. “Actually, I think I’m gonna stay here a bit longer. I’ll find my way back.”

Amber shrugged. “Suit yourself. See you in the morning.”

“Thank you, Amber. Have fun.”

She laughed. “Oh, I will.”

Her footsteps kept me company until she was at the door and out.

Then I was all alone.

Thirteen

Not sure howlong I stayed there, but eventually I began to feel the cold. I’d half laid down on the uneven stairs, had made myself comfortable with my arms under my head, watching the sky and the forest, thinking. Wondering—about everything. Floating shelves and glowing water and reasons why the Paradise was what it was. Reasons why the Paradise felt like it wasn’t even part of the real world, but a fantasy that Mama Si allowed us to take place in somehow.

Such silly thoughts, I understood that. But my mind wandered as the cold air hit my ankles like someone had turned on an air conditioner and pointed it at me.

Which was strange, but I didn’t really realize it. Not until I sat up, body a bit numb, and I decided to call it a night.

That’s when I saw where the cold was coming from.

It wasn’t an air conditioner at all—it was the outside. The cold air was coming from the outside, from the missing glass panel Amber had stained pink with her lips.

I blinked and blinked and blinked, sure that I was seeingthings. Sure that I’d lost my mind because that piece of glass had been right there until a moment ago, just like all the others to the sides of it that made up the wall. That piece of glass had been there, and Amber had kissed it, had left the imprint of her lips right on it. I’d seen it, had looked at it even after she left.

Now it was gone. The lipstick was gone, and so was the glass. A goddamn piece of glass as big as a door had simply disappeared into thin air, and I hadn’t even noticed it.

My instincts told me to run. Just get to my feet and run up the stairs and outside this room, go get a maid or Mama Si or anyone at all to come see that the glass was gone. It wasgone, and it hadn’t been broken or anything. I’d have heard, would have seen the pieces of glass, but there were none.

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