Page 91 of Mama Si's Paradise

“Maybe she’s mute,” said the one next to her. “Not like talking’s needed to be fucked.”

Oh, God…

“Over here!” said the eldest of them again, waving her hand at me. “Focus on me. Tell me your name, child.”

I don’t know what it was about her, maybe the blue of her eyes that made her seem soordinary,like she wasn’t part of this place, like she was real.

“Fall,” I said with barely any voice, and the woman smiled.

“Well, Fall, would you care for some tea?”

No, I don’t care for tea at all—except I didn’t have any more voice left to tell her that. The other women were already back to talking about me, watching me, judging me so openly,discussing my dress, my hair, my breasts. All I managed to do was shake my head and move back, slowly until I was in the hallway again.

Then I started to run as the woman called my name one more time.

The voices in my head kept whispering that there was no place to go, that I couldn’t get out, that I’d be running into one of those men any second, and then I’d be done for good.

But even so I couldn’t stop moving until my legs gave up on me again.

I wokeup in the same bed as that morning, in the same room, my bladder screaming at me. I hadn’t been more uncomfortable since I was being held in the ocean by the fishtail of a fucking mermaid who lookeddeadwhen the magic of her eyes wasn’t casting spells on me.

Shit.

“That actually happened,” I told the room, and my voice came out scratchy, hoarse. My face felt swollen, too. Must have been all that crying. And I didn’t even think about who’d brought me back to this room. I just needed to find a bathroom asap.

I walked out of the room again, and this time I didn’t bother to look on both sides of the hallway—even if someone was there, I wouldn’t see them until they wanted me to see them, so why waste precious seconds? I tried the first doors to the right of the one I was in, but they were locked.

The one on the left wasn’t, and I found myself in the strangest bathroom I’d ever seen.

Black tiles. Black tub. Black shower head. Black sinks. Black, fluffy rugs—and a black toilet seat. Howstrange. Why would anyone go through all this trouble to make everythingblack?

I ran to the toilet, and I realized it smelled like detergent here, and the tiles were slightly wet at the corners, like someone had just cleaned the whole thing. The ceiling was low and there were three big windows on the walls. The lamps between them spilled white light, and it was brighter here than any other place I’d been to in this castle.

When I went to the sinks to wash my face, I saw my reflection and flinched. Maybe it was because I was so used to always looking my best since I’d moved into the Paradise, but the sight of my face scared me. I looked sick—or maybe just swollen? My hair was a tangled mess and my dress had stains that looked like maps from how the water of the ocean had dried on the fabric. I looked so, so pale. The color of my eyes seemed to have leaked out of me, too, and my hair didn’t look nearly as vibrant as its usual self.

I don’t know why that made those silly tears want to come back with a vengeance, pricking the back of my eyes, but I pushed them down with all my strength. I’d cried enough. In fact, I’d cried so much, apparently, my eyes were unrecognizable. Maybe the tears had washed away all the green in them because right now they were a dull brown.

It didn’t matter, though. I washed my hands and my face, eyed the tub and the shower but I had no clean clothes to change into. Then I remembered—Valentine had told me that I’d have clothes when I got back. Maybe he’d left a couple things for me to change into because it was cold here in this dress. So cold I had goose bumps all over me when I went back, pretending not to be terrified to be alone. Pretending I couldn’t care less if someone popped up in front of me right now and told me another ridiculous, completely absurd story which I was now a part of.

Like the siren who cursed an entire continent and her sisters who had to put her in a coma, then kidnapped human children and turned them into vampires and put them on this Isle and made it dark—forever.

My eyes squeezed shut tightly. Most stories I ever read about vampires said that they died in the sun. Was that why that dark cloud hung about the Whispering Woods all the time?

“Doesn’t matter,” I whispered to myself, just to keep my mind focused. Nothing mattered right now except getting out of here. I’d either make it to the shore, or I’d die trying—no in between.

But first, I needed clothes.

Only one set of doors in that bedroom. I went to them and held my breath before pulling one open, then released it together with the fear of finding a monster disguised as a man waiting for me with a smile on his face.

No man here—just clothes. Lots and lots of black clothes.

I’d gotten so used to seeing all the colors Adam had picked for me back at the Paradise. My closet there had been so colorful—warm, lively colors, oranges and yellows and greens and purples. Here, it seemed someone had stolen all of them because the walls were white and the wood of the shelves was painted black, too.

Dresses, dresses, and more dresses. Cardigans, shirts, four different jackets, shoes and sneakers and boots, beautiful silk pajamas, and three big drawers full of underwear. Most were black, but I didn’t care. I grabbed everything I needed. A couple black towels, too. There were no jeans here that I found, but I grabbed a pair of stretchy black pants, a jacket, and a pair of sneakers, and I went back to the bathroom again.

No lock on the door, but since the alternative was not showering, I had to suck it up and take the fastest shower of my life.

I left my dress right there on the floor, and I slipped into the shower with my heart slamming in my chest, until the hot water hit me on the back. Until I was soaking wet, no longer cold, and the steam had filled half the bathroom.

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