Chapter 1 Lost

When I got off at the airport and saw the sign with my name on it in the hand of a man in black, I just waved. My heart felt like it wanted to jump out of my chest, but I kept my head up. The weather in the city was freezing, and not even the battered cloak that I wore over a black blouse with a drawing of a woman's hand giving a finger and completely torn black jeans helped me against the cold. I wondered if I was in Alaska since I had never even heard of that small town. I sighed.

"Anubis Hernandez?" The man asked, his listless face in contrast to his completely white skin and greenish eyes.

I shook my head in affirmation and he turned following me out of the airport in a silent warning that I had to follow him. Outside a Maserati Levante was waiting for us, the stranger opened the door for me to get in and followed to another car in the back. It was just me and the driver and I wondered what the fuck was going on! We stayed on the road for about thirty minutes and soon a huge house, which I swore was some kind of white house, appeared in front of us. It was completely walled and seemed to mark the end of the town. A large barred gate led to the entrance, it was wine-colored like the color of the big house. I closed my mouth because I knew I looked like a fool. We passed a huge green area in front of the house, with a greenhouse on one side and a maze on the other. The car stopped in front of the big house, and before I could think to open the door, a man opened it for me. I was too embarrassed to have any reaction.

So I just followed him up ten steps to the front door. I didn't remember that place, although I remembered almost nothing from my childhood. It was when we went through the front door that my jaw really dropped. Every room was covered with blood-red furniture, and the ice walls were the only thing clear in the house. I sighed, observing everything around me. A huge L-shaped sofa took up the living room, facing a huge movie theater-style TV that looked as if it had never been turned on. On the wall there were pictures of the family, and I approached them to look at them, and there he was... Dominique, or better, Dom - as my mother called him. My father. He was impeccably handsome, as he always was in my memory, with a charismatic smile and the twinkle in his eye of a young man, as he always appeared to be. He didn't seem to age, he used to tell me that he was immortal and so nothing would ever take him away from me, I believed. Until life showed me there are no such things as tales of life and people lie. I swallowed the urge to cry, in the worst ways I learned not to show weakness.

When I turned around, such was my shock to find a man in front of me, he was very young, white as paper, blond and blue-eyed, did everyone in that town have the same face?

I wondered how he had gotten there so quietly.

"You almost scared me to death!" I said, running a hand over my forehead and sighing.

"I apologize, dear. I am butler Velch. And it will be my pleasure to serve you." He said watching me.

"Aren't you too young for a butler?" The question slipped from my lips, making me shake my head and mentally curse myself. "Sorry, it's just that usually butlers are cute, pudgy old men."

He smiled. As if he agreed and found it ironic at the same time.

"Yes, that's true. But I'm quite experienced and age in this family is just a detail. Mrs. Hernandez needed to travel and has asked that I serve her breakfast and introduce her to the house and her room so she can rest. I know it was four long days of connecting and arriving."

"Thank you, but I'm not hungry." I replied. "Could you take me to my room? Apparently we will have countless days for a tour and this here looks like the white house." I grumbled.

"Sure, your request is my command." He nodded and headed toward the right side of the stairs.

Yes. There were two huge staircases in the living room, one on each side, and the two joined to form an arch at the top, the whole house seemed to be made of wood in wine. I climbed the stairs feeling exhausted. It had been the most exhausting four days, as I had to take a two-day bus accompanied by a CDJ agent, and two different flights to be here, the last one alone with permission. We followed a corridor that seemed to have no end, and from a distance you could get the impression that it was getting lost, as if it turned somewhere. I found it strange, but preferred to keep quiet, after all, I was the intruder in the situation. He stopped at the third door of seven and opened it.

"This is your room." I said and all my breath went away as I entered.

The place was beautiful. An all white and wine decoration stunned me. A huge bed in the center, in front of it a TV on the wall, pictures and more pictures on one wall, two doors on either side of the TV, and a huge glass door that showed a balcony.

"On this door..." He pointed to the door on the right. "That's your closet. And this one..." He pointed to the left one. "That's your restroom."

I nodded trying to catch my breath.

"I'll be downstairs, there's any time you need me, just call my name and I'll be right here." He said.

That sentence sounded strange to me, so I turned to answer and he was no longer there. His departure was like a breeze blowing past me and closing the door. I ignored the feeling that this had caused me and went to the closet, I wanted to see if there was anything comfortable, because I had showered two days ago and was completely stinky, not to mention how cold it was.

When I opened the closet tears came to my eyes, I dreamed of this one day. Dad said that one day I would, like the princess that I was, inherit a castle. When he died, I erased from my memory all hope of one day actually being a princess because princesses need a man to solve their problems and I had so many that I had to learn to solve them on my own. The place had a spectacular decoration in wine, doors and more doors with names carved in gold. I wondered if it was gold indeed. I wiped my tears and went out, opening door by door, designer clothes, ball gowns, blouses, pants, luxurious underwear. A single door held more than ten different coats from discreet to gaudy and warm. Another door contained several options of pajamas and nightgowns made of silk and expensive cloths. Things I had never owned in my life. Especially during the last year. On the other side of the closet I opened a sliding door and was confronted with several shoes, in different styles, from the most luxurious to slippers. In the center a square mirror held my image from head to toe. And on the other side, jewels and more jewels were waiting for me, as if inviting me to touch them, gold and more gold. No silver.

I felt for the first time in paradise, but the price was not worth it.