Chapter 2 Walking on thin ice

I had slipped into a different world where everywhere I looked, all I could see was a blinding white. I could feel the cold wind biting my skin and it felt so real that believed I was in a different place. It most certainly was a different place, I had never been anywhere near the poles. The bare land covered in an all-white coat of snow, made it seem that way.

I looked down at myself, I was still wearing the same clothes. I tried to remember whether I had opened a door or not. The last thing I remembered clearly, was sitting on the sofa, trying not to fall asleep.

I wryly chuckled when I realised that I had failed miserably, and now found myself in a place where I still didn't know if it was a dream or had unknowingly opened a door and stepped through it, or worse I was going insane.

A sudden, petrifying growl above my head, made me close my eyes and cower. After a few moments, I apprehensively turned to look behind me, hoping that I was imagining things. My eyes fell on hairy legs, and as my gaze moved up, I saw hairy arms; when I reached the beast's face, I let out a piercing scream and found myself sitting up on a bed in a place I had never seen before.

I looked around the unfamiliar place wondering if I had ended up somewhere else when my eyes fell on the man that had stood in front of my door not long ago giving me, his ultimatum. I wondered what was he doing in my crazy hallucinations.

I quickly realised that I was heavily panting, and looked around the room, terrified and felt the wet, warm tears roll down my cheeks.

" Miss Abernathy. You're safe." Mr Kinnaird said in a calm, soothing voice while he carefully approached the bed. I found it hard to believe that I was safe. Whatever that place was. It wasn't real.

I looked at him and before he could reach to touch me, my instincts kicked in and I leapt off the bed and curled up on myself in the corner of the room. Very much like a cornered, wounded, animal. Desperately trying to bring me back to reality. It's not real. Wake up. Those were the words that rolled off my lips in a litany.

" Miss Abernathy, you're in my home. Nothing will happen to you here. There is no need to be afraid." he calmly said while cautiously approaching me, and sat down in front of me, just a few paces away. He sounded real, but I didn't trust my senses anymore. Things shifted around me all the time. It was just a matter of time before he would be replaced by something that would scare the life out of me.

Discerning between reality and what I saw every time I opened a door had become difficult, impossible. I presumed that everything around me was an illusion. A figment of my deranged imagination.

So, I decided to sit in the corner and wait for it to go away or for something bad to happen so I could finally snap out of it and maybe wake up on the sofa in the dining room.

" Miss Abernathy, do you remember me? Mason Kinnaird. We met in Mr Perry's office not long ago." he tried to reach me again, but where I was in those moments, it was beyond anyone's reach.

Mason got off the floor and pulled the bedspread off the bed and draped it over my shoulders. My eyes were fixed on the floor in one single spot, I didn't bother to look around. " Could you bring her some food? I will watch over her for now and tell Carter to come in. I need to speak with him." He said in a hushed voice, making me peel my eyes off the floor and notice that there was a woman in the room with us. Usually, there were creatures, monsters of all sorts, pulled out of mythology.

The woman nodded and stepped out of the room, and shortly a man named Carter replaced her.

" Boss. What are the orders?" He asked, glancing at me, pitying me. I was pitiful, no doubt about and crazy. Two attributes that combined wonderfully, if you wanted to make a lunatic.

" I need you and Adam to deal with the clients for the time being. You'll find everything you need in my office. If you find yourself in a sticky situation drop everything and go." He instructed with his eyes still on me. I couldn't read him, unlike the day we met, he was blank.

Carter nodded " Yes, Boss. What about Louis?" He questioned a bit surprised, with furrowed brows. I couldn't tell whether it was worry or envy.

" Send him to the house. I have a special assignment for him." Mason smirked making Carter frown.

" What special assignment?" Carter asked, a bit confused.

" With Lily here, Enid will need help and Louis is the perfect man for the job. He is useless at anything else." Mason said with a wicked smile on his lips, making Carter chuckle. But the smile quickly slipped off his face and returned to being expressionless.

Carter nodded and stepped out of the room, leaving Mason and me, alone. The conversation had been a welcomed distraction from my misery.

I stayed in my corner in the same fetal position, mumbling to myself, trying to keep myself grounded. If this was another illusion. I didn't mind staying there.

" Do you think she will eat it?" The woman's question broke my thoughts, as she passed the bowl of food onto Mason. She seemed kind and caring, at first glance. But again, I doubted my judgement at that particular moment.

Mason shrugged " Miss Abernathy, would you like to have some food?" He asked in a measured tone, serene and for the first time since I curled up in the corner I lifted my head and looked at the food in the bowl. I've seen food before, I had tried but it was never what I had expected. Usually, it turned into creepy crawlies, critters. Disgusted at the memory, I buried my head again in my knees and continued mumbling.

" Miss Abernathy, try it. Enid made it for you." he encouraged me and I lifted my head. I looked at the food and then at Enid, who kindly smiled and nodded.

When Mason pushed the spoon closer to my mouth, I took it before he had a chance to take the spoon back from me. I snatched the bowl of food out of his hand and devoured it in a matter of minutes. I was starving, quite literally.

" Mind bringing some more?" he asked Enid, who disappeared, and came back with another bowl of food and handed it straight to me.