Hidden: Chapter One

Pre-note: I haven't written anything creative (not for school) in over a year, I would really appreciate some honest feed back! Be brutally honest!

My eyes flickered open to a ceiling engraved with byzantine designs. The room was humid, and I lay in a soft and warm embrace of pillows and blankets.The room was dark with only a sliver of light shining through; I rolled over groggily as my gaze followed the dancing golden rays, a girl around my age lay next to me in a separate queen sized bed bed, her face was smooshed up against her pillow, mimicking a pug.

I faintly remembered watching her last night as she spoke in mandarin to a boy on her phone, he then showed up at our window bringing her a cup of noodles and chopsticks, Wǒ ài nǐ she had whispered to him and he left. I felt my eyes droop slowly and the world disappeared again.

I awoke again suddenly as the main door screeched open and a thick australian accent rang through the room telling Anita to get up, it was 7 am and the lights flickered on. The door closed shortly after and I lay with my back turned to her. Anita rose slowly, dragging herself over to the light switch, turned off the lights and she fell against her bed heavily, or so I assumed.

I stayed like that for a while, not wanting her to know I was awake. Finally I heard a movement in the bed beside me and she finally rose, entering a room off of the main one we were sleeping in. The door clicked shut and I sat up as a shower turn on. The room was relatively large for our two beds, two desks and our bookshelves. The room felt empty yet it was full of stuff. I looked over into Anita’s corner of the room to noticed a personal wardrobe and a pile of shopping bags. The room was separated into two rooms; the main tall ceiling room that played the role of a bedroom, and a mud room style entrance with built in wardrobes, the bathroom, and the door to the main hallway. The floor was hardwood, but with a unique oriental design to it and the walls were plainly cream with pictures on Anita’s side of Hong Kong soap opera stars.

The door clicked back open and a turned over in the bed again, facing the window until I heard her open the heavy main door to the hallway and leave for the day. I rose my little body from the bed and walked over to the bathroom.

I inspected myself in the mirror, I looked the same. Long wavy golden hair framed my face that sat just below my chest. Green eyes glared back at me intensely and my milky skin had every freckle I had when I left North America. I felt the same… no, that was a lie. I was scared, alone and confused, mom wouldn’t tell me why she was sending me to Macau, she just told me I had to go to this boarding school, it was my safest option.

I grabbed my phone and kept checking for a wifi signal, but nothing was being picked up. I check the common room that was near the main doors but the australian man wasn’t there. I went toward the glass door on my right, opened it slowly and walked into the main corridor. The large double doors to the building were open, and a matching building lay across the tarsal street. I walked outside in my barefeet.

From my calculations the weeks before and my extensive google mapping skills, I knew what I was looking for. I walked to the right were my building spanned on for another block. I was surrounded by large similar buildings that made up the University campus, we weren’t technically “here” is what I was told before.

The building was large and foreign built. I was used to historic sandstone buildings and marble hallways. But as I entered the tediously dull building, there was a sense of comfort and realism about the place. The entrance separated two concrete buildings which were connected by bridges from above. I checked again for wifi, here I found a signal that was locked by a username and password. A slow cautious anxiety started to build inside of me as I walked into the main building noticing an office to my right, the young chinese women didn’t look up from their desks and I started up the stairs. A filipino security guard on the main level looked at me curiously but didn’t question the girl in red pajamas.

A caucasian middle aged woman sat idly at the large oak desk, she was drowning in bookshelves, she was the first North American woman I had seen since last night, or maybe she was European. She glanced up at me, knitting her brow as her large brown eyes immersed from beneath thick auburn locks. She pushed her hive of a fringe from her face and smiled at me.

“You must be Audrey! My husband told me that you were arriving today!” Her mousey voice rung out. “I’m Mrs. McKenzie.”

The name rung a bell and I quickly made the connection to the history teacher I spoke to a couple weeks ago. I stood there silently as my frozen body slowly started to tremble. Mrs. McKenzie’s eyes opened wide as gentle tear streamed down my cheeks.

“What wrong darling? what can I do?” She asked,

“I’d… I’d really like to get ahold of my m… mom…” I stuttered. Mrs. Mckenzie smiled with her bright teeth and lead me to a small sitting room surrounded by windows looking out into the hallway that had guided me from the stairs to the library. She sat me down, giving me her username and password for the internet. I connected shortly after and the phone rang on the skype app. My mother picked up.

“Hello Darling! How are you liking it so far?” she exclaimed, her light hearted voice was as crisp as always, but a sense of urgency undertoned her voice. She was probably busy at work.

“It’s awful!” I yelled, “I feel so alone, why did you have to send me here?!” my hands shook as the phone clung closely to my ear.

“I promise it will all come to light soon, but you know it’s for your protection. They’ll keep you safe.”

“Mom. Please let me come home,” my voice shook but she took little notice in my discomfort.

“I can’t darling. It’s getting more complicated everyday, if I tell you what’s happening you’ll only be in more danger, I promise I’ll send you back to New York soon.”

“Where are you right now?” I asked knowing her answer,

“I can’t tell you that either. I’m sorry. I have to go now darling, I have a client in 5 minutes.” I turned off the app then, looking around the school that was to be my hell for however long. A blur caught the corner of my eye but as I turned to look out the window near the stairs nothing was there.