“You!” Lady Grisela shrieks, pointing a finger at me. “Get me another cup of coffee!

I had a name.

“Yes, Lady Grisela,” I mumble, barely loud enough for anyone to hear.

“Did you hear me?” She screeches. “I said, bring me another cup of coffee!”

I’ve been a maid for almost my whole life now. Ever since my parents died, I’ve been adopted
by Lady Grisela to her giant mansion where she pretended she was a kind and generous woman. At
first, I thought so too, but that was before a week later.

She treated me well when I first came to live here; she treated my wounds and gave me
scrumptious meals every day. But when I was well enough to serve her, I never was giving this type
of luxury ever again.

There was a lot of other children here too, all that have lost their parents and had been adopt
by her. Most of them were bitter and gloomy, but some were always smiling and laughing.

Just like my friend Alyssa, I think as I pour coffee into a brown mug. She had lost her family to a
deadly disease at the age of four. I only arrived here when I was six.

I put down the kettle and put the mug on Lady Grisela’s table and quickly walk away.

“Lara!” Mia whispered to me once I left Lady Grisela’s office. “Come here!”

I look at Mia, who had short brown hair and brown eyes. She was a bit older than me and
Alyssa, about twelve. She stood behind the backyard door. “Look what I found!”

Curious, I sprint to her.

We both wore the same brown uniform and white apron, which we wore every day. “What did
you find? I ask, looking at her closed palm. “Show me.”

She smiles, looking down. Then, she opens her palm to reveal a crumbled piece of paper. “I was
cleaning Grisela’s room when I found this!” she says excitedly. “A map!”

My eyes widen as I gently took the folded piece of paper and unfold it, smoothing it out. “A
map?” I breath when I saw a dirty map of Lady Grisela’s house and a thick forest surrounding it…
almost too perfect to be naturally generated by nature… as if it was Lady Grisela who put the forest
there to prevent us from escaping.

I gave it back to Mia. “What are you doing! If Lady Grisela finds out, then she’ll kill us! We’ll get
kicked out immediately!” I whisper-shout at Mia, suddenly in a panic. Lady Grisela wasn’t the
forgiving type.

But Mia didn’t flinch. “Not us, me.”

I frown at her. “But still—”

“Keep it for when you escape,” Mia cuts me off. “It will be useful!”

I didn’t smile. “You’re coming with us…”

 “Don’t be silly,” Mia says, still smiling. But I heard the sadness in her voice, and I knew why.

Ever since I came, there was no child who turned thirteen which I knew. Either they were sold
off or were foolish enough to go to the forest at night.

It was what Lady Grisela told us every time one a twelve-year old kid was missing. But I had my
suspicions.

“No,” I say firmly. “You’re coming with us.”

Mia stops smiling. “You don’t have much time either before you turn twelve, so you and Alyssa
must escape quickly.”

“We’ll talk about the escape plan once we go to bed,” I snap at her.

Mia looks at me calmy. “Stop being such a worry-nut, Lara. But I must say, your quiet sharp for
an eleven-year-old, so there is a chance you may escape.”

“Mia! Lara!”

Mia and me turn to Alyssa, running to us. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere but I couldn’t
find you even when—” she caught sight of the map in Mia’s hands. “What… is that?”

Mia smiles again at her. “See for yourself.” She shoves the map into Alyssa’s hands.

Alyssa had an uncommon hair colour; ginger, which was mid-back long and curly. She had
beautiful blue eyes, like the day’s sky and she also had thin lips. She looks at the crumbled map. “A
map?”

“Of our whole village!” Mia continues. “This is our way of escape!”

Was every conversation we were going to have be about the escape plan?

“Quite!” I hiss at them. Even though I couldn’t see Lady Grisela, I had the deep feeling that she
was always watching us. “She’s going to figure it out if we don’t stop talking about it!”

“‘She’?” Alyssa asks, turning to me. “Who’s she—”

“She means Lady Grisela,” Mia grumbles, answering for me. “Fine, we’ll discuss it at night—”

“You three!”

All three of us turn to Lady Grisela’s daughter.

Alyssa quickly shoves the map into her pocket as me and Mia turn.

Meranda was no different from her mother. Even single thing we did wrong was reported
immediately to Lady Grisela by her own daughter. “Come clean my room!”

I frown at her as we followed her to her room.

The mansion was huge, which included five massive rooms, seven bathrooms in almost each
corner of the house which we weren’t allowed to use, two kitchens and a dining room. It also had a
big backyard.

There was a total of thirty girls living and working in this house, including me, Alyssa and Mia. All
different ages and each different from one and another. We only had one thing in common; none of
us had a family.
 “Hurry up, you brain-dead cows!” Meranda screams at us. “I’ve seen turtles move faster than
you!”

None of us said a word, quickly moving faster until we arrive at her room.

It was large and had a king-size bed in the middle, with two night-stands beside it. Meranda was
older than us, almost eighteen. She also liked ordering us and watching us suffer.

“I want it clean by evening!” Meranda shrieks and leaves the room.

She’s like her mother, I think while I look at her messy room. And even though there are more
than twenty maids in this house, her room is always untidy.

“Mia?” I say, turning to her when I realize she hasn’t moved.

Alyssa also turns to her. “Mia? Are you feeling ill?”

She doesn’t look sick; I think while I continue to stare. She looked… shocked.

But suddenly, Mia ran to Meranda’s bed and kneeled to the ground, putting her face against the
hard floor. She didn’t say a word, but I knew something was wrong when she turns pale.

Me and Alyssa kneeled down next to her and we both saw the same thing under Merenda’s
bed.

Blood.

Lots of blood.

I was too shock to move and started shaking instead. Alyssa and Mia didn’t move either.

I was sure I turned pale too.

Where was all this blood coming from? I ask myself. Who had so much blood anyway? And why
was it under Meranda’s bed?

“H-how… did you—you know?” Alyssa chokes out, breaking the tense silence. She looks at Mia
with scared eyes. “Mia…?”

Mia stands up quietly. “I-I could smell it…”

Mia does have a sharp nose, I think as I slowly stand up, even struggling to balance on my own
two feet. “Mia… what do we do?”

Mia was much more sensible than both of us, I think. She surely would know what to do…

“I don’t know…” Mia says to me. But then she looked at both of us. “We need to run… now.”

I knew she wasn’t joking. “But how…? We don’t even a plan… and we have never been outside
—”

“I don’t care,” Mia snaps, leaving the room. “We have to make a run for it… and maybe one of
us can escape—”

“Help…”

Mia turned back to us. “Who said that? What help do you need—”
 “I didn’t say that,” Alyssa frowns. Then both of them turn to me.

“I didn’t say that either!” I blurt out, eyes widening.

“Please… somebody…”

Me, Alyssa and Mia look at each other, then at Merenda’s bed.

“Help us…”

The voice was faint and barely noticeable, but I realize it was coming from under Merenda’s
bed.

“Somebody…”

“What was that?” Alyssa chokes. “Or was it just me...?”

“No,” I answer softly, slowly moving towards the bed. My whole body was shaking and my legs
were about to crumble down in fright, but I continue moving towards the bed. “We all heard it.”

Alyssa and Mia follow me.

“It’s coming from below,” Mia murmured. I heard her breathing very loudly.

“Now…what?” Alyssa asks. “Where are the voices coming from?”

“The best thing we do is run,” Mia says. “We don’t know what Meranda and her mother are
up to but I wouldn’t want to know.”

“But we need to save them!” Alyssa argued. “They need help!”

I couldn’t pick sides.

One part of me wanted to help whoever was there, the other wanted to run away as far as
possible and just start crying.

“We’re kids,” I finally say. “If they couldn’t escape, what makes you think that we can?”

“But…but…” Alyssa’s voice trails off. “Then your cowards.”

Mia and me looked at her.

“What if they need help?” Alyssa asked. “We can save them. We can safe all of them!”

“No, we can’t,” Mia snapped. “Firstly, we don’t even know where to go or where the voices
are coming from. Second, none of us here can fight. Third, how are we going to help them if we find
them? Carry them?”

Even Alyssa couldn’t argue.

“We have to go now?” I quickly say.

“Wait,” Alyssa said sharply. She tried to open a locked drawer but it wouldn’t budge.

“Aly, what are you doing?” Mia hissed. “We—”

“Pin?” Alyssa said. “Any one of you have a pin?”

I nodded weakly and took out a small pin from my hair and shoved it to her.
 Alyssa put it in the lock and twisted it.

“What are you doing?” I ask. “Alyssa?”

I heard a snap and the lock opened.

Alyssa opened it immediately. “Oh no…”

I scampered to her and looked inside the drawer with Mia.

Mia gasped.

I choked on my own breath.

Because inside the small drawer… was the names of each person that ever disappeared.

And next to those names were a hair pin belonging to them.

I recognized a few of those names but some were unfamiliar.

“Maybe this is their way of making sure they remember them?” Mia said weakly.

Definitely not.

Mia tugged at my sleeve. “We need to leave now.”

Alyssa and I didn’t argue as the three of use ran out of Meranda’s room in a panic.

“But where to go?” I wheezed when we reached the backyard.

“Map,” Mia snapped, looking at Alyssa.

Alyssa took out the map from her pocket and opened it. “It says there’s a—”

“Village!” Mia jumped. “There’s a village right behind this forest.”

“Come,” Mia grabbed both of our hands and dragged us to the tall, yellow fence.

“We’re going to climb?” Alyssa gasped.

“The front gate wouldn’t work,” I said, starting to climb up the fence. “And there’s no back
door that I know off.”

“We really can’t help them?” Alyssa asked quietly.

“We’ll come back to them when we’re ready,” Mia assured.

I knew it was a lie.

Alyssa knew too but she said nothing. “I can’t climb.”

Neither could I.

“It’s fine,” Mia said. “I’ll climb up first and then lift you up.”

“I doubt you can lift me up,” Alyssa argued. “And shouldn’t we at least warn the other kids?”

“The less people they are, the more likely to escape,” I answered. “If a lot of people escape
together, she’ll definitely find us.”

“But what if she tortures the others for information?” Alyssa pointed out.
 Good point.

Mia ignored her and climbed onto the fence. “Hurry!” she reached her hand to Alyssa while I
climbed up next to her and sat on the fence.

Alyssa took her hand and scampered up and down the fence—

“You three!”

I saw Meranda running towards the fence we’re sitting on.

“Mother!” Meranda screamed. “Mother! There’s kids trying to escape!”

“Damnit,” Mia murmured. “Now we’re really caught…”

“Stop talking and run!” Alyssa snapped, pulling her down to the other side of the fence. She
grabbed both of hands and ran into the deep forest.

I’ve never been outside of the giant mansion before so I was slow to adapt to my surroundings.
But it was what anyone might expect from a deep forest.

With thick trees and bushes and vines hanging from branches. There was barely any sunlight
coming from the sun since the trees were blocking it, making it hard to see where we were walking.

I only knew where my two friends were because they held each hand.

“What if we get lost?” Alyssa pressed. “What if we never find our way back again!”

“Quiet,” Mia snapped. “They’re probably looking for us.”

“Oh my!”

I heard both of my friends freeze and so did I.

“Who said that?” Alyssa whispered, barely loud enough for me to hear. “Who said—”

“We heard you the first time,” I breathed. “But it wasn’t me.”

And it wasn’t Mia too, I thought. The voice was high and sharp, likely a female’s, and Mia’s
voice was not at all high nor sharp.

“What a surprise!”

There was that voice again. I squinted my eyes but still saw nothing. Behind me, I felt Alyssa’s
hand shake.

“It’s a pleasure that Lady Grisela has brought we lunch so early!”

Lunch?

Does whatever that thing was wanted to eat us?

If it does, then we better run—

“It is unusual for her to send food on a Tuesday.”

I saw a tall figure stand before us. It was very dark but I could make out it’s long hair and dress,
which was torn in several parts. She had sharp pupils in her muddy brown eyes while she had sharp
teeth, stained in blood.
 She looked insane.

“Who—who are you?” Mia’s voice shouted, but I sense her fear.

The woman laughed. “Oh me?”

Yes, who else?

“My name is Lavi,” she giggled. “And isn’t it an honour to get killed by me?”

She was going to kill us.

I’ve heard about these people before. My mother use to read me stories about them; but I
didn’t believe her, I thought she was playing with me. She told me they were known as man-eating-
demons.

I didn’t know any more about these strange creatures, who feasted on human flesh to gain
strength.

“Don’t look so afraid!” Lavi grinned. “I’ll make sure to give you a quick death so that you don’t
feel any pain!”

That’s not helping.

“Split up,” Alyssa whispered. “Split up, now.”

Alyssa was right, even though I had no intention of splitting up with them. It will be more
difficult for the demon to catch and kill all of us if we split up.

She’ll only get one.

And based on my luck, I’ll probably be the one.

In a flash, all three of us ran in different directions. But Lavi didn’t flinch. Instead, she smiled
calmly, making me shiver more.

But then, she reached out both her hands.

I didn’t stop.

Her hands suddenly started growing longer and longer, stretching out in different directions. It
became bigger, making her sleeves tear apart.

My eyes widened. She didn’t need to chase us; her hands will.

One of the hands reach for me and grabbed my arm tightly, her long nails making scratches on
my wrist.

I tried to break free, but she was surprisingly strong and she gripped me so tightly I felt my bones
crack.

I screamed like I’ve never screamed before.

And somewhere in the distance, I heard Mia screamed too.

She caught us.

How about Alyssa? I ask myself. Maybe she escaped! Maybe she’s alive—
 Lavi laughed loudly, knowing she’d won.

I picked up a stick from the ground and smashed it at the long hand.

It didn’t even flinch, as if immune to the pain.

I knocked it at her hand again, harder this time. I kept swinging the stick and hitting her with the
stick, harder and harder each time but it still didn’t let go.

“Let me go!” Mia screamed.