The Maid at Dartmoor Breach

'You weren't in your room,' I retort. 'Since when do you get up before nine am?'

I stare up at Malcolm, trying to sear his blond hair and blue eyes, his cheeky grin into my brain.

'Since my best friend is leaving today,' he laughs. 'You nervous?'

'Why does everyone keep asking me that?' I mutter.

'Because getting out of the loony bin after almost a decade is a big deal, maybe? Because this is your first time out in the big old world as an adult?'

I take a deep breath. 'I am nervous,' I admit. 'What if ...' I look up at the ceiling. 'What if I relapse, Mal? What if I kill someone out there?'

'You haven't done anything like that since the thing that happened to get you thrown in here in the first place, Red. You'll be fine.'

'I hope so,' I whisper.

He hesitates, looking uncertain as he holds something out to me. it's wrapped in birthday paper and my eyes widen.

'Happy Birthday, buddy.'

'You got me a present?!' I shriek.

He shrugs. 'It's no big deal.'

I ignore him, snatching it from him and tearing it open.

Inside is a small, glass light catcher in the shape of a ballerina. It's painted in pinks and purples. I hold it up to the light and look through it.

'It's just something I made ... for your new place.' He looks away. 'It's stupid.'

'It's not stupid,' I breath. 'It's beautiful and I love it!'

Mal half-smiles sheepishly, but I can tell he's glad I like it.

'Look, I asked the Doc if she'd give me back internet privileges so we can talk still.'

I can't help my smirk. 'What did she say?'

'That she'll think about it if I'm on best behavior and I never buy anything on her credit card again.' He huffs. 'She's the one who left her purse lying around. What did she expect?'

I shake my head, my smile growing wide. 'Mal, her purse was in her locked office.'

'Yeah, but it was just lying on her couch, and I still say that putting fifty koi in the pond out front makes this place look way more upmarket.'

I'm really going to miss his bullshit. I pull his tall frame to me hard, wrapping my arms around his torso.

'Hey, hey, what's this?'

I look up, my eyes swimming. 'Thank you for the present. I'll ask the Doc about the internet too, okay? Weekly call on Thursday nights at eight?'

'You're on, Red.'

'And you'll be careful of Wilkins, right?'

'I always am.'

'I mean it. He's not right. With me not here to focus on ...'

'I'm a big boy, Ripley. I'll handle it.' He looks down at me and I swear I see tears in his eyes too. 'I'm glad you're getting out of here,' he whispers.

I nod jerkily. With a final squeeze, I pull away and leave the room, not trusting myself to look back at him. A horn beeps outside and I go past the front desk, waving to the security guy as he buzzes me out. The Doc is on the steps as promised.

'Got everything?'

'I think so. Look, about Mal's internet privileges ... Do you think you could let him--'

'I'll lift the ban, Ripley,' she sighs, 'but if he buys anything else using my card, I'm going to enroll him in so many online classes, his head will spin!'

I chuckle and nod. 'I'll make sure he knows.'

'Okay. I'm going in now. Goodbyes aren't in my remit.' She gives me a quick hug though. 'Remember what I said.'

'I will, Doc. Thank you.'

I turn to the car and give the driver my bag. He looks at me a little warily and I try to look non-threatening. 'It's okay, I've got my meds,' I say, trying for humor, but he just stares at me wide-eyed and gets in the car mumbling something about it always being the pretty ones.

I grimace.

Oops. Note to self: Don't joke about being from the nuthouse.

Afraid he's going to drive off at speed without me, I wrench open the door and I swear I hear him make a scared noise as I throw myself into the back seat and put on my seatbelt. I click the door shut and the car begins to roll down the long driveway. I look back at the brick buildings.

Just breathe.

I've left the grounds before. Sometimes we go into the local town on field trips, so it's not like I haven't seen the outside world for almost ten years or anything like that.

The car passes through the stone arch, and I watch as the iron gates begin to close. I wave at the camera, knowing that Steve or Arron is probably watching the monitors from the security desk.

And then we're on the road.

It's the beginning of September, so it's still pretty warm out and the trees won't begin to turn for another month or so. I'll miss that.

I roll my eyes at my thoughts. They'll have freaking trees at Dartmoor Breach. I'm being ridiculous and I need to snap out of it! I can't live my entire life in an institution. I wanted to leave and now I have. I should be happy, not wallowing, pining for a half-lived life!

I make a vow to myself, that I will live my days to the fullest now. I'm a regular girl out here, I can make friends and do regular girl things like go to the mall or the movies. I can even go by myself if I want, I realize. I don't have to ask anyone's permission to do everyday life things anymore! I can go where I want, when I want, how I want.

I feel lighter as I look back out at the passing trees, seeing my world with new eyes. Ripley Montclaire is free.

When we pull up to iron gates that look very similar to the ones I just left behind, I wonder for a second if this was some elaborate ploy to move me to a more secure facility. There's no reason for me to think that though. The Doc has never lied to me as far as I know, and she was the one who helped give me the confidence to do this. I can't shake the feeling that I shouldn't be here though.

But that's ridiculous. I guess I'm just afraid of the unknown. Other humans must work in Dartford Breach Academy too. It's not like I'm going to be the only one.

'End of the line,' the driver says, letting the car slow to a halt.

'But this is just the gate,' I protest, thinking about the ridiculously long road to the institution. 'The main buildings might still be five miles up the driveway.'

He eyes me in his rear-view mirror. 'Not my problem.'

His head turns to stare at the closed gate in front of the car., his expression unreadable. 'We don't drive through the breach.

I frown. What the hell is he talking about?

'Okay,' I mutter slowly and grab my bag as I push open the door.

I get out and look around. The iron of the gate is black and ominous, pointed and Gothic. A shiver runs down my spine.

The car door closes behind me and I've barely heard the click before the taxi peels out of the layby, tires screeching like he's fleeing the law. Gravel flies up around me, shards smacking into my arm, and I scowl at the retreating vehicle.

'Asshole,' I mutter, coughing a little at the cloud of dust his car kicked up.

Gazing at the high gate in front of me, I secure my backpack on my shoulder. There's an intercom on a small plinth about eight feet before the gate with a camera on it.

I press the button and there's a crackle over the line as a woman's voice comes out of the speaker.

'Dartmoor Breach Academy.'

'Hi. My name is Ripley Montclaire. I'm supposed to be--'

My voice is cut off and the gate creaks, one side opening just enough for me to squeeze through.

'Go through the Breach and follow the road to the main office.'

I nod on the camera and go up to the gate, swallowing hard and wondering if breach is another name for the stone archway over the gate.

I take a calming breath and straighten my spine. I can do this. I walk slowly forward but the gate starts to close, making me have to speed up. I dart through just as it slams hard behind me.

I feel a little dizzy as I take a couple of steps forward. I should have had breakfast. But then my head clears, and I see a wide, cobblestone road in front of me.

That's weird. I didn't notice that from the other side. I turn back and look at the gate. The layby and the main road beyond look kind of fuzzy.

I shake my head. Yeah, I definitely should have had breakfast I think as I start trudging up the road.

I'm walking for a good fifteen minutes before I see the campus buildings rising up from behind the ridge. They're Gothic too, stark and foreboding against the blue sky. The road slopes down and around majestically. I didn't even know a road could be majestic, but it definitely is.

I don't see anyone as I follow the signs to the main office, but then I realize it's probably still summer break. No one's here yet.

The main door has a buzzer on it too, but as I go to press the button, the door opens, and I step back in surprise as two guys emerge from the building. I blink up at them in surprise. Shit, they're tall. I only come up to their chests.

My rapidly widening eyes finally reach their faces and I stifle a gasp. They're so freaking beautiful, but somehow still masculine as hell. I finally understand what 'kissable lips' actually means. I could slice some cucumber with those cheekbones and their jaws are Michelangelo they're so chiselled.

No men at the clinic looked like this ...

I don't think I'm in Kansas anymore.

'Thanks,' I mutter, finally realizing that the second one with the slightly darker hair is holding the door for me.

'No problem,' he says pleasantly, but after a moment he says, 'You're human.'

The sudden change in his tone has my expression shuttering and I look back up, but he's already gone. The other one's eyes are moving over me with interest though before he turns away too and mutters something to his friend.

Both sets of eyes are on me as they walk off, and I hear their chuckles. They're laughing at me. My cheeks heat and I go inside, not sure what to make of them. I went to regular school until the thing that happened, so I'm no stranger to other kids being mean, but these guys aren't kids. What are their problems?

Shaking my head a little, I try to put them out of my mind. I doubt I'll see them again. I'm only here to do my job after all.

There's an open door to the left and when I peek inside, there's a small woman sitting at a desk. I knock on the doorframe, and she looks up, squinting at me.

'You're early. Classes don't start until Tuesday.' She sighs. 'But I guess you're here now. Name?'

'Ripley Montclaire.'

She looks at a sheet of paper beside her computer and runs her finger down it.

'You're not listed. What dorm were you allocated?'

She thinks I'm a student.

'Oh, no,' I say. 'Sorry, I mean I'm starting work here. My supervisor is Joe Tennyson.'

She stops looking at her list and levels me with a stare like I just spat on her or something. 'Up the corridor to the stairs. Next time, you're to come in the back entrance.'

'Oh, I see. I'm sorry. I was just told to come o the main office,' I say, taken aback by her tone too.

That's the deal with the people -- supes here?

She waves me away, not looking at me again. Guess I'm dismissed.

I go up the hall and find a set of stairs going down. I take them slowly and find myself in the basement. The walls are all cream and look like they've been repainted a hundred times. It kind of reminds me of my room, so I feel instantly more at home.

There's another hallway down here with doors marked 'Boiler Room' and 'Private'. I can hear the humming of a machine and, finally, I find an older man at a desk reading a newspaper. He puts it down at my approach and stares at me.

'Student intake is upstairs. You musta walked right past it.'

'Actually, I'm looking for Joe Tennyson,' I say.

'Well, you found him.'

I give him a smile, glad I've made it. 'I'm Ripley,' I say. 'Ripley Montclaire.'

He frowns and I falter.

'Are you not expecting me?' I ask.

He seems to recover himself. 'Uh, yeah, it's just that I wasn't expecting someone ...' He surveys me, but not the way the guys upstairs did. This is impersonal and he looks confused. 'This is kind of weird to be honest. I mean I got a call from the Dean himself telling me he'd found a fit for the maid vacancy, but I figured she'd be ... you'd be ...' He trails off.

'I'd be what?'

'Older,' he finishes, and I get the impression that that wasn't what he was going to say at all.

'Older? I'm not underage or anything like that.'

'No, no,' he says, standing up. 'It's fine. It'll be fine. Let's get you settled. I'm guessing you only just got here?'

I nod.

'Where from?'

'Oh, uh, Fayetteville.'

'Bout an hour south, ain't it? You got family down there?'

'Yeah, something like that,' I say, surprised that he doesn't know anything about me and keeping it vague.

'I'll show you where you'll be staying and what the job is. Let's get you a uniform and whatnot. Come on.'

'Ok,' I murmur, still a little thrown.

Okay. So, this guy clearly has no idea that I've been living in the institution in Fayettville for nine years. I don't know why, but I thought he'd have been told. The Doc must know the Dean and it looks like my past has been kept under wraps.

'Come on,' Joe says, coming out from behind the desk.

He's a pretty small guy when he stands up, all round torso and stubby legs. He's shorter than me by quite a lot and he has little pointy ears.

'You're a supe!' I exclaim and he barks a laugh.

'Yeah,' he says like I'm being weird. 'Goblin.'

'I'm sorry,' I say, abashed and not wanting to upset my boss the first day. 'I've never met a--'

'Goblin?'

'A supe.'

'Ever?' He looks at me strangely. 'You been under a rock the past few years?'

'Kinda,' I say quietly, realizing I'm going to have to come up with a reason that I'm sheltered as fuck before I talk to anyone else here about myself or there are going to be some hard-to-answer questions coming my way.

He lets out a sigh and rubs his grey beard.

'Is there a problem?'

'No, it's just ...' He shakes his head at me. 'You do know this is a supe academy, right?'

'Yeah.'

'And you're ... human.'

'Yeah.'

He shakes his head again. 'Didn't think I'd fill this vacancy with a human,' he says kind of quietly as if he's not really speaking to me. 'I mean we have to advertise the job to everyone. That's the law, but don't get too many humans trying to work here.'

'Why not?' I ask, genuinely curious.

It's true what I said, I haven't met any supes before, at least not knowingly. It's been ten years since the human world learned about shifters and fae and demons and stuff. And I wasn't really in the world for most of those. Judging from those guys at the door, I think I missed out.

'Because ... well the supes here are uh ... well they ... Look, all of the students are rich as hell and have the attitudes to match. Even the staff ... This can be a dangerous place if you don't know how things work. You're the only human here, Ripley.'

'Call me Red,' I say automatically before his words register. Then, I turn my head to the side. 'So, the kids are mean?'

'Kids? They ain't kids. They're the heirs of the most powerful supe families and they come here to learn to lead. Hell, the youngest is probably seventeen and the oldest ones, well, they look twenty-five, but you never can tell, especially with the fae. And some of them might act friendly to you, but don't you forget they all have sharp teeth and they fine with using them.'

Joe has gone from rubbing his beard lightly to digging his knuckles into his eyes. I think I'm upsetting him.

'I don't mean to scare you, Strawberry,' he says, 'but, shit, these kids are going to chew you up and spit you out.'

'Strawberry?' I ask. That's a new one on me.

'Red and sweet and easy devoured,' he says.

I laugh and he looks surprised.

'I like it, but I'll be fine,' I say with a shrug. 'I'm not as pathetic as I look.'

You don't spend ten years with other crazy folks and not come out with a thick skin. Besides the asshole orderlies, Marcy down the hall used to call me names and throw carrot sticks at me, Jason in the 'bad boy' wing was a serial killer and masturbator. Hell, I have a hundred stories I could recount that always had me and Mal in stitches, but made visitors and newbs cover their mouths and spew varying amounts of horror.

Joe snorts. 'Time'll tell. Let's get to it.'

He takes me to the laundry room first where there are shelves of white sheets and service level uniforms in all different sizes. Pointing to some black skirts and white shirts, he tells me to take a few of each in my size before leading me out of the building via the back way while telling me random snippets of dos and don'ts.

The rest of the morning is him going over my duties as he shows me around the school. It's huge and I'm one thousand percent going to get lost multiple times before I start memorizing where everything is.

There are five dorms all together plus the main office and dining hall plus sports complex and a massive library.

'You can use the facilities like the library and the cafeteria,' he tells me, 'but only when there aren't any students around and not in uniform, okay?' He stops in front of the final building. 'This is where you'll be working.'

Joe takes me around the back and swipes his key card, ushering me inside. 'The top floor is where you'll be.'

We climb four sets of stairs and come to another door. He swipes the card again and it unlocks. He leads me inside where there's a foyer with some shoes on the floor and coats on hooks that he takes me past and through a third and final door that leads into a huge living room and kitchen.

I gape. I'll be living here?!

'Yeah,' he mutters, 'I know, right? Best of the best for the sons of the Ten.'

I nod, not really sure what he's talking about, but not wanting to ask in case he gets more doubts about me and my ability to do this job. I don't want to be sent home with my tail between my legs on the first day after the Doc clearly went out on a ledge to get me this gig.

'You're to keep this place clean, pick up after the four students who live up here.' He points to four identical doors that lead off from the main room. 'Your hours will be dictated by them within reason and should be no more than forty a week. But,' he lowers his voice, 'they're the sons of the Ten.'

He says that last part with gravitas, like it means something.

I nod. 'Yeah.'

He closes his eyes and says something in another language. 'You don't know who the Ten are, do you?'

'Nope.'

'Holy shit. This is worse than I thought. I'm going to speak to my supervisor. This isn't going to--'

I grab his arm. 'No!' I take a breath and look down at my hand clutching him. I let go. 'I need this job. Please. Let me prove that I can do it.'

He stares at my beseeching face for a moment. Then, he shakes his head and mutters that this isn't going to go well as he takes something from around his neck, a white sachet on a long string.

'Take this.' He hands it to me.

'What is it?'

'A charm. It might just keep you alive here. Don't take it off,' he orders.

'But what about you? How will you stay safe?' I ask.

Something passes over his face, and it softens a little. 'Worry about yourself, Strawberry.'

I put it around my neck, and he tucks it under my clothes, being careful not to touch me.

'Don't let anyone see it,' he advises.

'I'll show you where your room--'

'I'll do that, goblin.'

I jump at the deep voice and turn to find a very tall guy coming out of the last door by the kitchen. I recognize him as one of the guys who laughed at me in front of the main office earlier.

I glance at Joe, who I find with surprise is looking down at the floor. He nudges me and I follow suit, not sure what we're doing or why.

'Of course, sir,' Joe murmurs, bowing his head.

'Go back to your basement. We'll send her if we need anything,' the fae says in an imperious voice that makes me wrinkle my nose.

'Very good, sir.'

Joe side-eyes me. 'Remember what I said,' he murmurs.

I nod and he follows the fae's order, leaving me alone with him.