"I'm going to walk out the front door, and maybe if I go that way, whatever is blocking me will disappear." She told him and walked past him into the dining room, knowing he followed her as she made her way towards the front.
Vesper ignored several guests wearing nothing but white robes as she walked through the foyer and then placed her hand on the knob to the front door, pulling it open quickly. She turned her head and bit her lip as she looked back at Mr. Hughes who was looking at her with curiosity in his gray eyes. Shaking her head ever so slightly, she stepped out onto the front walkway and walked down the stairs onto the curved driveway that circled the front of the building. Vesper was pleased that she was able to turn left and walk quite a distance along the drive. But when she reached the edge of the spa and began to take the well manicured walkway that would lead her to the airstrip, she felt that familiar burning sensation on her feet. Groaning she turned around and looked at where Mr. Hughes had been walking slowly a good distance behind her. Her tears fell unencumbered down her cheeks and she shook her head at him desperately.
"Why can't I leave? I don't want to be here, you don't want me here. Why can't I leave?" Vesper's voice broke as she spoke to the man who was frowning at her.
"Wait here a moment, Vesper." Mr. Hughes said before turning around and walking back into the mansion.
She walked back towards the spa, at least enough to get the burning sensation to disappear. Mr. Hughes didn't come back immediately, so she sat down on one of the decorative boulders that ran along the front of the mansion. Whatever this burning sensation was, whatever was causing it, it wasn't just being close to Mr. Hughes anymore. There had to be something about this place that was causing her pain, but she couldn't understand what. She'd never even been here before. And a place shouldn't affect her like this.
When the front door opened and Mr. Hughes walked outside with a tall black haired woman dressed in a long brown skirt and a flowing pink shirt over her gently rounded abdomen, Vesper stood back up. She watched as they walked towards her, and noticed that shortly after, a taller and slightly thinner man wearing a light gray robe appeared from the front door and also walked towards her. Vesper could tell immediately that he was nonhuman, because his eyes were overly large and his ears were pointed a lot like hers.
"Vesper, this is Shi, she is one of my employees, and this is her husband, Faeron, I have asked them to drive you to Toronto. I do not know what is causing you to not be able to go to my plane, but maybe if we try something else..." Mr. Hughes had stopped walking about eight or so feet from Vesper, but the woman had walked a little closer.
"It's nice to meet you, Vesper. I'm sorry that your visit here hasn't been very pleasant. Hopefully we can get you on your way soon." Shi smiled pleasantly of Vesper, and they both turned to watch as a sedan pulled to the front of the house and a man with a polo shirt that had the spa's emblem on it got out from behind the wheel and handed the keys to Shi.
"Faeron doesn't like to drive. You may sit in the passenger side seat if you'd like." Shi walked over to the driver's door and watched as Vesper bit her lip, looking at the vehicle with a little bit of concern and her eyes.
"We will drive very slowly, and if you should feel anything, anything at all, we will stop the car quickly." Faeron had moved close to Vesper's side and she was happy that she didn't feel any fuzzy sensations towards him. She didn't think she could take any more right now. Her emotions were wreaking havoc inside of her.
"I'll sit in the back if that is okay with you." Vesper moved towards the door and nodded her thanks when the tall man opened it for her.
Shifting her body inside, Vesper put her backpack at her side and then pulled on her seatbelt as the couple climbed into the front. She waited quietly as Shi shifted the car into drive and ever so slowly, the woman began to pull the car around the circle drive. Vesper was hopeful, But she knew all the muscles in her body were tensed, waiting to see if she would once again feel the burning sensations from before. The car had shifted to the left and the mansion was to their backs and Vesper had just taken a shaky breath of air when she felt the first bits of fire in the tips of her toes.
"Stop, stop. Don't go any farther. It's starting to burn." Vesper whimpered and put a hand on the seat in front of her.
Shi immediately stopped the car and put it in reverse and moved them several feet back the way they came. Her husband looked out the window and around them and then back towards the left of the property somewhere. Shaking his head he turned to look at Vesper.
"It looks like you're only able to go about 20 feet from the property before you start to experience pain. This has never happened to you before?" The man asked.
Vesper shook her head, "No, before a few days ago I didn't even know non-humans existed. Now I can't seem to get away from them."
Her frustration was making her testy, and and Vesper knew that she was being a little short with people who were only trying to help her. It made her lower lip tremble and she felt fresh tears fill her eyes as she looked at the two in front of her in the car. She wasn't being fair to them, And it was mostly because of the way Mr. Hughes had made her feel since she came here. She had to stop letting him affect her like this. It wasn't his fault that she was who she was, he certainly hadn't expected her to exist, he'd told her that enough times. And as irritated as he seemed to be with her, Vesper had no reason to continue to be upset with him. When she had said that she wanted to leave the spa, he had immediately done everything in his power to make that happen. It wasn't his fault that every step she took away from it caused her such immense pain.
"I don't think that you'll be able to leave, Vesper. Unless you think that you can handle the pain of doing so." Faeron frowned as he looked from his wife to the woman in the back of the car.
Vesper sniffed, wanting to sob but knowing this wasn't the place for it, "No, I don't suppose I can. It only gets worse the farther away I am."
"I'm sorry, Vesper. Until we can figure this out, I want you to know that those of us that live here will be more than happy to give you the help you need to be comfortable." Shi spoke gently, knowing the girl in the back was close to crying.
Vesper nodded, and then opened the door and got out of the car. She walked back towards the mansion, her backpack swinging lazily from her hand as she slowly approached where Mr. Hughes was standing near the front door. He shifted back a few feet as she approached, and furrowed a brow as she gave him a miserable look.
"I can't leave. I'd like to go back to my room now." She muttered, hoping that the misery that she felt inside was not totally apparent on her face.
Thankfully, Mr. Hughes didn't seem to have anything more to say and he simply nodded at her and waved a hand towards the open doorway. Vesper walked through it and immediately went to the staircase, walking up several flights before she was in front of the double doors that would lead to the room where she had stayed the previous night. When she was back in her room, she let the backpack fall to the floor as she walked over to the bed that had been made after she'd left the room. Climbing on top of the soft mattress, Vesper laid down on her stomach on top of the bed spread and let her face fall forward onto the pillow near the headboard. She didn't stop the tears that fell, nor did she try to quell the sobs the tore from her throat. This was not what she had been expecting. Her mother had died, and while she had spent her entire life knowing that she was different from other people, the knowledge of just how very different she was had overwhelmed her. She'd come here for answers, and now just had more questions. She knew that Mr. Hughes did not want her here, though it was obvious now that he couldn't make her leave, even though they both wanted her gone.
~*~*~*~
That first day, Vesper spent most of her time in her bedroom, undisturbed by the other residents of the mansion. Eventually, she started to feel a little suffocated and began to walk around the third floor of the mansion, slowly making her way towards a staircase that led up to the rooftop that had been finished off for use by the visitors of the spa. There were wide open spaces with benches and chairs placed along the sides so that whoever wanted to could sit and look out at the beautiful landscape surrounding the spa. Near the center, in an area that would be above the front door of the mansion, there was a large stone canopied area that had what looked like a massive mattress resting in the center of it.
She found herself sitting on one of the benches, finally finding a little peace as she looked out over the tree line along the back of the property. Beyond that, she could see the beginnings of a somewhat mountainous area to the north. As she sat on the bench, she tried not to think about what the mattress was used for. This was a sex spa, and she figured every bed in this place had probably been used at one time or another for that purpose.
