CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE: A BRAZEN EDGE

\-ARTEMIS- 

Dinner hadn't been as anticipated. With Catherine missing and Bella not flaunting her braids or trying to kick me out, something was really wrong. 

Mom had gone to bed after I had assured her that all would be alright. It didn't feel good knowing I had no knowledge about their well-being, but I could only hope they hadn't had an argument that led to nasty butts. 

They fought quite a lot but they had the most unusual combinations. They are almost the same thing, not the meat type and they had these color combinations. Catherine is better than Bella when it came to fashion. I ask her for advice most of the times and better still Bella let her ego down when it came to that. 

The rise of the morning sun set a slope of responsibility in me. Catherine hadn't returned, and without her, I had to make breakfast. The other maids were not as good as Catherine, so I just had to cook it to my taste.

"Morning, Mom." I yawned as her footsteps lingered in the kitchen. 

"What's good about the morning? Bella has not come home, and we haven't heard from Catherine. I mean? What's there to be grateful for?" She exhaled. 

"Life, mother, life. We're grateful because we are alive. Catherine might have run off somewhere or maybe taken a break without our knowledge, and Bella's is probably downtown, as she said."

"I doubt Bella is downtown; she hates that place with her life. She never goes there unless she has modeling practices, and she'd always be back before ten. Something must have happened to her." Mom whispered into my ear. 

"Nothing happened to her mother. She's still suffering from her and Jamie's breakup. She just wants a time out." I assured. 

"She and Jamie broke up, and no one in this family told me. I'm starting to think I'm a stranger to you guys." He let out, his hand on his wrist. 

"I thought she told you."

"Like she'd tell me anything about her relationship life without bragging about it. I'll give her some time, but if she doesn't come back by midnight, you'll have to go downtown along with Jamie."

"There's absolutely no way I'm going with Jamie." I let out, banging my hands on the sofa. 

"There's nothing you can do about it, sweetheart. He's her man, or was at least. They can patch up things if it was a little misunderstanding, and it helps in healing also." Mom said as she tipped the red carpet a bit. 

Healing? It had been quite a long time since I heard anything about healing. I had believed Jamie and I had no sort of connection, but I hadn't healed from him. I still felt the need to speak to him in my heart, but my emotions had to be tied down. 

"You'll survive this trying time, Artemis. You might think your sister is an opponent, but she's just a level to make you stronger. All you have to do is tip the tables around, show her kindness, and extend your arms when she falls. She'll come running and pleading for a chance to make things right. Works every time." Her face lit up. 

"Why haven't you opened up a motivational restaurant?" 

"Because I'm too lazy to do it, and your father decided that the family business is enough to take care of us all." She heaved. 

"You know what I think. Do what you feel your heart wants, make yourself comfortable with your environment, and do what makes you happy." I declared. 

"That speech should be for you, though." She chuckled, making her way up the stairs. 

With Mom thinking of what to do with her skills and her mind off Bella, I could get to the bottom of this. Bella wasn't the type to keep tabs, so it was useless to find anything in her room. 

Catherine lived alone in the boys quarters out back. She had made it her healing spot and a place where she could have a perfect rest. The maids often gossiped about how they kept tabs and journals of how their day went by, but I thought of it as a useless confrontation that made no sense. 

Keeping tabs meant your secrets could get leaked. If you're secretly doing something without anyone's notice, it would be leaked in minutes with the help of it. Though it was good for protection, it was bad if it fell into the wrong hands. 

After breakfast, I headed for Catherine's quarters. The thought of her having a journal that would twitch everything open was enough to calm my nerves down. 

The boys quarter was like every other boys quarter, but it had a nice ring to it. The exteriors and interiors were finely painted and well furnished. The doors were made of oak wood from the finest carpenters in the whole of Hyperion, and the doorknob was quite a shocker. 

Upon getting to the door, I stretched my hands, grabbing the doorknob. I turned the knob, but it didn't budge. With a grunt, I jammed myself onto the door. The door refused to be lifted, holding back as I slammed myself once more into the door. 

After minutes of futile pushes, I decide to take the windows, which leads directly in. Luckily for me, the kitchen window was wide open, and a chair to lift me in edged to the wall. 

I climbed in gently, adjusting slightly to make sure my jeans weren't caught by the sharp siding. I jumped down after a successful entry, and behold, litters of papers struggling to get underneath the various pieces of furniture. 

I bent, picking up the papers to read. They were nostalgic notes on a faint yellow paper, scattered all around. From the little I had seen, they contained information about her and her past. 

Her journal?

I bent over, picking up the papers that struggled to flee. I could get all the information I need on her and Bella if I could piece them all in. They had numbers below, which made them easier to accumulate and read. 

"Is this blood?" I said underneath my breath as the papers had red stains on them. The stains ran straight to an ivory-colored door. The hunch of it being her room curled up in me as I followed the trail to the door. 

"Anybody here?" I let out as the door creaked open. 

Before me stood a heap of yellow papers flying around the room. They all had text, which meant more information for me. I bent to gather them, the scent of blood lingering beneath my nose. 

The scent of blood grew more and more as I leaned closer to the bed. The papers seemed to have slipped out beneath the bed, littering the floor like it had been attacked. 

I raised her sheets up, letting the covers move out. With the little confidence instilled in me, I took a peek at the world beneath the bed, hoping the answers would be sorted. 

It was dark, little insects crawling out. I reached for my pocket, pulling out my phone to get some torch. After a brief fight between my thumbs and the password imprints, I finally got the torch on. 

My hands aimed the torch perfectly, trailing the blood lines to the source. Nothing seemed to show up except some pieces of flesh. 

No, it was a body… cold and lifeless with a book in its arms.

"The life of Madelyn Catherine."