I Am Bree - Book 1

Chapter 26 - Impending Doom

            We didn't return to their rooms until well past midnight. Madame barely remembered to shove me back into the closet before she collapsed into drunken slumber. Allowed to keep my clothes this time, I was at least warm in the cramped, smelly space. Tired as I was, I curled up as comfortably as possible and drifted off into blessed sleep.

When I awoke, there was a terrible kink in my neck, and my mouth was dry and chalky. Aside from that, I had the terrible feeling that follows a night of forgotten nightmares. My sleep had been restless at best, but though I recalled the shadows of hauntingly realistic dreams, it was nothing more than a glimmer.

A sense of dread left me feeling anxious. Even worse than that, I couldn't shake the thought that I'd forgotten something incredibly important. Taking a deep breath, I comforted myself with the thought that dreams are just that. There was no way I could have dreamt anything important to reality. Right?

Heavy, incessant pounding outside the closet had been drumming in the back of my mind since I'd awoken. Annoyingly persistent as it was, it drew my attention now, and I frowned slightly. What could be making such racket?

Thudding footsteps told me Madame or one of the girls had finally awoken, and then there was the sound of an opening door. Voices speaking words I couldn't understand reached my ears, and I stopped breathing for a moment in an attempt to make out what was being said.

Obviously, something was happening, for the door shut loudly, and the footsteps crossed the room to my closet. I had just enough time to push into a painful sitting position before the door was flung open. I looked up into Madame's thick face, and despite my discomfort, I thought the view up her nostrils was a terrible thing to see first thing in the morning.

"Good, you're awake." Her voice was hoarse with sleep still. "Apparently, the king wants to bid us farewell." Her eyebrows drew together fiercely. "We weren't supposed to leave until the end of the week, but those pretty, little stunts you pulled last night probably urged him to get us out."

I didn't know what to say. Good? Finally? Perhaps, her plotting would end once she was removed from the palace. The thought was fleeting, for even I knew nothing would stop her now.

"Get up and help the girls get ready." She snapped. "We don't have a moment to lose."

I followed her instructions with some difficulty, unfurling my limbs from their cramped position was no easy task. Satisfied that I was listening, she bounded off on some other errand. I could hear her waking the girls, and I was relieved she hadn't asked me to do so. There was a brief moment of silence, and then the storm raged.

Feet pounded across the floor, and shrill, morning voices barked unintelligible things. The door was flung open, and I took an involuntary step backwards, startled. Adella looked like a waking nightmare in her rumpled party dress and sleep-smeared makeup.

"You," she seethed, her eyelid twitching.

"No time!" Madame's voice called from another room. "Make yourself presentable!"

Adella shot me a look that promised blood before tripping back into her room. I stood in the center of the outer room, wondering what I was supposed to be doing.

"Help me find my clothes!" Flora poked her head out of her room frantically.

Holding my breath against the foul stench, I did as commanded. How she had managed to stink up this room in a couple weeks was beyond me, but I never question anything in regards to her scent any longer.