It was bitterly cold, the likes of which I’d never felt. Wind whipped against the little bit of exposed skin left on my face and I silently cursed my fair skin again but for a whole new reason.
I now knew the effects of windburn on pale skin. Not pretty.
On the other hand, I was beginning to blend in more with the locals in the quaint little town of Balloch.
I’d been here for almost a month after making my way northeast following my escape from the “drillers” whom I’d thought were my friends.
I thought they were more than my friends. I thought they loved me. What a damned fool I was.
Despite being in the middle of nowhere, Christmas was apparent everywhere in the tiny spot. The townsfolk had taken great pride in decorating fence posts along the endlessly snowy fields with ribbons and wreaths.
Even in my desolation, I had to admit there was an inspiring beauty to everywhere. When I was a child, I think that was exactly how I pictured Santa’s village.
I walked up the icy path leading away from Mr. McCally’s small farm and into the village itself. I’d been very fortunate to have landed there. It wasn’t just because the townsfolk had welcomed Blanche Arbor into their midst with very little question, offering my new persona a job as a housekeeper in their various farms. It was also because Balloch boasted a Western union .
That was why I’d chosen to stay there.
Blanche Arbor was the ID I’d stolen from a woman who had vaguely resembled me as I escaped Inverness. The only person who knew who I’d become was Alex and that was only because I’d needed her to send me money.
“I’m coming to you,” Alex told me, calling my phone only from her own burner.
“Uh no,” I insisted. “They could be watching you. That’s why you’re calling me on an untraceable phone, remember?”
“I hate this!” Alex wailed. “I need to see you, Sash. You can’t keep living like this!”
“It’ll be over soon,” I promised but of course I was lying to her. If anything, this was just beginning.
At least I didn’t have to ask her for money anymore, not when I was making my own.
From biochemist to housemaid.
In all fairness, I didn’t think of myself as the same person anymore. I was trying my best to assimilate, not only for my own safety but also that I could forget about a life I could never return to.
“What are you telling my mom?” I wanted to know.
“Ariel thinks you’re on a top-secret mission to Russia,” Alex muttered. “Trust me, I don’t think she could be anymore freaked out if I told her the truth.”
“You’re not telling her anything,” I insisted and she sighed.
“I’m not going to say anything to her,” she promised. “But I wish you could come home.”
“This is my home now,” I told her. “Maybe one day you can come visit.”
I was thinking about the tears in Alex’s voice as I ventured into the town through Barn Church Road and then turned left on Culloden.
The primary school was letting out and I couldn’t help but pause to watch the children scampering down Inverness toward the main road, screeching with delight as the plowed into one another.
I realized what they were so happy about—it was the start of Christmas break.
A sad smile touched my lips and I continued toward the Kinney’s who had rented me a room in their attic. It was almost like an apartment, with its own bathroom and I found it insufferably lonely.
The Kinneys traveled a fair bit for work, both of them freelance something or the other from the city who had given up the pain of pavement for the comfort of country. They were happy to have someone to watch their demon cat when they were gone.
I didn’t mind. After living with seven men, I was glad to have the company.
You never lived with seven men, I chided myself. You barely stayed with them.
And yet, they had changed me in ways I could never explain.
I didn’t want to think about them, none of them. Their silence spoke volumes to me. When I’d been on the road for those first two weeks, I’d been looking over my shoulder constantly, not because I expected someone to come chasing after me but because I’d hoped to see one of their faces coming to bring me back.
When they didn’t, I realized that they were probably glad I’d left. I was one less thing for them to worry about now.
Letting myself into the house, I paused to remove my boots and coat before ambling into the living room. The Kinneys were in Jamaica over the holidays but they had given me permission to pull out their old “yule” tree and decorate it. I’d barely gotten started the night before.
I was forcing myself to go through the motions, to be this new woman with a new identity.
I didn’t know who I was bound to become as Blanche but I knew I had to at least pretend to get there.
It’s psychology 101, you see. You can trick your mind into doing anything. If I tell myself I’m Blanche Arbor long enough, I will become Blanche Arbor, Scottish Highlander and housekeeper with an accent et al.
Jinx, the demon cat, appeared, his black head butting against my leg as he walked around, eyeing the glass Christmas decorations with too much interest.
“Don’t even think about it,” I warned him. “If you break one of those, I’m throwing you out and the wolves can eat you.”
He stared at me balefully with yellow eyes.
“You think I’m kidding?”
He meowed and hissed at me before showing me his asshole and disappearing into the kitchen.
“Good talk!” I called after him and instantly a stab of loneliness struck me. The melancholy, the longing to be home and with Alex and my Mom over the holidays struck me with a viciousness I hadn’t expected but it was more than that, much, much more than that.
I missed those backstabbing bastards.
Each and every one of them. At night, I replayed the details of their faces, their nuances. I heard their voices in my head, their laughter, their banter.
I played with myself, thinking about their tongues, their fingers, their cocks. They’d taken me to heights I’d never even dreamed imaginable and left me begging for more. And then, they betrayed me like all of that had meant nothing to them.
A lump formed in my throat and I swallowed it away quickly. There was no crying. I had no tears left for them.
“It’s just you and me now,” I murmured, looking up at the six-foot tree. I leaned down to grab a garland from the water damaged box on the floor and draped it artfully around the long limbs.
Carefully, I unwrapped the glass ornaments and marveled at their ugliness, a small smile on my face to overshadow the impending gloom forming in my gut.
Slowly, I became aware of a whooshing noise and I turned to look around curiously as it grew louder.
Jinx mewled at me, his eyes wider than usual and I realized the noise was coming from outside.
I hurried to the window to look into the snow-laden lawn and suddenly, my jaw dropped in shock. A helicopter was making its descent from the heavens and it was unmistakably the white and blue logo of Seven Drawers LTD.
“Oh no!” I cried, backing away from the window. They’d found me!
I froze in my spot, unsure of what course of action to take.
If I ran, they’d find me in a heartbeat with the chopper. If I stayed what would they do?
I needed to hide. They wouldn’t burst in the door, would they?
Yet I did nothing. I didn’t run. I didn’t hide. I simply remained in place and waited for the inevitable knock, which came almost ten minutes later.
I closed my eyes, trying to catch my breath.
If they had wanted to hurt you, they would have done that by now. They had every opportunity.
The knocking was neither loud nor threatening but it was incessant. They weren’t going away.
And I didn’t want them to.
I’d been dreaming about their faces, after all.
“SASHA!”
That was precisely what I’d needed as inspiration and I bolted toward the door before they could call me by my real name again.
I flung the door open and glared at the team whose faces melted in relief in unison.
“I TOLD YOU!” Stevie squealed, jumping around like he was doing an Irish jig. “I knew it was her!”
“Keep your damned voices down!” I hissed, yanking them inside. “The neighbors will talk.”
A look of contrition fell upon them and I herded them into the living room angrily.
“What do you want?” I snapped but my eyes were racing over all their faces, checking them out for signs of tiredness or upset. They looked drawn, a little worse for wear but still the same handsome septuplets I’d missed with every fiber of my being.
“What do we want?” Graham asked in shock. “Are you really asking us that? We want—no, we need you to come home with us!”
I scoffed, folding my arms over my bosom and stared at him.
“Why? So you can lie to me some more? Did Mirror, Mirror send you here?”
“Sasha, you—” Dan started to say but I cut him off.
“I’m not Sasha, not anymore.”
“Blanche, then,” Stevie said and I looked at him in surprise.
“How did you know that?”
He shrugged and grinned.
“I put a trace on Alex’s financials. When I saw she was sending money to Blanche Arbor in Scotland, I knew it had to be you.”
I didn’t know whether to be furious or awed by his ingenuity.