Space Cadets

Colin wasn't sure where he had lost Eliza. She was so quick and rounded corners so sharply that suddenly she was gone. He cursed under his breath. Where was he even supposed to start? He decided to take a chance and turn right then... left? Maybe right again. Shit, now he was lost too. He heard some rustling nearby, and suddenly someone collided with him.

He was surprised to see that it was Eliza's sister, Bianca. She looked just as startled as he was. She stumbled back a couple steps, losing her shoe in the process. Luckily, Colin caught her and got her back on her feet before she fell over.

"Sorry," she said. "Seems like I accidentally lost James."

"We're in the same situation," Colin chuckled. "Though it looks like I found the wrong Rothchild."

"Oh, I hope my sister isn't giving you too hard of a time," Bianca said. "She's a good girl, really. Just a little impulsive at times."

"Impulsive is one way to put it," he said. "But you're right, she's wonderful."

Bianca bent down to pick up her shoe, but her layers of fluffy skirt seemed to be getting in the way. Colin raised a hand to stop her, kneeling down to pick up the shoe for her and help her put it back on.

"You're very kind," Bianca said.

"Just watch out for yourself," Colin told her. "If you're going around losing guards and shoes, you might accidentally lose your mind too."

She laughed, and just a few moments later James reappeared. He seemed relieved to see Bianca, and she was just as relieved to see him.

"Good," Colin said. "Now that you're taken care of, I better go find your sister."

And he did find her. He found Eliza with a sour look on her face outside the maze, and he hardly had a chance to talk to her before she started spewing words he really couldn't understand. He had no clue what she was talking about. In the time he had spent on Zenia, he had maybe totaled three or four brief interactions with her sisters.

When she slammed the door in his face, it felt like he had been punched in the gut. He really thought there had been a shift between them. He had very nearly kissed her earlier that day, but decided not to while being on the job. Now he wasn’t sure if he regretted it, or if he was glad he didn’t piss her off even more.

He knocked on the door again, but she threw something that sounded like a shoe at it from the other side.

“Fine,” Colin sighed. “I’ll leave. But I’m coming back in the morning and we’re going to talk about this.”

“I don’t want to talk!” she yelled. “Go away!”

“We’re going to talk about it,” he insisted.

There was just silence. Colin sighed.

“Goodnight.”

Silence again. He just shook his head and walked back to the barracks. He laid in bed and stared at the ceiling for most of the night. He wanted to go check on Eliza, but he knew she wanted time to cool off. If he tried pushing her, it would only upset her more. James showed up by his bed, standing on the bottom bunk so he could talk to him.

“Hey, I appreciate what you did for me back there,” he said. “Helping Bianca when she got lost.”

“Sure,” Colin grumbled. “I think I might have done something wrong, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know,” Colin sighed. “Maybe I got out of line. I work with gangs and thugs. I guess I don’t know much about etiquette or impropriety.”

“Did you do something improper?” James frowned. “Bianca seemed okay. She said you were nice.”

“Is that it?”

“Hey man, back off,” James said, a bit irritated.

“No, it’s not like that,” Colin said, sitting up. “That’s the point. All I was trying to do was be nice.”

“You know,” James said slowly, getting down, “You're being kind of weird right now. I’m just going to assume you’re tired, so I’ll let you get some rest.”

The next morning, Colin came back to Eliza’s room like he said. Strangely, the night guard wasn’t outside. Normally they had to stay by the door until the designated guard returned to post, but no one was around. Colin wouldn’t be surprised if Eliza had told them to fuck off, but they weren’t supposed to listen. He went back to Eliza’s door and knocked, but there was no answer.

“Are you awake in there?” Colin asked.

Silence.

“Eliza, this is getting ridiculous,” he said. “You can’t shut me out like this without explaining what I did wrong. You’re better than that.”

Still nothing.

“Fine, I’m leaving now. Forever.”

He took a few steps back, then paused a moment to see if she would come to the door. Not a sign of movement. He supposed he could walk away, like he said. Instead, he found himself giving two firm kicks to the door and knocking it clean off its hinges.

He entered the room and found that Eliza wasn’t in there. This time, she wasn’t hanging in the ledge. A chair was knocked over and things had fallen off the dresser. It looked like someone had been forcefully dragged from the room.

“Shit,” Colin muttered, kneeling down to assess the damage.

He wasn’t sure where she could possibly have gone. If she’d been pushed out the window, the gruesome scene would’ve been found by now. If she was taken out the door, it couldn’t have been locked from the inside.

He examined her belongings on the ground, and it looked like a tray with makeup had been pulled off as she was dragged away. And then some red substance smeared on the ground. Blood? No, lipstick. It was spotty, but he noticed a subtle trail of red lipstick smeared on the ground. He followed it, but it seemed to go directly into the wall.

After looking at the wall for a moment, he noticed a hidden crack in the moulding. Not a crack, but a door. The servants’ tunnels hadn’t been used in years and he had been told that the doors were sealed off. This one, however, opened up with a firm pull. The inside was dimly lit, but as expected the faint lipstick trail continued.

It looked like Eliza wanted him to find her, after all.