Published via Ecency

Sin worked diligently at her tasks. She didn't raise her head to see the headmistress. Oh no. That would mean another beating. And while Sin was sure she could take it, better not to play with fire. It might make the headmistress even angrier.

"You better make sure those tiles are spotless! You hear me missy? Spotless!"

"Yes, mistress."

Sin owed all she had to the headmistress. And apart from her cruelty - it was great! Sin had a place to sleep, a place to eat, a place to cry; what else could she need?

Rhetorical questions aside, there was another reason why Sin liked working in the manor - nobody saw her. She was invisible. Only time she would get noticed was when the headmistress saw Sin working. And while Sin was working all the time, the headmistress was rarely home.

"You missed a spot!" She heard the headmistress spit behind her. "Here as well. You better get your wits about you, girl, or it's back to the orphanage for you!"

"Yes, mistress."

The orphanage, it had been so long. Sin went through hell in that place, to hell and back - as the others often said.

After Sin finished cleaning, she picked up the mop and bucket and went to the storage closet. In front of the closet stood Jin, Kin, and Tin. Her only friends, and the other survivors of the orphanage.

"Sin, we've been talking," Kin said.

"About?" Sin returned the mop and bucket to the closet.

"We need to get out of here," Tin said.

"And go where? Do what?" It wasn't the first time they raised this idea. Sin was tired of hearing it. "I told you if you want to go then go. Count me out of it."

"But, Sin. You can't be blind to everything she does!" Kin exclaimed.

"It's not worse than the -"

"Yes! Yes, it is!" Kin was shaking. "You just don't want to see it..."

"If it wasn't for the headmistress we would all be dead by now," Sin stated.

"True." Tin nodded. "But I'd argue rather dead than a slave."

"A slave? Do you even -"

"Sin, we need you," Kin whispered.

"Why?"

"You're invisible," Tin said. "You're the only one that can do it."

"Do what exactly?"

"Will you help us?" Kin offered her hand.

Sin looked at it. Then turned to look at her friends and shook her head. "I'm sorry," before running to her room with tears in her eyes.

She lay in her bed troubled and sad. Sin couldn't deny that there were grains of truth in what the others said. But this place was not worse than the orphanage, not for Sin. Was Kin right? Was she too blind to see the evils?

No. At the orphanage, we died. Here, we are alive. There is no debate.

Sin wiped her tears. It was now morning, and her head ached for some reason. She got into her work clothes and opened the door to the servant hallway -

to Kin's dead eyes staring at her from the wooden floor.

"There she is, over here missy!" The headmistress said. "Asleep and unworried. Do you see this Charles? What I have to put up with? One of them tries to assassinate me, the other doesn't blink an eye!"

"Yes, mistress," Charles said in his deadpan voice.

"K-Kin tried t-to a-a-a-"

"To kill me, yes. Get a mop and clean this mess now, will you?"

The mess being a pile of blood. Sin, still in shock, followed her defense mechanism. Do what you're told, or get beaten, simple concept and easy to learn. So Sin didn't think about her best friend lying dead outside her room, and the headmistress's uncaring, dead narrow eyes.

Instead, Sin mopped the floor. For if she cried right now, she would probably die as well.

So much for being safe...

Later that day she was crying herself horse in the storage closet when the door to the closet opened. Tin and Jin stood outside. Of course, it would be them, nobody noticed Sin entering the closet anyway. Nobody notices Sin ever... except for them... and she betrayed them...

"Are you alright?" Tin asked.

"I-I-I-"

"We know," Tin said. "Us too... We should've stopped her, Sin. You were right."

"No," Sin heard herself saying. "I was wrong."

She never thought those words but now that she said them they rang true.

Jin nodded, but Tin looked perplexed. "What?"

"What was the plan? I'll do it."

As if expecting this response Jin handed her a vile of clear liquid. Sin took it and Jin nodded.

"That there...." Tin said hesitantly. "Is a... concoction that Jin here made. It's like water, even the tase, but, uhmm, quite deadly..."

"An invisible poison," Sin murmured. "How did Kin get caught?"

"She, well... Charlie saw her, Sin. Saw her carrying the tray and everything. She never stood a chance."

Sin nodded. The three discussed a plan of escape. Most of it was already hashed out, all that was needed was for Sin to poison the headmistress and get the master key from around her neck.

Sin could do that, right?

"Enter." Charlie said.

Sin carried the tray inside the headmistress's quarters, then placed it on the nightstand near the bed. The headmistress didn't even acknowledge her presence.

"Now, about these dogs. I don't want must on my property, Charles."

"Yes, mistress."

"You will dispatch of them at once. Afterward -"

Sin prepared the tea. Hands shaking, she got out the vile. She needed to calm her nerves, Charles was bound to see her being so nervous. She popped the cork -

"- and that's it. Charles? Anything wrong?"

Sin gulped.

"No. It was the wind, mistress."

Sin let the invisible liquid pour into the tea.

"Go then, Charles. Despatch of those must."

Charles bowed and left.

"Ah, there you are missy. Where's my tea?"

Sin gave her the tea cup and watched the old hag she once called savior drink. In Sin's mind, only one thought echoed. For Kin.

For freedom.

"This tea is a little, ughhh, a little, ughhhhhhh, what -"

The coughing was loud and bloody. Sin didn't move as the old woman died in her plush armchair. After it was done, Sin felt nothing. She should feel something, no?

Sin grabbed the key and joined the others. In the night they ran, the sound of barking dogs behind them.