~Alaya
I keep glancing behind me; each time confirming that the safe with all the money is actually real.
My mind spins with options. I could take the money to Sky, but she would send me straight to the police, who would ask where it came from. The answer is, I don’t know. After the party last night – which obviously did not have a memorable enough ending for me to remember it – I feel dazed and delirious.
There is no way I intentionally took this money. I even lock my doors and windows at night, so I can’t imagine someone breaking in. Who would leave me millions of dollars anyway? Nothing makes sense…
So, I’m going to do something terrible. I’m going to get rid of the money.
I pulled the car to the side of the road, glad no one else is down here. I would be worried if they were. This part of the Pack is only small, and basically deserted. A thin river cuts its way through the left side, being one of the only natural features this Pack has to show off. No one will come down here.
No one will find it.
I swing my door open, my feet coming to touch the gravel outside. The air is clearer out here, fresher. Maybe I should come out here more often, considering how silent it seems, like the rest of the Pack is taking a break from the main city.
The safe is heavy as I drag it from my back seat. The river is hidden in rushes and bracken I have to weave my way through to reach the bank. If the safe wasn’t so heavy, I would have have admire the glistening water, clearer than I’ve seen in this Pack. Where it leads, I’ll never know.
All I do know, is this better be deep enough to conceal a dark safe.
Does this make me a criminal? I don’t care. If someone is trying to pin something on me, for whatever reason, then they have failed. I don’t hesitate as I toss the safe with all my strength into the river.
It hits the surface violently, a loud splashing vibrating through the clear air. A few drops hit my arms, making me shiver. This is serious. I have to get out of here before anyone find out what I’ve done. If it ever comes down to it, I don’t think that money will be going anywhere. Eventually it might waste away, and all that money would be washed down the stream.
Quickly, I turn, making my way back to my car.
***
Four months later.
“Happy birthday!”
I shake my head at Sky and Dylan – her husband, the banker – as they clap and cheer over a very pink, very decorated cake. Carter had already taken a slice and sat down in the lounge to eat it. I hadn’t expected them to be able to pull off a surprise like this. My entire apartment is dressed in a multitude of coloured streamers and pink signs.
It’s not my kind of thing, but lately Carter has been too busy to hang out and Sky has just announced her pregnancy, and I’ve been the last thing on her mind.
“My big sister is twenty three!” Sky says excitedly, rounding the table to come over to me. “When are you going to find your mate?”
“Sky,” Dylan scolds.
Dylan looks like a banker. There is something about him that just does. Maybe it’s his slicked back brown hair and sallow under eyes from all the concentrating he has to do. He’s kind though, which is on the top of my list for my sister’s boyfriends.
“When Fate wants me to,” I say dismissively. I can tell that answer bothers Sky, but she doesn’t say anything. “Do you want a drink from the kitchen?”
Sky nods and I wander to the kitchen. I had thought about getting drunk tonight on my own, eating ice cream and watching shows where people had great lives and never worried about anything. I still have the same old job working at the desk, managing actual actors who are in career spots I could only dream about. It doesn’t seem like I’ll get any higher than my current position.
The first thing that grabs my attention as I walk into the room, isn’t the alcohol, but a small, sleek black safe sitting on the bench.
No.
I wander closer to it, seeing how it is slightly propped open. This time, I don’t hesitate as I pull the lid back, revealing chunks of bright money. A small piece of folded paper lands at my feet. Just like last time.
I don’t belong at the bottom of a river, Alaya.
Quit your job.
~A
I slam the lid shut, just as Sky comes into the kitchen.
“Lay, what’s taking long-”
Sky broke off, seeing the safe sitting on my bench. Slowly, she walks toward it, taking me by surprise as she grabs the bottle of wine to pour herself a glass. I watch her nervously, my shoulders stiff with anticipation.
“What’s with that thing?” she finally asks, motioning toward the safe.
“Birthday present.”
“From?”
“Secret admirer?”
Sky raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. “You wouldn’t tell me anyway.”
It takes me over twenty minutes to get everyone out of the house. I feel guilty for kicking everyone out, but I have no other choice. Someone has to be watching. Someone would have had to have seen me dump the money, to fish it out and bring it here on my birthday. The question is, who?
As soon as I closed the door behind Carter, I was back in the kitchen standing in front of the safe. What do I do with it?
I had seconds to really consider it before someone was knocking on my front door.
Expecting it to be Carter forgetting something, I was surprised to see it was a man in a business suit. His are a magnificent blue, his hair styled neatly on his head. He looks rather offical, even with his wide smile.
“Alaya Thorne?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“I’m here to hand deliver your birthday present!”
My eyes widen as he holds up a glistening silver key. I just stare at it. He expects me to take it, so I do, feeling the cool metal against my skin. It’s a car key. Not the car I have parked outside, that has been battered beyond belief after years of use. This is something sleek, and expensive. Something I can’t afford.
“You must be mistaken,” I say, trying to hand the keys back, but the man takes a step away. Even Sky couldn’t afford a car for me. “I haven’t been gifted this.”
“There is no mistake, Alaya Throne. You have been gifted the latest model of automobile designed and made in the Wisdom Pack,” the man rants, clearly running off some kind of script, keeping the facade of a businessman.
Without thinking, I mumble a thank you, and close the door.
Before my mind had time to figure out how something like this could have happened to me, someone knocked on the door again.
I open it. Again, I’m surprised at who I see, expecting it to be the car salesman guy. Instead, it’s a woman, smiling brightly, once again. That look is so familiar, it’s getting to the point where it’s making me nauseous.
“Alaya Thorne?”
I nod warily.
“Congratulations on your gift! I’m here to deliver the news that you will be going on a vacation the Passion Pack-”
I slam the door straight in her face. My back rests on the door for a single second, before the phone was ringing from across the room. There is no way…
When I answer it, it’s a pleasant sounding woman. “Alaya Thorne?”
“Why?’
“I’m a real estate agent wanting to talk to Alaya about her new-”
I hang up.
Eight months later.
“It’s for you again, Lay!”
“Who is it?”
“The banker!”
I groan. I don’t know why I bothered to ask. For the past eight months, a man at the bank has been calling for me to authorise thousands of dollars waiting to go into my account. Each time I have declined, naturally. Sure, I’ve tried to figure out where the money is coming from, but the bank refused to tie up my loose ends.
“Hang up,” I call back.
I’ve been staring with Sky for a few months now. I lost my job out of the blue, and nowhere else has accepted me. I’ve been house bound, at my sisters, who is trying to look after me, but I can tell she wants me out of here. I want out too. She’s heavily pregnant, and being around a baby right now is not on my radar.
But I’m stuck, unsure of what to do. The police haven’t helped. They claimed all these gifts I’ve been offered in the past are from someone they haven’t been able to track. With my trust in them low, I stopped even bothering.
Instead, I’m living here, wondering what is happening to my life. Everything went downhill after the party last year. The first one, I could handle. The second one has been driving me insane.
No amount of money out into hypnosis and brain manipulation has brought back anything.
“Also, there was a letter for you from the mail,” Sky yells from the lounge. I swing out of bed. Mail, which no one usually sends to me.
I find the letter beneath a few bills. The colour of the envelope is a turquoise blue, that shimmers slightly in a different light. A strange scent wafts up from it, which when I bring close to my nose, smells like jasmine. A shocking feeling of familiarity is singed into my brain, however, it has no clear origin.
However, I know exactly what is inside the letter. I strip the top of the envelope off, tossing it over my shoulder. I pull the small card from inside out, hardly admiring the vibrant colour.
It’s another invitation.
Dear Alaya Thorne,
You have been selected to Alpha Asher’s party on the 14th.
This invitation gives you access to all floors.
Please reveal the invitation to the Guards at the front door, and no one else.
We hope to see you,
Alpha Asher and his Team.
I hesitate before I go any further with this. Slowly, I turn it over, biting the inside of my cheek.
I love a good mystery.
Come tonight, and find the answer to yours.
~A