Jiahao was convinced she had been stuck in this stupid manor for at least two weeks now, and still, there was no sign of an exit.
Reaching a new level of desperation she hatched a plan, now it definitely wasn't one of her best plans, but she didn't really have options. The plan was simple: follow Alice around for a whole day.
It wouldn't be easy, especially because Jiahao found Alice's company to be a little odd, but she needed to do something. Alice tended to speak a lot, occasionally just rambling about nothing in particular, so Jiahao hoped she'd slip up, and reveal something.
The night was young, the perfect time to strike. Jiahao knocked on Alice's bedroom door, Alice let out a quiet "Come in," Jiahao opened the door, and didn't utter a single word.
Alice stared at her for a moment, waiting for her to speak, but Jiahao didn't.
Alice smirked, feeling like this was a game. "Jiahao, silence doesn't get you anywhere in this world." Alice's tone was playful, but Jiahao didn't respond, she was just going to silently follow Alice, hoping she'd ramble herself to death.
…Well maybe not to death, Jiahao didn't think she deserved death, but maybe she would just ramble enough to tire herself out, or something like that.
Alice moved over to Jiahao, sizing her up, like she was investigating each part of Jiahao. After a few minutes of staring Alice poked Jiahao's cheek. This action didn't yield any results, so she did it a few more times. Still no response.
Alice took a step back, thinking "Hmm, what are you up to?" She mumbled not expecting any sort of response, and she didn't get one either. The two women stood staring at one another, Jiahao's expression was blank, and Alice was clearly in deep thought. It didn't take long before Alice hatched a plan of her own, she grabbed Jiahao by the wrist and began dragging her to a door on the left-hand side of her bed. Jiahao had seen the door before, but hadn't found the time to actually wonder about what was behind it.
Her mind began to run wild with ideas as Alice dragged her towards the door. A bathroom? Torture chamber? The escape? Nope, it was just a walk-in closet.
When Alice opened the door Jiahao almost winced, but quickly she realised it was just a closet. A huge closet, adorned with clothes of all kinds. Fancy looking dresses, casual clothes, even some suits. Jiahao was taken aback, sometimes when she walked around the town, she'd stop to look in the window of the tailors, she never said it outloud but she wished she had clothes like this. She wished she could make clothes like this, Damien had made a joke before, something along the lines of; 'orphans don't have dreams,' it was cynical but not wrong.
Jiahao didn't give herself the time to dream, but she would jump at the chance to be a tailor. She could play out this dream by sewing up the rips in Damien's clothes, but that was the furthest she had ever gotten. Becoming a tailor was harder than it seemed, especially in a town of family owned businesses. Needless to say, she didn't exactly have any family, not to mention, racial discrimination wasn't exactly illegal, getting a normal job was far fetched as it was, she could forget about being a tailor. So she did, until she found herself in this room. Jiahao didn't say anything, but Alice could see it in her face, she was starstruck.
"I was going to ask you to help me reorganise my closet, but if you wanted you could try on some of the clothes, if they suit your tastes." Alice chuckled, but she was being genuine, she almost enjoyed seeing Jiahao in her element.
It's not as if she had known Jiahao had an affinity for clothes, she was genuinely just going to ask if Jiahao would help organise her closet. It didn't seem like she was particularly busy, especially because she had been staring wordlessly at Alice for a while, so shethought she would give Jiahao something to do.
"Really?" Jiahao asked, her mouth agape.
"Of course," Alice chuckled once more, finding amusement in JIahao's shock.
"But aren't all of these tailored specifically to fit you?" Jiahao raised an eyebrow, if these clothes were all as expensive as they looked, surely they were tailored specifically for Alice.
"No, most of the dresses are… on loan, let's say." She smirked, and Jiahao knew what she meant, a lot of the dresses had been stolen.
"From where?" Jiahao pried, not exactly expecting an answer, but letting curiosity get the better of her.
"Well, before I left home, I got into a bit of a spat with my mother, and in an act of rebellion I stole most of her wardrobe." Alice shrugged as though she hadn't just admitted to stealing multiple, expensive gowns from her own mother.
"Some of the other things I had commissioned by local tailors, nothing special, but I guess you could say, I enjoy a bit of dress-up." Alice giggled, like she was a teenage girl sharing who she had a crush on.
"Oh, a handful of things are tailored specifically to me, but it's none of the nice stuff." To Jiahao everything in here was 'the nice stuff' so she couldn't even understand what Alice actually meant by this.
Jiahao looked through a couple of the dresses, a few of the more expensive ones sat upon manicans, whereas the others hung from hooks on the walls.
"Where do you even find the time to wear all of these?" Jiahao was still completely starstruck by the spread of clothes infront of her.
"I don't, I haven't gotten an invitation to any balls in a few years, I could throw my own one, but who would I invite?" Alice giggled, finding the topic of hosting her own ball to be quite amusing.
"Besides me and Arden, I don't know." Jiahao didn't think too much about her words.
"Oh, and you would accept an invitation to a ball hosted by myself?" Alice's words were slightly sarcastic, and teasing.
"Well, I am kind of stuck here, so I'm not sure I would be able to say no." Jiahao shrugged, she wasn't lying.
Alice paused for a moment, mumbling "I guess, you have a point."
"Jiahao, why is it that you want to leave here?" Alice's question seemed like it came out of left field, but it had been on Alice's mind a lot.
"From what I understand, living in a large house, like this, surely must be better than where you live? We could give you an actual bedroom instead of the dungeon if you would prefer that?" Alice tilted her head slightly, like a lost puppy.
"Sure, an actual bed is nice, and even if it is a cell in a dungeon, my own room is nice, but I miss my family, y'know?" Jiahao's voice was quiet, and full of a clear underlying sadness.
"No, I don't think I do know." Alice spoke, her own voice quiet. "I don't think I miss my family all too much."
"What if Arden left, would you miss them?" Jiahao hoped her question would put things into perspective for Alice.
Alice was quiet, obviously she was thinking about how to respond. "I think I would."
"It's like that, I don't know much about you or Arden, but I can tell you've known each other for a long time now. At first I thought Arden was trapped here, like me, but I think they chose to stay. Because you're their family." Jiahao was just thinking aloud, but something about this made Alice stop, and really think for a moment.
Sure, Alice had parents, and brothers, but she spent a stupid amount of time with Arden. She had many servants in the past, but none of them were as brazen as Arden. Alice knew her and Arden had different lifespans, she had watched many goat-human chimera servants die before her. Never did she care all too much, but Arden dying was a thought she couldn't bear to linger on.
"Jiahao, would you like to see your family again?" Alice asked, she didn't even like thinking about JIahao leaving, but Alice had realised Jiahao wasn't here because she wanted to be. She had trapped her here, purely because she found her to be interesting, wasn't that a bit cruel?
Alice had told Arden countless times that they were free to leave whenever they chose, but Jiahao didn't have that freedom. Alice had never given her that freedom, and it had taken her this long to realise that. At first, she didn't really care, Jiahao had wronged her, it was a small punishment, but as she kept her here she began to realise.
Jiahao was a person, humans had feelings the same way vampires did, they weren't disgusting animals. They were people, people who deserved a choice, Alice knew how it felt to be trapped, and knowing she had done this to someone else made her want to vomit.
Realising that humans were more than ants beneath her feet, that they were similar to her, made an immense guilt well in the pit of Alice's stomach.