Chapter 212: Party
Jayden inwardly sighed, she felt like she had been walking forever in the seemingly never-ending stretch of the hallway ahead of her, following every other servant who was also carrying food as in reality, she had absolutely no clue about the direction she was supposed to be headed to get to the dining room, feeling inwardly relieved that she was not at the front of the group where she would have had to lead the way.
There was no way for her to slow down or speed up as all the servants were scattered equally apart in an organized manner and she did not want to break out of the formation and risked being reported and fired so, she knew that there was no getting out of her predicament other than being patient and biding her time.
When she once again tried to contact Abby since they were in much closer proximity, it still did not work, only the sound of weird, almost otherworldly static filling her ears.
Thus, to pass the time, her eyes instinctively fell upon the large, rather beautiful crimson walls of the Reid family mansion, walls that were lined gold and filled with unique, embellishing, ornamental decorations that ranged from fancy paintings to what seemed like artifacts or magic items. On the walls and ceiling were certain magical lanterns and chandeliers that glowed with the same lustrous, intense, dream-like radiance that burnt with the same crimson glow of the Reid's signature fire ability which lit up the room and gave it an even deeper tint of red. Under her feet was a long, red carpet that covered the middle stretches of the hallway, its texture and feeling on her feet was unlike anything she had ever experienced before as it was both soft and hard, feeling like carpet yet not like a carpet at the same time.
Despite walking through so many hallways, not a single one looked the same, each one somehow having its own unique aspects that differentiated them apart.
As she continued staring at the walls and all their decorations, she could not help but compare it to her own family's mansion as it was hard to ignore due to their mutual hatred and family rivalry. This was her first-ever time seeing anything of the Reid's mansion other than photos from the outside and she would have been lying if she said she was not impressed.
Ignoring the rather odd and awkward placement of the dining room and the kitchen, them being so far apart, the Reid mansion seemed somehow bigger on the inside than on the outside and decorations and presentation seemed to be even better than her own. Yet despite all of that, she still felt like her family mansion was still slightly larger, and she had no way of confirming the price of the decorations that could have well been much cheaper than the ones her family-owned.
As she continued walking, she let her mind drift looking at the walls, clearing her mind as she mentally prepared herself for finally seeing Abby once again, ignoring the constant stares of her peers like they were not even there.
And, before she even knew it, as she and the group of servants had turned one last corner, a grand, majestic ruby gold door came into view, Jayden recognizing it as undoubtedly the door to the dining room, most likely for the servant's side since Jayden did not even see a single guest on her way there.
As they walked towards the door, still in sync, completely organized, Jayden noticed the previously confident faces of the servants slowly melt down, sweat running down some of their faces as they took deep breaths.
Jayden, who was walking with them also felt the same thing and bore the same expression, yet not at all for the same reason as the others who were growing tense due to the stress and expectation to uphold, not to mess up and ruin their entire careers.
Jayden's brief stress and nervousness stemmed from finally going face to face with Abby. For some odd reason that Jayden could not explain, she felt in her heart that Abby was most definitely at the other side of that door. So many possibilities rang in her head of the state she was in, how she was being treated and what they had done to her, making her breathing grow irregular as she struggled to contain her bottled-up emotions, causing her to tightly clench her left fist that was not holding onto the plate of food. She had gotten this far and there was no room in her busy mind for the thought of fleeing.
However, as soon as those thoughts appeared she shook them away, it was not the time to go off pure emotion but the time to think rationally.
She knew if she was in Abby's situation, Abby would be willing to go to hell and back to save her and she intended to do the same but, she had to be in the correct state of mind in order to save her.
She inwardly took 3 long, deep breaths to soothe herself and steady her breathing. And by the time they had reached the entrance of the golden door that completely dwarf them in size, she had completely calmed and mentally prepared herself for anything that could come her way as the leader of their group slowly but casually opened the heavy door using his immense, superhuman strength.
As the door slowly opened, the massive, blinding light came into view from the expansive, glowing ball of raging crimson fire that floated above in the high ceiling of the room, seemingly held up by nothing, an eye-catching, amazing spectacle to behold as it was the first thing that Jayden noticed.
The bustling yet calm, dignified atmosphere and sound of the room immediately filled her ears as soon as the smallest sliver of the door opened, meaning that the room must have been soundproofed just like her bedroom.
As the doors were slammed wide open with a subtle crash, everything became fully clear.
For a dining room, it was extremely massive, more so than she expected, rivalling even that of her family's that she considered being at the pinnacle. It was indeed a grand sight to behold, the raised ceiling spanned over 15 meters in height with that same fireball she had seen before being seemingly the only light source found on it.
The walls were, unlike the rest of the mansion, fairly flat with little to no decorations in order to emphasize the design of the architecture and the magnificent phoenix engraved and painted directly into the wall at the back of the room, its eyes glowing with an intense, crimson flame making the picture look almost alive.
The room itself was over a hundred meters long and wide with 5 uniform, extremely deep, broad white tables that spanned the room from edge to edge, an adornment of all kinds of tasty delectable foods spread across each one with enough food that it could easily feed an entire starving village for days.
Directly in front of them, there was a wide, designated path laid out by cold fire embedded in the ground, most likely where the servants were meant to go. And, directly in front of it, behind all of the tables ahead was a large, flat, marble floor filled with nothingness, most likely used for dancing which Jayden found rather odd since she was not sure if eating and dancing at the same time would be a good mix.
All of the tables themselves were completely packed with guests of seemingly all ages, sitting, eating, and chatting amongst themselves with cheerful yet smug expressions on their face, all of them undoubtedly holding significant importance in society that was obvious by looking at their clothes alone as they seemed rather intimidating in the eyes of many. Yet, in Jayden's eyes, they were nothing more than little birds who thought they were a rocket ship that could fly to the sun, seeing them as completely harmless, people she used to eat up for breakfast even in her young days of growing up as she was forced into socializing with many people like them all day. She knew them all too well, inside and out and could easily manipulate and predict them with but a thought.
But, in the end, Jayden only cared for one thing, and one thing only as she continued to scan and survey the entire room until she finally stopped, her wide, shaky gaze now only fixed on a single area, trying her best to suppress all of her emotions under her poker face despite all that time she took to calm and clear her mind. No matter what she thought, this was a sight she never expected and could never prepare for as she tightly clenched her left fist so hard that blood began to slowly drip and mix with her red uniform, her shaky mouth instinctively opening in disbelief as she narrowed her wide, shaky eyes to see if she was imagining things were what she saw was in fact not a figment of her imagination that came to be from her stress and paranoia.
At the back of the room, directly behind the radiant picture of the phoenix was a rather small, yet extremely elegant table separated from the other big 5 tables, its colours being red and gold which completely contrasted the white of the rest of the tables in the room.
On it were decorative golden plates, otherworldly fire lily's along with many different items that were absent from every other table, all of them looking by themselves, more expensive than the average person's monthly, or even yearly salary.
Sat directly behind such a table were the main hosts of the party, none other than the 4 members of the Reid family, and what greatly surprised and perplexed Jayden beyond her wildest dreams was that Abby was one of them, laughing and smiling like she was having the best time of her life, the usual firey blaze in her eyes completely gone as it became something far more mellow as she playfully and casually talked to her parents and sister who were sitting directly next to her, them seemingly returning the sentiment, the look on her face appearing, in Jayden's eyes, completely genuine.
'A-Abby… i-is that you!? What have they done!?'
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