Chapter one

Layla

I woke up slowly from my deep and dreamless sleep as the alarm rang out shrilly and loudly in my ears before it started to cough and skip as it was ringing, oh well, I had already gotten used to the “almost fully condemned alarm clock”. I actually just have to manage it since there is no money to get a replacement, and even if there was money right now, an alarm clock is not the next thing on my list of items and other needs to procure.

I checked the feebly glowing red lit time and it was showing 7:20am, “What?!” I managed to say with my hoarse morning voice then I jumped up immediately, my mind fully alert and devoid of all drowsiness. ‘OhMaGawd I’m going to be late for my interview that’s suppose to start by eight’ my mind echoed. Thanks to my deep sleep, I had totally missed the first two times the alarm rang; 7:00am and 7:10am, that was the interval at which I set my alarms, another will ring by 7:30am and that will be the last for the day.

I rushed into the bathroom and did my morning routine with the speed of light, (or at least I thought and wished I was that fast). My mind kept ringing out warnings on being late so I had to be fast about it all because time wasn’t really on my side anymore, ‘Damn, how had I managed to sleep in, on a day like this no less’ my thoughts chided me.

After bathing and cleansing as well as I could manage in such a hurried mode, I came out of the bathroom with my hair dripping wet as was my entire body then I wiped the water off my hair and body with my general purpose towel.

I sparsely applied my dwindling body lotion and put on what I believed to be my best formal clothes; ones fit for an interview in a prestigious organization. Well, since my dad died two years ago, I haven’t gotten any new clothes because we barely get to eat in the house not to talk of being able to buy new clothes. But, no time to dwell on that yet though, soon, I was done with everything that I had to do with the cleaning and dressing routine so I took my phone and left my room in the shambles that it was, Mom might probably come and arrange it, I really hope not though, there were things... I ran down the stairs thudding up the whole house and I met my Mom setting the dinning for breakfast. I checked the time on my beat up wristwatch and it was still just 7:37am (hmmm maybe I am indeed as fast as light uhn, or at least as fast as sound, probably not though). I decided to spend a few minutes with my family before leaving, (yeah, call me sentimental, but I love my family, as little as we are, we are all we’ve got)

“Good morning mom” I said as I got to the dinning room walking around her to give her a peck on her cheek, she had probably expected my brother because of the running and thudding, I felt she was a bit surprised from her chuckle.

“Morning baby, how was your night’s rest? I gather you slept soundly” she asked and I felt another surge of amazement from her, this time in her tone, she was probably surprised I had slept in, ‘well join the club Mom’ came my thoughts.

“It was fine mom, a bit longer or should I say shorter” I said and quickly assisted her in fully setting up the table, not that there was much to do actually, and all the while I was looking around but I couldn’t find Landon, my brother.

“Isn’t Landon awake yet?” I had to ask, he was well known for sleeping in but then it was a school morning so he should have been up by now.

“Oh well, You know your brother Layla” Mom said simply and finished dishing out everyone’s portion including the still absent Landon.

“Yeah, I know him to be a lazy mouse” I said with a humorous chuckle while dragging my plate closer to me without sitting on the chair and I dug right into the warm waffles.

“Hey Lay, I heard that” I heard Landon’s voice as he walked into the dinning already dressed up for school. ‘Hmm what a surprising day today was turning out to be, suddenly the roles of sleeping in and waking early was reversed between my brother and I.

“C’mon Lan, aren’t you a lazy mouse? Mind the word mouse though, means you’re cute even though you’re lazy” I said smiling with a mouthful of food.

“Arrrggghhh” he groaned and rolled his eyes, all through a mouth stuffed with waffles as well and we all laughed while Mom kept warning us not to talk and laugh with our mouths full.

I checked the time again and it was 7:49am already, 'damn' I got up ready to leave. “I’ll start going for the interview now Mom, I’m running super late already as it is” I said to Mom and winked at Landon. “Oh My Goodness! I actually forgot that today is the interview, aww, good luck to you baby” Mom said and blew a kiss at me which I grabbed imaginarily and slapped on my cheek.

“Yeah mom, thanks. Do take care of yourself before I get back and no overstressing at work, oh and Landon, try to be a good boy at school ok?” I said to them almost out of the house.

“And where is the fun in that” he replied me snidely, getting a laugh from Mom.

“Alright guys bye” I said and left the house then sprinted to the road to board a cab to the Lockwood's mansion.

**

My name is Layla Vance, I’m 22 years of age and a beautiful lady by all standards, I have a well framed model figure, averagely tall, not too straight and not too curvy, Mom jokes that I brought out all her past and future glory, hence why she now looks like my grandmother rather than my mom, which is not true, she is still every bit of the very beautiful woman she was at her prime, I believe it’s the poverty that is dampening all that. Well yeah I’m very beautiful, a bit dampened by the same poverty though, but every bit of me screams beauty.

I have the facial beauty in abundance too, aided by my startling blue eyes which really contrasted with my fiery red hair, Yeah, I’m one of the few to ever have that combo, but, I get too many weird looks for it and many unpleasant whispers so I resorted to dyeing my hair always, either to blonde or brunette like every other normal person, I do it to also look like everyone else in my family, I can’t be the only one having red hair when everyone else had dark hair, even my dad, God rest his soul.

Yeah my dad is dead actually. He was murdered in cold blood two years ago when I was just in my second year in college. I had to drop out of school because there was no money to further my education, a real bummer situation because I loved to study, yeah believe it, I am brilliant and I may or may not like to flaunt that, but I really love to study and show off just how much I’ve learnt.

The people my dad worked with mercilessly took everything that belonged to us except our house, some basic indoor properties and our clothing, but the cars and the bank accounts were all taken. Before we could get back on our feet, we had to start selling some of our remaining properties to get money just to get by and take care of ourselves.

I vowed to root out whoever they are, that had an hand in my dad’s death and I’ll make sure they pay dearly for murdering my dad. I really don’t know how to go by it, it’s been two years now and I don’t even know the first thing to do, but I won’t relent and I’ll never give up on that dream.

Oh well that is enough about me for now…

The cab stopped in front of the Lockwood’s massive mansion, I’ve come here to try to secure a job as a personal maid. The Lockwoods are probably the most wealthiest and most powerful people here in New Mexico.

You don’t mess with people like them and go scot free. They control the capital city of Santa Fe with their wealth, to the public they are fearsome but very kind and generous, they have done so much for the state as a whole while not holding any political posts, they only support and from their support, they enact changes. Personally though, I think they are crooks that run the state through where they send their money, their so called “support” is just another word for blackmail and imposition. If I had the choice, I wouldn’t have dared step in here for an office job not to even talk of a job as a personal maid, I mean who uses maids and helps in this current age that we are, I view the place as a slave dungeon where they’ll hold something over you so you’ll keep on working for them till death.

Ordinarily I wouldn’t have actually had the chance to come for this job interview because they shared an exclusive ticket of the job offer to very few connected and privileged people, obviously I wasn’t any of the two, I didn’t have the connection or the privilege needed to get one but what I had was luck because on my way home two days ago, I saw one of the ticket fly out of a very fast moving car and land on the floor, I only realized it was “the ticket” after I picked it up though cos I initially thought it was money, imagine my joy at getting such a jackpot winning, this was definitely worth more than any amount of cash that could drop to the ground. I had also thought of selling the ticket to the highest bidder, but then the interview was in just two days and besides, doing that might call unwanted attention to myself and the ticket, so I decided to try out my luck with the interview itself.

Skip to the present, I came down from the cab after settling the cab man. I had to walk a short while before getting to the main gate. I was beginning to wonder just how long the place stretched. It was almost the size of a whole estate, I guess it actually is an estate though albeit a small one.

I expected an outpost of sorts where there’ll be guards to check incoming people and vehicles, but there was nothing of the sort, just a tech gismo beside the walls of the gate and I could see it had a camera and a button to ring, it was positioned such that people in cars wouldn’t need to get down before they could ring it, right beside the road. I shrugged and rang the but I got no reply, after I waited for a few seconds, precious seconds without an answer, I rang it again and again but still no one answered and no one came out to me. I rang the bell multiple times, urgency of the interview which I was already late for didn’t let me think straight at that point, ‘Gosh I’m feeling really exhausted already' came my thoughts without having actually done anything, I couldn’t help but wonder why they didn’t answer though, was there something wrong? Or is this just their way of saying I’m trash and I’m not worth responding to?

I started to look for a place to sit, trash or not I wasn’t about to let this opportunity just skip by me, and it definitely wouldn’t be because I gave up, but then, the gate was opened, revealing some men dressed like waiters at an occasion for very rich people, their beefiness was what told me they were actually guards, bodyguards, security, call them what you will but it was obvious these weren’t the kind you joke with so I swallowed the comment I had on my tongue about treating a potential coworker unfavorably, little did I know what trouble I was actually in.