Chapter 8
Lexa decided to not split up with Clarke as the blonde walked rapidly around the whole house, looking into every room. Clarke would open the door to a room, call out Echo's name, then she would go inside. She was very fast, so by the time Lexa caught up to the blonde who was growing more and more desperate, Clarke would've walked out the room and moved on to the next one.
Lexa could imagine how Clarke was feeling. It was probably like the desperation that she had felt earlier today when she thought that she had been left alone in the clothes store. Although why Clarke would be so hell-bent on finding her dad's slave, she didn't know. So what if Echo escaped? It was good for her, to be able to get out of the grips of her abusive master. Although Echo's disappearance might lead to some other undesirable things to happen. Either Mr Griffin would just go and buy another slave to do the chores for him, or he might revoke Clarke's ownership to be Lexa's master and Mr Griffin would become her master instead. The thought of that made Lexa's blood run cold. She didn't know if Mr Griffin would be allowed to do that, though, as she is technically Clarke's property.
The thought of her being Clarke's property made her insides all warm and fuzzy. She didn't exactly know why.
So, what would be the worst-case scenario? Lexa would become Mr Griffin's slave, then what? Upon second thought, it wouldn't be that bad. Going through what Echo had to go through isn't nearly as bad as what she had to go through when she was owned by other masters. Although that does mean that she will get to see Clarke a lot less. And that made Lexa's insides squirm.
But what would happen to Echo, if she escaped into the outside world? How will she get anything to eat? How will she survive? She has no shelter, no food, no money. Or did she steal some money from home? But there wouldn't be that much cash lying around the estate. What if Echo was caught and identified as a slave? She will either be dragged back to her rightful owner, and Lexa had a feeling that Mr Griffin will do a bit more than the usual beating-up he does to Echo, or she would be claimed as property by the person who found her. Lexa had a feeling that Echo would not like her new master, if the latter did happen.
Okay, they needed to find Echo. Maybe that was why Clarke was so determined to find her. Maybe it was because she was concerned about Echo's safety, or Lexa's safety. Maybe even for her own safety. She didn't know if Mr Griffin would go as far as abusing his daughter for losing his slave, however. But it was best to not underestimate Mr Griffin. Lexa knew better than that.
"She's not here," Clarke's shaky voice brought Lexa back to the present. "Where can she be?"
"Okay, the first thing you need to do, is to relax, Clarke," Lexa said calmly, soothingly. "Panicking won't help anything, okay?"
"I know," Clarke said, still darting her eyes from side to side. "But –"
"But nothing," Lexa interrupted. "Take deep breaths. Breathe in," Lexa took a deep inhale as an example for Clarke to follow. Clarke did. "And breathe out," she said, exhaling slowly. Clarke followed her lead. "Good. We will find her, okay? I have faith. Let's go look in the back garden."
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Clarke said, considerably calmer now. "Thank you, Lexa."
Lexa's eyes met cerulean ones again. "For what?" she asked.
"For calming me down," Clarke said. "I needed that. You're amazing, Lexa."
"Well," Lexa gave a shy smile. "Maybe. Let's go find Echo, okay?"
"Yeah," Clarke smiled back, and together, they went out the back door and into the back garden.
XxX
It had been a while since they started to trail around the huge garden that was in the Griffin Estate. Accompanied by the fact that it was really dark as it was now late into the night, it was really difficult to find the young brunette. Neither of the two girls could see much except for the endless grass that nearly appeared black. Lexa wasn't quite sure why they were walking around the garden doing nothing. If anything, they should call out. If Echo was here, it meant that she didn't escape, and would surely come out of the shadows and reveal herself.
"Echo!" Lexa called, putting her hands around her mouth acting as a loudspeaker. "You there?"
Lexa's voice echoed in the crisp night air vaguely. There was no answer.
"She's not here," Clarke's shoulders sagged. "She'd come out if she was."
"You don't know that," Lexa said, not willing to lose faith. "I just have a gut feeling that she's here. Let's keep looking."
With that, Lexa led the way forward, and walked towards the far end of the garden. Lexa heard the rustling of grass behind her which indicated that Clarke was following her.
It did take Lexa a short while, but eventually, she spotted a dark figure that was in the distance. It could've been a log or something, but Lexa still decided to check it out.
"Look there," Lexa pointed to the place that she was looking at. "There's something over there."
"If it was Echo, wouldn't she have responded to our calls by now?" Clarke said dubiously.
"You know her, she's stubborn. Maybe she's just in her own bubble and wasn't paying attention," Lexa said and walked towards where she just pointed at.
As she got closer and closer, it became more and more clear what that thing she saw was. It was a person.
"Echo?" Lexa called when she got within a couple of metres from the figure.
"Huh?" Echo said groggily, pulling herself into a sitting position as Clarke and Lexa closed the distance between them.
"Echo!" Clarke cried, relief clear as day as she hurried to Echo's side. "God, you scared me!"
"Scared?" Echo said, rubbing her eyes.
"We thought you left," Lexa said.
"Left? I'm not that stupid," Echo chuckled slightly. "I was just looking at the stars and I guess I fell asleep."
"Oh, that makes sense," Clarke sighed. When Echo looked at her, confused, Clarke elaborated, "You weren't responding to our calls."
"The stars, huh?" Lexa smiled, bumping Echo's shoulder slightly when she made her way to her feet.
"Yeah," Echo's mocha eyes met Lexa's emerald ones. "It's beautiful. It gives me hope, I guess. It's so far away, and just…" Echo closed her eyes and sighed happily. "I don't get to see it often. The grass was comfortable too. I guess I started to drift off after a while."
"Yeah, it's beautiful," Lexa agreed. "It makes me feel like I can achieve anything."
"Mm-hmm," Echo hummed. "Except it's just a dream. But hey, everyone can dream, right? It's a good distraction from reality."
"Guys, maybe we should head back," Clarke said, feeling the shift in the mood of this conversation. "It's getting cold and late."
"Yeah, why don't we do that," Echo huffed, wrapping her arms around herself and walking back towards the house.
Lexa and Clarke shared a look before following the young brunette.
XxX
It wasn't until late afternoon the next day that Mr Griffin finally got back to the Griffin Estate. The time before then, Clarke had graciously helped Lexa and Echo with their chores like she promised the day before, and plus, Echo got to sleep in a proper bed that night. It was pretty funny how Echo said that she didn't want to leave that bed ever again, that she just wanted to stay there forever. Eventually, after an hour or so of her just lying there idly, Clarke made her get up and eat some breakfast, which Clarke had decided to make herself to treat the two brunettes.
If Lexa had to be honest, she preferred Echo's food a lot more than Clarke's food, but then Echo had been cooking every day for years whereas Clarke had probably never even touched a pan before. Although Clarke did make a decent attempt at a nice breakfast, she made some poached eggs as well as some kind of bacon dish accompanied by orange juice. Lexa didn't eat that much at all because her stomach was still really full from the day before, so she gave most of her share to Echo, who thanked her and ate all the food that was on the table.
When Clarke asked what Echo did the day before, Echo said that she found some DVDs on the shelves and watched a few films. Then she got bored and decided to go stargazing, and that was where she felt a little sleepy and dozed off, before Lexa and Clarke found her.
Lexa still had no idea what Mr Griffin did for a living, she imagined that it must be a respectable job as the Griffin Estate seemed to be overflowing with money. Well, this place wasn't the most extravagant of estates that Lexa had been to in the past, but if Mr Griffin was able to cash out twenty-five grand like it was nothing, they were obviously rich.
Mr Griffin closed the front door with a huff and he looked exhausted. After setting his jacket on the peg, his head turned and caught sight of Lexa who was peeking at the staircase. Lexa immediately stiffened, but couldn't keep her eyes away from Mr Griffin's. His eyes shared some resemblance to Clarke's; Lexa could see that Clarke got his eyes from him, but his eyes were completely cold, unlike the warm ones that Lexa was used to seeing in her master's. Icy blue eyes locked into emerald green ones for several seconds that felt like forever: they seemed to be penetrating, searching. Eventually, eye contact was broken and Mr Griffin bent down to undo his laces and take off his shoes, and Lexa took that opportunity to escape back upstairs and out of sight.
Clarke looked up when Lexa opened the door and entered her room.
"He's back," Lexa sighed, plopping herself on a chair on the desk.
"Okay," Clarke muttered, taking off the black shirt that said "FRIENDS" on it and folding it up. Lexa felt her cheeks burn slightly at Clarke not caring to get undressed in front of the brunette, but she didn't say anything. Clarke opened the drawer and tucked the shirt inside, away from sight. Lexa guessed that it was to prevent her dad from seeing them in those, either because it was evidence that they had gone out the night before, or because Clarke didn't want Mr Griffin to know that they were best friends. That, Lexa could understand, because from what she gathered about Mr Griffin is that he did not approve of any other relationship between slave and master than slave and master.
With that in mind, Lexa decided to take off the shirt that said "BEST" that she still had on from last night. When she regained her sight as the top went over her head completely, she caught Clarke staring at her. Her expression was blank, and she seemed to be in a bit of a trance.
Lexa felt herself getting a bit self-conscious. "What?" she said, growing a little uncomfortable under Clarke's scrutiny.
Clarke jolted and her cheeks pinked. "Nothing," she stammered. "Um, maybe give me that shirt, uh, I can put it away."
Lexa stared at Clarke, confused, for a short while, before she reached her hand out and handed the shirt over to Clarke's outstretched hand. Their fingers grazed for the briefest of moments, but Lexa could swear that she felt a jolt of electricity travel through her system. She ignored it, however.
"Thanks," Clarke breathed, folding up the still warm shirt and putting it away from the drawer. There was silence for a short while, before Clarke decided to speak up again. "I really like those shirts, you know."
"You've told me that before," Lexa replied. "And for the record, I really like them too."
"Yeah," Clarke smiled softly. "We have to put them on again sometime, when daddy's not home."
"Yeah, of course," Lexa nodded. "It's really comfortable anyway. Better than all the things I've worn before anyway," she smiled, and it was nice for a while, just the two of them in their own little bubble, in the confines of the blonde's room.
The serene atmosphere was broken quite soon, however, as the two girls heard a shout and a clatter.
"Don't talk back to me, you idiot!" they heard a voice echo through the house, followed by a slam that was hard enough to make the walls shake and make Lexa jump.
"What's going on?" Lexa said, slightly fearfully, for there was pure silence in the house that lasted several eerie, long seconds.
"Daddy's getting mad again for no reason," Clarke gritted. "Pathetic son of a bitch."
"Hey, don't insult your grandma," Lexa said the first thing that popped into her head. "She did nothing wrong."
Clarke looked at her with a funny look for a while, before she turned to leave the room. Lexa shook her head and got up to follow the blonde that was now already outside the room.
Lexa noticed how her footsteps echoed with each step she took down the stairs. It was some kind of clacky sound as her sandals made contact with the wooden steps, and it was soothing. She didn't really know why she was realising these sort of things now, maybe it was because she had no idea what happened downstairs when she was in Clarke's room. Either way, she found herself feeling nervous.
When they made it down to the ground floor, Clarke opened the door to the lounge and saw Echo sitting in a chair at the table, looking despondent.
"Hey," Clarke whispered, walking over briskly and taking a seat next to her. Lexa quickly caught up and took a seat as well. "What happened?"
Echo looked up with a dull expression. "He happened," she said glumly, before casting her head back down.
Lexa noticed how there was a red mark across the length of the brunette's left cheek, and she reached her hand forward, touching it with the tip of her fingertips. Echo flinched away from her touch.
"Did he hit you again?" Clarke asked softly, and Echo nodded. "Why?"
"What do you mean, why?" Echo met the blonde's eyes again, looking slightly offended. "It's not like you don't know him. I didn't do anything."
"What I meant was, why did he get mad?" Clarke asked again.
"I don't know?" Echo scoffed. "He saw me and decided to get mad for no reason. I just said that I did everything he told me to, and he said to not talk back to him and then he slapped me."
"It's okay, Echo," Lexa piped up. "It's only a slap, I'll get you some ice. Thank god it wasn't anything more."
"It's not that," Echo said. "It doesn't even hurt anymore. It's just that…" she sighed heavily. "All my life I've been treated like I'm worthless, I have no value. After all this time, you start to believe it yourself, you know? Yet, it doesn't make it hurt any less."
"Don't believe anything he says," Clarke reprimanded. "He's just a jerk, a worthless imbecile. You are strong, Echo. You are brave. Don't let anything he says pull you down, okay?"
"I know," Echo sniffed. "I try but sometimes it gets a little hard, you know?"
"I get it," Clarke said softly. "Look, I'll go and talk with him. This can't go on any longer."
Lexa opened her mouth to speak up but then the door opened, causing all three girls' heads to turn and look at where the noise came from.
"What are you doing?" Mr Griffin walked into the lounge, darting his eyes around, from one girl to another, and finally settling on his daughter.
"Speak of the devil," Clarke muttered under her breath before she spoke up. "What do you think?"
"Don't give me attitude, young lady," Mr Griffin warned. "Why are you helping her?"
"And why are you hitting her?" Clarke raised an eyebrow challengingly. "She's a human being! What gives you the right?"
"That girl's a slave!" Mr Griffin spat. "She belongs to me, I bought her! I have every right!"
"No you don't!" Clarke argued hotly. "Can you not see what you are doing to her? You're making her feel like she's worthless, like she has no purpose in life but to serve you! Is that what you want?"
"I'm just telling the truth," Mr Griffin said icily. "Don't give me that look, Clarke. You and I both know that this girl," he pointed to Echo, "And that girl," he pointed to Lexa, "Are not going to accomplish anything in life. Once a slave, always a slave! They're lucky that they even get to eat anything!"
"Eat?" Clarke cried incredulously. "Lexa only gets to eat because I let her. You should probably do the same for Echo. If it wasn't for me, Echo would be starving!"
"Why do you even care?" Mr Griffin threw his hands up exasperatedly. "They are inferior! They should be on their knees thanking us for even letting them set foot in this house!"
"Because they are people, just like us," Clarke said, quieter. She seemed to be changing approach: instead of all fire and hot arguing, she was going for a calmer approach now, appealing to character. "The you I knew would never do this," Clarke said. "You would never do this to anyone. I know that you're still in there."
"Well," Mr Griffin cleared his throat. "That part of me died long ago, when these what you call people," he jabbed a finger at Echo and Lexa, "Killed my wife in cold blood. So I apologise if I don't cater to your tastes, but that is just the way it is."
"Fine," Clarke's demeanour shifted again. This time, she was defiant, proud, determined. "Then you are no more my father than any other stranger on the street." With that, she turned on her heels and stalked out the lounge.
Lexa did not want to spend a second longer with a man that hated them, so she grabbed Echo by her shoulders and led her out, following Clarke. As she turned the corner, she took one final look backwards and saw Mr Griffin looking down, looking deep in thought but Lexa had no idea what he was thinking about.
"Thank you, Clarke," Echo spoke up when they went into Clarke's room.
Clarke turned around, looking slightly dejected. "For what?" she said, voice lacking any of the power that she had a minute ago.
"Just… for standing up for me. No one has ever done that before."
"It's the least I can do," Clarke replied, turning back around and sitting on her bed and rubbing her eyes. "You don't deserve any of this. None of you do."
"Still," Echo shrugged. "It's really nice of you to do that. Well," she sighed as she straightened her shirt. "I better get going. I have to go clean the bathroom."
"Wait," Lexa put a hand on Echo's shoulder to prevent her from leaving. "We literally just did that this morning."
"We cleaned a bathroom," Echo replied, monotonous. "But not the other one down the hall. It's okay, Lexa. I don't mind."
"You sure?" Lexa was hesitant to let Echo leave, especially after what happened with Mr Griffin earlier. "I can help you, if you want."
"It's okay," Echo said, mustering up a brave smile. "You've helped enough today, thank you." With that, she removed Lexa's hand from her shoulder and left the room.
That left Lexa alone with Clarke again, and that was when the blonde let out a heavy sigh and flopped back on the bed.
"Do you think that I said the right thing?" Clarke asked into the stark air.
"I don't know," Lexa said honestly, for she didn't want to say something that meant nothing, like an empty 'Yes, of course'. "What you said seemed to have got to him, though."
"How do you know?" Clarke's voice was slightly muffled, because a part of her mouth was covered by her pillow.
"I don't know for sure, but your dad seemed to be deep in thought after you left, almost like he's contemplating something. I might be overthinking it though, it was probably nothing."
"Well, if that's what you saw, that could well be a possibility," Clarke mumbled. "I sincerely hope that's the case. It's sad that those people not only took my mum away from me, but my dad too. Nothing had been the same ever since."
Lexa felt a sense of déjà vu, and she decided that she would try and change the subject away from the still sensitive topic of her family. Nothing had clearly changed for a long time, and they all still had to heal. She wandered over to the blonde's desk and saw a piece of paper that was on the desk. She remembered how she had saw Clarke's handwriting for the first time when she first got here and was ensorcelled by the way the ink was pressed into the paper, representing words of meaning.
"Your handwriting is beautiful," Lexa said softly, bringing Clarke's mind away from the thought of her dad. "I wish that I could write like you."
"It's really not that good," Clarke chuckled, sitting back up. "Some of it is just messy notes that I make when something pops up into my head."
"What is it about?" Lexa enquired.
Clarke got up from her bed and walked over to where Lexa was standing. "I have an idea," she said. "How about I teach you how to read? You said that you had wanted to be able to read for a long time, and since we have time, why don't I teach you? You'll be able to understand everything that's on paper."
"W-what… now?" Lexa said.
"Yeah, why not?" Clarke smiled, shrugging. "Now's as good a time as any."
"Oh, wow," Lexa breathed. "Um, okay," she chuckled nervously. "How do we begin?"
Clarke grabbed a chair that was on the side and sat down in front of the desk. She then patted the seat that was at the desk and Lexa sat down too.
"Well," Clarke centred the piece of paper on the desk so that Lexa was looking directly at it. "How much of the alphabet do you know?"
"Uh, not much," Lexa said, feeling a little stupid. "My mum taught me a bit when I was younger, but I don't think that I can remember much."
"Well, I have an idea then," Clarke said, reaching up to fetch a piece of blank paper. "We might teach you how to write while we're at it. Here's a pen," she reached for the pen pot and gave Lexa a black ballpoint pen. "Just write what you know. I won't judge, I promise."
"Okay…" Lexa said hesitantly, taking the pen from Clarke's hand. Their fingers grazed, and Lexa felt that jolt of electricity shoot up her spine again. Shakily, she held the pen and pressed down on the paper, drawing what she thought was a letter, if she remembered correctly.
Clarke watched her carefully. "Good," she said. "Now what is that?" she asked, gesturing to the letter that Lexa had just drawn.
"Uh… I think that it was a 'b', I'm not sure."
"You're right," Clarke smiled. "Well, do you know anything else?"
Lexa thought for a moment, but since she wasn't that sure and didn't want to get anything wrong, she shook her head.
"That's all right," Clarke said encouragingly, putting the earlier piece of paper in front of Lexa again. "So, this letter," she said, pointing to the first letter of the first word on the page. "Is a 't'. 'T' as in… um…"
"Table?" Lexa offered.
"Yeah, table," Clarke grinned. "And this letter is an 'h'. 'H' as in hot," she winked, and Lexa felt her cheeks heat up. "And this is an 'e'. 'E' as in… um, eat, I guess."
"So, that is a 't', 'h', and that is an 'e'," Lexa said, pointing to each respective letter in turn.
"Yep," Clarke said. "So what does that word say?"
"Uh…" Lexa racked her brains. "Uh… 'tea'?"
Clarke laughed. "Um, not quite. Maybe that was not the best word to start with. That word is 'the'."
"'The'?" Lexa said incredulously. "How is that pronounced 'the'?"
"It's irregular," Clarke chuckled. "Maybe we shouldn't have started with that word. Although, now you can recognise one of the most common words, so you are already a hundred times better than you were yesterday."
"Really?" Lexa asked, flattered.
"Really," Clarke confirmed. "Well, should we keep going?"
XxX
Lexa had kind of lost track of time as they went through the whole page, reading everything letter by letter, eventually word by word. All she remembered was how Clarke was really patient throughout the whole thing – Lexa knew that she was a bit useless when it came to reading, so she was really glad that Clarke didn't give up or get frustrated or anything. It was all Lexa needed at this moment, a sense of security, a feeling that she was not useless, a whore, worthless. Clarke had said that what she said to Echo also applied to Lexa too, and it just made Lexa's heart warm.
It was now sometime into the evening, and Lexa thought that she was starting to get to grips with what Clarke was teaching her.
"Okay, so now, as a little challenge," Clarke teased, putting the sheet of paper that they were working on away and getting a book this time from the shelf. She opened to the book and flipped to a random page. Her eyes flickered through the lines a little, before she settled on a sentence and put the book flat on the table, so that Lexa could see. She pointed to the start of a sentence. "Try and read this, Lexa."
"Oh, I'm not sure I can do –" Lexa started.
"Nonsense," Clarke cut her off. "Come on, try. I have faith in you."
"Okay…" Lexa said hesitantly and looked at what Clarke was pointing at. She tried her best to recognise the letters, and what they would sound like together. "W-W-What…" she started, looking to Clarke for confirmation, who simply nodded encouragingly. With that, Lexa cast her eyes back down on the paper. "What I… want… m-most… right… at… this m-m… uh…" Lexa said really slowly, looking for Clarke for help. Clarke simply pointed to each letter in turn to guide Lexa, and the brunette concentrated really hard to get the word. "Moment… is… uh… water."
"Yes," there was a glint in Clarke's beautiful sea-blue eyes. "Now say that sentence all over again."
"What I want most, right at this moment, is water," Lexa recited, much faster now that she had an idea of what the words were.
"Yay!" Clarke clapped enthusiastically. "See? I knew that you could do it!" she was literally overflowing with happiness, and before Lexa knew it, Clarke had planted a kiss on her left cheek.
It was very brief, but it felt like a lifetime. It felt so good.
"Uh…" Clarke blushed. "Well, yeah. Well done, Lexa. You're getting so good at this!"
"T-Thanks," Lexa mumbled shyly.
"Well, we'll call it a day here, okay? You'll be just as good as me in no time!" Clarke enthused, closing the book and setting it back on the shelf.
Lexa nodded absently, cheek still fuzzy from where Clarke's lips had touched it just a moment ago. Lexa felt so lucky to get to know someone just as amazing as Clarke.
"Thank you," she whispered to no one in particular. "Thank you for blessing me with kind fate."