A thousand steps later, Cinder and her stepfamily stepped through the door of their new apartment. Cinder hadn't been expecting much, given the state of the outside of the apartment, but this was a whole new level. There was hardly a spot in the unit that wasn't coated with dust or grime. All of the furniture was in horrible condition; mice had clearly been eating at the sofa cushions while the apartment was vacant and the wooden tables and chairs had suffered from water damage caused by a leak in the ceiling. Adri and Pearl entered behind Cinder and Peony, disgust etched all throughout their features.
Even sweet, bubbly Peony was shocked by the state of their new home. Still trying to be optimistic, Peony slumped up the stairs. "Maybe the bedrooms are better?" she suggested halfheartedly.
They were most certainly not. Cinder and Peony silently traveled from room to room, inspecting everything and taking note of the peeling wallpaper, the scarce furniture, the rat-infested carpets. The only highlight was when Adri tried to come up the stairs and she slipped on a loose floorboard because of her scarily pointy high heels. Of course, this just got her in an even worse mood.
"Girls, go claim a bedroom and unpack," she snapped, waving away the hand Peony had offered to help her get up. Cinder turned away, small suitcase in hand, still trying to hide her snorts of laughter until she heard Adri's voice again. "Not you, Cinder. It's your job to start cleaning up the apartment. I'm sure there are some supplies in a closet. Make our new home look nice." The way she said Cinder in her snooty tone made Cinder feel like a servant girl. Which she basically was, actually.
Sighing, she got to work. Peony climbed up the stairs, turning over her shoulder and mouthing Sorry at Cinder. Cinder waved her off. It wasn't Peony's fault that Adri treated Cinder like scum while spoiling her other daughters, her real daughters. But there was no use defying Adri. She always found a way to make Cinder's life even more miserable if Cinder didn't follow her orders.
At that moment, Cinder realized that she had let herself hope things might be different here. They were starting a new life in this city, after all. But no. It was the same as always. And Cinder was sick of it.
Several hours later, Cinder finally flopped down on the bare mattress on the metal cot in her new room. Of course, Adri and the girls had taken the biggest, least dirty rooms, while she got what was left. Her arms were sore after hours of scrubbing down the tiles and walls to make the apartment slightly livable. The walls of the tiny, stuffy room felt like they were closing in on her. She struggled to breathe. All Cinder wanted was to be with Iko at that moment, running through the streets of her old town with the wind in her hair and on her face, not a care in the world.
I need to get out of here. She had been in this grungy apartment long enough. Cinder reached for the handle of the door, not even caring that she had a curfew and Adri would severely punish her for sneaking out.
Locked. Seriously? Cinder hadn't even realized that Adri was still awake. But of course, she had come and locked Cinder in her room the second she went in. Trying to make sure she couldn't run away. Cinder had had enough. You are smart. You are resourceful. Find a way out.
She tested the locked door, trying to see if there was a way to force the lock. Then she pulled out a long pin and tried jiggling the lock, twisting it around, but no avail. Cinder dumped out her cargo pant pockets to see what tools she had on hand. She considered a screwdriver. I guess I could take the door off its hinges...but that would probably wake the girls and Adri up. What if I...
Cinder's thoughts trailed off as she spied the air conditioning vent in the corner. It was a pretty big one, and it looked like the shaft would be big enough for a person to fit through. She immediately set to work prying the vent cover off with the screwdriver. Finally, it was free. She pulled out her phone and, with a few simple Google searches, had a map of the air conditioning system in the apartment downloaded. When it came to technology, Cinder wasn't a hacker or a programmer; she was more of a mechanic. But she still knew enough about coding that she could figure out how to access restricted information.
Luckily, Cinder had a mini flashlight in her pocket, and she climbed into the shaft, breathing in the musty air. It was, quite ironically, cleaner inside this maintenance shaft than the actual apartment. She climbed through on her hands and knees, taking deep breaths to keep herself from feeling claustrophobic. Following the light of the flashlight and the system map laid out clearly on her glowing phone screen, Cinder made her way throughout the whole building inside the shaft. Finally, there was another air conditioning vent in front of her, where the cold air would blow out of the shaft. She pulled the cover off and slowly lowered herself down, fingertips gripping the edge, arms shaking. When half of her body was through, Cinder suddenly realized that she had no idea how far the drop was out of the air conditioning system to the ground. She took a chance, dropping down out of the vent and onto a hard concrete floor. Cinder instinctively knew to tuck and roll to absorb the impact, something she had learned out of self-defense books. When she came up from her crouch, she found that she was standing in a supply closet. Safe and sound. She smiled to herself. There was a certain thrill that came with running away, defying your legal guardian for the first time. It felt like Cinder actually had some control over her life.
Edging open the closet door slowly, Cinder glanced around the lobby, checking to make sure the coast was clear before she dashed for the front doors. They were locked for the night, but Cinder could unlock them from the inside. She slipped outside, breathing a sigh of relief at being out in the night air.
Actually, it was barely sunset. She had thought it was later, having lost all sense of time after doing the mundane task of cleaning for hours and hours. Quickly Cinder raced down the sidewalk, out of view of the Phoenix Tower Apartments just in case Pearl or Adri was looking out the window.
Then she ran. She didn't care where. She just knew she had to get away. Cinder flew down the streets, not caring that cars coming home from work were honking at her and pedestrians were looking at her questioningly. She had to get away from that horrible new apartment, from her entire life. Away from her stepmother's orders and condescendingness. Away from her spoiled older stepsister who expected Cinder to do everything for her. Away from Peony, who undoubtedly loved Cinder, but ultimately couldn't do anything to save Cinder from Adri's cruel treatment. Away from a place that was much, much too far away from Iko. Away from everything.