I aimlessly wandered around the cobblestone paths, looking for any "help wanted" signs. Finding none, I started asking around to see if anyone knew if anyone was hiring people.

I approached a woman sweeping her front walk. She seemed wealthy enough to know what was going on, but not so rich she would push me, a lower classman (or woman) away. "Excuse me," she looked up and smiled kindly. I breathed a sigh of relief. "I was wondering if you knew where I could get a job."

She nodded, then pointed to the large manor down the street. "I heard that they need a new maid. If you knock on the door and ask for Walden, he'll help you." I thanked her and hurried along.

As I approached the eerie, intimidating mansion I was tempted to turn around and run away. But, I swallowed my fear and rapped the door. A man in a suit answered the door. "May I help you?" he asked.

"Umm, I'm looking for Walden." I felt very awkward.

"That would be me."

"Okay," I said. "I heard that you needed a maid. Do you?"

"Yes, come with me."

I followed him into the large house, tripping over the entryway. We came into a large room with a beautiful, glass chandelier in the middle of the high, circular ceiling. We kept moving through other rooms with perfect furniture, and not a speck of dirt was visible. Either they overworked their maids, or they just had a lot, hopefully the latter. He stopped in a small room with only a bed and tiny dresser.

"What room is this?" I asked.

"My bedroom," answered Walden flatly.

"Oh. So why are we here?"

"We need to be sure that you want this job." That sounded suspicious. It was as if nobody wanted it, or when they got it they didn't want it anymore.

"What will I have to do?"

"Watch the governor's daughter." That sounded easy enough. So why was he so... hesitant?

"So why wouldn't I want this job?"

He hesitated. "She's a bit... rebellious."

"How rebellious."

"Err. She runs away on a regular basis, constantly disobeys her father, and is obsessed with boys." I breathed a sigh of relief. For a minute, I thought there might have been something seriously wrong with her.

"How old?"

"16."

"You've got yourself a nanny." It couldn't be too hard.

Walden led me to the room where all of the maids slept and introduced me to one of them, Mary. We later became very close friends. She helped to show me around the massive house for most of the rest of the day. It was around 7 o'clock when I met the governor's daughter, Allie. I was cleaning up her room when she walked in. She was wearing a long, peach corset dress. It went very nicely with her light, blond hair and brown eyes.

"Who are you?" she asked. I could tell she was snobby by the disgust in her voice.

"I'm Kia, you're new maid. I'm supposed to watch over you."

"Right," she said coolly. "My stalker."

"Well I would hardly call myself a stalker. I'm more like a follower."

"You're bold," she said it as if it was a bad thing. "Perhaps too bold." And maybe it was a bad thing. But then her face broke into a grin. "I like it."

Startled, I tried to make sense of everything. "Wait. So first you hated me and now you like me?"

She shrugged. "All of my maids have been bland and boring. None of them ever completely understood me. But you seem different. How old are you?"

"25."

"Exactly! All the others were in their 30's and 40's and none of them understood what I wanted to do. They just locked me up in this house."

She was very wound up. Either that or she was drunk. I wasn't quite sure which one it was. Either way, I figured I had better calm her down. "Come change into your nightgown," I said. She followed me to a screen that she changed behind. The whole time she was telling me about her evening. She told me what she did, who she saw, what they said, etc. For the next 2 hours she kept on talking... and talking... and talking...

Surprisingly enough, she wasn't anything like what I thought she would be. She was a little on the snobbish side, but I figured that it came with having so much money. But other than that, she was very fun and nice, for a lack of better words. Obviously, she was very, very talkative. Luckily, she didn't only talk about parties and superficial friends. She liked talking about more serious things as well. Love, life... and more love. But, she was also on the rebellious side; jumping at any chance to disobey her father. Usually, it was up to me to stop her.

The next morning I grudgingly woke up at 6:00 AM with all of the other servants. Bright and early. Ugh. After finishing my morning chores, I trudged up the spiraling staircase to Allie's room. "Rise and shine, Sleeping..." I looked at the empty bed, not quite believing my eyes. "Damn," I said under my breath.

The next 20 minutes I spent frantically running through the house looking for her. Finally, after going through every room at least three times, I realized she was outside. Muttering under my breath, I threw on a pair of shoes and ran out the door and down the street. I kept going until I hit the water, but still, I didn't see her. I did a 360 turn and spotted her by the docks. I sprinted to her and grabbed her shoulder. Then, I launched myself into a scolding. "What the hell were you thinking?!? You scared the crap out of me! What, do you think you can just..." That's when I saw the tears streaming down her face. My anger began to fade away. I took a seat next to her on the edge of the water. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"It's just..." she began in a shaky voice, "I'm so... lost. You... you can probably... do hiccup whatever you want. But I... am so limited. I can't do what I want... Sure... I sneak out during the night... But... but it's not enough." She gave a small sob and buried her face in her hands.

'What an emotional wreck,' I couldn't help thinking.

I sat down and hesitantly patted her back. She laid her head in my lap and wept softly. We stayed like that for several countless minutes. Finally, she lifted herself up and wiped her puffy, red eyes. "We'd better get going." She said. The clock suddenly began to ring out. Once. Twice. Before it finished its nine rings we were already flying down the street. 'Only a half an hour' I thought. We ran inside the house and I quickly changed her into a beautiful white dress with blue lining it. But before I could stop to admire it, I caught sight of the clock. "5 minutes!" I shouted. We ran back down the steps to the dining room door. A short, fat butler with slightly graying black hair was standing next to it.

"Cutting it close, are we?" He said. I ignored him and pushed Allie into the room. The door closed on her worried face and I turned to the butler. He had a slightly amused expression on his face.

"What?" I asked him.

"Nothing," he snickered.

"WHAT?" I demanded.

"You're stuck with Allie." He was grinning widely.

"So?" I said indignantly. He just kept on smiling. It was as if someone had made a joke that I hadn't gotten but that he understood completely. Ignoring him again, I stormed off to find Mary.

I found her in the kitchen washing a huge pile of dishes and laying them into a basket to dry. Wordlessly, I ambled next to her to put away the clean dishes. She acknowledged me with a nod. That's what I liked about Mary; she knew when I wanted to talk and when I just wanted to think and she respected it. And I did the same for her.

Her brown, mousy, shoulder length hair fell into her face as she worked. Her hair was a light tint and her body was thoroughly tanned from many hours in the sun. She had two small patches of freckles in each cheek of her thin face. Men constantly got lost in her big brown eyes. I don't think she ever realized how pretty she was. Being born into a poor family, she probably wouldn't get anywhere based just on her intellect. Her beauty would take her far though.

'Unlike me,' I thought bitterly. Unconsciously, I raised my hand to my face. I traced the scars with my finger. Any possibility of marrying anyone of higher status had been shattered in a single moment. They had said I was pretty before. Several rich men courted me before that day. But now, what was the point? I couldn't marry for money; rich men only want perfect women. But love...

Then I made a huge mistake. I asked myself "the question". 'Will I find love?'

I thought about it for a while, but it hurt far too much. Love had brought me so much pain. I had been betrayed by some who had I had loved. Others, I had lost. They had been stolen away from me in the blink of an eye. But, I realized, despite all that I had been through, I could not cry. I had not shed a single tear since my mother died all those days ago. I doubted if I ever would.

Half an hour and several broken dishes later, Mary went off to scrub the floors and I retired to Allie's room. Not finding her there, I decided to tidy up. I was organizing her messy bedside table when she came flying in. her sudden appearance surprised me and I jumped so much I knocked over a candle holder. Luckily, it wasn't lit or else the entire house would have been in flames in a matter of minutes. I bent down, picked it up and set it back on the table while Allie, completely oblivious to my actions, skipped to her bed and sat on it. She was smiling from ear to ear. Could this have been the same girl I had dropped off just an hour ago, sniffling and red-eyed? Well... apparently.

"Let's have an adventure," she said, out of nowhere. She sounded so much like my sister it was all I could do not to shout out her name. Kayla. She used to say things like that all the time. 'Let's do something exciting! Let's sneak out! Let's go on a quest!' And so on and so forth. She always thought that I could do anything, no matter how impossible. Being ten years apart, many people thought that we didn't get along, but we did. I always loved how much she admired me. We were like best friends.

When she died it was almost like a part of me died. She took it with her. I could remember the day almost perfectly. She lay in her bed; thin, pale, and weak from the disease. Her once beautiful and shiny blond hair was limp and gray looking. And her eyelids were closed over her blue eyes, clear as the ocean. And her body lay still. She had been hacking and coughing for nearly a week, but now it did not move. I slipped my hand in hers and gave it a small squeeze. It twitched in response. Then she went limp.

Allie's voice brought me back to reality. "Kia? You okay?"

I blinked once, and then said, "Yeah. I'm fine."

Allie looked concerned for a fraction of a second, but then figured I would be okay. She began bouncing on her massive king-sized bed. "So? What do you say? Are we going to do something exciting or what?"

I pushed the thought of my sister's body, pale and cold, out of my head. "Let's do it," I said. For me. For Allie. But most of all, for Kayla.