Exodus - The Khiara Banning Series Book Two

Eleven

Khiara

I woke up without a sense of who I am again. I know that I had one when I fell asleep beside the girl who calls herself Unity. I know my name and little else. The other girls in the room seem to be in the same predicament.

We know our names but have no memories of how we got here, or why we're here at all. We have attendants, one each. Mine is named Hassina. She looks like somebody I know, though how I know that...ironically, I don't know.

About an hour after we've all awakened and become acquainted with our attendants and each other, a woman who introduces herself as Miss Adephagia comes into the room and leads us into an opulent dining hall. The ceilings are the highest I believe I have ever seen, and the whole room resembles a French ballroom from the time of Marie Antoinette – will we be beheaded? There are giant crystal jugs of water on the table as well as goblets that seem as though they've been made of gold. We take our seats and wait to be addressed.

"Good morning. I am sure you are all very hungry, and food will arrive eventually. Please be patient, but help yourselves to the water in the jugs as you please," Miss Adephagia says.

My stomach rumbles, and I realize how hungry I am. It feels as though I haven't eaten in weeks.

I fill my cup with water, as do the other girls and I sip slowly. The liquid is sweet, reminding me of water you'd drink from a forest stream on a hike. I wonder how I'd know that? I voice this to the girl on my right, Shelby, and she heartily agrees. The other girls shrug or smile indulgently at us.

After about twenty minutes, I begin to wonder where the food is. I mean, she did say eventually...maybe we're meant to just talk until it comes, whenever that is. But I find that the hungrier we get, the grumpier we get.

Unity has begun to bite her bottom lip so hard that I fear it'll bleed, Shelby's ripped her napkin to shreds and has begun to rip mine. Linda and Hannah are in a heated debate about the colour of the table cloth, white vs. eggshell, and Sophia seems to be examining her fork for some unknown reason.

"Soo," I pipe up. "Anyone wonder why we're here?"

"Pretty sure this is some kind of boarding school for delinquents," says Shelby, reaching for Linda's napkin.

"Right," says Unity. "A boarding school that wipes our memories, eh? I'm pretty sure that that makes no sense whatsoever."

Shelby shrugs. "Dunno, I mean where do you think we are?"

"I think we're dead," whispers Sophia.

Everybody turns to her.

"That's morbid," mutters Hannah. "Why'd you think we're dead? I'd rather be in boarding school."

Sophia puts down her fork and says, "There's nothing stamped or scratched in on the fork to indicate who made it. On our mattresses there were no tags, nor the sheets and blankets and pillows."

She picks up her empty cup and turns it over. "Not on our cups either. It's human nature to claim something made. It just feels weird to me. These things all look so new, like they were just made. Even this room was made to look old, but it's new. Has to be."

Everybody looks around the room in a new light.

"Plus," I say, "I feel like I should know more than I do. But all I have are these vague understandings of who I might be. I know that I hate white chocolate, and that I think there are people out there that love me and I have the vague sense that I love them back, you know? It makes sense. But I don't know anything else. Where did I go to school? How old am I?"