4⠀ × ⠀should I marry this man ?
The elevator suddenly buzzed; Elsie felt it move upwards as the man's plastered face was left on the floor below. She gulped and with a hand to her heart she patted relief to the hammering organ. When the elevator halted, an odd tune began playing while the doors opened. As she jumped out for escape, Elsie noticed that the walls had turned black again.
"Here you are, Young Miss, welcome to your floor!" The maid greeted her with a fresh curtsey as if they were meeting after a century, "You can use this whole floor as you please, of course, but let me guide you to your room."
The maid grasped Elsie's luggage and began leading the way through the long hallway. Much like the hallway downstairs, her floor was wrapped in the similar black, pink and mauve wallpaper, though for a whole floor to her dispense Elsie did not spot any doors but one at the very end.
As the maid opened the singular door at the end of the hallway, Elsie's expectations came crashing down. What laid before her wasn't a parallel mansion cave room as expected of the filthy rich but an ordinary room with light wallpaper, a bed, a desk set and a bookshelf.
"That's it?!" Elsie gasped as her jaw dropped.
"It would seem so," the maid shrugged and rolled the luggage through the doorframe.
"You said she had been working on it for a while! What was she working on?!" Elsie asked, genuinely curious and partially exasperated.
"This used to be a storage unit, so, I guess our Lady tried her best. It wouldn't be very nice of Young Miss to be ungrateful for our Lady's kindness!" The maid gasped.
"What?! No! I am not being ungrateful — this, this is much more than I could ever dream of, trust me," Elsie smiled as she walked inside and sprawled herself on the bed. It bounced her back and forth owing to its springiness.
"Woah, this is good," Elsie mused as she snuggled further into the softest bedcovers of the world.
"Our lady planned only the best—"
"Ah, there you are!" A strict voice exclaimed.
Elsie jumped off the bed and almost tripped to her face while the maid stood straight and squared her shoulders again.
"Who...?" Elsie whispered the question, unknowingly, as she witnessed the maid stand all alert. The the resounding footsteps eventually converted into a person at her door. The prim lady dressed in a crisp white shirt and black pleated skirt curtsied ever-so-slightly in Elsie's direction before holding out a stack of books.
"This is sent by Mr. Polin. I introduce myself as Juniper, head of servants at your service," she enunciated with a clear tone. When she raised her head up, Elsie was almost scandalised by the elegance in the blonde woman's face.
"It-'s good to see you, Ms... Mrs? Ma'am, Juniper," Elsie greeted, tried curtseying and failed miserably.
"Know that just because I am at your service does not mean that I condone with any of your actions or like you as an individual. I will merely do my job," the woman announced. Her beady grey eyes narrowed at Elsie's shabby physical state before she added, "Do not trust yourself around clothes for High Society. Know that you are unqualified."
"Heh," Elsie spouted, having nothing else to say. "I don't think you like me all that much, ha, ha," she scoffed, blinking away to avoid embarassment.
"I don't think anyone likes you right now, Young Miss; I just happen to be one of the ones who will always be honest to your face. Then," the woman said in the most dry tone before curtseying to leave.
"Waah...what a person," Elsie scoffed again as the other maid rushed in to keep the books on Elsie's desk.
"I must take my leave now. It was nice knowing you, Young Miss." She waddled away sooner than Elsie could wave her goodbye.
"Sounds like we'll never see eachother again, pfft," Elsie muttered as she closed the door to her room. It was a space much bigger than what Lily Orphanage could ever offer and in truth, Elsie liked the simplicity of it. She could give it a personality on her own now.
Elsie did not have much stuff to call her own considering every second thing she owned at Lily was the orphanage's possession. At the crux of her twenty-three year long stay, all Elsie had to call her own was in a medium sized silver suitcase. She swung it up on the wooden desk and unlocked it to reveal a cluster of wires, mechanical parts, her laptop and a few candies all mushed together.
"Oh my lord, oh my fucking lord, are you trying to give me a heart attack!" She cried as she unpacked everything out of her bag, "Did they just sweep everything inside?! Do they have no concern for— how my goodness is that my microprocessor board?!"
After an hour or three of arranging everything in order, Elsie finally descended to her bed again. The empty bookshelf was on her left, beside a large window and adjacent to the desk and chair. Over her bed was a wall ingrained cabinet for necessities and on the right was another door which led to the bathroom through a closet.
The silence of her floor was breathtaking. Elsie did not remember when she had experienced such peace in the entirety of her time at Lily's. She turned to settle herself in a more comfortable position when her leg brushed against the books sent by Mr. Polin.
"Aha, I forgot about you," Elsie whispered as she jumped over to the corner of the bed. Having changed into a comfortable set of shorts and tanktop, her left leg was on show; wrapped around it was a thin metal frame, supporting its silhouette. Elsie pressed a button on behind her knee, on the mainframe, and ordered, "Into Xerex."
Suddenly, the frame fell apart and the small metal squares hovered over her knee to merge into a hovering cuboid. "Hello Elsie," a robotic voice erupted from the cube and its owner nodded while flipping through the pages of the picture book.
"Hello Xerex."
"You have walked 2547 steps today, which is more than 89% of your average step-count. You forced a heavy weight of 41 kilograms onto the leg, which is 99.98% more than your average load capacity. Are you okay?" The cube asked as it hovered around her ginger head.
"Mhm, I was moving houses," Elsie replied. The first picturebook consisted of family names and relations, of whom Elsie had no idea of. She picked up the book and fell back into the bed, sighing as her eyes were stuck on the word, 'husband.'
"Xerex, search for Miklaus Coshford, please?"
"Searching... analysing... compiling, here are the results for Miklaus Coshford. Would you like me to narrate or brief?"
Elsie dropped the book over her chest and yawned, "Brief please."
"Miklaus Coshford is the self-made heir to Coshford Group, a multi-billion manufacturing company which finds its roots in Greenhouse Development. Do you wish to look more into it?"
Elsie shook her head, realised that Xerex had no visual camera on, then said, "No, tell me more about him as an individual."
"Of course; re-initiating, analysing, compiling, here are the results: Miklaus Coshford is a twenty-five year old renowned bachelor across the globe. He finds intrest in cooking as seen from his constant visits on a cooking show called, 'Don't Burn the Pan,' hosted by Yerin Escarts. Miklaus Coshford has had numerous dating rumours involving the young MasterChef Yerin Escarts but nothing tangible has been confirmed by either parties. Miklaus is also sighted often at the spor—"
"No, no, no, reel back, I want to know more gossip about this Yerin person," Elsie exhaled, "Where can I find her? Search her social media handles, will you?"
"You are being 78% more curious than your average question count. Is this a topic I should be well versed with?" Xerex asked as it hovered around her shoulders.
"No—mm, I mean, yes, from now on, create a folder called Coshford and Aureiless, no, create three, actually no, four. Wait, I'll do it on my lap—" she stopped midsentence to find her laptop placed so far away on the desk, "Nevermind, create two main folders titled Coshford and Aureiless. I permit you to create sub-folders within them to store relevant or discrete information about the Coshford and Aureiless family. Have you followed?"
"Folder creation completed. Transferring complied data into Coshford folder. Subsequent folders created: Miklaus Coshford, Rein Coshford, Dormio Coshford, Yerin Escarts, Azeal Hawthorne, Coshford Manufacturing Ind., Coshford Greenhouse Ent., Coshford Arts Corp. Coshford Charity: Silverette."
"What do you think, should I marry this Miklaus man?" Elsie joked upon hearing his multiple business folders.
"My thoughts do not matter on your marriage but if he makes you lift 40 kilograms then you should reconsider."
A laugh escaped Elsie. It was a genuine laugh that subdued the exhaustion of her day. She pulled the hovering cube closer to her and whispered, "Into a ball."
The cuboid disintegrated into hundreds of black nanobots which swiftly aligned together to form a spherical ball. Elsie caught it in her hand, hugged it close by her chest and fell asleep.
The next morning, when she woke up and tried opening the door it wouldn't budge. She had been locked and left for starvation.
