Dead To The World

Iliana brought out a notepad and wrote down everything she had to do within the limited time she had. She also had to get to work. She was supposed to be there by 4:00pm for the evening shift.

Grabbing a broom, she started sweeping the hall room. Memories of when her mother used to address the helpers dropped into her head but she shook them off and continued sweeping. She was almost through when a helper came to dump a whole trash can where she had already swept and frustrated that she would have to start all over and with the huge size of the hall room, she shouted at the helper in frustration.

"What did you just do?! Who gave you the right to do that? Do you know how long it took me to get that place cleaned?"

"And so? What business do I have with that? You rich people, always acting all high and mighty, employing helpers to do your work for you. At least now you know how it feels." The girl replied.

"What do you mean? Have I ever made life hard here for you? How could you be so heartless?" Iliana replied almost in tears.

Bursting into laughter, the girl replied, "Who is the heartless one? At least I didn't kill my own parents."

Angered to the extreme, Iliana moved forward and slapped the girl as someone's voice was heard.

"How dare you lay a finger on her you bastard! How dare you? Did you employ her? You do not have the right to even open your filthy mouth to speak to her." Mark said.

"I didn't do anything wrong uncle. She accused me wrongly."

"Martha, slap her!"

"Umm..sir..but...I..."

"I said do it!" Mark said as Martha walked towards Iliana with a smirk on her face and slapped her twice across the face.

Then, Mark walked towards her and said, "NEVER YOU CALL ME THAT. I AM NOT YOUR UNCLE!"

Each time Iliana called him that, he was reminded of his brother and how he got everything on a platter of gold when he didn't deserve it.

"And besides, did she lie? Didn't you kill your parents? You immoral child."

Smiling triumphantly, the girl whose name was Martha, moved closer to Mark and whispered, "We will see tonight."

Turning to Iliana, she said, "And you, I hope you know your place now?" Without waiting for a response she winked at Mark and walked away towards the helpers' quarters.

"Make sure that you scrub this place properly. I don't want to see even a speck of dirt." His voice thundered as he walked away.

Wiping her tears, Iliana continued with the sweeping. By the time she was through, although she was tired, she still had to scrub it. Grabbing a scrubbing brush, she thought of herself as a modern day Cinderella. Unfortunately, there was no prince waiting for her to give her a happy ending. She soon finished scrubbing and moved to the kitchen to clean the plates.

"Good morning everyone. I am here to take the plates for washing."

"Those are the plates on the floor. Please wash them quickly."

Looking at the heap of plates, Iliana almost screamed.

"Why do you have that horrible look on your face? You better start doing washing them. Dinner will soon be ready and these," she said pointing to the plates, " are needed"

"Yes ma'am"

She gathered all the plates and took them to the second room joined to the kitchen where dishes were done. She finished everything in three hours and gathered it all back into the main kitchen.

Excited that she was finally through, she skipped to the bedroom she shared with Clara when she suddenly remembered that she still had to do Melina's laundry and clean her room and she had just two hours left. She ran up to Lina's room and arranged the closet, she washed the dirty clothes with her hands as she knew that Lina would complain if she found out she used a washing machine and she really wasn't ready for any form of punishment.

She rushed through the arranging. By the time she was through, she had less than an hour left to resume at work.

She rushed to the room she and Clara shared, had a quick shower and changed into her work clothes which consisted of the only decent skirt she had and one of the two worn-out t-shirts Melina had given to her. She grabbed the knitted bag gifted to her by her best friend, Catherine and was about to leave when her Juliana stopped her.

"And where do you think you are going idiot?"

"I am going to the cafe aunt."

"You'd better remember not to disclose anything to anybody as you will be killed just as soon as you say it. Remember that you are being watched. Whether you accept it or not you are dead to the world!"

Nodding her head while trying to hide her tears, her aunt left and she ran down to the cafe.