The common area had cobblestone walls with oak skirting boards by the floor and ceiling, the carpet was dark grey and the ceiling an ivory color with inset lights, the room had large grey sofas and armchairs dotted around the place, a few desks and some bookcases also decorated the place, the walls with some Gothic and renaissance era paintings also lining them, the windows where similar to those in the offices, tall, glass and had intricate metal framing to them, looking out onto the other attached buildings and some parts to the large gardens of the Archive. Across the room were double glass doors that where propped open, based on the sounds heard she assumed that they must be the kitchens.
The others were dotted around, some reading, other chatting, but the most noticeable was the amazing smell from the kitchen, "You smell that Holloway?" she nodded, "That would be Landon's cooking, we all take turns, each of us spend a week on different duties around the housing building and rotate each week, to make it fair." Soon Landon's voice was heard from the kitchens, "Ladies, gents food is served." Walking into the kitchen Holloway saw a rustic kitchen with a large dining table at then back wall, "Holloway do me a favor and grab the Cabernet Sauvignon from the wine cupboard, just behind you and put in on the center table." Turning around Holloway saw the said tall cupboard which was stocked full of very expensive and rustic looking wine bottles with an entire side shelve of wide, intricate wine glasses."
Holloway scanned the cupboard until she saw it on the top shelve, attempting to reach it she soon felt a pair of hands at her sides lifting her to the top shelve, grabbing the bottle Harriet put her back gently to the floor, turning Holloway smiled embarrassingly as a slight blush formed on Harriet's face until Carrie jumped in, scaring both of them out of their daze, "Ooo, whats up with you Harriet? This is unlike you, oh Holloway i'll take the wine, you two take a seat i'll get us some glasses." Holloway and Harriet sat opposite each other on the table as Landon plated the food, Carrie gave out filled wine glasses and Hypatia began to drink already. Landon walked over with plates in hand, "For dinner to welcome the newest member of the Archivist team, we have beef tenderloins with a handpicked and handmade blackberry dressing, and to drink we have Cabernet Sauvignon." Landon dished out the plates and seated himself opposite to Carrie.
After they had finished the meal Holloway grew curious how Halls could afford such amenities for those who work under her, "So do any of you know how Halls can afford all of this?" Carrie, Landon and Harriet shrugged but Hypatia spoke up, "Halls is the daughter of a long line of those to inherit the head archivist position, and so the head archivist would inherit the entire grounds, the gardens, waiting staff, and the ridiculous fortune that came with it all. But the catch is that they believe a deal of sorts was made by the first ever owner, to inherit the grounds, staff and fortune one must make the ultimate sacrifice." Holloway looked expectantly at Hypatia, "What sacrifice?" She shrugged, "I don't know, that's all i could gather from the staff." Landon cleared his throat and looked to the others, "Holloway, we weren't entirely honest with you when you arrived. We all including you have a power of sorts, mind powers. Hypatia can read minds, that's how she knew about Halls. Carrie is an empath she has the psionic ability to sense and manipulate the emotions of others, that's why she's, well Carrie." Carrie humphed but Landon continued, "Harriet has intuitive precognition, he can sense and adapt future events to a varying degree, i am psychokinetic, i can manipulate any physical object within a certain weight to my will."
"And you!" Carrie excitedly gestured to Holloway with her fork, "What about you?" Holloway shrugged "Oh come on you have to be able to do something otherwise Halls wouldn't have hired you!" Harriet though for a moment, "You can read, write and speak a shit ton of ancient languages right?" Holloway nervously nodded, "Well, what if your power was something to do with being able to translate or decipher any ancient or foreign modern text, thus explaining your ability to read, write and speak each one?" Hypatia looked up "Decodifiaction- the ability to solve or break codes of complex languages and systems for anything no matter how complex and near-impossible to decipher." Carrie patted Hypatia's head, "That's our human dictionary." Hypatia growled and Carrie just giggled. "But that's not the only reason we are all hired here." "What do you mean by that Hypatia?" Carrie questioned.
"Well if you hadn't noticed we all witnessed or where a part of some sort of accident, altering us permanently, which is probably another reason for Halls to hire us all." Harriet lowered his head. Holloway looked even more confused, "Don't look so confused, i can read your mind so i know that shit, whether you tall me or not." "Hay! That's invasion of privacy." Hypatia groaned. "And Halls knowing about it and our powers isn't, none of us even know what the fuck she even looks like." Holloway looked away. "Holloway, something you want to share with the group?" Landon questioned. "Samuel took me to her office, i had tea with her and we talked about my academic and cultural background." Landon placed his head in his hands and mumbled something in a foreign language under his breath. "You alright there Landon?" Harriet questioned. Nodding he sat up.
"Now Hypatia let the cat out of the bag, how about we spill our guts to each other, i'll go and get some more alcohol, we are bound to find this out sooner or later, so how about we start now." Raising from his seat Landon walked to a cupboard and reached in pulling out a dark wide bottle with no label, sitting down and pouring each person a glass in turn he placed the bottle on the table. "So any one care to start?" Carrie sat up, "I will!" Hypatia groaned, "Never seen someone so exited to tell their trauma to a group of people." Carrie disregarded her comment, taking a sip of the unknown alcohol she began. "So, as a kid i was in the system, in and out of foster homes all the time, and this one family, well the dad to me more specific was, not very nice, one night he woke up up, dragged me out of my bedroom by my hair and hit me, then before my foster mother could do anything he hit a glass bottle over my head, i hit the wooden floor. And the psychiatrists and doctors said i developed dissociative identity disorder from the trauma, and that's it i suppose." Landon looked to Hypatia who nodded, "She's telling the truth, that's all she remembers, she has one other alter though but i can't read who or what they are." Landon looked to Harriet.
"Alright mate, your turn, spill your guts." Laughing lightly he also took a drink and began. "Well, when i finished school i enrolled in the military, i only did it because my mates did too, thought it would be a good laugh and put some meat on our bones as we all came from an area where money was never easy to come by. Well on my second deployment somewhere in eastern Asia, me and a few of my comrades got caught in some crossfire, while running back i saw each one of them get shot down, one by one. It was like we where target practice for them, i got out with a bullet lodged in my side but i was the only one of my mates who made it out alive, the bullets still there but i guess that's it, i was given an honorable discharge to recover and grieve and never went back after." The group sat in shock, never having expected such a gentle soul like Harriet to have fought on the front lines and come back with PTSD.
"Alright them Landon, your turn." Carrie piped up. Finishing his drink Landon cleared his throat, "My family weren't honest people, they messed with some bad and very dangerous people, one time they had made a deal with them that didn't end well, i don't know all the details but one day i got home from school and saw my parents and three younger siblings lined up, blindfolded with their hands tied behind them with a man each in a black suite stood behind them with a hand gun to the back of there heads, execution style, before i could do anything one man nodded and all guns fired. I screamed but before i could run one man grabbed me, i woke up in a cell of sorts, they held me there and the man who gave the order called me his 'son'." Carrie looked to him, "So you where kidnapped and became the hostage son of a mafia don?" Landon nodded, "I fled the country at 15 and made honest work in a market place, the rest is history."
Holloway sat unable to comprehend the shear reality of her situation. "I believe its Hypatia's turn." Harriet piped up. Sighing she drank and began, "I grew up in a small city on the outskirts of Egypt, it was a culturally outdated place, they still had the customs that dated back thousands of years, nothing like the center of the country that you see today. One custom we followed was the first female born under the perfection of an eclipse was the next high priestess, what nobody other than the officials of the town knew was what happened to the previous high priestess, but none dared to question it. I was born November 13th, under a perfect eclipse. I grew up lavished with luxury after that, i never met my parents, the officials stood in their position. It took until i was 16 for the next high priestess to be born, when news spread i was taken by two officials, walking me out to a stone plaque just out of sight to the city, tossing me on they called me 'the perfect sacrifice for Am-heh and that my death would save humanity.' They strapped me to the plaque and inscribed me with beckons for the god to take me as a willing and noble sacrifice. After they left and a few days turned into weeks i tried to yell for the god to take me, no one answered my calls. i pulled at the ropes that bound me, i ran from the place, into the nearest modern town. I explained my story and was taken in my a local family, unfortunately the inscriptions are still visible."
"Shit." Was all Landon would say, "Agreed" Carrie responded. Hypatia turned to Holloway, "Well newbie, your turn." Hypatia gestured to her with glass in hand then motioning for a refill from Landon. Finishing her drink and clearing her throat. "I grew up an only child until i was 12, my parents where desperate for a boy, not getting one they isolated me from society as 'revenge' until a few months after my 12th birthday my mum had a baby boy, continuing to isolate me they showed him off to the world non stop, praising him with everything he could ever want in life. Until he was 7, he was playing outside our estate with a few of the local boys, my father sat on our porch talking with their dads, until the boys returned in a hurry without my brother, saying he fell into the creek and none of them could reach him, running out my dad searched the creek for him, an hour later his body washed up on the shore just 3 miles from the estate. He drowned, my parents blamed me, saying i put sort of curse on him to do it. They hated me for an act i never committed, even sending me to live with a distant relative in Czechoslovakia as they 'couldn't stand the sight of me after what i did to their son.' After i turned 17 i returned to England to complete my studies and that's as interesting as it gets."