The bell rang.
Not the harsh kind, like a school alarm. Something gentler… closer to a softened church chime, drifting down from a hidden speaker in the ceiling corner.
Still, the sound crawled up Easter's neck the moment his eyes opened.
Weird. How does a bell make my skin crawl?
He got up, walked to the bathroom without thinking much of it. Warm water. Mint toothpaste, the expensive kind nothing like what he used to steal a squeeze of back home. A thick, cream-colored towel.
Everything new. Everything is different.
When he stepped out in a loose bathrobe, his eyes landed on something at the foot of the bed.
A uniform. Already laid out. White shirt, dark grey trousers, a navy blazer with a small gold crest stitched over the chest.
He hadn't put it there.
Easter stood still for a moment, staring at it like evidence. Then, before suspicion could fully take root, something simpler and far more embarrassing to admit beat it to the surface.
He was happy.
