Tuesday Teaser #12

I've fallen off the wagon, let's get back on. :)

On Tuesdays I post a teaser for my current work in progress along with my friend M.R. Graham. I invite my writer friends to join in. If you do, post a link in the comments.

The rules:
Post a link, image, quote, or excerpt related to or taken from your current WIP.
State the name of the WIP.
Do NOT explain yourself! Resist the urge to wax poetic. This is a hint, not an outline.

ALCHEMY

My plans for losing myself in one of my books before bed died when my father burst into my room. The automaton maid, or Margo as I liked to call her, pausing the hairbrush midstroke through my long, black hair and gave a slight curtsey, her plastic eyelids closing over her glass eyes. My father pushed back an errant strand of brown hair from his face and strode across the room to the television, which was playing at a low volume. The color image of a man embracing a woman as he leaned close to kiss her disappeared as Father pressed the power button.

“Gather what things you need. You’ll be sleeping in the Chamber,” he said.

I stiffened, a sinking feeling resting in the pit of my stomach. “But why? Have I done something wrong?”

He studied me for a long moment with his dark eyes narrowed. “I don’t know; is there anything you’d like to tell me?”

I gulped, my mind going back to the festival I had visited in town a week ago. It hadn’t been my first visit. I’d occasionally been able to slip away and walk to Bela Vista to take in the sights and experience what other people were like. My favorite part had been visiting the bookstore with its shelves of secondhand books. I’d even managed to buy one or two and hide them away in my secret spot in the garden. Had he found out?

“No,” I said is a small squeaky voice.

He sighed and rested a hand on my shoulder. “This isn’t a punishment, but I need you to follow my instructions.”

Margo turned her doll face head to me and her singsong voice came from her open plastic mouth. “Do you need me for anything, Mistress?”

“Begin the Wipe Clean Function. Bring the other automatons in on this,” Father said. “No word of Zoe shall pass through your lips until I say otherwise.”

“Understood. I shall retrieve the trunks and begin the Wipe Clean Function,” she said.

Margo curtseyed again and ambled out of my bedroom. Father took my hand and pilled me to a standing position, gazing at the long white nightgown I wore.