Love Is Never Ugly

Chapter 14

"Um...Um...Um...I...I...I..."

"You know you can relax. I'm not going to spin you up into a cocoon and bite your head off." He then stretched out his body, willing his second pair of arms and second pair of legs to go into the internal regions of his body. "There, is that better?"

"How did...How are you...What...What are..."

"Alright it seems to me that you're still a little in shock so allow me to explain a few things so you can stop shaking and talk regularly again." He said. "Hello, my name is Anthony. I am the castle tailor and cobbler here. I handle all the designing, sewing, weaving, cobbling, and of course spinning that's done around here. I make sure that everyone here is dressed in the proper attire that suits them."

His pink eyes looked down at the gown Charlotte was wearing. It was peach colored with orange blossom designs embroidered along the edges of the skirt.

"Huh that gown looks better on you than I thought it would. I was worried that the color might be too last season but you make it work surprisingly."

"You...You made this?" Charlotte asked grabbing the billows of her gown, completely forgetting her fear of Anthony.

"It's not my best work. Just a little something to wear when there's no special occasion but you still want to look good."

"Oh I think it's very beautiful. Did you make all my gowns?"

"Gowns, dresses, and slippers. Any type of clothing you find in this castle is guaranteed to have been made by me."

"Well I must say that your work is very impressive. I don't even think the most expensive tailor and cobbler in the city could make gowns and shoes like the ones in my wardrobe."

"I know I'm brilliant." He said pridefully. "You wouldn't think it but we spiders have a natural talent for design. But putting it together is very strenuous. If I didn't have such a creative mind and two extra arms I probably wouldn't be up to the task."

"In that I case I greatly appreciate you making all those gowns and slippers for me. They're very lovely but you didn't have to go through all that trouble."

"Eh, I was happy to. It's not often that I really get to show off my creativity. Everyone around here only wants to wear clothes with muted and dark colors which isn't necessarily bad but it gets really boring when it's the only style you've been making for the past thirteen years." He said. "Lucky for me you like a little color and brightness in your attire so finally I get some variety."

"Thirteen years." Charlotte thought back to earlier when Vagatha and Niffty had mentioned how no one had been allowed to enter the music room for thirteen years. Is that how long the servants had been employed? Seemed like an awfully long time to serve a cannibal.

"If I may ask how long have you worked here?"

"About twenty-three years and it hasn't been easy believe me. You know I've been trying to get Vagatha to let me make her a really elegant gown but she always insists on plain and sensible. Which is a shame cause with her legs and her wings, oh boy could I really make a masterpiece."

"Twenty-three years?"

"That's what I said."

Charlotte took in his appearance. Despite looking spider-like, he seemed to be very young. At the very least in his twenties so if he had been employed for twenty-three years than he must've began work as a child. Oh how dreadful it must've been to serve the likes of Alastor at the age of childhood.

"You poor thing you must've been so young when you were employed."

"No I was fully grown when I started working here."

"Really? How old are you?"

"I'm physically twenty-seven."

"That's impossible. How could you have started work as an adult for twenty-three years but be at the age of twenty-seven by now?"

"I said I was physically twenty-seven. Not chronologically twenty-seven."

"I beg your pardon but what does that mean?"

"It means I and every other servant here has been the same age physically for the past twenty-three years."

"How is that possible?"

"Well for starters I didn't always look like this. Twenty-three years ago I was just a regular albino spider but then I was magically modified if you will. I was given a bigger size, a slightly different body type, a higher level of intelligence, and my aging process was stopped. Same applied to all the other staff. We all started out as common animals just minding our own business when badda-bing badda-bong we were morphed into ageless beings."

"Why?"

"Because animals don't live as long as humans do. The regular life span of myself and Vagatha doesn't even make it past a whole month. We were needed to serve our master for as long as he lived so our clocks were stopped."

"Does your master age regularly?"

"He ages as an average human does."

"How come he ages but you all don't?"

"That's a little difficult to explain and I'm not really supposed to tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because I've been ordered not to and if I disobey that order I'll be squashed like a bug."

Just like with Vagatha. He looked like he knew something very important but at the same time he looked like he would get into a great deal of trouble if he disclosed the information. A secret keeping bunch weren't they? Come to think of there was a lot of secrecy in the castle. The whole estate was hidden in darkness, the staff were only allowed to say so much, and the master kept himself out of sight. What were the reasons for this? What was with all the secrets? Just what was Alastor hiding?

Suddenly a very frightening thought entered her mind. One that she hadn't of considered since she arrived here but upon hearing Anthony's explanation of the servants, now it was the only question on her mind.

"You said the servants here are all animals right?" She said.

"Animals who have been greatly morphed and changed. But in a nutshell yes." He replied.

"Which means that none of you are human."

"Pretty much."

"So does that mean your master isn't human either?"

A nervous expression spread across his face and he began to internally debate on how to respond to her question.

"I don't know how to answer that." He finally said.

"What do you mean?"

"I..I...I...I should get back to work now. If I talk any longer I'll be completely off schedule and Vagatha will crush me under her boot. So it was nice meeting you but I can only chit-chat for so long. See you later."

And before Charlotte could protest any further he crawled back up his strand of web and into a dark corner to continue his work. She wanted him to come back and tell her more but she didn't want to get him into any trouble so she left the room. However she now felt very uneasy because before speaking with Anthony she had assumed that Alastor was a human. A sick, twisted, and depraved human but still human. Only now did it occur to her that he could possibly be of a different species and that made her all the more afraid.