Pricked

37

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Before... like right before

The door flies open and it looks as though a cloud of dusts comes out with it. I cough trying to clear my lungs before I attempt going into the dusty tornado of a basement. Down 36 steps and through a small dingy corridor I find the rags, a few rats and a cobweb covered spinning wheel. I gather the rags in a pile on the floor and hoist them up on my hip. I make my way back through the corridor and up the 36 steps through dozens of hallways and finally make it back to the room I destroyed.

"Very good, you may leave now. If you are seen in this palace again you will be thrown out and if again, put in jail for trespassing." I nod and head out of the now spotless room. I reach for my bag to place a trinket I found on the nightstand in it, but it's not on me. I head back to the room and scan for my bag with my eyes quickly as Miss. DaVin glares at me. "Did you forget what I just said?" She questions bitterly, arms crossed, brows knit, lips pursed.

"No," I reply with a small smile. "I just wanted to say..." I scan more quickly this time, still no bag in sight. "Thank you for the... um..." Her foot starts tapping impatiently; it draws my focus to the floor. "...opportunity to work here it has been a pleasure." My eyes met hers momentarily. "A real pleasure." Before she can say anything else I run off trinket in hand and back to the basement, but I feel her small eyes glaring at me under her thin arched brows.

When I open the door, this time dusk does not come with it, it looks as though it settled on the steps as if waiting for permission to leave. 36 steps and a corridor later, I find my bag and rush to retrieve it before I'm thrown out. "Thought I lost you," I say with a smirk, picking up my bag. "Gah!" A rat jumps out of my bag, I fly back, feel a prick then...