Afraid of the Dark

Chapter 14: Perfectly Missed Opportunity

They wonder if Reela is careful when she does her makeup. If she is, then maybe her way of apologizing to them for the scar could be to cover it up. After it's healed of course. Unfortunately, they can't keep her long enough to wait.

Oh well. Perhaps one day.

They close their eyes and take a slow, calming deep breath in. As they breathe out, they lift their hand to rub the knot in the back of their neck. They need to relax. All this stress is weighing on them. They can't remember the last time they had a knot in their neck. Maybe they should have gone to Narvadin with M'Venaas. If you ignore the slavery, Narvadin has the loveliest spas.

Disrupting their thoughts, they hear faint clanging from down the hall.

Avinalyn opens their eyes and lowers their hand from their neck to glance back at the door to their room. Curious, they slowly stand up, bringing their wine glass with them.

They make their way down the dimly lit hall with their glass held lazily in their hand. Could Reela be awake already? The sun is just coming up. They didn't take her for a morning person. They arrive at the guest room to find the door open a crack.

Avinalyn slowly pushes the door open wider to peek into the room. The bed is unmade, but empty. Glancing around, they don't see her anywhere. They hear the clanging again, coming from further down the hallway.

They arch a brow and take a small sip of wine before following the sound to the kitchen, where they find Reela standing on their counter with her head in an open cabinet. Every single cabinet in the substantial kitchen is wide open, including the refrigerator.

"I swear to the lord, Mazenya the Dense and every cursed rat that has been dropkicked in her ludicrous name, if I don't find a single fucking bag of chips or a microwavable ramen package, I am going to lose my goddamned mind!" she exclaims, but the sound is muffled with her head in the cabinet.

She almost doesn't hear the low chuckle, but she does hear their voice. "From what it sounds like, I think you already have," Avinalyn says.

Reela gasps and hits her head on the shelf of the cabinet with a loud thud. "Fuck!" she blurts and her knee slips off the edge of the smooth, polished wooden countertop. She squeals as she falls backwards off the counter, landing flat on her ass which gets her to yelp.

"Fuck me!" she curses and grits her teeth against her probably broken ass. Right on the goddamned tailbone too. "How much punishment do I have to endure before I can get a godsforsaken motherfucking hamburger?!" she holds her ass and her face tightens. She feels like she just got kicked in her nonexistent dick.

Avinalyn laughs and takes a sip of their wine. "As much as you want, little bird," they sigh contentedly and purse their lips almost coyly. When they anticipated Reela to be a mess when she woke up, this is far from what they were expecting. Not that they're complaining. They love a good show.

Reela snaps her eyes open and whips her attention back to the doorway to see that it's them. With a growl, she pushes herself off the ground and storms over to throw a punch at them, but they calmly step out of the way and turn to face her with an arrogant wink. "Please, Reela. There will be plenty of time for that later. No need to risk wasting good wine," they say and smile as they take a drink.

"Where the fuck am I?" Reela demands. "What did you do?"

Avinalyn shrugs carelessly and leans back against the doorframe. "Me? I would hardly call this my doing. I think you're giving me too much credit," they take another sip and lightly chuckle again at seeing the anger flare up in her eyes. There it is. The fire. "As for where you are," they motion to their surroundings with the glass. "You're in my home."