~♤♡Everfall's Casino♢♧~

~~~~~~~~~~~♔Chapter 29♔~~~~~~~~~~~

"Come on kid, we don't have all night!" Annoyance tinted Chip's voice. I put down the pen on the desk and it echoed slightly.

"In a second, I just need to read through this first." I grabbed the sheafs of paper. Chip's smile turned to a snarl, Sash let out the breath she was holding, I could feel Chubby's gaze fade, Jaza's tapping stopped and Rainbow looked somewhat relieved.

I scanned through each page, was it tedious? Yes. Was it boring? Most definitely. Will this be worth the trouble...? Who knows. Everything seemed okay except for 5 small details.

"Why does it say 'unable to leave the casino without being accompanied'?"

"To make sure you don't run away." Chip responds, at this point he's leaning back in his chair waiting for me to finish so that everyone can go sleep or get back to work.

"What about '1 week break' what does that mean exactly, when is it and how does that work if I can't leave the casino unaccompanied?"

"1 week break means 1 week break, you get some time off from work, sick days don't count, you will be accompanied but you just won't notice."

"So, I'll be followed and spied on?"

"Precisely."

"'Will have to participate in every mission for the first two years.' why do I have to do that?" My brow furrows and a frown grows on my face, I didn't want to go on any more missions, not after the last one.

"You are going to be a part of the five flowers or six soon. You need experience, you need training and if you do we'll know we can trust you." Chip spins around in his chair, what a child, a terrifying one at that.

"'Earnings of 6,000 coppers per month' I get paid? Also, what are the other's pay checks, if I'm a part of the 'private' staff, shouldn't my pay be higher?"

"Your pay is lower because you need to pay back the earnings from that night, you won quite a bit, around 1 million. I would applaud you, if you weren't a thief."

"Like you're one to talk about theft." I mumbled under my breath.

"What was that?" Chip stopped all movements and looked straight at me, knowing I probably insulted him just now.

"Nothing..." His eyes narrowed at me but he didn't push any further.

"My final question: 'I swear loyalty to Everfall and work my hardest everyday or suffer the consequences of my actions for the years to come.'"

"That's the deal, you pay back your debt, then you can leave. Until then you work for me." Chip says nonchalantly.

"Okay, but my question is, why does it say 'permanent stay' at the far bottom right in barely readable text?" My eyes narrow at Chip.

He clicks his tongue, an uncomfortable silence sets in the room, "What are you talking about?".

I picked up the sheet and almost shoved it into his face as I pointed to the far bottom right where in barely visible writing it stated "Agreement to permanent stay once contract has been fully signed." More awkward silence "I thought that I was only to stay here until I paid back what I stole from the casino?"

I watched as his eyes darted from place to place, probably looking at the others for some kind of help or back up. No one said a word.

Finally he spoke and merely said "A simple misprint." Misprint? Misprint?! I mentally shouted to myself. I leaned over the desk and got to his eye level.

"Then fix it." His eyes narrowed, what a surprise, he didn't seem to appreciate my tone of voice.

"Pardon? Do you know who you're talking to?"

"Not my boss, that's certain."

Tension was heavy and after what seemed like an eternity he reached for a drawer. That's it he's about to pull out a gun and blow my brains out. Instead to my surprise he pulled out another set of sheets of what looked to be a second contract. Then he smiled, swiftly grabbed the my set pushed the other one towards me and said

"One of the most important things to know if you're going to work here is how to be observant and to be able to stare death in the eyes when needing to." I quickly skimmed through this new contract and finally looked at the last page. I scanned every sheet once more and this time it was certain that there wasn't anything that stated a permanent stay.

"How do I know if you haven't written it in some invisible ink?" I raised a brow and he instead laughed at my question. He then reached back into his drawer and brought out a black light.

"You haven't even started and you're already as paranoid as the others!" I snatched the light up and proceeded to scan every page once more. Nothing, everything was in order... I grabbed the pen again and signed it. Every. Single. Page.

I slowly slid it back towards him.

I watched as he picked up.

He reached into his drawer one last time and proceeded to stamp the bottom left of the last page.

Then he rolled it up and tied it with a blood red ribbon.

Sealed it with a wax stamp.

Turned around and got up from his seat.

Removed the painting on the wall.

A safe was hidden behind it.

He got closed and entered the code and with one last buzz it opened.

He placed the contract inside.

I leaned to the side and caught a glimpse of other contracts.

Before I could see anything else, he shut it.

Hanged the painting back on the wall and turned towards me.

With a sickly grin that I could only see in my nightmares, he opens his mouth.

"The prologue has ended and your story may now finally–"

He leaned towards me, overlooking me slightly and staring into my soul.

"Begin."

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