Entangled

Chapter 20

"I need your help,"

Liatta stood in front of Yates, the pink dawn light cast a flickering shadow across her face that simultaneously magnified and hid the intensity of her gaze.

Averting his eyes, Yates shifted his weight, bringing his hand up to awkwardly rub the back of his neck.

Liatta had anticipated his discomfort. Their last conversation had been enough to establish that, though he was sympathetic, Yates would not help her in any way that would threaten his loved ones.

No doubt, he was confused that Liatta would come to ask him for help after.

"...With what?"

Liatta bit her lip, unsure of how to proceed.

"There's this spider,"

Yates expression shifted from discomfort to bafflement, but Liatta pressed on in her efforts to explain.

"Its name is Char. I found it here and I think its my pet now but..." She cast her eyes down in shame.

"It went missing. Can you help me find it?"

Yates blinked. "That's it?"

Liatta nodded.

Char had been missing for a week now and Liatta refused to wait any longer.

She knew that searching for the spider directly was likely to do more harm than good.

The risk of getting caught by Mr. Arach was something she was willing to ignore when she was only risking herself, but she wouldn't risk Char too. But she wasn't willing to wait passively after this much time had passed.

After wracking her mind trying to make a plan, Liatta settled on a middle ground. She would ask someone else to help her look for Char. This way she could minimize the time she spent out suspiciously and if she was caught she could just lie and take the pain since it would just be one time.

She needed to choose wisely. She had to find someone who wouldn't be seen as suspicious in their search and who was reasonably familiar with the mansion.

The number of people that Liatta had even a passing familiarity with in this place could be counted on one hand. But, fortunately, there was one person who she knew fit that description, Yates.

The first day she arrived there Liatta had encountered Yates and another guard just by walking. The second time she saw Yates, he had been outside, but he had entered the mansion casually when he noticed her.

All of these observations led Liatta to be pretty sure that the guards were at least sometimes inside.

There was a possibility that they could have just been around more because she had tried to break in but Liatta decided to ignore it.

Yates had seemed sympathetic to her the last time they spoke. She knew she was asking for a lot but she hoped that his sympathy could extend to Char too.

Her plan was only a hair reckless than searching herself. She knew there was a decent chance that Yates would just report everything that she told him to Mr. Arach, after all, he was his employer. But, at this point, Liatta had nowhere else to turn.

If anything happened to Char it would be because of her.

So, crossing her fingers in hopes she would be lucky enough to slip past whatever caused the mansion's disorienting effect. Liatta snuck away to find that morning to find Yates before the employee came to retrieve her.

She would have felt safer in the dark, but she had never seen Yates at night, so she assumed he didn't work then.

She had been working off of nothing but assumptions but, in the end, her gamble paid off.