Chapter 684: Late Night Creeper
“Well, I should really be going now...”
Seven words, a single sentence, I never expected to hear her say. Irene slipped the cover back on over the still remaining chocolate pieces.
“I’ll save these for later,” She said, rising to her feet. “I could always do with a light snack while slogging through case files.”
“Actually leaving?” I asked, standing up after her as she effortlessly navigated her way to the front door through a messy minefield of clings and clangs. “This late in the night? You don’t even have a car. Irene, stay.”
“I have my means,” She confidently assured me. “All the same, your concern is appreciated.”
Before long we were coming back full circle to earlier tonight, with her standing idly beneath the porch, and I holding the door wide open, with the cold winter draft the only thing trying to deter me back.
“You want me to walk with you for a bit?” I suggested. “I’ll just put on my shoes, and...”
.....
“No, I want you to rest,” She ordered, her voice in that compelling detective-y tone. “Morning shift, right? I’ll see you then.”
See me then? That’s only like a couple of hours away from now, and she’s seriously thinking of actually dropping by. What, do Succubi not need sleep or something? Powered by love and lust, are they?
Irene lifted her hand forward, and I felt the thin narrow string around neck being slightly tugged closer.
“You’re really going to wear this all the time?” She glanced at me, her deep brown eyes ever so faintly gleaming back the swirling red of my necklace. “To tell you the truth, it’s a little bit embarrassing.”
“Oh, you shouldn’t have said that,” I shook my head at her. “Now it’s really never coming off.”
The side of her lips twitched upwards, and in a whiff of sweetness, a zap of electricity, and a sensation of everything pleasant, a quick firm kiss pressed onto my lips, the pleasure, the softness parting away just as I managed to lean back against it.
Brief but sweet, fleeting but everlasting... Irene in a nutshell.
“Then I suppose I better get used to seeing it.”
Watching her lonesome slender figure then disappear from the driveway, I swung the door close, and that was that.
Yet I could still feel her warmth close to me, her presence still lingering around me... all just the pluck of a finger away from sight.
She said she wanted me to rest, but really how could I? Turning around, seeing the state the house was in, seriously... how the hell could I?
Welp, guess I know what I’m going to be doing ’till sunrise...
I grabbed a garbage bag from the kitchen, took a broom from the broom closet, and promptly got to work.
First things first was removing the biggest piece of garbage I could find, so after shoo-ing a resting Black, I gently lifted Sammy up in my arms, and without bursting a vein, I went about the heavy task of hauling her off the staircase landing and onto the empty couch.
Emphasis on heavy.
The bag was crinkly, the cans were noisy, and Mr. Black wouldn’t stop clattering the plates trying to vulture away any stale leftover he could find.
Amanda curled up to an even smaller ball, and Sammy crudely threw her arm over the couch with a snort.
I’m amazed I haven’t woken anyone up just yet.
Yet.
But alas, cleaning was a monotony, and as with every monotony, it was easy to get distracted.
I did get distracted.
Because you see, a half-finished Christmas tree was really quite the bothersome sight to see.
The boxes of ornaments were pushed away to one side to make more space for the horde of people coming and going about, and it was thanks to that same horde that the decorations that were put up were now all either crooked or simply hanging on by a thread.
So glad Sera wasn’t here to see this, I can’t even begin to imagine what she’d say... “Mmm” maybe... yeah, that sounds about right.
After trying to ignore it for quite the arduous ten minutes, I gave in to my peeves, dragging both decoration boxes back to the foot of the tree, and did away with both the broom and bag and began rifling.
I spent quite a while trying to get this ginormous ass tree looking up to Christmas standards. Nearly tripped three times on tiptoe, dropped like four baubles that went off like a fart in a library, and when it came to trying to hang up the lights... just no.
Was keenly aware that I shouldn’t do too much, just enough so that the sight of the tree doesn’t make me wanna keel over and die... otherwise I’d really die once Sera finds out I did the fun part without her.
Yep, eyes like those... you’d hate them to be glaring at you, peering at you, just generally staring at you, and... and...
Someone was staring at me.
Or at least I felt it.
I paused and scanned the darkness around me, nobody to be seen, nobody to be heard, but yet that feeling didn’t disappear.
“Sera?” I called out. “That you?”
Luckily I wasn’t in a horror movie. I’d be dead already.
By the stairs, around the corner, I caught it, someone shuffling, someone emerging, someone... that definitely wasn’t Sera.
Far from it.
The darkness was like a thick blindfold wrapped twice, and anything further than a few feet was at best an inky silhouette. But then this, but those eyes gazing in the distance, they were the only exception...
Those bright glowing emerald eyes.
“Oh...” was all that left me before I felt every inch of me go frozen stiff. I couldn’t move, couldn’t even speak.
So instead, she did.
“Sera is fast asleep,” She said, answering a question I’d already long forgotten by this point. “I believe the night’s festivities had worn her down completely and at a certain point she had sought refuge in my room, where she has remained since.”
Fifteen feet, ten feet, five... a few feet away, I could clearly see her, and just looking at her again, I... it’s like I haven’t seen her in so long.
Not in this state, anyway.
Lying in crumpled sheets, pale skin glazed in sweat, eyes drooping, and ears sagging. That’s how she had always looked for some time now.
But now she’s... well, she’s wet... her white hair soaked and in thick clumps... wearing a gown that stuck damply to her skin.
Just had a shower, I suppose. Just got changed... and now she’s... well, she’s down here, and not still locked up there. Did it actually work? The party, did Amanda actually get it right, read her mood like an open book, and everything was all falling just as planned?
If so, Amanda... why the hell haven’t you bought a damn lottery ticket yet?
Momentarily, her gaze veered away, scouring the fallout of said festivity, and an expression of awe slowly began to form on her face.
“My...” She whispered, ending her search at a stripped chicken bone that Mr. Black had unceremoniously swiped towards her feet. “From above, I certainly did surmise a hectic commotion, but to what extent, to this especially... I daresay I could never quite imagine. Well, at the very least, did you enjoy yourself, Master?”
She was smiling, I just realized. That subtle curve to her lips. How distinctly it always seemed to elevate upon her beauty, her grace. And yet just how could that be? How is it that she was smiling right now?
“Ash,” I finally found my voice again, but as for what I wanted to say... trust me, I’m still looking. “What are you... what are you doing down here?”
Her ears perked, springy and healthy, and she took a closer step forward, her subtle happiness becoming more obvious.
“Such a strange inquiry, Master,” She mused. “You speak as if I am treading upon grounds where I do not belong.”
“Not what I’m saying.”
“I know. I merely jest,” Ash said, making a sound that sounded like the glee of a chuckle. “Indeed, I suppose my appearance to you now... especially after everything... you must certainly be quite perplexed.”
“Perplex is one thing,” I said. “You had me worried.”
“I know,” She said again, tilting her head almost as if ashamed. “As for why I am here now. Well, was it not you yourself that extended me this offer in the first place?”
“Offer?” As quickly as I could I recalled back through foggy, hazy memories, realizing only a long two seconds after that I had the answer right with me, in the decoration I had curled in my fist: a brown, brittle little pinecone. “Oh, right...”
“I’m pleased to see that you’ve kept your word, Master,” Ash said, slowly reaching her arm out and taking the pinecone from my grip. “But alas, when you mentioned reserving a spot just for me,” She then glanced up at the tree in all its barren, disheveled glory and I saw her expression skewed. “Once more, to this extent... I never would have imagined.”
“Things happen...” was all I have to offer as an explanation, still gawking at her like she was a unicorn that just strolled out of the woods and came onto my doorstep.
“Indeed,” She nodded diligently, ambling past me towards one of the many empty branches. “And had I only known you were toiling away here all on your lonesome, I’d have... well, it doesn’t matter now.” She reached out, standing on tiptoe, and with a rustle of leaves, departed with the pinecone that now hung aptly in place. “One out of a definite many more. Why, I might quite come to enjoy this... truly...”
Ash glanced back at me, her eyes as bright and wide as the baubles on the tree, her smile radiating still with that joy I thought had long gone for her. And while I’m extremely relieved to see that she was doing surprisingly well... still, I couldn’t help but wonder the reason why.
“Well then, Master,” Ash proclaimed, pulling out another ornament from one of the boxes. “Shall we begin?”
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