Junkenstein X Reader: Right Hand Man

Part Six:

The small pressure of what should've been the unnoticeable or ignorable weight of a mouse running across your stomach caused a jolt of reaction from yourself. You sat up in bed annoyed and tired. From what your adjusting vision could see, you made out the white ball of fur skittering across the room and under the beds with the help of the moonlight.

On the bed, the moon highlighted the sick woman in a distance and you sighed. Maybe it was because of the burden of caring for her or the placement of your name in that book that prevented you from sleeping but you couldn't help but feel sick yourself. You tried to lay back down on your firm bed. The flat pillows added to the stone feel as they gave you no comfort to your neck. The blankets themselves didn't prevent any cold either. An overwhelming sense of irritability grew in you as you lifted yourself out of bed, replaced by the heightened awareness of being watched. You froze at the side of your bed, facing the door and all the other sleeping women. Aside from the cold, your skin shook with an electric feeling and you could feel all of your hair go on end. Your gown stuck to your frame in sweat and your breath caught itself in your lungs.

Someone was watching you.

Your heartbeat increased and your stomach turned as you turned back to the wall on the opposite side of your bed. With your eyes still adjusting to the dark you could see the faint outline of a shadowed figure where the moon could not reach. Someone seemed to be standing there. You squinted your eyes and blinked numerous times but it was as if spider webs laced themselves between your lashes to prevent you from seeing and kept them shut. The figure hazed and retreated further back into the corner of your room, melting its already dark silhouette in the pitch black of the space. A Soft sound seemed to flood into your ears again with the disappearance of the mysterious guest and for once you were relieved to hear a hearty cough from that sick old lady.

It's too late to fall back asleep you thought now, wide awake and adjusted to the dark. The cold had chilled your bones to the point where they shook under your skin and you could feel your teeth chatter for brief moments at a time. With your hair still on end, you rubbed your eyes and walked out of the maid quarters and down the hall towards the kitchen.

Unlike the greys of the day sky the castle, through the open walls and gardens, was flooded with blue light. Against your bare feet, you could feel the cold and smooth cobblestone, feeling a few imperfections if you cared to pay attention to it. In a daze, you thought about the book.

A simple accidental explanation seemed unreasonable. Deep down you felt as if it was intentional. Things for some time have gone unchecked, punished, or realized. Pushed back and forgotten so you could continue as another maid who had come and gone through the century. But recently it was as if you had woken up from a still sleep into a wave of anger that had begun to fester inside of you over time. You acted for more of a notice, not necessarily by others but by yourself. A definition or demonstration of existence, proof you were and are here. The lack of the book recognizing this destroyed that desired and set you back into the shadows of all the others who wished to keep you there.

A thought of hope and desire which lay dormant, turned into a rhythmic pattern of anger and pain, like the heartbeat now caught in your head, one beat more pronounced than the other.

Bump , bump , bump...

Your heart naturally beats until it delay a thump by the mere second joined the pattern.

Bump , bump , clank , bump , bump , clank...

You couldn't see it but what had woken up that desire was walking down the hall adjacent to the kitchen, giggling and chattering to himself with his mix-matched steps. Like you, he too was absorbed in his clouded mind to realize you have turned the corner in front of him until his eyes caught your frame through the dark light in the split second before you both walked into each other.