The Red Ribbon {Kaz Brekker X Reader}

Wherever They May Be...

~ Y/N ~
*

7 years ago, for the last time, I promise*

I wake up giddy and excited to go to work today. I get to see Kaz, I get paid, and today is the last day that I am Saskia. I eagerly tie my red ribbon into my hair, as is habit by now. I hear that there is word of a sickness going around. I bet it's just spring allergies, which is very common in Novyi-Zem, with all of the blooming plants this time of year. Either way, my mother and I live in a clean part of the city, so I doubt that anything will reach us, if the rumors are true.

I take my time walking to Zelvarstraat today. Something feels different. Almost like the ending of an era or something like that. It just feels like something is going to happen. So, I embrace this feeling of calm and take in the spring time sun.

As I approach Jakob's house at noon, the chandelier in the foyer doesn't seem to be lit. Hm. Maybe he just forgot. He's probably busy, finishing up work with this elongated job we've been doing. I walk up the front steps and knock. I knock everyday to be polite, but I know Jakob wants me to just go up and knock on his office door instead, because that's where he always is.

After my daily knock, I open the front door. Except it won't open. Is the door locked? It has never been locked before. Did Jakob go for a marketplace run and not tell me? No, he never goes on market runs. That's my job. The one that I get paid for. I'm supposed to get paid today. Where is he?

I knock again. Silence. Something is telling me that no one is home, but I must see to believe it. I go off of the front steps and behind the bushes that are positioned right below the big windows at the front of the house. All of the lights are off. And I could have sworn there was a table with a vase sitting 10 feet from where I am peering in from. Am I at the wrong house? No, I cant be. I've been coming here for a while now. This is the right house. But something is wrong.

Jakob wouldn't have just moved all of the sudden. He can't just dissappear. He has my pay. The pay that will keep me and my mother at our apartment. The pay that will get my father out of Hellgate. But where is the furniture in the house? The house is now uncomfortably vacant, like a ghost town.

I sit on the front steps and wait. An hour goes by and I hear the church bells ring, signaling that it is one bell. I sigh, defeated and angry. I pull the red ribbon out of my hair and throw it on the front porch. I decide to head to the market and ask around if any of them have seen Jakob Hertzoon. It's worth a shot.

As I enter the market and ask multiple vendors for Jakob's whereabouts, they all look at me like I'm crazy. Have they never heard of this man before? He told me he came to the market often before I showed up and went to run his errands for him. What is happening today? I ask as many people about him as I can, until I'm convinced that he doesn't exist. But it's impossible. He was standing right there at the foyer everyday. With my pay. That I still need. But it seems I won't get.

As I walk back to my apartment in utter defeat, I think of any way that I can quickly get some money. My mother and I need to keep paying rent or else we will be kicked out of our apartment. Should I steal something? No, no I am not stooping down to that low level. Somehow this will all work out for us. I hope.

I enter the apartment, where my mother is waiting in anticipation. Our landlord has allowed us to skip a couple of weeks of rent as long as we paid it in full today. Yea, this is a big problem. The look on my face must seem very distraught, because my mother's own face drops immediately when she sees me. I show her my empty hands and then the panic sets in. My mother can't just get a job because she isn't fluent enough in Kerch to communicate throughout a whole day. We are Zemini. What do we tell our landlord? As a general question, what do we do?