Jinxed

T H I R T Y - F I V E

Chapter Thirty-Five: A Criminal Mastermind at Work

Kai

I clocked the familiar keyset in the maids hands even before Emilia did, wondering how on earth we were going to pry them away from her and get up to the attic before anyone even knew they were missing. 

Because once the maid did give Mrs. Wright her spare keys back, it would be game over. 

That woman was a control freak and I was surprised she managed to give her control freak tendencies, even for a moment, a break and allow the girl to disappear out of sight with her keys for at least a moments notice. 

"Alright" the men came back down the stairs, dusting their dirt ridden and sweaty palms against the cotton of their pants "It's secured against the wall for the time being. As long as we get it out before the storm hits on the Wedding day, she should be fine." 

"The storm?" 

The man talking briefly glanced at Emilia "You can't smell the storm coming?" 

"I don't think my senses are as keen as yours are" she winced "How can you tell a storm's coming?" 

"I was raised here all my life Madame" he gestured towards the window facing the Bayou, noting the Clear skies and white clouds "You learn that if the animals ain't chirping or dancing by as they usually do, than that means a storms a coming. You can tell a lot by the habit changes in the animals around these parts." 

The maid nodded, agreeing with what the mover was saying. 

"The Alligators get extra spirited when it rains." 

Emilia shivered at those words, no doubt still reeling from the last nightmare vision we experienced. 

"Anyways..." the maid moved to shut the door leading up to the attic rather quickly, shoving the skeleton key into the lock and securing the door from the outside "I best return these to Madame Wright or else she'll withhold my lunch from me." 

The maid let out a little laugh, like she was only half joking at the quip but I knew that Mrs. Wright was exactly the type of person to withhold food from someone unless they followed her orders to a tee. 

When the men and maid scurried away, I dragged Emilia back into our room and watched as familiar frenzied and panicked look took over her features,

Oh no...she was having one of her panic attacks. 

A panic attack that wouldn't go away unless she was distracted or...was angered. 

So I did the only thing that I could. 

Make her angry. 

It wasn't hard, considering that the longer I stared at her mangling her perfectly plump bottom lip, the longer she was driving me to the brink of insanity, so as calmly (and less possessive) as I could, I ran my thumb along her lip to pull her out of her thoughts.