You Can't Run From The Dark

{Part 11}

~Dessa~

 Before she knew it, it was Friday, and Dessa was following Maggie to Mr. Talon's office to pick up her first paycheck. She had never entered his office the day that he hired her, and now that she was standing in it with Maggie, she was in awe. She decided instantly that if a modern-day wizard had an office, that it would look like Mr. Talon's. A huge desk of pure marble sat toward the far wall, and on top of it was a neat stack of wax-sealed envelopes - the exact same stationary that her job offer had come in. There were also several ink bottles, two different feathered quills, a red candle, and a copper stamp with a wooden hilt. Dessa didn't realize until that moment that the letter she received was handwritten. To know the script was formed by Mr. Talon himself, rather than a computer-generated calligraphy font, was unnerving and it seemed downright inhuman. 

To the right of the room, there was a cocktail table that served as a drink station. Dessa had only ever seen the rich people in movies have such things. She guessed that the richer you were, the more you wanted to drink and have others drink with you, so you needed a station on hand that could facilitate that kind of luxury. Dessa wasn't much of a drinker at all, but she had tried alcohol before, much to her aunt's dismay. On her 21st birthday, she nabbed some from under the kitchen sink, just to try it. She didn't really see the appeal until her aunt died. Then she could imagine what could drive people to want the stuff - to numb their emotions. Luckily, Mr. Talon did not offer them a drink, since they were just starting their shifts.

To the left of the room was an impressive altar of sorts with ancient-looking parchment scrolls, geodes of all different shapes, sizes and colors, obelisks, and clusters of raw crystals. They were strewn about in a much less organized way, but they were breathtaking nonetheless. There were framed oil paintings that adorned the walls, and each one depicted the same castle, but from different angles. It looked like the castle was a real building long ago, but it couldn't still exist somewhere today, given the strange, twisting angles of the structure that made it look like a lair for an evil villain in a cartoon. The creepy castle looked like it would have needed magic and pixie dust in order to hold it together enough to stand the test of time. If it did  exist somewhere in modern day, Dessa never wanted to visit that place. It was beautiful but frightening, and just looking at the paintings made her feel like she was having a nightmare. She hurried to drag her eyes away from them to study the intricately-patterned rug on the floor that might as well have been handmade with threads of silver and gold, for how expensive it looked. She felt guilty for standing on it with her grubby sneakers. 

Mr. Talon gave them both a warm greeting as he selected two of the thick envelopes with each of their names on it. Maggie and Dessa both took their envelopes and thanked him, offering him curtsies before they left his office. Dessa glanced back over her shoulder as she went out the door, and Mr. Talon caught her eyes with his. The smile on his face seemed tighter than usual, like he was stressed about something and he was trying not to show it. If she wasn't being led by Maggie's hand on her elbow, she might have asked him how he  was faring. Though, as she followed the head waitress back down the hall, and the door shut behind them, she figured that maybe it was for the best that she didn't. He didn't seem like the type of man who shared his troubles, and it would probably be rude to ask. It was more than unsettling, considering that he always seemed to be in the best of moods, but she tried to brush it off. She was probably reading too much into it, and maybe payday was just a day for him that was more stressful than most, with his employees coming and going from his office that he usually kept to himself in.

Dessa didn't open the envelope until she made it home that night, and when she did, she was shocked by the contents. It wasn't a paycheck at all! It was a cash payment, and the amount was more than what she had calculated it would be, from the pay rate that was promised originally in the letter she had found on her doorstep only a little over a week ago. If she was a better person, she would have asked Mr. Talon if there had been some kind of mistake. But she wasn't, and she needed every cent of it. Aside from that, it was late at night, The Den was closed, and tomorrow would be the start of her weekend.