The Eyes Of 'Rah

The Back Room II

With curiosity dancing in her eyes, Seraphine tiptoed down the creaky hallway towards the old wooden door. Its surface, weathered and aged, bore the marks of time with intricate carvings that hinted at untold stories. The brass knob, worn by countless hands, felt cool beneath her touch as she slowly turned it. Her heart pounded with excitement  as she thought in just few seconds, she was going to uncover the secrets the old man had guarded for so long.

As the tried to push the door open, the next thing she felt was her body hitting the wall. The clanging of items as they fell off made so much noise that she jerked out of the surprise of being thrown in no time in order to catch some breakables.

Quickly she gathered herself up the floor and looked at the mess she made, glaring at the door which apparently had some sort of magic to prevent people for going in, she swore at the old man for not warning her but instead kept repeating the annoying statement.

Now at least, she understood that the door would only open when she earned it. She did not even care about earning it again, her curiousity had definitely been shattered along with the vases that broke.

Angrily, she stalked out of the hallway to drink water, rolling up the sleeve of her cloth to get ready for the task ahead. By now she should be in her small little room, curled up in bed with one of the books she had burrowed from the local library in her arms, embarking on the adventure of romance.

Erasing the thought of the romantic night she had been looking forward to, she squatted and settled for a night of hard work in the hall way.
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Seraphine stretched her body as she got up from her warm bed, wishing she could snuggle into the blanket once more and rest her sore back and knees. She thought otherwise,  when she heard movement below, that could only mean the old man was awake. Knowing she wouldn't be able return to sleep because of how loud that old man was. If he was left alone to attend to customers, he would nag so loud about how he couldn't find the item a customer who had come to retrieve their things because she had rearranged everything, in the end she would never be able to get a peaceful sleep, it was just best for her to go down and attend to them herself before the old man mess up the record book, that is, if he gets to record them.

Groaning as she got out of bed, she freshened up quickly and descended the stairs.

"Finally, her Majesty descends" Mr. Pawn looked at the irritated face of his ward. Smiling inwardly as he remembered the loud noise he heard in the middle of the night.

Wanting to make his day brighter than it was, he brought up the incident, "were you chasing the rat which caused the loud noise I heard during the night?" His eyes sparkled as he smiled.

Her irritation turned into glare as she ignored the old man and went straight to change the close sign. Her knees ached as they bore witness to how she cleared the mess and use the opportunity to reorganised the shelf by the hallway.

When she didn't respond, he probed further, "I'm just concerned  because the bag under your eyes could be pawned for a huge sum of money if you want."

Seraphine threw him dirty look, if looks could kill at that moment, he was sure could have been under in no time.

"You know I could have died yesterday" she scowled. Her cheeks reddened, she felt hurt by his mockery. The old man watched in amazement as her eyes changed, something that had never happened before.

Strangely, he felt hot suddenly, unable to move nor break the eye contact with Seraphine, his chest tightened, not out of sheer emotion but he could bet his life that it had something to do with Seraphine. Unable to move, he wanted to tell her to stop what she could be doing that was restricting his airflow but he was overpowered.

"Why didn't you tell me what would happen if I turn the knob instead of just the stupid statement you always utter?" Her voice rose.

Seraphine looked at the old man who seemed to be struggling to breath, closing her eyes to blink back the tears, she rushed to him, "Mr. Pawn, are you ok?"

Glad to be breathing again and his temperature back to normal in no time, he gasped, inhaling air as much as he could and releasing it slowly. He jerked back when he realised she was holding him.

"Are you all right?" Seraphine asked, unaware that she was the cause of his ordeal.

Suspecting she was not aware of what was going on, he allowed her to assist him to the chair, "I'm fine"

"What happened?"

He peered at her, studying her face, wanting to get some rest before analysing what happened, but he knew he had passed his boundary by rubbing it in, he didn't know she was going to get hurt by his words.

"I'll be fine" he assured her

"I'll make tea for you, just relax"

"Seraphine" he called as she was about to head to the kitchenette, "I'm sorry, I should have told you about the back room. When you're less busy today, I'll tell you more about it."

Pleased to hear the old man's rare apology, she nodded and headed to the kitchen. She hummed happily as she went about making him a warm cup of camomile tea.

Mr. Pawn stretched out on the chair as he pondered over the what happened. There was nothing about Seraphine  which out of the ordinary that could have made him suspect her to be any other creature beside human.

The only thing that stood out was her eyes and he had heard from Lord Lancaster that it was not as uncommon as they thought, since he had seen people with similar eye colour before, but with the sudden development, there was no way her eyes was the same as the others which Lord Lancaster claimed to have seen.

Making a mental note to find out more about her, he leaned back on the chair as he heard her approach.