Kingdom of tears

Chapter Six

The next day Zillah and Erebus met up again, and went to work around town. She kept asking people as she worked if she heard any of the conspiracy theories about the king. Very few did, but every now and then she found somebody who knew something. Although, no one who did hear anything didn’t believe a word about it. So that didn’t help with anything she was trying to do.

After going to several stores and restaurants over the morning, they made their way over to a bakery to sweep and do various other things. The store closed at one, and they were helping lock up while the owner had to go pick up her cat from the groomer. She was finishing wiping down the countertops. “Hey Erebus, can you take out the trash? I'm almost done with this.”

“Yeah, sure,” he said as he went to the trash can and took the bag out before walking out the door towards the dumpster.

Zillah was washing the rag in the sink when she heard a girlish screech. Erebus ran inside slamming the door behind him, his face white as a ghost. “There's something in the dumpster!” he panicked.

“What in the dumpster?”

“Something is in the dumpster!”

“Well what is it?”

“I don't know. I saw something moving around and I ran,” Erebus panted.

“Well, go check what it is.”

“Can you do it? I'm scared.”

“Big baby,” Zillah muttered under her breath, but she still went to go check.
She walked outside towards the dumpster and peeked inside. She didn't see anything. She moved a couple of pieces of trash around. Still nothing. She turned to Erebus who was cowering behind her, “There’s nothing there. See?” She pointed inside the dumpster.

Erebus anxiously looked inside. He yelped and stumbled back, running into Zillah and nearly knocking them both to the ground.

“What?” she asked.

“It’s back,” he whispered, as if speaking too loudly would startle the creature.

“Calm down. It’s probably just a racoon.” She went to look back. Oh. That's what it was.

Zillah picked up the animal and turned around to face Erebus. It was a fluffy, little husky, but smaller. It was white with brown spots, a banana peel on its head from the garbage. “Is this what you are so afraid of?” she teased.

“It’s a dog?”

“No, it’s a frog,” she rolled her eyes. “Of course it's a dog!”

She focused on the animal. “Hey there. What were you doing in the dumpster little guy?” The dog licked her face and she laughed.

Erebus eyed the dog suspiciously, like it would turn into a ginormous dumpster monster at any second. “Please tell me we’re not keeping it?” he pleaded.

“No, we’re not keeping it.”
“Ok, good,” he looked relieved.

Zillah put the dog down after petting it a little bit more. “Come on, we’re almost done. Let's get it over with.”

They trailed into the bakery, and finished up cleaning. Once they were done they locked the door, and started heading on over to their next job. They were half way down the block whe Zillah heard a little whimper. She turned around to see the dog giving her puppy dog eyes with a tilted head. She laughed. Erebus turned around and looked at the dog. “I thought you said we weren’t keeping it!”

“I said we weren’t keeping him. But he’s decided to keep us,” she countered.

“Well I never signed up for adoption.”