After the fall

Chapter 16

Lapisa seemingly ignored Therons words and kept on working. She didn't want to feed into the two men's feud with each other, she had enough on her plate already. A deep sigh left Theron's mouth as he slouched down in his seat, "It's better for her to not get involved with neither of us" he said to himself. While Theron was deep in his mind Matilda walked out of the kitchen as the worst morning rush seemed to be over, "Oh, wasn't the food good, Theron?" she asked as she spotted the slouched man. "No no, it was delicious as usual, ma'am. I just got a bit lost in thought for a moment", Theron hurriedly said as he fixed his posture not wanting Matilda to misunderstand him. "A lot on your mind, huh? You know what dear? I'll take your dishes while you go up to your room and collect your thoughts, how about that? Does that sound like a plan?" Theron looked up at the old woman, she had her famous sweet smile on her face, "Thank you ma'am" he said while he handed her his plate and utensils. He stood up, once again thanking Matilda that now had gone back to the kitchen, and turned to the staircase, before he went to his room he gave Lapisa a quick glance.

Once in his room, his eyes met the bloody knife on the nightstand next to the bed and as his eyes roamed through the room they stopped on the slightly bloody clothes from the night before. "Oh... Right... I didn't get the chance to clean it up because of her". Theron said in a slightly annoyed tone quietly to himself, yet as he remembered the previous night and how he had met a clueless Lapisa unexpectedly a slight smile made its way onto his lips. However, that smile disappeared as quickly as it had come when Theron caught a glimpse of his smiling reflection in the room's mirror, what am I smiling for? he thought to himself. Shaking his head, Theron quickly started cleaning up, by now he had his own little routine to make the clean up process as efficient as possible. He looked around the room for anything to gather water in, the best thing in his room was the sink.

There he stood, in the bathroom of the inn, washing out blood from his clothes. It didn't take that much time as he had learned how to get the blood out of the fabric easily, the knife only had to be held under running water with Theron rubbing his fingers over the dried blood. He squeezed the water out of the clothes as best as he could, hung them over the bed and dried the knife on his pants in a swift motion. Theron took a step back and looked at the scene, it looked completely normal, nothing stood out, so with a pleased nod he once again left his room. As he came down the stairs, he stopped and looked at Lapisa still serving the guests, "Are you leaving Theron?" the voice of Matilda slightly surprised him. "Yes ma'am, I'm heading out to work" he answered her with a polite smile on his lips, Matilda gave him a small and a small nod "Be careful dear."

The moment Theron opened the door to leave the inn, he came face to face with Lan. The two men looked at each other, neither being too pleased to see each other, an annoying smirk made its way to Lan's lips "Oh is the Orphan finally leaving", Theron gave the platinum blond man a chuckle "You wish... Lannister" he spat back, he dragged out the "you wish" part to further annoy Lan. "Now if you excuse me, I have a job to attend to" Theron said as he intentionally bumped into Lan's shoulder while walking past him.

"Lapisa! You can take a break from serving the guest now sweetheart" Matilda called out to her, a tired sigh left Lapisa's mouth as she thanked Matilda. While Lapisa left her apron, tray and the last dishes in the kitchen Matilda called out to her again, "Oh, and when you feel recharged, could you do me a favor and pick up some fabric from the fabricator? Normally I would ask Lan to do it on his way out, but I missed him earlier this morning and I just missed him again". "Of course I can, but..." Lapisa tilted her head in confusion before she continued "did Lan come back? I didn't see him", "Oh honey you were busy working that's why but yes he came back. He came back to drop some things off before he headed out again and he seemed to be in a bad mood so I didn't want to disturb him." Lapisa nodded "Ah so that was why. Well I could help you, I mean that's the least I can do since you allow me to live here for free", Matilda flashed her a smile as she grabbed Lapisa's hand and put a pouch of coins in it "here, this should be more than enough, and if you have anything over, just treat yourself to something nice".

Lapisa looked up at Matilda with a slightly surprised expression, could she really spend this old lady's money? Almost as if Matilda could read Lapisa's mind she once again spoke "it's okay sweetheart, you can spend the money, don't worry about this old lady", the last part was followed by a small chuckle. "Thank you then ma'am. I'll go after a short rest" Lapisa said with a slightly determined voice as she wanted Matilda to believe in her and her abilities. She sent Matilda a final smile before she stepped out the door. Lapisa made the decision to sit down by the staircase leading to the personnel's rooms and rest a bit before she headed to the fabricator. As soon as she sat down a heavy sigh left her body sank down on the wooden steps of the staircase, staring into nothing in general her mind started to wander,

How did I end up here?

I thought I ended it all?

Why me?

Why do I always have to suffer?