Scary Monster's, Nice Sprite's

Fear and Accomplishment

A sudden and horrid stench suddenly filled the air, and I immediately drew my hands to my nose.

"Oh my it's a stink spirit. Katelyn put your hands down, you'll insult our guest." Gertrude ordered through tightly clenched teeth.

"Yes ma'am." I quickly replied before lowering my hands to my side. The hair on the back of my neck standing on end as the creature approached us. It seemed to be something straight out of a scary movie. It's body seemed to be made from mud. Mud that created a river behind it as it walked. It didn't seem to have legs, only small appendage like structures that extended from its underside and then rippled down its body before disappearing into it again, only to reappear at the front. It had large, sunken holes inside its head, and if I didn't know better, I would say they were used for the eyes, and although the holes were large, it seemed to have a sad gaze.

"Welcome valued customer to our baths." Gertrude gagged as it came to a stop in front of us. The stench making her hair stand on end also, giving her a large afro type hairdo. Suddenly a small arm like appendage extended out toward me.

"Oh it's money, Katelyn take the nice mans money then take him to the big bath." Gertrude gagged out.

"Yes ma'am." I replied through stiff lips before slowly extending my cupped hands to meet its. It then dropped the money, along with a large amount of mud into my hand, causing a shiver of fear to ripple up my spine.

"This way sir." I managed to choke out before turning and leading him down the many corridors to the large tub we had been working to clean earlier.

"And to think, we could have had the thing cleaned by the end of the day." I silently muttered to myself as we entered the room with the large tub. The creature looked to the tub, then to me before slowly making its way to the side of the tub. It then slowly tipped itself over inside it, sending water and mud over the tubs edges and onto the floor, leaving a horrid smelling mess. I quickly reached down and grabbed the pale with the wooden planks inside as the mud-water reached my feet, nearly sweeping them out from underneath me. The creature then looked at its muddy hands, then to the water ramp, which was still lowered.

"Oh, you want to be rinsed?" I asked. It looked to me in reply. Deciding it was what he wanted, I began to walk beside the wall, whilst running my hand over it to scan for the door. Suddenly, my hand hit a bump.

"Gotcha!" I muttered to myself before hitting the wall a couple of times. On my last strike, the small door flew open and nailed me in the head. The pain was sudden, but went away quickly. Shaking my head slightly, I reached into the bucket and grabbed a wooden plank. I then reached for the cord with the clip inside. As I grabbed it, the wooden plank slipped out of my hand and fell down the many stories to the ground below. Cursing under my breath, I reached for another and successfully attached it to the clip. After a second of thought, I pulled on the cord, and it shot high into the roof above.

"There." I said to the spirit, satisfied with my doing. I then began to crawl up the side of the tub to the cord that started the water flow, but even this simple task was difficult. The walls of the bath were slick with mud and it was nearly impossible to get a grip. Finally, after nearly 5 minutes of climbing, I made it to the rope. Breathing heavily, I pulled the cord and immediately lost my balance and fell into the bath with the spirit as the water began to flow over the both of us. I was stuck, head first into the spirit's muddy body, struggling to free myself, but to no purchase. Suddenly, I was grabbed by my legs and pulled free of the mud. I was then turned right side up  and was sitting in the palm of the Spirits hand.

"Thank you sir." I panted, attempting to catch my breath. Just as I managed to calm my breathing, he pulled me close to his body, where a hard object poked against my chest. I then reached out and grabbed the object. It felt like a bicycle handle.