Devination |hongbin [completed]

3. Alone

To my dismay, it was nearly impossible to sleep in the manor last night. Besides the fact that the room looked like something out of the Addams Family, I kept thinking about the room in the basement. I was unsure If I was even qualified to be handling such intricate detailed work, I wondered if Hakyeon knew what failure he was setting himself up for.

I had breakfast and waited outside the chamber room just like Hakyeon instructed. I was quite early, considering I had no appetite for such an extravagant breakfast at 7am.

"Ah you are here!" I heard his familiar voice ring from down the hall. I put on my best smile as he handed me a set of keys and a neatly written list. "Here's what I need you to do for today, sadly I have an errand to run and I wont be back for a while, so im leaving one of my trusty workers to watch over you, please abide to all the rules."

I nodded slowly as a smile grew on his face, as he gestured for me to step into the room. Walking in there alone was way more terrifying than having Hakyeon by my side. It seemed colder, more empty and lifeless.

I sauntered down the spiral staircase and stood dead center of the spacious basement, wondering how the hell I got myself into this job. Sighing helplessly, I reached for the list and began reading my instructions from my quirky employer.

"Number one, trim the flowers around Ken's chamber, you will find the tools in the store room behind Ravi's chamber" I recited, peeping behind one of the chambers, taking notice of a door clearly marked as the store room.

That instruction had nothing to do with my qualification which made me feel even more out of place than ever before. I decided to go ahead and read the rest of list, hoping there's something to do with my criteria.

"Number two, clean out the fish bowl in Hyuk's chamber, he hates it when it develops algae" I read the line once more in my head, just to make sure I was receiving this information correctly. Was he serious right now ?

Anger built up inside me as I breezed through the rest of his instructions. There were no signs of fashion or design or anything else that he asked me about in my interview. I could of been applying to bigger agencies, with the rest of my classmates, but he made me come here. He made me be his personal nanny to his stupid mannequins. Infuriated, I began making my way upstairs, trying to hold back my frustration, when I noticed the old lady from the driveway, poke her head into the room.

"Is master here?" she quietly asked, her beady eyes scanning the room frantically.

"no" I coldly replied, "he had an errand to run."

Her eyes fell back onto me, wrinkling her nose as she noticed the crumbled sheet of paper in my hands. I followed her eyes to my fist, and back up to her confused face, wondering what was here job in this hell hole anyway.

"Look, im getting out of here, tell Mr Cha that im leave--"

"NO" she yelled, cutting me off and shoving me back into the room. "You were in the room of evil, you cannot step out of it." She grabbed the keys from my hand and slammed the door in front of my face, locking it in the process.

"hey! let me out of here!" I yelled repeatedly, banging on the door as if she would reconsider. I screamed, kicked the steel door, I tried everything, but all I could hear was the echoes of my own cries for help.

It had been a few hours in the dark basement, and I'd tried every way to possibly get out. Besides the fact that the basement has no windows, the air vents were sealed shut. I strolled around, inspecting each chamber until I was so tired of seeing their faces, that I lost all sanity.

"You know it would be real nice if you guys spoke back to me, you are extremely rude" I pouted, approaching one of the chambers. "What was your name again ?" i asked the blonde haired figure.

"Oh right Leo" I nodded, answering myself as I approached the door of the chamber. I pushed on the entrance, and to my surprise it was not locked. I swallowed hard as I entered the chamber, feeling a sudden chill run down my spine as I came face to face with the mannequin. His detail was incredible, knowing Hakyeon, he probably got the best artists in the world to handcraft his precious figurines.

"Oh Leo, Ive been stuck here for almost 17hrs, please tell me this is a dream" I begged, moving his fringe out of his eyes. This was my breaking point. It was almost 12am and I had no phone signal, I needed food and I needed human interaction. Dropping my shoulders, I began to make my way out of the chamber when I heard chimes go off, and the huge clock that hung right above Hyuk's chamber struck 12.

"Thats my cue to sleep" I groaned, but as I was about to step out of the chamber occupied by the one called Leo, I felt something latch onto my wrist. Turning around, I wasn't sure if this was an illusion of my loss of sanity, but he was looking dead at me.

Leo, had his hand tightly grasped around my wrist, and his dark eyes caught my gaze.