the Book of Twist

❦❧Eight - The Art of Seduction❦❧

The flustered young guard, peachy from his cheeks to his neck to the tips of his ears, reacted immediately.

"M-Miss? Everything alright?"

I shifted on the cot with another soft groan, looking at him through lidded doe eyes. "I...I don't feel so well."

The guard hesitated by the door nervously, glancing down the halls, at the cell lock, then back at me. He crouched down and peered in at me, his blond eyebrows creased with concern. For a second I almost felt bad. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

I decided right then that I quite liked this guard. Where had he been for the past twelve or so hours?

I added a cough for effect and pulled my legs up closer to myself, shifting the dress just a little more so higher and shivering as though I was chilly. Marjolaine looked like she was about to keel over and die from holding in her laughter, but the young guard seemed not to notice her as his eyes flitted down to my very uncovered legs and then quickly back up, his face turning so crimson I thought steam might puff out from his ears.

"I feel...so faint..." I murmured, as if dazed by a fever.

The guard rocked on his heels from where he was crouched, his brown eyes darting up and down the hallway, to my legs, back to the hallway. "I...I don't know..." Then under his breath, "There was no protocol for this..."

I unleashed a flurry of coughs, but kept them very refined and lady-like so as to not lose my damsel in distress act.

He sprung up, as if jarred into action by my very coughs. "Shall-shall I go fetch for a doctor? I don't know if prisoners are allowed..."

"I-I'll be fine, I just...just..." I pressed myself up for a moment, swayed slightly, and then rolled my eyes back and slumped, falling on to my cot in a flurry of tangled brown hair and white skirts.

I didn't dare move as I heard the young guard fumble with his keys and hurry into the cell. He squatted next to me, and I just barely slivered my eyelids to see a blurry image of his scuffed black shoes from between my lashes.

Then I swiftly reared up, to his astonishment, and I smashed his forehead with my own, ninja-style.