I Like Your Shoes | ✓

Chapter 17 | Yoga, Cookies and the Dark

"Breathe in, breathe out. Let your heart calm itself down."

I breathe in deeply.

Someone's baking cookies next door.

"You can feel your head getting clearer, can't you?"

Double chocochip cookies.

"Your brain's open to new horizons, you can sense things you couldn't before."

First batch on the table, second batch ten minutes away from perfection.

"Imagine a candle right in front of you. Concentrate on it's flame."

That's it!

I open my eyes and peek at Freida. Her eyes are closed, deeply concentrated on the non-existent candle. I look at the slightly open window then back at her and shrug.

Might as well.

I push off the yoga mat Freida had violently pushed me onto and tip toe towards the window. Freida seems unaware, babbling something about yoga being the best remedy for tummy ache. I shake my head at her still form. The woman was more determined that Caecelia when she wanted to get her things done, and that's something I'd never thought I'd have to say.

I try jumping out of the window like the sneaky protagonist of an adventure novel, but it's harder than what they make it seem like. Giving up, I just take the front door.

I followed the scent of the chocolate as it lead me in the direction of the house next door. I grinned and rubbed my palms together.

It's going to be easier than I thought.

Peeking through the window, I saw Reggie all over the place. She was checking on the batch inside the oven while the first one cooled on the table. Luckily, I could reach them without having to climb inside, which was a boon. Extending my hand when I was sure Reggie wasn't looking, I grab two and stuff them into my mouth all at once. The taste is so good I almost sink to my knees, but I manage to hold myself up.

Putting my hand through the window again, I probe with my fingers until I feel something soft. I give it a slight nudge and a poke, feeling it.

Ah. Must be the melted chocolate.

"And what do you think you're doing, young lady?" A threateningly calm voice says, holding my fingers tightly when I try to get away.

"Please, please don't kill me. I've got an awful lot to see in the world! I'm just a child!" I cry out in pain.

"If I find you stealing my cookies again, I swear to God I'll cut you to pieces and serve you by the pound in every bakery of New York, understood?" She hollers, letting my hand go.

"Understood, Commander." I declare, mock saluting her and run in the opposite direction.

I quickly bolt the door behind me, and heave a sigh of relief. I sink down to my knees and put my head between my knees.

"I suspect that woman can spew bullets through her mouth." I whisper.

"Oh, I'm sure I can." A voice says from above me.

I look up sheepishly at Freida. She had her hands on her hips and a look of pure anger on her face.

Crap.

~•~

The second day working for Calum Achorn wasn't so different from the last. He still made me get his coffee, but this time, he actually did it politely, or as polite as he could get.

"Miss Bellemore, I'll be forever grateful to you if you bring me my coffee. And please make sure it has no sugar this time, thank you." He said with a tight lipped smile. I could also hear the sound of teeth grinding.

I give him an amused smile and a nod.

Kailley told me the reason for his change of behaviour as we ate our lunch in the Café.

"It's Gerald Achorn. He's here for the week." She told me with a defeated look in her eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"Gerald Achorn has the eyes of a predator, Ambrosia. He's going to walk around the office all week. He's a torturer. I can't even tell you what he did the last time he was here.." She trails off, clamping her eyes shut as if to keep the horrible pictures away.

"He can't be that bad." I allow. She gives me a disbelieving stare and I shrug.

"He didn't seem that bad when he interviewed me."

"He interviewed you?" I nod.

"And you survived?"

"Well, here I am." She gives me a look of disbelief, and if I looked closely, a look of grudging pride.

"One day during one of his patrols he came up to me and sniffed me up, saying that the kind of perfume I used was distracting the other men while they were working and made me swear that I would throw it away and never use it again." She lets it all out in one breath.

I stare at her, waiting for her to burst out laughing and admit that it was a joke. But she just stares back at me with a level gaze.

"You aren't joking." She shakes her head no.

"Wait, how does he move around if he loves being in the dark so much?" I question.

"The curtains are closed, the lights are switched off and there's not a single speck of light in the entire office."

"Then how do is all the work done?"

"The lights are off as long as he's patrolling, Ambrosia. After he's gone, everything goes back to normal."

"That's crooked."

"Try cruel." She says angrily.

I look up at the ceiling, asking what I'd ever done to end up here. No one answers me back, and I have no other option other than look back down at my sandwich, which suddenly doesn't look as appealing as it did a few minutes ago. And it scares the poop out of me.

~•~

Yeah I know. It's short and it's filler-ish but vacations (too) suck the life out of me.
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