To Love A Myth - Book 1: Mr. Higgs and the Maid🎩✔️

32

The month finally came to a close and everyone waited in anticipation on if Merida was going to come out of the golden statue herself or if they would need to look into the curse of the Midas touch a little deeper.

*****************************

The gold cracked and Merida could move again. She sighed in relief as she fell to her knees. She looked around and saw that she had been taken to her room and looked at the chamber pot. She got up on wobbly legs and headed towards it, sighing in relief. Being a statue was not what she had expected or thought it would be. The last thing she remembered in full detail was the look of horror on Kannaset's face as she looked at her arm starting to turn gold and stiffening. She remembered him backing into something and screaming and she remembered telling him that everything was going to be alright. It was an accident beyond all accidents... it couldn't have been planned if she had hired someone to do it. A fluke...
"I'm glad you've returned to normal." She heard in the room.
She gasped and looked around, finding someone sitting on her bed in the shadows. She narrowed her eyes and could just barely make out a figure.
"Who's that?"
"Who do you think?"
"Mr. Higgs?"
"Yes."
"Oh... why are ye hiding in the shadows?"
"I'll give you a hint: the sunlight will kill me if I don't."
"Ah... ye're a vampire then?"
"Yes... I hope you're satisfied with what you've done."
"What do ye mean?"
"You did exactly what I told you not to do and now my uncle is afraid of me because he thinks I'm mad at him for turning you into a golden statue."
"That's idiotic."
"It happened, Merida!" he snarled, coming a little into the light so she could see him. "I told you to keep yourself in check and you went completely against what I said!"
"Ye ken nothing of what happened in there! Why willnae ye ask me instead of jumping to conclusions?!"
"Because I know you, Merida, and you can't prove a point without being dramatic or exaggerating about everything that you say and do. Sometimes it's fun and entertaining but other times it is not the time nor the place."
"As I said before, ye dinnae even ken what actually happened!"
"You were trying to be overbearing about some point you were trying to prove and touched him to make a big showy example!"
Merida stared at him in shock. "Is... is that what ye really believe I did?"
"What else could it have been?"
"What if it was an accident, because it was?!"
"How could that have possibly been an accident!? He was covered from head to toe in clothing and you don't just turn to gold by breathing in the air! You had to have touched him in order for that to happen!"
"Did ye ever care to ask Kans what happened?"
"He's been too afraid of me because someone with an overbearing personality decided to take it upon herself to prove some sort of point and he thought I'd be angry with him for your comatose golden state!"
Merida growled and walked into the shadows, pointing her finger at her employer.
"Ye are one to talk about overbearing and over-exaggeration. Ye sit here and accuse me of something that ye dinnae even ken about and ye dinnae even want to ken what really happened in there. Ye just want to place blame on me because it was something that hasnae happened before. I willnae stand here and let ye talk to me like that, boy."
"What?" he said, his eyes narrowing at her.
"I'm not but two summers older than ye, Mr. Higgs, and ye may have the status over me to boss me around like ye do, but I'll be damned if I let a suckling child with no backbone and afeart of his own person to sit there and try to tell me who I am without having the slightest clue as to what is going on."
"You take that back."
"Ye apologize to me and an ye stop blethering about what ye dinnae ken and I'll explain exactly what happened."
"I will not apologize. My uncle is in fear of me all because of you and we've had to sit here and worry over if you were going to have to stay a statue forever or if it would wear off at the end of the month. Edgar took another turn and I've been having to deal with him by myself without any help from you."
"Oh, ye had to do my job for a wee bit? Ye had to play father to a sick lad? Oh, woe is ye, Mr. Higgs. I wouldnae want to set ye out with all that responsibility and work, ye lazy, pampered, sniveling posh-boy."
"Stop making fun of me; I am your employer!"
"I dinnae need ye as such! I've bent over backwards to try and do everything I could for ye, listened to ye concerns and ye fears, comforted ye, cared for ye, things that a person who applied to be a maid shouldnae –and doesnae- have to do! But I do it because I have a feeling for ye that is more than just an employer. I dinnae have to do what I do, but I care about ye... I try to understand ye... Ye're not doing anything of that for me! Yer just jumping to conclusions and accusing me of things that arenae true! Ye willnae even let me explain myself because ye ken ye know the answer!"
Merida felt tears prick her eyes and she turned away from him, not wanted him to see her hurt.
"I dinnae what's gotten into ye these past weeks, but I dinnae like it. Ye arenae the lad I was hired under."
"You'd prefer I'd be a sniveling child who can't hold his own?"
"I would prefer ye be the kind lad that I grew fond of like my own kin and would do anything to make sure ye werenae hurt. The one who welcomed my thoughts and listened to me when I tried to explain myself... Whatever ye've done with him ye blood sucking cad, bring Higgs Northumberly back... I'm going to check on Edgar. When ye decide ye want to hear what happened, ye talk to me. Otherwise, I dinnae want lip from ye."
She walked out of the room as Higgs crossed his arms in the dark.