Lazarus

3

Lazarus. His name danced around in my mind through the night until I fell asleep. It was very early when I woke up. The fire had burnt out and the room was pitch dark. I threw the blankets off myself, it was cold in the room. I had no idea why it was so cold it was the middle of July, it was supposed to be hot out.

Before my feet could touch the floor I heard a shuffle. I froze, 'scritch, scritch, scritch' was the noise the intruder made. I clung onto the bedsheets and prayed that whatever was in my room left so I could.

I turned my head when I saw a little light in the corner of my eye. The fireplace was soon filled with fire and the room was filled with warm light, it was just Lazarus. He was kneeling in front of the fireplace with matches in hand.

"Good morning" his voice was rough.

"Morning" I sucked in a breath of air, 'I thought I told you to stay the night' is what I expected from him, but all I got was silence. He stood up and threw the matches on the ledge of the fireplace. He turned to face me, his deep burgundy eyes stared into mine, his long black hair framed his stone-cold face perfectly, his lips were soft looking. He held no expression in his face, which was odd because the few times I did see him he was looking at me with some sort of hatred or desire.

"I need a maid" he spoke sharply.

"Oh...okay" I didn't know how to respond to that. "I'm not sure where you can hire one."

He rolled his eyes, "I meant you," he sounded disgusted.

"Oh.." I didn't know how to respond to that either.

"I will pay you minimum wage, you must do my laundry, cooking, cleaning, and shopping."

"But..I."

"You can stay in this room until you find your place, once you find your own place you can choose to keep working for me or you could resign, but that wouldn't be good" his voice softened and his eyes narrowed.

"I don't know what to say.." I didn't, it was a strange man and a strange place. For all, I knew he could have been a serial killer.

"Don't say anything just get dressed, we are going out" he turned on his heel and walked away.

I thought.

I slid out of bed and searched for my backpack, it was in the corner of my room where I had put it the night before. I opened it and grabbed a pair of jeans and a shirt. I quickly changed and ran downstairs. He was already waiting for me, he was wearing a black button-up shirt, black jeans and a pair of black boots. In his hand, he held a black Victorian-style umbrella. His black hair was down and framing his stone-cold face.

"Hurry up" he opened his umbrella and forced open the doors with ease. He quickly threw open the umbrella over himself and walked down the pathway I had taken the night before.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Shopping."

"Why?"

"We need to get you out of those raggy clothes if you re going to start working for me, I can't have my guests thinking I treat my maid terribly" he smirked.

"So it isn't anything to do with you caring for me it is just your image you're worried about?" he turned to me and nodded. I bit my tongue. I wanted to punch him in the face.

The first store we went to was a little clothing store, there was a lot of beautiful clothes there, I wasn't much of a clothes person, but they were beautiful.

"Pick a couple of black outfits out for your uniform then get a few other things for yourself" he was snippy. I walked through the clothes racks and spotted an outfit I liked. It was a black long-sleeved t-shirt and a pair of black pants that were almost like tights. I grabbed them and moved to a dressing room. I tried them on, they fit perfectly. I looked professional yet I knew I could easily do housework in them.

"Let me see when you are done" Lazarus called out. I unlocked the door and swung it open. His expression didn't change. "It looks fine."

Whatever, you are only here to work, I reminded myself. I entered the dressing room again and closed the door. "Get a few of those and pick out a dress" he yelled through the door.

I hated dresses.

When I walked out of the dressing room Lazarus was standing there, one hand holding onto his umbrella and the other was holding a few black dresses. "Try these" he handed them to me. I sighed but took them and brought them into the dressing room.

The one I tried was short, it covered most of my chest except for the U shaped neckline, the bottom reached my knees the straps covered almost all my shoulders. It was beautiful. I opened the dressing room door. Lazarus was still there, he looked me up and down I couldn't tell what the look in eyes were, but I think he liked it.

"Take that one off so we can go pay" he looked away with a stone-cold expression still on his face. I closed the door and changed back into my 'raggy' clothes. I brought all the clothes out and handed the ones I didn't try on to a lady that worked there We walked back to the clothes rack I got my first outfit on and picked out a few more of the same shirts and pants. I handed the small stack to Lazarus. He rolled his eyes and walked to the cash register. He handed the cashier a couple of 20 dollar bills and we were on our way.

The next store was a shoe store, we were in there for a while. He made me pick a pair of black ballet flats and a pair of black work shoes to wear while I cleaned the house. The flats were to go with the dress. I felt like an idiot trying on clothes and shoes.

The last actual store we went to was a girl store, it was filled with underwear and bras and everything a girl would need.

"I'm sure you will need undergarments" he practically choked. I smiled and nodded. We walked in, I held my chin high knowing I was embarrassing him. I picked out a few pairs of underwear, a few bras, and some cute pj's, and socks. I even snuck in a pair of lingerie, I didn't know why I grabbed them because I knew they would get no use, but I thought they looked adorable and they were black so I knew they would look good on me, he paid, and we left.

The rest of the day was pretty easy, Lazarus went to bed and I stayed and wandered the house. I looked through all the cupboards and discovered where everything belonged. Lazarus had nothing in his fridge, it wasn't even plugged in, it was covered in a thin layer of dust like everything else. I knew that eventually I would have to clean everything so I found a mop and bucket and started on the house.