La Sacerdotessa

The Attempt

A few days had gone by, and Satira was feeling good enough to get out of bed. The pain in her side had subsided thanks to some medicine Jolly had made for her.

She wasn't the only one who had been confined to her bed, though. Papa had been in bed the past few days as well, making those who knew he was ill worry.

Satira sighed as she looked out the window at the yellow sky of dawn. There in her nightgown, she felt like a sweaty, disgusting mess. She turned from the window and stripped out of her nightgown. Walking into the bathroom, she twisted a knob, and warm water came rushing into the bathtub. She took off her remaining articles of clothing before getting into the tub, sighing as the warm water prickled her skin, giving her goosebumps.

She leaned back into the water, letting it meet the bottom of her chin and she closed her eyes, living in pure silence in that brief moment.

It wasn't long, however, before she heard a noise from outside the bath, breaking the silence. She turned, looking around her, but didn't find the source of the sound. She turned back around, and that's when someone grabbed her and pushed her underwater.

Satira screamed beneath the water, thrashing about as she looked at the person who was trying to drown her. He wore a red, Archellino, comedia dell'arte mask, a wide smile spreading across his lips.

In her struggle against the man, her face managed to breach the water's surface for a brief moment, which she took as an opportunity to scream.

PACE had been walking down the hall, humming a song about lasagna when he heard a muffled sound coming from a room above. Pace immediately ran up the stairs, but the sound was gone. Pace looked into every room, finding no one in them. As  he entered Satira's room, he heard sounds coming from her bathroom and entered, his fist flying into the man's masked face. Pace then picked Satira out of the bath, holding her underneath her legs and back in a bridal fashion.

"Help!" Pace screamed as he walked with Satira out of her bathroom, locking the criminal inside and carrying Satira over to her bed. Satira held onto Pace for dear life, coughing up water that she had swallowed. He set her on her bed, draping her sheet around her. He grabbed her face in his hands, bringing their foreheads together.

"Pace... that man... he..."

"Shhh. You're safe now. I have you and I'm not letting you go," Pace brought his lips up to Satira's forehead.

"Pace, I heard you... What the hell happened in here?!" Debito ran into her room, his eyes full of worry.

"Debito, the bathroom," Pace answered and Debito pulled out one of his revolvers as he opened the door. From what Satira could see out of the corner of her eye, the man had opened her bathroom window and was sitting on the windowsill.

"You're too late! We have what we wanted!" The man laughed maniacally and he leaned back and fell out of the window. Debito ran to the window, watching as the man landed on the stone beneath him with a sickening crack.

"Shit!" Debito sheathed his gun as he stepped out of the bathroom and walked through her room about to go down and find out who was behind the mask. "Is she alright?" Debito asked, his eyebrows knitting together.

"I'm fine thanks to Pace," Satira shivered, wrapping her sheets tighter around her as she heard the door slam behind Debito.

"Let's get you dressed," Pace stood up, starting to pull away, but Satira grabbed onto him.

"Don't..." she held onto his hand as she shivered, more from fear than from the cold. She took his hand, bringing it to her lips and placing a kiss to it.