Quiet Ones

"Could I talk to you for a second?"

That smile re-appeared again, all traces of malice gone. But Lau could still see it in the way the butler was standing, how his hands were holding onto the spout of the teacup a bit too tightly.

Lau had crossed a line that shouldn't even have been approached in the first place, and now he was paying for it. Fear wound itself around his intestines.

He feared he wouldn't even survive the talk, that the butler would kill him for laying a hand on his master. Or better yet, hurt him and leave him for dead.