Fly-By-Night

(okay so my photoshop file corrupted as I was going to finish this tonight so have the tiny preview that I was able to salvage to accompany some words. I couldn't bring myself to redraw it. Thank you for understanding!!))




"ExCUSE mE?" he sputtered, aghast. "That's prepos-! I'm-!? BUT-! You think-?"

He snapped his mouth shut with an audible HUFF before he could protest too much. If the other man could be believed, he was safe for the moment. And being insulted was better than being a statue of ash in a miserable, dark garden.....marginally better, but still, better.
"If you insist," he grumbled, resorting to the script he'd prepared on the way back to the Villa, although the scene certainly hadn't played out as he'd intended.

Then it was quiet, except for the faint sound of some distant clock striking the hour.
Should he say something?
Had he said too much already?
This was a mistake.
Absolutely a mistake.
Everything was a mistake.
He should be far away by now, not standing on the staircase landing of some miserable (but surprisingly lavish) palace in the hinterlands, or wherever this was, exactly.

"Oh, you'll be staying? How wonderful~!"
He spooked at the sudden voice and the soft hand on his shoulder, and tensed, but it was only the woman from the entrance. She had crept up the stairs behind him while he was thinking.
"Please, follow me, sir," she continued, and half turned to head back down the stairs. "I'd be pleased to show you around!" She smiled, an unpleasant contrast to her bandaged neck and her hollow eyes. He murmured some sort of acknowledgment and followed the thrall, happy to heed her instructions if it meant leaving the strange Master of the House behind.

The clock had finished chiming as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Oh yes, you'll like it here, sir," the thrall shared, still smiling, still oblivious to the danger at the top of the stairs that stood watching them both. "Everyone likes it here, sir- ah, sir?" She paused, and looked vaguely confused. "What did you say your name was, again, sir...?"

It was only then that he'd realized he'd never even had the chance to introduce himself.