Arc 719
And… there it was.
The black, nondescript shape shifted in short, quick movements between the stacked lumber and the wall. In the shadows, Aiden could see its eyes glowing. They peered out at him with a predatory glint.
Aiden rocked backward, shifting from his knees into a squat. He searched the immediate area for something long and thin to jab the beast out of its hiding place. The broom by the door looked apt, so he deftly snatched it up and tossed it from one hand to another.
“Borace, it’s alright.” Aiden knelt down again and began to poke the broomhandle into the darkness. “I’ve found her. She’s down here.”
Borace and all his bulk immediately stopped pacing. He rushed up to Aiden anxiously, holding himself in both of his enormous arms. Like a worrying maiden, he began to bite at his nails as he waited impatiently for his pet to return to him.
“Is she hurt?”
“What?” Aiden shot Borace an incredulous look over his shoulder. “No, she’s fine. Looks like she’s after a spider. Hey there, Puss. Come here.”
The strongman scoffed and rolled his khol-lined eyes.
“Her name is Sir Puss. You must use the honorific or she ignores you. She is very particular.”
“Borace, relax. You’re being ridiculous.”
Aiden prodded at the cat with the broomhandle, but she still sat just out of reach. Momentarily distracted from her prey, she turned to stare wide-eyed at the disguised Yludih. While he sacrificed his dignity scrambling to scare a cat from her hiding place, she was apathetic and unmoved by his efforts. Soon bored of him, she returned to her hunt, pouncing upon the hapless arachnid.
“Come here, cat…”
“You are the ridiculous one! Out of my way!”
Aiden caught a yelp in his throat as he very suddenly felt himself being lifted from his spot. Borace had taken hold of his shirt and slid him easily backward. In the span of a few blinks, before Aiden could substantially react, he was sitting on the floor several feet from where he had just been while Borace now knelt in his place.
“You are scaring her,” the strongman admonished him. “You do not know how to talk to animals.”
Swiping back his hair, Aiden chewed on his tongue for a moment before he sighed and rose to his feet. Borace didn’t seem aware of the utility of the broom handle, so it was returned to its home by the door.
“That’s because they don’t talk back, Borace.” Aiden leaned against the wall as Borace began to plead with his feline friend. "It's just a cat."
“Come Sir Puss, my love, my darling.” Borace pursed his lips and made several kissing noises in quick succession. Kneeling down on all fours, his rear end waggled in the air in a very unbecoming way. “Come, come.”
Aiden crossed his arms.
“How am I the ridiculous one?”
After a few bizarre trills of this, Borace finally leaned back against the wall. A tiny black cat meandered from the thin space, mewing innocently as her master made kissing noises in her direction. After a beat, she began to purr at a threateningly loud volume, crawling delicately into Borace’s lap.
“There we are my divine, my sweet.”
“You are very odd, Borace.” Aiden gestured toward the door of the storage room. “Is Bert still in his office? I wanted to run some lines with him but he’s been busy all day.”
“Bert is interviewing for new seamstress.” Borace’s enormous hand engulfed the cat as he gently stroked its fur. “Vincent break the heart of Nanette. She finally leave. Bert needs new tailor before next seventrial.”
Aiden raised his eyebrows. He nudged open the door with his toe and peered down the hallway. Bert’s door was closed at the far end, but if he listened, he could barely make out voices above the cat’s unnervingly deafening purr.
“Oh, is that the girl I saw coming in? The blonde one?” Aiden rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I thought she was auditioning. Is Elena in there with them?”
“I don’t know, Aiden,” Borace grumbled at him in irritation. He shooed the fellow actor away with one hand. “Why don’t you go see?”
“Hm. Maybe I will.” The young actor smirked at the strongman, at last reunited with his tiny animal. “I’ll leave you two alone. Happy to be of service.”
“Knock, knock?” Aiden narrated as he actually knocked on, and simultaneously opened, the door to Bert’s office.
Looking annoyed, as he always did, Bert Lamont glared over his desk at Aiden’s intrusion. Next to him, a shy-seeming Elena gazed at him with a sleepy, sweet look. Sitting before them, Aiden spied the back of the new girl’s head. Shorter hair, and not as flaxen or silken as Elena’s flowing locks, but more than passable. It was probably a good sign that the actress looked bored and not affronted.
“May I help you, Aiden?” Bert inquired in a strained voice. His fingers cascaded out to him in question.
“Oh, it can wait.” But he was feeling impatient. Aiden intended to hurry this along however he could. “Is this going to be the new seamstress?”
“Perhaps…” Bert was clearly unhappy with Aiden’s intrusion, but he appeared to resign. Codger knew how to pick his battles, and Aiden knew how to straddle the line between being tolerable and being a nuisance. “Please continue, Miss Acothley.”
What?
Aiden felt the floor give out beneath his feet.
“Under whom did you say you were working?” Bert gathered his hands before him on the desk. “And will you have enough time to dedicate service to the Lamont?”
What had he called her? Surely he’d misheard.
The actor shuffled in, latching the door behind him. Immediately he slipped to the side and sank down onto an empty crate. It creaked loudly beneath his weight. Elena and Bert both looked up at him.
“Uh.” Aiden stared down at his feet for a moment, then gazed all around the room. He looked like a fidgeting child. “Mind if I sit in? Introduce myself?” He stared at this woman Bert had called Acothley. “I’m Aiden. They warn you about Vincent yet?”
“No.” Bert was stonefaced.
Elena, amused, smiled at Aiden from across the room. He winked at her slyly.
“May we focus on the matter at hand?” Bert asked the question as he continued to glower at Aiden. He made himself look kind again when he addressed the potential new seamstress. “Go on, my dear.”
