Revisited: Part Two by puppy200010
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"Why, yes, the owners." The Scorchio laughed a bit, although
Jenny certainly didn't hear anything she thought was the least bit funny. The
laughter did make her quite a bit more uneasy, however. As they walked out of
the foyer and down a hallway, Jenny was trying to form yet another plan of escape.
Ok, she thought silently, When he
stops looking, I'll turn around and sneak into a doorway. Then, when the coast
is clear, I can run for the exit and go home!
Now they were turning a corner and entering
into a grand dining hall. The ceiling in this room, just like the foyer, was
high, allowing the conversation being held at the far end of the carved wooden
dining table to be magnified by the echo. Seated at the end of said table was
a yellow Blumaroo with spectacles balanced on his nose and a red Kougra, who
presumably was his wife. They were surrounded by several other pets. The butler
pointed to the Blumaroo and the Kougra and led her toward them. "Those are the
owners of this house."
"THEM?!" screeched Jenny out loud, a thought
that she hadn't meant to think out loud. The conversation stopped, and everyone
in the room turned to stare at her. She blushed deeply.
"Yes, yes, of course." The Scorchio turned around
now. "Well, I'll be leaving now... I have other duties to attend to." He started
walking back across the room, and it was just now that Jenny realized he had
a limp.
Still blushing, Jenny sat at the table at the
invitation of the Kougra. "Well, Jenny," she said after Jenny had introduced
herself, "I suppose I should introduce everyone else." She continued to do so.
Seated at the left of the Blumaroo was a yellow
Usul with curly blonde hair who hadn't made eye contact with Jenny since she
arrived. This was due to the compact she held in one paw - her eyes seemed to
be glued to it. Next to her was a quiet blue Gnorbu. "He's a mime," the Blumaroo
explained in a whisper to Jenny. To demonstrate the point, the Gnorbu nodded
and got up from his seat to do the infamous "mime in a box" act.
"Yes, yes, sit," the Kougra said with a wave
of one of her paws. "Sit," she repeated. He obeyed.
The last person on that side of the table was
a Kyrii with crazy white hair. He wore a pair of enormous glasses and kept using
large words Jenny didn't know, such as "defenestration." On the opposite side
of the table, seated on either side of Jenny, were two pets that actually appeared
normal. One was a pink Aisha, and the other was a green Xweetok, who seemed
to be a bit shy.
The group conversed
about the sad deflation of motes and plushies in Neopia, but they were interrupted
several minutes later by the butler. He came back into the room, doing his insane
limping walk, but this time he was followed by another pet. "I brought you another
applicant, master," he croaked.
The Kougra rolled her eyes. "What have I told
you about calling me master? This isn't a horror novel, so knock it off. Your
'master' commands it."
The pet following him was a scruffy looking
Gelert with a scar above his right eye. He gazed at the group sitting at the
table with a sort of untrusting glare and silently sat down.
"Well," creaked the butler, yet again sounding
like a pet out of a horror novel, "perhaps we should start. I doubt there will
be... others." He laughed maniacally.
As the Kougra leaned over to the Aisha, Jenny
overheard her whisper, "Don't worry. The word 'others' always seems to set him
off like that." Then she stood up and clapped her paws together. "Well!" she
said cheerfully. "Since it seems that everyone who is coming has arrived, we
might as well start with a tour of the house. How does that sound?"
Statements of agreement were made in unison
around the table, and everyone got up to tour the house. "Now," the Kougra said,
holding her paws up to gesture to the room they were standing in, "this is the
grand dining hall. The ceiling was carved by a team of professional carpenters.
This long dining table seats fifty pets, and all the chairs, as well as the
table, were custom ordered. On the floor beneath the table you can see this
beautiful plush red carpet. It was imported from Meridell, and it is the only
thing in this room that isn't historic. In fact, I'm sure that even the dust
up on the chandelier is historic!" She laughed nervously, then immediately regained
her composure. "Just kidding! Our cleaning staff makes sure to get up there
to clean it at least once every two weeks. Don't worry, though," she continued,
seeing a worried expression on the Aisha's face, "if you would get the job here,
you wouldn't have to do that. Your job would be to clean the library, which
I'll get to later on in the tour. Now, if you'll just follow me this way..."
The group followed her out of the dining hall and into a hallway.
"Right over here, we have the entrance to the
ballroom. It's not used much anymore, but some previous owners of this house
used to hold grand parties in this room. Would you like to come inside?" Without
waiting for an answer, she walked in, expecting the rest of them to follow her.
She rambled on for several minutes about the fabric that was used to make the
curtains, which hung on the glass windows stretching from the ceiling to the
floor, but Jenny was starting to tune her out. Standing in the center of the
wooden floor and glancing around the large room, she was able to envision what
it had been like, years ago, when parties - no, party wasn't a word worthy of
her vision - grand balls used to be held in this room. She could imagine the
pets, the ladies dressed up in elaborate gowns escorted by gentlemen in tailored
suits and top hats, dancing around the room while an orchestra played soft music
in the corner. Specifically, a couple of Lupes in her dream caught her attention.
The gentleman was a tall green Lupe, and he
was escorting a blue Lupe who was a bit shorter than he was. She wore a single
strand of pearls around her neck and clutched a small purse in one hand. Unlike
nearly all the other pets in the room, however, they weren't dancing. They appeared
to be having a quite intense discussion in the corner of the room with a yellow
Blumaroo. Interestingly, he looked like a younger version of the Blumaroo that
had been seated next to the Kougra in the dining hall. Now a pet in a black
suit, carrying a platter of fancy hors d'oeuvres, had come over to them, interrupting
their conversation. The male Lupe gave him a slight look of annoyance, saying
as politely as he could muster that thank you, but no, they didn't wish for
any at this time. They went back to their conversation, and a grandfather clock
across the room chimed midnight. Minutes later, the Blumaroo angrily went stalking
at the room. The exact time on the clock read 12:04. Now the Lupes were-
"Hello?" yelled the Kougra, now leading the
group out of the room's exit. "Are you coming?"
"What? Yes, sorry." Jenny ran to catch up with
the group.
"Next," the Kougra was saying as Jenny finally
rejoined the group, "we're going to look at the kitchen. The kitchen is rather
large, so I'm going to warn all of you to stay with the group and not get lost."
She looked at Jenny pointedly.
She really wasn't kidding when she said that
the kitchen was "rather large." In fact, the word large really didn't do it
justice. Enormous was more like it. Gigantic, colossal, HUGE! Shiny,
stainless steel counters ran the entire way around the room, and it seemed that
different kitchen gadgets were everywhere. The Kougra pointed out two large
doors in the back of the room. Those were for the pantry and the freezer, and
none of the pets in the group should attempt to enter them, even if they got
the cleaning job. She insisted that there was no need to enter them. "Besides,
you wouldn't want to get locked inside," she said with a slightly menacing tone.
Next to the doors were large closets full of all sorts of cleaning items, such
as mops and brooms, and also kitchen utensils: spoons, forks, knives, rolling
pins, cookie cutters, and the like. Also in the kitchen were a couple large
sinks. Although Jenny had seen the vast number of dishes stacked in one of the
closets, she still couldn't imagine why such large sinks would be needed to
clean them. The two sinks were both large enough for someone to sleep in! "The
pets who wash the dishes must have it rough," joked the Kyrii weakly. He, as
well as the rest of the group, seemed to be just as uneasy as Jenny felt. Jenny,
of course, knew her own reasons for feeling uncomfortable... but was it possible
that the rest of the pets had seen something in this house as well?
Just as the Kougra was about to tell them all
about the incredibly interesting and captivating process through which the silverware
had been made, the lights in the room went completely dark, and someone screamed.
To be continued...
Author's note: If you don't know what defenestration means, look it up!
It's a great word!
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Other Episodes » Revisited: Part One » Revisited: Part Three
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