The Maid and the Box 1

Tick, tick, tick.

Ten minutes had passed and Fang was still laying on the bed, feeling more and more sorry for himself by the second. The only person to comfort Fang was himself, and he did a terrible job at that.

"What should I do..."

As Fang rambled, he felt a sudden tingling sensation on his neck like a bug crawling up him. He slowly got up and sat upright on the edge of the bed.

Fang looked to the sides trying to set his focus elsewhere. He didn't know what to be looking out for though.

"Where is this feeling coming from...?"

Getting up and turning around, Fang decided to stand on top of the bed. He pushed himself up, standing on the bed, bouncing up and down.

"Waah! Woah!"

Having been just a bit too close on the edge of the bed, it caused his body to wobble back and forth. He stuck his arms out trying to maintain his balance, and finally caught himself.

The first thing Fang wanted to do was check the windows one more time. If the strange feeling he felt was caused by anything, it'd probably be something from outside the window. After all, he did make himself visible to the public by standing on the windowsill and looking out at the city.

He slowly brought his head over the windowsill, peering out of his room. "No, I don't think anyone would have seen me..."

Fang got stepped back from the windowsill and had on a confused face. He was beginning to ponder if what he felt on his neck was just something he was imagining. After all, the feeling was only brief. It might have been that he was just paranoid from all of the traumatic events that happened in his past.

Walking back to his bed quietly, he sat back down on the bed. His knee began moving up and down.

Knock, Knock, Knock.

Suddenly, Fang heard a knocking on the door behind him.

"Good afternoon and pardon the sudden appearance from room service. Is anyone occupying this room at the moment?"

A feminine voice. Fang's body jolted up making him sit up straight.

"Did the captors come back for me...?!" He thought.

The person behind the door knocked a few more times. "Hello? I will be coming in to clean and manage your chambers if you are unable to answer. Is there anyone occupying the room at the moment?"

Saying yes was the obvious answer for Fang. There were probably less than ten seconds before the room service lady came inside the room. He considered answering, "yes, someone is occupying the room", but was too afraid to speak. If saying yes wasn't an option he could act on, he had to think of something else quickly.

"I will be coming in now to perform my duties daily duties."

The doorknob jiggled and twisted as the room service lady opened the door.

Fang panicked and made haste off the bed, turning around to face the door.

With partial thanks to his survival instincts kicking in, he quickly went down on the floor, sitting and pushing his back against the bedframe and mattress. He used the bed as a cover so as to not be seen.

The door creaked loudly, slowly as it opened. A cart was wheeled into the room containing cleaning supplies like brooms and mops. Its wheels made loud noises against the wooden floors. Behind the cart pushing it forward was a young lady in a maid outfit, who came in through the door right after the cart had.

The maid stopped at the entrance of the door. She leaned her head slightly forward with an almost oblivious expression, turning left and right to scan the large room to check if anyone was in the room or not.

"Holy crap! That was too close!" Fang thought. "I'm glad I didn't speak up... If I said I was the one occupying the room, it could've gone way worse."

"Pardon the intrusion," the maid said plainly.

As Fang was sitting up on the floor against the bed, the sound of the cart moving along the floor became more apparent. To his surprise, the maid was slowly approaching the other side of the bed to survey the other part of the room that wasn't already visible from the door.

"She's coming closer now!?" Fang thought again. His mind was in a panic, unable to think straight. Why didn't he think of this situation happening beforehand?

The only other place he knew he could go to was under the bed. Quickly and as quietly as possible, he turned his body, bending down, and began struggling to get under the bed.

Sounds of the wheels from the cart being pushed became louder and louder as the maid walked her way over to the other side of the bed.

Just as the maid was about to turn the corner to the side Fang was on, he managed to force the rest of his body under, evading just in the nick of time.

Under the dark abyss of the bed, Fang took both of his hands, using them to cover his mouth and frantic breathing. His heart was pounding.

"Gosh, why do the princess's separate chambers always end up being a mess?" The maid whined. Now that she was alone, she didn't have a need to speak so formally. "Next time I'll make sure someone else takes this room..."

Fang let out a deep sigh of relief through his hands. He began crawling further toward the center of the bed, but was stopped when he stumbled upon something heavy and box-like.

"What's this?" Fang wondered. "What's a box doing under here?"

It was too dark to see the box's appearance. Fang touched the box, feeling it up and down. It felt like it was made out of wood, and it could've just barely met the height requirement to fit under the bed. Dust was present on the front of the box as if it had been abandoned for ages.

Fang, lying and crawling under the bed, turned around to check on the maid.

A light hum came out of her mouth that eventually turned into quiet singing. She was standing tippy-toed in front of the desk beside the bed, most likely dusting.

"It repeats again; a flashback, the buzz of cicadas... And you, who will never come back~"

Fang let out another sigh of relief. "It looks like I'm in the clear—for now... I don't think she heard me crawl under here, or worse, actually see me crawl under."

The maid raised her voice slightly, activating more of her vocals. "The girl with her pale white skin that the summer got rid of, I find myself wanting to be possessed by her so much it brings me to tears~"

Indeed, the singing of the maid was beautiful, but that was the least of concerns for Fang. He turned his body back around carefully and quietly again, making sure he kept his presence unknown.

Turning back around, Fang began crawling once again deeper into the abyss. Remembering that there was a box in front of him, he knew that sliding it to the side would most likely cause some noise that might catch the attention of the maid. Just as he was about to move the box in front of him, he realized that the box was no longer where it was.

Fang moved his arms around the little space he was in, trying to look for the vanished box. "That's strange... I was more than sure that it was in front of me, blocking the way just now-"

Skiiiiid-

The maid's head rose in the air, reacting to the sound that was just made. It was a sound created by friction.

Fang looked to his left, and from the little light that somehow managed to reach under the bed, he caught sight of the feint silhouette of the box, now more than an arm's length away.

How it managed to move out of the way for him, he didn't know. Perhaps he was starting to go crazy again. Something appearing in one place, and then appearing in another. It couldn't be possible without magic, right?

"Was I imagining things? It didn't move on its own, did it?"

Bewildered, he shook his head in denial and pushed forward into the darkness. "I must've been imagining things for sure then..."

Things were going good for the most part. While Fang's body ached, inching away under a tight space, it didn't feel like he was going to be caught anytime soon and he'd probably be able to leave as soon as the maid finished.

Suddenly, the squeaking noise of friction against the floors was expelled once again, followed by a boom. The box that had suddenly moved locations was on the move again, this time making its presence well known by slamming against the wall. This sudden turn of events for Fang after thinking he was in the clear, naturally sent a nervous shock throughout his body.

The maid suddenly stopped her little karaoke and cleaning session and became silent. She had heard the sound caused by the box hitting something, but couldn't make out where it was.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" She spoke as she looked around the room holding a duster.

Faang put a hand over his mouth and turned his head to his left again. The box that he had suspected of moving on its own but dismissed, was now parallel to the wall. He was able to confirm it in his head this time and was no longer left with any doubts. It was moving on its own. Why it moved of all times, Fang wasn't sure; why it was even moving in the first place, he was even less sure of. One thing was for certain though, and that thing was that it caused Fang's worry meter to nearly shatter its limits.

His position was being put at high risk.