N E W I M A G E C O M I N G S O O N
And so the mad happiness streak continued. I was half expected a tea party by the time we had actually progressed our way to Headquarters. One with all those fancy tea pots and frilly doilies underneath the cups where you have to hold out your pinky finger. Though I would look devilishly handsome with a cup of tea at hand...
I'd rather be shot thirteen times in the head at close range.
As we walked through the rotating door in the entrance, we left Goyro behind. Or rather he left us behind as he ran into the opposing rotating door and continued his skipping escapade. I shuddered and slowly inched away, Krao with me, and made our way slowly over to the elevator on the side of the grand staircase. It was really grand, but no time to notice now-- escape was my main priority. Inch by inch, I felt relief sweeping over me, slowly but surely.
Then, to my absolute horror, my black dress shoes squeaked against the lobby's fancy marble tiled floor. Can you guess who came running to our side?
I'm sure you can.
We all stuffed into one of the tiny service elevators, since the main elevators were in need of repair. Apparently Krao's superior had "blown up", as I love to so eloquently put it, in the main shaft of middle elevator which had destroyed the others too since they were in such close proximity. Lucky us-- or more so-- lucky me. I had to be even closer to dog boy and of course Krao did too- but we all know I don't care about him. At least not that much. I'd have to debate that more later. Not.
After I snapped out of my enchanting thoughts was when Goyro began to push all of the elevator buttons. Hand-to-face moment? Oh definately.
"Goyro, when we get up to the Ace's floor, remind me to kill you."
"What?" He blinked innocently and smiled sweetly, even though I know he had heard. He did have dog ears.
"I said- Oh forget it. It's worth wasting my time on."
Of course the absurdity didn't stop there. Goyro had to yell out the number of the floor we were on each time the elevator came to a halt and inbetween he sang out the time on his broken watch like a dying canary. Yes, a broken watch-- he never bothered to replace it. He was as fond of the watch as I was not fond of him. A dying canary would have been preferable since I felt like a coal miner stuck in a narrow shaft with those two. Listening to someone yell "IT'S ONE O'CLOCK!" one hundred and fourteen times for one hour isn't exactly as fun as it seems. Especially when it's in your ear from three inches away.
When we finally reached the much anticipated one hundred and fourteenth floor, I just about burst out of the elevator door too soon, smacking into the edge of the door. Of course, I recovered so smoothly no one had noticed.
"There's a red mark on your forehead from the door."
"Thanks, Goyro." I grunted through clenched teeth. "Thanks a lot."
"Welcome!" Number Ten ran up ahead-- on all fours.
"How did we get stuck with that kid?" Krao came up behind me, looming over my shoulder like a frightening extension of my shadow.
"I think he stuck to us." Muttering curses, I followed the sounds of bare feet scraping against white marble. He had taken off his shoes and I swear I could smell them from the foyer I was in-- wet dog. Whipping out the hankerchief out of my suit coat pocket, I carried on with my business as usual, Krao following behind me like a phantom.
Click, click, click.
It was oddly quiet, so deathly quiet that our shoes reverberated off the high ceiling of the penthouse. The decorative flowers in the gaudy vases were dying and all the windows were shut or covered with wooden boards or cardboard boxes. Furniture was draped with the customary whites sheets to keep the straying dust off them along with any bugs that might meen the cushions harm. I kept my hankerchief to my nose, for the dust was so thick you could have knitted a sweater from it. All in all the place was dank, unlivable, and seemed to be haunted not lived in. Not my kind of place, that's for sure.
The Ace was never one for expensive things though.
After turning down a couple of hallways, we found the bedroom door, which had two guards [number's eight and nine], standing viligantly outside as still as the door they were guarding. Goyro must have already been inside, for the smell of feet seemed to have died down in the corridor. The guards motioned for me to go in first. Krao shrugged and stood waiting on the opposite side of the wall. Thankfully, I stuffed my hankerchief back into it's appropriate pocket and form and knocked briskly on the door.
"Quite a beating you took from that elevator, Seoul." The voice was playfully and feminine. I turned the knob-- Ace didn't like to be kept waiting.
"So now you have cameras?" Sighing I walked into the musty room, coughing into my jacketsleeve. "You really should clean, you know. Enough dust up here to suffocate a person."
"Consider it a defensive mechanism." A young woman sat laughing quietly on a pile of tasseled silk cushions of various colors, her long blonde hair serving as a second layering of cushion between her.
"I consider it a hazard to my health." Brushing the seat of a nearby chair off , I sat down and folded my hands politely in my lap.
"If you're concerned about your health so much you should stop smoking. It's going to kill you." She stood up, smoothing out her skirt. Boss prefered a sort of antique-punk-gothic style. Strange, I know. The whole room was decorated in this fashion, to the gothic post bed with pink silk sheets
I'm sure you're wondering how this girl became the Ace, right? I would tell you, but even I don't know. Aces tend to be shrouded in mystery; ours just tended to be shrouded in dust too.
"So what's the mission, Cosette?" At least I knew her name.
"I need you to kill someone." She folded her hands in her lap as if this were an everyday task she were mentioning. Her black nails shone in the low light of the room. "You must promise not to ask questions though."
"Yes, of course, standard policy." I was puzzled by this sudden recap of basic rules. Something was off.
"I want you to kill Krao."
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