//------------------------------// // Unpleasant First Day // Story: Beggars can be choosers // by MurlocStalker //------------------------------// As soon as Faithful Servant had walked through the door, Aria and Sonata sped up from the couch and towards the basement door. Sonata reached forward to pull the door open, but was quickly pushed to the side by Aria. “Out of the way, I got dibs on this.” “When did we do dibs?” Sonata asked meekly as she rubbed her arm on the spot where Aria had pushed her. “I always got dibs on the new stuff.” Aria retorted. Aria grabbed a hold of the door handle and pulled the door open. Behind the door, as far as what could be seen, was nothing more than a staircase leading downwards, the steps growing darker by each step until they were completely engulfed by shadows and with large cupboards hanging along the wall. “Wow, this goes deep.” Said Sonata that peeked from the corner of the door. “No way that we can go down there. It's too dark, we can't see anything.” “Ugh, don't be such a scaredy cat.” Aria said and reached in to the left. When she retracted her hand she held a flashlight in her hand. She handed it over to Sonata, and reached in again to take another for herself. “There, now we will see everything. Come on, we gotta scope this place out before that Faith guy comes back.” The two sisters started to make their way down, being very slow and careful with where they put their feet as the steps were quite small and did not offer much room to stand on. “What do you think is down there” Sonata asked. “Probably one of those “man caves” that I've heard about. Considering everything, I wouldn't put such a thing above his price range.” “And the cupboards?” Aria suddenly stopped. She took a look to her right at one of the cupboards and she could feel the curiosity well up inside. She looked up at Sonata with a grin. “Well, let's find out, shall we?” Sonata stepped down until she was right beside her sister. Aria grabbed hold of the two doors and started to pull. When they did not open they assumed that they were simply locked. But Aria decided to give it another go. She pulled again, much harder this time around, and the doors popped open. Aria dropped her flashlight, which tumbled down a step or two. While Aria went to pick it up, Sonata stayed and used her own to light it up, to see what was inside. “Aria… I think we should get out.” Faithful walked down the aisles, picking out the right ingredients for tonight’s dinner while also picking some other stuff that could be of use later or, simply choosing some tasty items to munch on tonight. With a shopping basket full of groceries, Faithful stood at the candy selection and picked some candy for himself as well as, at least, attempting to make a good bag for the girls as well. A sort of trial and error, see what they like and don't. He just stood there, minding his own business, when he heard quick steps coming up from behind. Dismissing it as just some excited kid running to get his candy, he returned to what he was doing. He regretted that decision dearly. Suddenly, he felt a powerful smack to behind. Shocked at first, and then a little angry, he turned around to face his assailant. “What th-” He did not have the chance to finish his sentence as a fist connected with his most prized jewels. “Haha! That's what you get for groping me all the time!” “Goodness darn you, Little Grace.” Faithful groaned as he fell down on he knees. “What have I told you about striking men in that particular area?” “Not to do it. It was payback though, no worse than you constantly grabbing my stuff!” Faithful started to get back on his legs, hos voice growing more stable. “Oh yeah, it's worse. So much worse. And would you be so kind as to not shout such things in public?”. Faithful was now fully standing as he looked down on the girl in front of him. Little Grace is a good friend of his, standing barely three fourths of his size, dry, slightly curled brown hair and tanned yellow skin and kind, warm brown eyes. “So, what are you doing around here?” “Buying groceries, what else? Getting the stuff I need for dinner tonight. That and a bit of snacks for us.” “Us?” “Well, I have these girl-” “A GIRL!?” Little Grace cried out excitedly. “You have a girl over?!” Faithful was taken back a bit at her sudden outburst but still tried to maintain his cool. Something that proved to be somewhat difficult. “W-well, yes but it's not-” “Oh, this is great. After five years I was starting to fear that you would be lonely for the rest of your life.” “Gee, thanks. But it is not like that, Grace. It is not a date or anything of the like, they are simply my guests.” “Wait… They?” Faithful went on to explain the situation and the events that had transpired earlier. Although he left out the part about Adagio's involvement in the story. “I see… So two strangers now live beneath your own roof. Do you really think that they can be trusted? What if they are thieves and makes off with your valuables in the middle of the night?” Faithful scoffed. “I don't think they would as much as dare to think about such a thing. I don't know much about their character yet, but I do know something. They are desperate. This is their best shot at survival and they are not going to risk messing it all up.” “For your sake I hope that you are right. I'd hate to see you hurt or stolen from.” “Yet you insist on hitting me and stealing away all my chances to become a father.” Little Grace just laughed it off. “So, the girls are left alone at your place then? Risky. What do you think that they are doing?” “Well, I do hope that they are simply watching some TV or anything of the like. But if I had to make a more realistic guess, they are probably trying to breach the limitations I put up for them.” “What will you do if they have broken any of your rules?” “…” Aria stood next to Sonata as she held up her flashlight to light up the cupboard. She reached inside and grabbed hold of one of the items inside. The leathery yet firm feel of it was an odd feeling as she had never held anything like this before. Her hands wandered on to the next item. Her fingers traced the cold metal. She grabbed on to the chain and gave it a few powerful yanks. It held. It was the real deal. The more she saw of these dreadful items, the more she feared that there might be some point to Sonata's words. “I need to see more...” Said Aria. “You what?” Sonata responded. “I said that I need to see more before I decide anything.” Aria growled. She slammed the door's shut and moved on to the next cupboard. The next one was far easier to open up. The items that resided inside did little to soothe her racing mind. All the chains, straps and masks of leather only served to unnerve the girl all the more. She turned her eyes away from the items that resided inside and looked down the stairs. It wasn't much of a way down by now, but the further down she began to make her way, the colder it got. It felt like a mini-winter down bellow. Sonata hesitantly followed her sister while her whole body just cried out to her to just drag her sister by the collar and haul ass out of this place. Whatever was down there, it could not be anything good. When they were past the stairs they started to look around for anything that resembled a light switch. Sonata eventually found it… right next to the stairs. It was a medium sized room with nothing in particular in it. All there was was two high and wide shelves with large plastic drawers. Sonata walked past a couple of them while Aria stayed behind for a bit while she tried to find some sort of heat regulator. She quickly found it, and she was not pleased with what it said. “45 Fahrenheit? Really? Let's turn it up to 70, get a bit comfy up in here.” She turned up the heat and she slowly started to feel the comfortable warmth return to the room. “There. Sonata, found some-” “AHHHH!” “Sonata!?” Aria turned on her heel and ran sprinted towards Sonata. Sonata stood in front of a pulled out drawer, shaking from tip to toe, her face pale and hands covering her face. “What's the matter?” Aria said as she fussed over her sister. “T-t-there-There's something in there!” She shrieked and pointed towards the drawer. Aria approached it and looked inside. Not much to speak of, other than that it was obviously an animals “cage”. There was a pile of straw, a bowl of water and one with food and a newspaper substrate. She tried to find what was causing Sonata such distress but nothing really stood out. She then proceeded to mess a bit with the straws and then she heard something. It lasted for just a moment and it was low as all hell, but she was sure that it was there. She continued to rummage through the straw when suddenly something jumped out at her. Aria shriked and appropriately skipped back. After a couple of moments of nothing happening, Aria started to make her way back to the drawer. She looked inside and what she saw wasn't all that bad in retrospect. The thing looked like some sort of snake it was rather thick, graceless and sported a pair of small legs. It stood there, mouth wide open, hissing at her and flashing a bright blue tongue at her. “It's not so bad. Little fella kind of has it's own charm.” Said Aria and waved her sister over. Slowly, Sonata approached the “cage” again and took a look at the creature. “It doesn't seem to be all that happy to see us.” Said Sonata. “No, not really.” Aria shrugged and pushed the drawer back into place again. “I would guess that there is more of them in the other drawers.” “...Kind of weird, isn't it? That he has some sort of mini zoo in the basement but on the way down he has… THAT kind of stuff inside the cupboard?” Aria was about to respond to Sonata's question but then they heard something. The sound of the front door being unlocked and opened. The two girls entered a state of panic. “Is he home already?” Whispered a scared Sonata. “Could be, but it seems too soon. Either way, we have to get out of here.” Aria whispered back. The two girls slowly began to make their way up the stairs. Soon enough, they stood by the door and peered outside, trying to catch a glimpse of the person who entered. While they could not spot anyone they did take notice of something else. There was a pair of shoes that they did not recognize as theirs or Faithful's. They were high-heeled and knee high and next to the shoes was an open suitcase. They were just about to walk out the door when they heard the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs to the second floor. The two sisters shied back, not desiring to be seen. Down the stairs came a girl with purple-ish skin and green hair, with her arms full of clothes and a few other items. “Aria, I think we're being robbed.” Sonata whispered. “Somewhere along those lines, but she is not taking any valuables, is she?” Aria said and looked up towards her sister “Should we do something?” Sonata looked down at Aria. “No, it might just bring about more trouble. We'll just stay hidden until-”. Aria was interrupted as the door swung open. The intruding girl now stood right in front of them, staring at them, frozen just lime them. “Um… Hi.” Said Sonata. Panic flooded the intruders gaze and movements. She ran towards the hall, quickly and gracelessly put on her shoes, grabbed her suitcase and made off with it. She ran out the door and disappeared from sight. Aria got up, pushing Sonata out of the way, and ran towards the door and pulled it open. Down the walkway and just by the gate she could see the silhouette of her running off into the distance. Only moments later, came another one but this time running towards the house. As the figure approached and the lamps cast their light upon it's features did they realize that it was Faithful Servant. “Aria! Sonata! Who was that? Are you well?” He asked, seemingly in a state of worry. “We don't know, we were just chilling around when suddenly someone walked in through the front door. I think she took off with some stuff.” Sonata answered. Faithful waved a dismissing hand. “Stuff be damned, I asked if the two of you are well.” “Uh… Yeah, we're, * Cough * we're good.” Said Aria. A smile spread upon his face. “Good to hear.” he said and pulled up his bag with groceries. “Take this to the kitchen. I'm just going to see what our thief took.” They did as he said and took the bag into the kitchen while he started to search around the house for missing items. “Girls! Do you know if the thief went downstairs?” Sonata stiffened. Aria on the other hand was cool as ice and made sure to give him a satisfactory answer. “We're not sure, we were mostly just hiding.” Aria gave Sonata a thumbs up as if to say It's all good. What accompanied next was not so good though. “ARIA! SONATA!” Faithful cried out. The two girls cringed. “Yes?” Sonata called out. “GET DOWN HERE! NOW!” Aria turned to her sister, and much to her exasperation, she was was holding up a thumbs down.