August

Chapter 2

Strange are the thoughts of the wind, fleeting and meaningful. They hold the answers that are soon forgotten. A girl blending into the gray invisible forces.

Klaudia was staring into nothing again. If anyone walked into the amphitheater now, they would tilt their head in confusion at the sight of a girl staring through a wall. But Klaudia wasn't aware of the oddity; she was a thousand miles away, pondering.

"If I reach out now, and touch the wall, will it be there?" she thought to herself, "Of course it would, watch me now," she answered herself. Klaudia raised a finger and gently slid her finger down the stone wall, lit by electric lanterns in rows down the amphitheater's aisle. "Yes, but the wall might appear to my senses, but what if I'm not here? No wait, what if nothing is here, and I'm just part of one big imaginary world that revolves around my decisions and percipience? That's rather selfish of me though, even though selfishness is human nature. I can at least recognize that I am inertly selfish. Not in actions, but in philosophical thought." She thought about it for another moment and suddenly flinched, her eyes darting to the right, "But what if I am part of the imaginary world, and one person is real, and it's not me? That would make me unreal, and someone else real. That would mean my thoughts aren't real, and it is no matter if this wall is real or not because I am not real neither."

With that, Klaudia slapped the wall with the palm of her hand. Immediately, she regretted it. In her confoundment, she forgot that she was working in a stone palace, and the walls were certainly not soft. She clutched her smarting hand to her chest and at that moment, thought she was indeed, very real. She sighed and gathered more papers into her arms. Klaudia had started working as a janitor in an old palace, cleaning up after plays and sweeping hundred year old floors. She had been working for only twenty minutes, and she already hated her job. No one had even shown her around yet. A manager had told her a guy was coming in for his shift in a couple minutes and would help her out. For now, the manager directed her to pick up the programs left in the amphitheater. Then he had left.

"Where's the garbage?" she asked no one in particular. And no one answered.

Klaudia looked up and around her. All the guests were upstairs in the reception hall, celebrating a successful play. She huffed and started her way towards the exit. "I'll find a garbage in this place, if I have to search the entire castle myself," she grumbled. With the papers filling her arms, she walked out of the amp and down a side hallway. It was dimly lit with a low ceiling.

"Hello?" she asked into the darkness.

A light was at the end of the hallway, casting shadows from a room to the left. Klaudia cautiously walked down the dark corridor, looking hesitatingly behind her. After what seemed like an eternity, she reached the yellow lit room and peered around the door. Suddenly a head poked out inches from her face, "Who are you?" a woman's voice snapped. Klaudia nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden outburst into the silent creepy hallway. The woman looked slightly scared at the interruption, but when she saw Klaudia, her gaze relaxed.

"Oh, I'm sorry dear. You are with the maids, am I correct?" she asked kindly.

"Um, I guess," Klaudia responded nervously, "Who says maid anymore?" She wondered.

"What do you need then?"

"I am looking for a..." Klaudia paused, trying to remember why she had traveled down the hallway in the first place, "a garbage can, yes someplace to put this rubbish," she held up the papers.

"Oh yes, are you new?" the lady asked.

Klaudia didn't answer immediately. She was staring at the lady's outfit. The woman was wearing an old-fashioned maids dress, complete with an apron and bonnet. Klaudia furrowed her eye brows, confused again. She suddenly started feeling ill.

"Huh?" she asked, remembering that she had been asked a question.

"Are. You. New." The lady said, strangely agitated.

"Oh, yes, I am." Klaudia stammered back. Why was she so nervous?

"let me show you then," the lady grabbed her broom that she had been retrieving from the closet and stepped out.

"Can I ask you why you're wearing that?" Klaudia asked, her curiosity getting the best of her.

The cleaning lady glared at Klaudia, suddenly offended, "This is what they gave me girl," she snapped, dusting off her servant's dress with a huff of dignity. Then she closed the door, plunging them into darkness. Klaudia's heart quickened as she struggled to adjust the blackness of the cramped hallway. She didn't like to admit it, but she was deathly afraid of the dark.

"Follow me and I'll show you where the rubbish bin is," said the lady.

Klaudia followed behind the maid's swishing skirts, trying to breathe calmly, telling herself that there was nothing wrong or troublesome about the dark, after all, darkness is simply the same place except without light.