Mr Night

𝟏𝟖| 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐢𝐝𝐧𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲

The rain beat down on the Night house.

It was drenched in darkness but when thunderbolt cracked the sky in half, the shadows of the house were driven away for once. Although they quickly returned, only to sink the house in more darkness. Thick fog covered the naked woods that stood around the house, casting eerie shadows on the sinister house.

It was just an ordinary night at the Night house.

Supper was over and most of the lights in the house had been exhausted, except for one— the light of the guest's bedroom on the east face of the house.

Inside that room was Ophelia who laid in her bed with one of the books that she'd stolen from the library. The book contained all sorts of symbols she'd never seen before and it was written in a language she couldn't fathom reading.

Though one person in that house could read it. Of course, it was the owner. Currently, he was in the basement in Level 2, lost among the sea of papers that cluttered his tables.

He sat rigidly on his stool with his eyes trained on the several sketches drawn from charcoal that extended to countless papers. Even though he was so lost in those papers, he hadn't failed to notice his butler opening the door quietly and stepping inside that huge chamber.

"What is it?" He asked crisply when the butler stood behind him.

"The shipment has arrived," the butler declared, "but-"

"But?"

"The parts have been shuffled with each other. There was an accident on the road and the boxes were overturned," He informed. This made his master turn to face him.

"An accident?" He pressed.

"So was the handler said to me,"

"Is anything missing from the boxes?" Mr Night enquired more.

"No, the boxes hadn't been opened on the way,"

"Bring them here. I need to look at them," He ordered and the butler was gone right away. While his butler was gone, he turned back to the sketches of the new devices he was planning to make. On the corner of those sketches were various, equations, runes, and notes were scribbled that only he could understand.

In a couple of moments, his butler walked in with those huge, heavy boxes and placed them on the other end of the long table. Mr Night rose from his stool and stalked towards those boxes. He stood by those boxes and watched them like a hawk as his butler opened those boxes one by one.

As soon as all of them were opened, he stepped closer to look inside them. He examined them for a long moment before commenting with a less sceptical look, "Looks like it was an accident indeed but they need to be sorted soon. I will require them within a week,"

The butler shuffled on his feet a bit restlessly as he looked at all those mechanical parts. They were a lot and it would take lit of time to sort them properly again but he decided to keep this excuse to himself and shot, "Yes, sir. It would be done within this week,"

"Move these to Level 1," He command, making his butler turn a bit paler but he complied right away. "When you're done with the boxes, come back to Level 2. I have more work for you," Mr Night spoke as his butler carried the heavy boxes out of the room again.

"Yes, sir," The pale butler returned in a strained voice before he disappeared behind the doors. After moving the boxes upstairs in Level 1 in record-breaking time, the butler was back in LEVEL 2 again.

"Set up the apparatus I built this week and bring those papers," Mr Night ordered. As soon as he thought of those papers that he'd managed to get out of the Lionest hall, he was reminded of his guest from whom he hadn't heard since that night after they came back from their midnight conquest.