Mr Night

𝟑𝟕| 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐞

-𝐇𝐄𝐑-

"Is she sleeping?" Mr. Night's voice asked as he opened the door to his bedroom.

"Yes, she had gone to bed an hour ago," Filth answered. Instantly, I left the door and crept back into my bed, pretending to sleep with my back facing the door. Then I waited.

My speculation has been right. After a couple of moments, I heard a click on my door even though I had locked it from the inside and slowly, the door crept open. I heard it creak a bit before I felt those intense eyes of Mr. Night burning on my back.

I couldn't help but fight the smile that climbed onto my lips. He couldn't see it anyway. I wait for a while but nothing happened.

After another couple of moments, I finally heard the door creak close. Ha! So he was here to make sure himself if I was sleeping or not! He sure was catching up to my antiques but this was just the beginning.

After the door closed, I waited again. I heard his footsteps outside in the corridor and another door opening somewhere. He was most probably entering his own bedroom, which was somewhat rare. I continued to wait for something... anything.

The two of them must be up to something that required them to make sure if I was asleep or not. I was sure about this. They wanted to do something without me meddling in their work. Ha! They were in for a good surprise again.

After the house had gone eerily silent, I got out of my bed and snuck out of my bedroom as quietly as a church mouse. The house stood silent like it did on most nights. Outside the rain beat down on the house and somewhere a thunderclap shook the ground.

Apart from the sound of rain and the chilly darkness, the night didn't have anything else to offer. I stood in the corridor and listened for a while. There was not even a single noise in the house. Though outside, I heard one of the horses neigh in response to another thunderclap that shook the earth.

The house was shrouded in deathly silence. I snuck downstairs to see if someone was there but it was completely dark and silent there. Were they two of them even in the house? They had to be because I could hear the horses in the stable.

I was bewildered and decided to go upstairs. While I was returning to my room, I heard noises from Mr. Night's bedroom. As silently as I could, I stepped in front of his bedroom door and pressed my ear against it, and listened.

It was Mr Night's voice for sure. He was talking but what? I couldn't understand. He was speaking an entirely different language. I hadn't heard it anywhere before. But whom was he talking to?

I listened for a while before I heard some loud crackling of the fire. The fire in his bedroom hearth might be raging too strong but I had a feeling that it wasn't that. I wanted to stay there for a while and find out more but soon I got tired and had to return to my bed.

I am not sure if I actually heard it or if it was my imagination but as I was leaving, I heard another voice in that room. It didn't belong to Filth. It was of another man, most probably an old man because the voice sounded strained and airey.

"Pater," I thought I heard Mr. Night say before I closed my bedroom door behind me and finally returned to my bed. That night, I had strange dreams. Dreams about Mr. Night talking to the fire in his bedroom hearth and the fire was also talking back to him... or maybe, it was real. I couldn't tell.

The next morning I got up at the usual time, got dressed, had breakfast, and went to LEVEL 1 to do the day's work. I hummed one of the sailor's songs to myself as I climbed the stairs down to LEVEL1.

As soon as I opened the door to LEVEL 1, my eyes fell on him. Mr. Night was already there, looking at the work that I had done while he was away. He neither looked at me nor said anything to me as I gently closed the door and stepped inside LEVEL 1. His eyes were focused on some papers on which I had recorded some of the calculations for the new parts of what seemed like a telescope. It might be something else as well. It was hard to tell most of the time.

"Good morning, Mr. Night," I greeted him and got nothing in return from him. I stood there for a moment, waiting for him to acknowledge my presence but he didn't.

"Mr. Night?" I called out for him.

"These are wrong," He finally spoke up, passing me a sheet of paper to look at. I took it from him but my eyes remained on his pensive face.

"Where have you been all these days, Mr. Night?" I asked him.

"These need to be re-calculated," He told me, handing more such sheets, "and after that arrange them in ascendence,"

"I'll do that but where have you even all these days?"

"I don't see how that knowledge is useful to you," He finally responded curtly, turning his burning gaze to me. There was something different about him today. I couldn't put a finger on it first.

There was something about the way he spoke to me and looked at me, it sent a shiver down my spine. Whatever warmth I had started to feel from him prior to when he left, all was gone. Maybe, he forgot it somewhere on his trip?

"Alright," I muttered under my breath before I rechecked all those calculations and arranged them. Meanwhile, he remained in LEVEL 1, fiddling with some of the things that had been delivered while he was away.

Now and then, I would glance at him and find him immensely busy looking through those things. After I was done, I took the papers to him for him to see. After he checked them, he told me to arrange the new shipments and left LEVEL 1.

Something was the matter with him. I could tell this much but what was it really? I needed to find out. 

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