Hurriedly Larius gets back to work, not wanting to look suspicious. He serves and continues to work until late in the middle of the night. Only the three, Miriam, Larius and Erina are left on the bottom floor. They are cleaning up the worst. Being completely beat he walks around like a zombie while cleaning up the tables. Miriam sees him and laughs, “Mr. Venn, are you alright?”
“Yes, yes, of course.” Larius says while yawning teary in his eyes. He blows out the last candle that stands almost burned out on the table.
Erina mocks, “Little boy, how can you be tired? You’ve slept all day.”
“Erina, leave Mr. Venn alone.” Miriam defends and then says to him, “You can go to sleep.”
Grateful, Larius says, “Thank you Miriam.”
Erina, “The worker’s rooms are in the cellar, I don’t like sleeping there so you’ll be sleeping there alone.”
Larius, “Oh, what about Miriam? And Mr. Irib?”
Miriam says while cleaning the bar’s counter, “I often go home with my sister and Irib.”
Larius, “Mr. Irib?”
Erina, “He’s my husband.”
Surprised Larius lets out an, “Oh.”
He can barely picture the two of them together. Erina probably handles all the emotions and romantic parts in the relationship. Irib is such a stoneface that he can’t even imagine him being talkative. He thought that Irib was much older than Erina and Miriam. Wait, how old are you?
Accidentally saying the last thought out loud Erina and Miriam answers honestly without caring for the rude question.
Erina, “Twenty-eight.”
Miriam, “Twenty-two.”
Larius, “Aha… And Irib?”
Erina, “Thirty One. Little Mr Venn, now is when you should tell us your age.”
Not quite sure what to make of the situation he just thinks it’s quite weird, he expected that they wouldn’t answer. Larius has been keeping track of his birthday. He can’t imagine that telling them will come back and bite him, so he says, “Eighteen, I became eighteen about one week ago.”
Miriam, “What did you do for your birthday?”
Larius, “Nothing?”
The sisters say at the same time, “What?!”
After that they start talking in each other's mouths about how absurd it is that he didn’t celebrate becoming a real adult, eighteen. After a long discussion between the sisters they decide to celebrate it tomorrow. Larius is already tired and doesn’t have the energy to argue with them when they seem so fired up. The two talk about making decorations and food that are his favorite. The sisters, “What’s your favorite food then?”
Larius, “Nothing.”
Both sounding very upset over the fact that he doesn’t have a favourite food they start to argue about what food to make. Larius feels like he’s soon going to get a headache from the two. “Anything will be fine, just, can you show me the way to the cellar, please?”
Miriam interrupts her sister, calmed down, “Well of course. Just grab an oil lamp, Erina can you continue to clean without me for a bit?”
Erina, “Yes, you go. That place gives me the creeps either way.”
Larius takes an oil lamp from a shelf under the bar. Erina immediately goes into the kitchen and seems to be doing some dishes judging by the sound. Miriam leads the way with a small lantern she took from a hook on the wall. She goes into the room behind the bar where they store extra alcohol and clothes. Larius follows and has to move to the side when Miriam lifts a big dark green mat with leaves and other dirt on it from the outside.The folds it and Larius can see a big trapdoor that has been hiding under the mat. Miriam opens it and what can be seen is from the weak light from the lantern is a few steps going down into a black hole. Larius not being the type that gets scared because it’s dark just walks down the steps. More steps are showing from the light from his oil lamp. He comes to the bottom and hears Miriam walking behind him. Looking up, he can see light shining down from the room upstairs. “Who used to live down here?”
“Old man Venn,” Miriam says like he should know. Which he probably should too. “He never told you where you would live before you came here?”
Lying Larius says, “No, I didn’t really know him very well and was only sent here to work.”
He feels proud of the lie that also helps him in future situations. If he doesn't know much about the old man he can just say they didn’t have much contact if he’s expected to know something.
Miriam, “Oh, that’s too bad. He was a very nice man.”
They walk down a small hall, the floor being of stone and the walls and ceiling of wood, the same as the rest of the house. There are doors only on the left side of the small hall that goes to the three rooms. Miriam tells that the first door was old man Venn’s room. It’s the biggest room down here since he owned the place. The second and last door are rooms for the workers if they stay the night. They open the second door and the room lights up from the oil lamp and lantern. Inside are two beds, one on each side of the room, against the walls. Between the beds stands a small bedside table. A candle stands on the small table and Miriam lits it by opening her lantern and holding the candle to the flame. She puts it down on the bedside table and takes the oil lamp back from Larius. Before closing the door she says, “Well, I’ll bid you goodnight then.”
Larius, “Good night, Miriam.”
The door closes behind her and Larius is left alone in the frigid room. Sounds of Miriam going back up from the cellar are heard. Blankets are folded on the bed. He jumps right in the bed under all the blankets. After trying to sleep for some minutes he still feels cold. Not wanting to waste his chance of sleeping comfortably he takes the blankets from the other bed since no one will use them anyway. Before trying to sleep again he blows out the candle and the dark embraces him. He’s not even able to see his own hand. Larius falls asleep, unaware of what the two sisters plotted for the next day.
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