Chapter 706

Kat felt her ears ringing as the creatures just kept screaming and screaming in her arms. Kat wanted to let go, to hurl the damned thing as far away as possible, especially when she started to feel a slight trickle of blood leaking from her ears. Blue was doing a little better. She had summoned up to small pools of water and stuck them around her ears, but Kat could see pain on Blue’s face quite clearly.

The thing screamed and screamed as it writhed in Kat’s arms, trying to escape. Kat was much stronger, and holding it was no real issue. With it’s jaw trapped its mad scrambling didn’t do anything to her at all, couldn’t even get through her skin. At this point though she wished her eyes weren’t constantly healing from the damage. *Just let me go deaf for a bit then regenerate it after dammit.*

Kat tried to pull her energy away from her ears but apparently it wasn’t willing to listen. Too close to her brain perhaps? Kat didn’t know but it wasn’t playing nice and that’s what mattered. Kat was starting to have very mixed feelings now that the screaming had been going on for more than thirty seconds.

Blue had given up on standing and now lay flat on the ground completely straight with water hovering around her ears. Kat’s grip didn’t loosen but her opinion on the matter did drop. *Is this even the right idea? I mean... I feel like this has to be. Unless I still need to destroy it? Crush its head and now the chair is gone it can’t come back? I mean clearly it’s been effected by the chair’s destruction in some way. I just don’t want to destroy it and potentially waste all the efforts.*

Still, Kat held on.

Time started to get a little fuzzy around the edges the sound seemed to just go on and on but Kat decided she’d held on so far, she’d have to keep going. Kat didn’t know if this was the right call, but she had to believe it would be.

So Kat held on.

.....

Then all of a sudden, the screaming stop. Kat’s ears rung even as they healed. Kat kept a firm grip even as her hands started shaking. She didn’t want to lose it. Even if it was dead now. Even if it had stopped screaming.

Kat held on.

Kat blinked slowly, muscles wanting to relax but Kat held them back for a few more moments... and was rewarded. The thing in her arms suddenly collapsed bonelessly, sliding around her fingers till it hit the ground. Kat looked around, unsure of what to do, arms still fixed in their old positions as she shuddered.

Kat stepped over the creature to Blue and lightly tapped her on the shoulder. Blue flinched back, before glancing up at Kat, eyes bloodshot and red, the water coating her ears no longer a clear blue, but a slight pinkish shade. Before Kat could say anything light engulfed the pair, blinding them both. The world shifted under their feet for a few seconds before the light dimmed, and a single lightbulb clicked on overhead.

Kat quickly picked Blue up into a princess carry. Blue, not being a fan of this development pushed against Kat’s chest to try and convince the demon to let her go, but it was a weak attempt at best, completely unnoticed at worst. Taking in the room and ignoring Blue for the moment Kat found them to be in a small cramped supply closet. It was surprisingly clean with a single shelf filled with boxes and a door on the side. The strange thing though, was the map. Why it was in a supply closet, Kat didn’t know, but that wasn’t the strange part.

No the strange part was that it shifted around as she watched it. There was a big ‘you are hear’ sign pointing at a small red rectangle in the centre of the map. Well, the centre of the paper the map was on. The rest of the rooms didn’t have the decency to keep the closet centralised at all. There were all sorts of rooms, the dining room, the kitchen, a ballroom, several guest room markers, a healing ward and a few other places.

It didn’t even have the decency to keep the rooms the right size though. If the ballroom was next to the dining room for example, and they needed to use doors right next to each other all of a sudden the ballroom was only half the size it was normally or if the kitchen and the dining room were placed next to each other they merged into one big room for a short time before splitting off again. The guest rooms occasionally merged, but when they did it was into the ‘master suite’. Kat wasn’t quite sure how master it was though because sometimes there was two or three of them on the map at any one time.

“Well... this isn’t ideal...” mumbled Kat.

“What?” said Blue.

“I said, ‘this isn’t ideal'” repeated Kat.

“What?” asked Blue again, slightly louder this time.

Kat frowned. Oh please don’t tell me... Kat sucked in a deep breath wanting to be wrong, “I SAID, ‘THIS ISN’T IDEAL'”

Blue looked at Kat with comprehension, sadly, not the kind either of them wanted. For it was comprehension and dawning horror. “Oh no...” murmured Blue eyes shaking somewhat as she realised what had happened. “Please tell me I’m not deaf...”

*Well, hopefully it’s temporary and it’s certainly something Thyme can fix... but I think that might indeed be the problem. The only issue is... I can’t tell you either way because you wouldn’t hear me. Wait is that rude to think? Hmm... if only Lily and I decided to learn sign language that one time. It was something Lily almost researched but I think she had a test or something and never got around to it? Really regretting that now....

Wait... would sign language work with my translation ability? Also, hold up another moment. If it DOES... shouldn’t that mean I can figure out some way for Blue to ‘hear’ me? Or is it because she doesn’t know any sign language in her own that I wouldn’t be able to talk to her? Like does my translation work on babies that don’t know how to talk yet? I have questions now... and I’m making a note to learn sign language if I have time. It’ll be an interesting test if nothing else.*

“Sadly I can’t tell you one way or the other,” said Kat with a soft smile at the end. Blue pouted rather fully in Kat’s direction, lip quivering and exaggerated sadness on her face. It seemed Kat’s idle thoughts had given Blue enough time to... perhaps not come to terms with it but accept the situation somewhat.

*Ok. So Blue’s deaf for the moment. Where do we need to go... and where should we go?* Kat looked over at the map again and noticed there were a few things written on the sides. Kat was about 80% sure they weren’t there before and a quick check of her memories confirmed they were not in fact, there before. *But why?*

Kat read over the list and it went as follows:

All Personel are to be in uniform at all times. Failure to do so will result in a trip to the dungeons

All outsiders are to be in their assigned rooms or the dungeonsn/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The kitchen is for KITCHEN staff not for general staff

The medical wing is open to everyone. If you are injured GO THERE do not try and tackle other jobs instead.

If there are more than 10 people in a room something has gone wrong

Laundry is for the LAUNDRY ROOM not for the bathroom or the floor

No you are not allowed to snack during work hours.

*Hmm... well I think that means we should head to the medical wing then right? I’m not sure if we’ve actually been assigned rooms and I don’t see anywhere else immediately useful... unless we could find uniforms somewhere? Maybe in the laundry? Or here in the supply closet?*

Kat looked at the crates and stabbed into one with her tail to avoid having to put Blue down. Inside was what looked like old bedsheets. A few more tail strikes later revealed that to be what every box contained except for one that contained two spare pillows. “Ok Blue, I think we should take you to get healed, we should at least try,” said Kat.

Blue of course, couldn’t hear what Kat had just said so she pouted and glared at Kat once again. Kat felt her cheeks... well, not burn with embarrassment but she was sure the blood was there to make it look that way at least. Kat wanted to apologise... but she wasn’t entirely sure how without just saying she was sorry. Kat bit her lip and frowned, before just sighing and using her tail to tap the line about medical. Seeing Blue’s determined nod, Kat was pretty sure there next course of action was set.