9 Marigold, The Madhatter (2/2)

Bzzzz!

”wHaT dO yOu MeAn!?”

'Aaaah!' The speaker's sound distortion screeched again, causing even greater audible pain to everyone around than before. 'This d.a.m.n woman… what a useless person.'

”Mari! Mari! Come on, just let me in for a minute, alright? Wait, no… don't answer that… don't talk… just, open the door.”

Several seconds pa.s.sed as everyone present cautiously prepared themselves for another painful screech. All of whom wore nothing but frowns as they glared off at both Deus and Droh, and even more so at the building which held that mad-woman, Marigold.

”Droh… I'm starting to regret following you here.”

”Heh heh. Don't worry, I got th-” As Droh was speaking, the sound of a mechanism unlatching could be heard, interrupting him mid-sentence. ”Oh, looks like she unlocked it.”

The two of them stared toward the main door, believing that it had been the front door that had been unlocked, which would, of course, had made the most logical sense. But, to their surprise, it remained just as locked and chained as it had ever been. ”Umm…” Droh coughed out, his breathing becoming sporadic as he felt everyone stare at him as if he was some sort of odd specimen to be evaluated and observed.

”Again… this isn't one big waste of time?”

”It's n-not! Ah, there!” He shouted out, pointing off toward something in specific, redirecting everyone's attention elsewhere as he temporarily gave out of a sigh. ”Maybe the door was just a decoy? I guess.”

From where Droh had pointed was what appeared to be an old metal hatch, half buried by a vast collection of metal and junk. Above the hatch sat an enormous stack of old junk and metal, which seemed to be deliberately placed by hand. ”Wait, is that a trapdoor?”

'This d.a.m.n woman… I won't forgive her… really, I won't.' Deus swore to himself as his eyes rolled around beneath his skull as his eyelids were closed, agitation clearly showing on his face as he silently grumbled to himself. 'Heh, maybe I can see the limits of that murderous power I seem to have… maybe this trip wasn't a waste.'

”Alright Droh, let's see where it leads, I guess.”

To Droh's shock and dismay, it appeared as if Deus's mood was actively changing sporadically from annoyed to angry to seemingly pleased all within only a few seconds. ”Ri-right…”

”Well whatever we do, we should at least head inside… since we've come this far.”

With both of them in agreement, they slowly approached the half-buried hatch and started moving a majority of the junk that had been used to cover it previously to one side. Truth be told, none of it had been particularly heavy, but it did make Deus question how such garbage had gotten there in the first place. 'I wonder if someone had gotten so sick of her that they tried to bury and trap her inside? Heh, good on them.'

”Deus, come on.” The young Faun called out as he carefully dipped his head beneath the surface of the hatch, descending further inside as the crowd of people slowly faded away. Now that their main source of entertainment and anger had gone further in, they had nothing else to keep their attention. It didn't help that Deus seemed to be on their side, so they couldn't just concentrate on him now.

”Wait, don't go too far in so quickly, you don't know how dangerous it is!” Deus spoke as his voice echoed down through the pothole, the steel hatch that laid ajar sat next to him, slightly creaking as gears slowly moved around on it.

Click. Click. Click.

The sound of clicking gears could be heard as the hatch started to slowly close up. ”Oh s.h.i.+t!”

Deus tossed himself down inside before the hatch fully closed on him. The sound of metal latches moving echoed down the hole as the crimson light from outside faded into nothing, leaving both of them in complete darkness. Stood in what seemed to be a small hole, but due to the lack of light, they were unable to see what sort of place this was.

”This has been such a great idea from start to finish, Droh,” Deus spoke in a monotone, almost sarcastic tone, which only seemed to cause the little Faun to nudge out with his elbow, hitting him in the gut.

”You be quiet. Hmm, Marigold… are you there? We can't see anything!” He shouted out without even knowing if she could hear him. ”I didn't just walk straight into a trap, did I? Stupid Droh… stupid.”

Flas.h.!.+ Wooos.h.!.+

A faint light seemed to explode forth from all around them, causing their eyes to quickly dilate and blur their vision. ”So, little Faun boy, what do you want?” A woman's voice asked from behind them, drawing their attention as they spun around to face the source of the question.

'So this is Marigold.' After seeing her in person Deus thought he had to reevaluate his thoughts on her if even only a little. Truth be told she wasn't a particularly ugly woman, in fact, her appearance seemed to almost s.h.i.+ne in contrast to the faint glowing lights. Her hair, tied into a single knot, resembled that of a b.u.mblebee as most of it was a sharp yellow, which brought out her mascarheavy eyes even more so. 'Wait, is that even mascara? Of course it probably isn't, how could it be. Ugh, it's probably something filthy like oil or grease.'

”Ahem! I asked you a question monkey boy!”

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