16 No Electricity (1/2)

Ruby realized there wasn't a fridge to put her freezer food in or electrical outlets for the sake of her new appliances pretty quickly and felt like an idiot. How had she not paid attention that before? Of course there wouldn't be any in an ancient stone castle!

She didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She was so used to modern amenities that she made a dumb assumption. In the end she did a pitiful combination of laughing so hysterically that tears came out of her eyes.

Ash looked on in bewilderment. ”Are you alright?”

”No because none of this stupid stuff works! I'm going to be living off of room temperature apples, cold Pop-Tarts, and goldfish crackers because everything else will go bad without a freezer.”

”…I don't understand a word you just said.”

”There's no electricity, Ash. The thing the entire human world runs on. What is the point of a kitchen with no working appliances?!”

”There kind of isn't a point for a kitchen at all,” he pointed out.

Ruby was ready to tear her hair out. Would it be possible to finish the deal of repairing the castle before her wing was fixed? She didn't think she could live more than a few more days like this. It was back to scrounging berries in the forest and eating fast food when she went into town.

”This might be fixable.”

She looked up at him daring to be slightly hopeful. ”Really? How?”

”I am sure there is a magical equivalent of electricity that can be purchased from the witches. Do your money-making thing again and we can go get it now,” Ash suggested.

Ruby deflated. That wasn't possible because all the jewelers and pawn shops would be closed for the day by now. ”We can't until tomorrow at the earliest. All this food will go bad. Unless…do you have a dungeon? A cellar? Somewhere cold?”

”There is a dungeon but I don't see why you would need to use it. We have no prisoners.”

”I don't need to keep anyone captive! I have to go back to the store. You don't have to come with me. But could you move all the foods that are cold down there for me? I'll be right back,” she said as she dashed off back to the car.

'Right back' actually meant more like 'almost an hour later' but Ruby did get what she needed and lugged it inside.

The whole castle was dark. Moonlight shone through some of the broken windows so she was able to make things out a little in the rooms that had windows. The ones that didn't were a lost cause.

Since she went to bed early last night she hadn't realized that there wasn't a single light source in this entire place. How was she supposed to survive?

She squinted into the darkness. ”Ash? Where are you? I can't see anything!”