Post by kelsey paxton on Jul 16, 2010 19:26:58 GMT -5
k-thnk, k-thnk! Pause. A silent breath. k-thnk, k-thn… creaaak.
If Kale had the time to remove his shoes before sneaking into this house, he would have. The only issue there was that if he did, he wouldn’t have had time to put them back on or carry them off with him. By leaving them, he would have left a clue as to who he was and what he was doing. The noise was a faintest of steps that Kale made against the hardwood, pausing to silently curse himself and go on. The floorboards were old, they creaked as he went along and in the dark, walking by unnoticed was difficult.
Kale’s mind had been on this job all day; he’d hardly noticed Lottie, his sister, as she figuratively ran circles around him as they walked on through the streets. He hadn’t noticed how tired he was, he hadn’t even noticed the hunger at the pit of his stomach, only to be sated by bread made at least a day prior. At some point in the day, Kale had had to suffer sitting through a good two hours of sitting by his mothers’ bedside. It hadn’t been all bad of course, it could have just had a little less awkward feeling to it.
Amelia Paxton was a woman of strong nature, so much so that her hard, worn face lacked the beauty of her younger years. Her hair set above her face in a golden, white bun, locks hanging around her face in a disarray. Her illness aged her by years, her judging, fierce eyes by much longer. Her strong features and movements were proud, stout, knowing. Mrs. Paxton knew what she wanted done and how she wanted it done, these days though she used her son to care for her duties and that is what she’d sat in bed yammering to him about for that length of time, his mind elsewhere and on other things, as any young mans’ mind would be.
The only difference between Kale’s thoughts and any other young man’s thinking was that he thought less of women, love, or any new whim. At times he thought of those things but most women were the same, they cared far too much for what they dressed like, gossip, and the like. Love wasn’t anything Kale had ever seen or experienced, it wasn’t possible to his twenty year old mind. The only love he had ever seen had been shared between a maid of theirs in his younger years and a butler. The two had wed and after that things felt the same as they went about their work, the only evidence of love being the glances they shared between one another.
That wasn’t to say that Kale was a harsh young man who viewed the world with a strong eye as his mother did, no. To be honest, his views were decent, though he didn’t voice them. Love he only shared for family, and lately that had been only been little Lottie, the only ray of sunshine in his dark and damp world. She was only eight, but more like a daughter to him than the sister that she was. A year after she’d been born their father had passed, and so he’d grown into a man more swiftly than most. Lottie was sweet, pretty and kind. She looked up to Kale and even though it made him feel guilty, it made him smile when nothing else would. Speaking of his sister brought a kinder gleam in his pale, silver eyes.
Stopping in the darkness of the hall, he paused by a door. ‘Get in, do your job, get out and report back. Ain‘t time for pausing to sniff any roses.’ James Harkley’s voice ran through his mind as he thought about it. Harkley was an older, middle aged man who had grown on the rough side of town and stayed there. His bad deeds had him known well with the law, and after nearly getting caught once or twice doing his own work, he’d been forced to teach up younger men to do the only job he knew that he was too old for. That didn’t mean he was kind at all, but he wasn’t harsh, and Kale liked that. There was no reason to ask, none to explain to him, and business with him was simple. Do your work quickly, efficiently, and you got paid. Plain and simple.
Still, his curiosity stung him as he noticed the door was partially open. One cautious peek had it known to him it was an office. Faint light from the moon flitted in through the windows, bathing the dark furniture with silver rays of moonlight. Papers sat upon the desk, an opened book in one of the chairs, and a coat lay over the back of the desk chair. It was too much to bear. Head first, Kale peeked into the room, eyes wide with caution. The house was silent, and promised to him that hardly anyone was home. Cautious steps across the floorboards led him to the rug, around the wide desk and into the chair.
A grin immediately lit his face; for Kale had never sat in such an expensive office. Neither had he ever had any reason to feel important, but for a moment, he felt that way. The only thing was that he knew he would never be able to set foot into such an office on honest business, and the thought left a bitter taste in his mouth. He was but twenty years old, he thought in terms of the future as short lived. Things were hard to attain, he didn’t know that the world was at his feet. Then again how could it be, to a ragged, sleepless street rat? A hard scowl pinched his normally kind face and drowned the resemblance of even a smirk or smile.
Just as Kale was standing to go back into the hallway, a noise, faint, but enough to cause alarm to the young thief, touched his ears. He straightened, coming around the desk in long strides, stepping soundlessly. The door wasn’t shut still, so with one look out into the dark, silent hallway, he stepped from the office and back into it. What he failed to notice was the faint shadow of a figure just twenty feet before him, possibly more. He was walking in that direction though, and still failed to notice it. It was a person; a woman to be exact, but the dark told no secrets. His eyes hadn’t adjusted back to the complete darkness of the hall.
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tags; Chloekins and her awesome muse. :D
status; Done.
length; 1105.
notes; Bland, but this is the second time I wrote it today. This one is much, much better than the first. [dies] Oh, oh oh... 'don't sniff the roses!' xDD
