I had this as a thought and decided to type it out. I would only continue if people like it but… whatever.
I jumped through the forest, wishing to get lost from this horrible role that was given to me. My job calls and yet I feel at peace doing as I please, jumping from tree to tree. The mask I wore symbolized the face I wished I had but was not chosen to receive. To have a face in this world made you important. People looked at you with respect, but me. I wasn't given a face so everybody looks down on me. Even those I cherish…. And yet I am expendable. I could be killed easily and nobody would flinch. How I longed for the freedom of a face, for I am stuck at my job all days until I am killed. Today my job still calls and I cannot keep away from it for too long as it is the rules to continue my role in this pathetic game of life. And my life is replaceable to those I cherish….
"Who are you?" called a voice from behind me. I stopped for a second to see the Knave of Hearts hot on my tail. To keep up with my agility, this man was supernatural.
"Who I am has nothing to do with this, for I have no name. I wasn't given one just as I was given no face." I called back. He began to reach for me as I continued to run. This was not good, he is a proven killer and I am but a nobody that he will effortlessly send to oblivion. I used my tail as a rudder to turn and hopefully gain back any ground in which I needed to survive. The Knight would have none of it as he only gave me so much ground to lead.
"What is your role?" He asked.
"I was given no role except to serve those who have faces. I envy you with your face." I breathed as the knight came ever so closer to my heels.
"My face? I hate this face. To be free of my job like you is what I would truly want." He yelled, once more reaching for me. I turned once more to gain only a little ground.
"But I do have a job in which I have no choice. I must return to my job at once." I called out. "Why do you give chase when I am but a nobody?" I asked, I already knew the answer.
"Because I love to kill those whom I envy." He replied. His fingers brushed my foot.
"You have no reason to envy me." His fingers then wrapped around my ankle and I tumbled to the ground. I had to roll out of the way as his sword pierced the ground that was next to my head.
"I admire you for your bravery, Neko-chan." The knight said. "But you will not live." He said as he pulled his sword from the ground I lay on.
"Even if I serve the one that you also serve?" I asked.
"My queen will not mind if one that works for her goes missing. She is heartless." He scoffed.
"As are you, young knight." I said as I jumped up, only to be knocked down again. "I always admired how you did your best to work against your job. To trouble yourself with that lonely mortician."
"What do you know of my affairs with Julius?" He asked, lowering his weapon ever so slightly.
"I know you care for him deeply." I said. "I know you never loved the foreigner, only how she had no role. You only let her live because how she made Julius feel. He was slightly happier, or so you could tell. But now that she is gone and Julius is bitter again." He swung his blade at me and I dodged.
"I don't know how you know so much about me but you shall die." He said, swinging his blade at me once more.
"I only know this much because I admire your strength. Your will to bend the rules. I admire from afar." I had to dodge again as his full strength let down his sword. To swing his blade one last time and I could be dead. I called upon my will to defend myself and my weapons did not abandon me but show themselves.
"Neko-chan has shown her claws?" He asked as I held his sword away from me with my only line of defense. My "claws" as he put it were only steel blades tied to my arms. His strength overpowered me as I felt myself losing ground. I jumped back as his powerful blade struck the soil with a loud thump. He continued to swing his steel around hoping to hit me and yet I jumped around with my only defense, my claws.
"Neko-chan. I have given you opportunity to counter attack time and time again and yet you still not strike. Why?" He was confused. This world was a world where the strong kill those who are weaker.
"I have no reason to wish to kill you, sir knight. I admire you." I dodged his blade once more.
"Are you losing your strength, Neko-chan?" My strength was indeed leaving me. I fell to the ground to breath. I could feel his sword pointing at me. My ear twitched in irritation. I was going to die.
"Neko-chan. If I let you live will you train with me once more?" he asked, lowering his sword.
"If that is what you wish for, sir knight, then I will happily oblige." I murmured.
"Call me Ace, as it is my name." He laughed.
"I wish I could but my job forbids it." My breathing began to calm down as the blood coursing through my veins slowed. He sheathed his weapon and turned to leave.
"I expect a greater fight from you in the future, Neko-chan." He whispered to me as he disappeared into the forest. I was alone and alive. How, I did not know. I wandered back to where my job was calling for me. My body could not resist the force of doing my job as I went back to the wretched place that called itself my home.
~x~x~x~
"I require more tea!" My queen yelled. Her anger was beginning to show itself and at this rate I will be killed.
"Yes milady!" I said as I ran. It was imperative to do as I was asked by my queen. It was my job, my duty, to do everything I was asked. Even to lay down my life for her own enjoyment. My ears were tucked under my hat that all maids were forced to wear. My tail tucked under my dress perfectly. I was a cat and nobody knew for I was a nobody and nobody cared. A bullet rushed past my face, narrowly missing me.
"Sir Peter! Calm down!" Cried the other maids. Peter was always rash and never cared who he hit with bullets but ever since the foreigner left he was exceptionally crude.
"You all disgust me. You pathetic germs should all die." He said as he shot another one of my fellow maids. The tea I held in my arms almost spilled.
"Peter. That's enough. Tea is here," ordered the queen. I served her the tea and watched as she drank. She did not yell in anger so I was to live another day.
Please review if you like it. That is what tells me to continue typing up this story.