Chapter Two: Strange Acts

"Maestro! Dinnertime!" I called out, bringing out the last meal I'd made. The other spirits were sitting in their respective spots at the long dining table, ready to dive into my homemade cuisine. But I didn't hear footsteps come to the dining room, which was really odd.

"Well, that's weird. Doesn't the master usually come the minute you say it's dinnertime?" Mercutio asked from his spot at the table. Instead of responding to him, I walked into the foyer and headed upstairs, walking in the direction of Maestro's room. His room isn't hard to miss. It's a large door that's made of cracking wood, which he simply refused to replace. When I got to said door, I gently pushed it open, not even bothering to knock before entering.

"Maestro, didn't you hear me? It's dinner-," I started to say, but gasped when I saw his room. Pictures of the town mayor were taped and stapled to the clear white wall, and if you looked at the ground, papers with cursive writing were strewn all over. I walked over to one of the paper piles and picked one up. In perfect script, it read, "KILL THE MAYOR". No. No, this wasn't the Maestro that I knew and loved. Before I could call his name again, I heard something being scraped. A knife.

"Maestro?" I called again, turning in the direction of the sound. Instead of seeing him there, I saw a closed door, which led to his in-room facilities. I dropped the paper and walked towards the door, putting my ear on it to find out what was going on.

"He will pay. He'll pay for everything. He'll pay for trying to kick me out. He'll pay in his own crimson blood," Maestro muttered from inside the bathroom. Then I heard the scraping again, which got me to feel afraid. He definitely wasn't himself anymore. Without thinking, I pushed the door open, wanting nothing more than to stop him. Sure enough, Maestro was sharpening a kitchen knife with a well-rounded rock.

"What…are you DOING in here?!" he rasped, his eyes taking on the psychotic look. I held my hands up in surrender, letting him know that I wasn't planning to hurt him or anything.

"I heard what you said. You're not killing the mayor, no matter what he did," I said. I expected him to turn the knife on me, but instead, he tried to deny it. There was no sense in doing so, since I'd heard him clearly through the door.

"I'm not planning to kill the mayor. That's purely ridiculous," Maestro said, attempting to flush the knife in the toilet. That didn't work, since the toilet water started coming up.

"Then explain the knife and the pictures you have of the mayor on your walls. I've cleaned your room every day to know that that's a new thing. That and the papers on the ground that say 'KILL THE MAYOR'," I pointed out. Maestro glared at me with serious contempt, which scared me now that I knew he was slowly turning into a psychopath. Any other time, and I wouldn't have felt so afraid.

"Juliet, I suggest that you get out of here. If you don't, I'll kill you," he said. I gulped and floated backwards, suddenly feeling scared for my life. Maestro usually said things like, "I'll kill you!" or whatever, but he usually meant no harm by those words. It was usually out of fun, and I never felt afraid whenever he said that. But now it had a whole other meaning to it, and I didn't like that. Even transparent spirits can be hurt by physical attacks too.

"I-I'm sorry for intruding," I stammered, and with the fear still lingering in me, I floated out of the bedroom and into the hall, not even bothering to look back.