Those 'options' I mentioned before? I had to wash them down the drain along with the remnants of what was apparently my boss's dog when my breakfast decided to revisit me.
Naturally, the man at the door had been my employer, who I'm sure I've mentioned wasn't a fan of me to begin with, because nothing could go over easily with Ace around. Of all of the small, yappy mutts in the neighborhood, he'd chosen to decimate the only one that would cost me my job.
After ignoring the frantic knocking for as long as I could (barely long enough for me to make sure nothing else was going to come back up), I finally slunk toward the door and reluctantly undid the chain. "Y-yes?" I asked nervously, staring past the beyond-furious figure that appeared ready to knock me out, at the even more disturbing scene that my guest had made of the yard.
"Where are they?" my boss demanded, violently pounding the door frame with his fist.
"Where are who?" Not that the innocent act would work, especially since there was a definite trail of gore leading all the way from across the street.
"The psychopath that did this!" He again directed my attention at the bloody mess, which I realized my porch had gotten a nice taste of, too. How one dog could fit so much in it, I wasn't sure, but my stomach didn't appreciate the view much and threatened to empty itself entirely. "I know they had to have come in here!"
"J-just a minute," I told him, my tone a hybrid of apology and disgust, stepping back and immediately running into the kitchen. "ACE! WHERE DID YOU GO!?" I'm sure the whole block heard that one, but the knight decided it would be best to ignore me. "Get out here, now!" Wherever he'd gone, he couldn't have left the house, but I hated the fact that he disappeared just to screw with me.
And there was no doubt in my mind he had any other reason than that, unless he was trying to be a good boy and refrain from killing the dog's just-as-annoying owner.
As you can probably imagine, by the time I found Ace—who had been rummaging in a certain drawer in my room, to make matters even worse—my brief window of opportunity to actually keep my job was completely gone. Also, if I didn't agree to compensate the man for his pain and suffering, he was going to take the culprit (who I had reluctantly dragged downstairs with me) to court.
I wouldn't have minded that much, really. My patience with the Wonderlandian was entirely worn, to say the least, but on the bright side, without work obligations at least I would have plenty of time to figure out what to do with him.
That's one way to look at it, isn't it? If you're absolutely insane, which, I arguably was.
"Alice, I'm sorry," Ace pouted, my belief in his sincerity having already waned entirely by the eighth apology. "You know, if you come back to Wonderland with me, you won't have to worry about having a job-."
"NOT going to happen."
"Why not~?"
I threw my chair back from the table, standing up dramatically. "I'm going back to bed. If you so much as move from that chair, I swear I. Am. Going. To. Kill. You."
AN/ A short one, also very soon after the last update. But I wanted to get the 'introduction' arc out of the way.
