NightIntent: My second side story at Damsels, Inc. It's shorter. And Richard's back. And even dumber than before.
Disclaimer: No disclaimer for this chapter.
Beryl's desk was finally organized. It had taken her a week of off-and-on cleaning, but she finally knew exactly where everything was. Beryl paused, holding the last file. She wondered just how long the organized state of the desk would last. Then she moved to put the file away. A loud crash downstairs made her drop the file on the floor.
The file fell open and all the papers fell out. Beryl gathered them up slowly, wondering what the noise had been. As she was about to put them back into the folder, she glanced at the papers. They were the forms that each of the volunteers had filled out when they first came to Damsels, Inc. Beryl leafed through them, smiling at the memories they brought back.
Beryl slipped the papers back inside their folder. She was about to put it in its rightful place, but another loud crash interrupted her. She tossed the folder onto her desk and sprinted out of her office, not bothering to close the door. One crash wasn't anything to worry about, but two….
Beryl ran down the stairs. When she got to the front hall, she stopped dead. Enya and Guinivere were lugging boxes from the closet to the far end of the front hall. Deidra was leaning against the wall, trying not to laugh. Beryl leaned against the wall, too, but she wasn't laughing. She rubbed her hand over her face.
"What in all the worlds is going on here?" Beryl demanded.
Guinivere and Enya dropped the box they were carrying and whirled around. Beryl winced at the crash the box made when it was dropped. The two grinned sheepishly as Deidra's contained laughter burst out.
"Umm…." Enya started sheepishly.
"Well, you see-" Guinivere started.
"I don't think I even want to know," Beryl said. She walked back up the stairs and down the hall to her office. She passed Sabrina, Keira, and Caitlin on her way. She requested, "Help them with those boxes, please." The three other women nodded as Beryl walked past them. Beryl didn't see, but Caitlin followed her. Beryl walked on to her office.
The door was closed. Beryl blinked, confused. She knew that she'd left the door open. Beryl opened it. Papers were flying everywhere in the room. Standing behind Beryl's desk, throwing more papers into the air, was Richard of Dormalkern.
Beryl shrieked. "You stupid fool!" she yelled. "What the hell do you think you're doing!"
Richard whipped around, the papers in his hands flying everywhere. When he put his foot down, he stepped on a piece of paper. Before his weight went onto his other foot, the paper whisked out from underneath him. Richard fell to the ground. Beryl frowned. That wasn't normal. A small snort came from behind her. Turning, Beryl saw Caitlin standing in the hallway. Beryl grinned at the older woman and turned back to Richard.
"Well?" she asked in a dangerously sweet voice. "What were you doing?"
Richard fumbled to get up. He stammered, "W-well, I… I wanted to know exactly what you do here. Yeah, that's it! I wanted to know the history of this place. You know, whether any princess from here ever married any prince she'd sav-" Richard slammed his hand over his mouth and mumbled something that sounded like a curse.
"Didn't mean to tell me that?" Beryl asked, her voice still sweet.
Richard uncovered his mouth. "I want my fairy tale ending!" he proclaimed, stamping his foot on the floor. His voice had more than a hint of a whine in it as he added, "Is Guinivere here?"
Guinivere waltzed into the room. "No, I'm not here," she informed him. "I took a vacation. I went to visit my family. You can find me there."
"Oh. Okay." Richard started to walk out of the door. In the hallway, he paused. "Wait. You're right there."
Guinivere tossed her hair over her shoulder and laughed. "No, I'm not. This is just a… what's the word I'm looking for? Oh, yes. I'm a hologram," she said.
"Oh." Richard left.
As soon as they could no longer hear Richard's footsteps, Beryl, Guinivere, and Caitlin all burst out laughing.
A minute later, however, they heard footsteps again. Richard walked back into Beryl's office. "I just realized that I don't know where Guinivere's family lives," he announced.
Beryl rolled her eyes as Caitlin snapped her fingers. Guinivere vanished, though her laughter still remained. Richard blinked.
"Wh-where did she go?" he asked, bewildered.
"It was a hologram, right?" Caitlin clarified. "Someone turned it off. Obviously."
"Oh. Why did I come here again?" Richard inquired.
"To find out where Guinivere lives. She lives in Milagro. Now go," Beryl ordered.
Richard glared at Beryl, annoyed. "Fine." He walked out of the room.
Caitlin snapped her fingers again and Guinivere reappeared, laughing silently. Beryl shooed both of them out of her office. When she was alone, she sat in the chair behind her desk and looked around at the chaos that was her office. "A week's worth of work," she muttered. "All destroyed in less than ten minutes." She sat at her desk, her head in her hands.
Just then, Tara opened the door and stuck her head in. "Hey, Beryl? That was boring. Can I get a more interesting job next time? Please?"
Beryl lifted her head and stared at Tara. "You want interesting? How about you go and turn him back into a frog? One that can't talk this time."
Tara grinned. "I would, but that's a bit beyond me. Besides," she added, her eyes sparkling, "Guinivere might miss him."
NightIntent: See? Corresponding ending from One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes. Plus it explains how the desk got like that. I have no clue whatsoever what I'm doing for the next chapter. Still. Well, see you next chapter. And please review! If I don't get any reviews again, I'll stop adding to this. I just had this one uploaded already, so I figured I'd post it. So review. Please?
