Well, now that it's been a solid 20-something days, I suppose I should be bothered to post something, huh?

Short 25

(Day 21)

"Hey… You're boss, aren't you?"

Plague Knight stopped in his tracks and turned around looking at the minion he had just passed. Though curious as to how his employee figured it out, he decided it was best to play dumb for now.

"Isn't your boss Mona?" He asked, figuring that Mona would fail to inform 'Adam' of her partner, seeing as he was not present.

The minion frowned. "Yes, her too. But more importantly, our real boss, Plague Knight, disappeared a couple weeks ago, lining up perfectly with your appearance."

Plague Knight frowned in return. Admittedly, he was surprised it had taken anyone as long as it had to realize who he was, if it was really as simple as figuring out where he arrived/disappeared.

"Don't worry," the minion told him, a smirk on his face. "I won't tell a soul."

The man turned and walked away, leaving Plague Knight alone in the corridor.

"I'm going to regret letting him live, aren't I?"

"Yeah, that's going to bite you in the ass," Mona commented casually after hearing the story of what transpired in the hallway.

"You aren't gonna lock me in your room now, are you?" Plague Knight questioned.

Mona shook her head. "Nah. That would require getting up, and I'm not feeling up to that."

Plague Knight smiled. "Good. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to get you any more food!" As if the help his point, he then tossed a banana at her.

Mona was completely unaware that he even had the fruit, as she had been asleep when he left and he had been holding it just out of her line of sight. This resulted in her being unprepared, and ultimately the food clocked her.

Plague Knight froze. "Uh, sorry," he apologized. "I… kinda figured you'd catch that."

"I got that," Mona replied, luckily not acting all that annoyed.

Plague Knight let out the smallest sigh of relief that she wasn't pissed he tossed a banana in her face. He watched as she grabbed said fruit and peeled it, munching on it while watching him watch her.

"You know what's occurred to me?" Mona questioned in between bites.

"What?" Plague Knight asked.

"The Magicist could have given me a health potion a long time ago, and I may have gotten away from this mess without a single scar."

Plague Knight was silent as he contemplated this. Then, he turned on his heel and marched to the door.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"To go beat up a magician."

"You don't have to do that…"

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn if I have to. If she had just thought of a health potion, neither of us would have been spending the past 4 days doing absolute jack shit and you could have joined in the effort to find me."

"Well, that's true, and I appreciate the sentiment, but it's a bit late now. Everyone knows I'm hurt, and if I suddenly pop up in the village saying that it was just a flesh wound when it clearly wasn't, I have the feeling people are going to get suspicious."

Plague Knight was saddened by the news. "But…" He stopped himself when he realized that he really didn't have much of an argument against this.

"Besides, something tells me that it's not healthy to always be artificially healing my wounds. My body's probably going to forget how to heal itself if I keep drinking those."

"If that's the case, I suppose I should probably lay off on them a bit too, huh?"

"That would probably be the wise thing to do, however, that's only a vague theory that I have no desire to test, so you're probably fine. If not, well then, oops."

"If you say so…"

"I do say so. Now come sit back down."

"Alright." Plague Knight returned to the bed's side. "Ya know, I just realized the Magicist has probably left for the day anyway. It's probably why I ran into that worker. He was on his way to clock out."

Mona looked mildly surprised by this. "Is it that late already?"

"Your sense of time is off," Plague Knight noted.

"Yeah, you have such an erratic schedule; I can't use it at all to help me."

"It doesn't exactly help that you're sleeping constantly."

"I need my sleep though. And what else am I going to do?"

"Read."

"I've been doing that for all of forever, though! I'm bored! Even I need a little excitement from time to time."

"Like another kidnapping?"

Plague Knight was met with a blank, unimpressed stare.

"Well, what do you want me to do about it, then?"

Mona paused in thought, and Plague Knight felt himself becoming frightened of what she might request of him.

Then: "Dance."

"…Dance?" Plague Knight questioned, unsure if he heard correctly.

"Dance," Mona repeated to ensure that he did indeed hear properly.

"…You're kidding."

"I am not. That, or you can go find me something else of interest to amuse me."

Plague Knight frowned and turned on his heel. "I shall find you something to do."

Mona smiled gratefully, cheering in an almost childlike voice, "Yay!"

Plague Knight paused mid-step and looked back at her. "Are you alright?" He questioned with a concerned tone.

Mona chuckled. "Ah… That's debatable. Though I thought we already established that I was going insane."

"No, I think that was me," Plague Knight replied.

Mona shrugged uncaringly. "It was one of us."

Plague Knight raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't mean the other should go crazy."

"One light goes out, they all go out," Mona told him as though it were a piece of advice that a wise sage had personally given her.

Plague Knight was unsure of what to make of this, evident by the utterly befuddled expression on his face. Therefore, his reply was a skeptical "Right…"

"You don't believe me?" Mona questioned, pouting as though her trust had been misplaced when it came to keeping a minor secret.

Shaking his head in disbelief at how far they had fallen in a mere 3 weeks, Plague Knight walked away, refusing to respond and allow the madness to continue.

"What am I going to do to keep her entertained…?" Plague Knight questioned to no one in particular (especially considering no one else was present).

He glanced this way and that, looking for something that might happen to catch his eye, and therefore might be capable of grabbing a hold of her interest. Nothing stood out to him, though.

He let out a low, annoyed groan. Then, his ears picked up the sound of something slithering along the ground.

Plague Knight stopped in his tracks and listened. He did not hear it again. Confused, he took a step forward and felt something under his foot, accompanied by a low hiss.

Freezing, he looked downward. A snake, fearful, yet mad that it had been stepped on, glared back at him.

Yeah, I think you can see where this is going. If not, you'll figure out next chapter.

This will be the final set of chapters. As of the 27th short, I have decided how the main problem of the story is to be fixed. Oh course, there's a sub issue that will need to be dealt with, but once that's out of the way, I can move on with my life. Oh geez, I will be able to move on with my life! I'll have to figure out a new good idea, otherwise I won't have anything to do during my mornings. I'm thinking of something that doesn't heavily revolve around jokes.