章 16: No Electricity
Ruby realized there wasn't a fridge to put her freezer food in or electrical outlets for the sake of her new appliances pretty quickly and felt like an idiot. How had she not paid attention that before? Of course there wouldn't be any in an ancient stone castle!
She didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She was so used to modern amenities that she made a dumb assumption. In the end, she did a pitiful combination of laughing so hysterically that tears came out of her eyes.
Ash looked on in bewilderment. "Are you alright?"
"No because none of this stupid stuff works! I'm going to be living off of room temperature apples, cold Pop-Tarts, and goldfish crackers because everything else will go bad without a freezer."
"…I don't understand a word you just said."
"There's no electricity, Ash. The thing the entire human world runs on. What is the point of a kitchen with no working appliances?!"
"There kind of isn't a point for a kitchen at all," he pointed out.
Ruby was ready to tear her hair out. Would it be possible to finish the deal of repairing the castle before her wing was fixed? She didn't think she could live more than a few more days like this. It was back to scrounging berries in the forest and eating fast food when she went into town.
"This might be fixable."
She looked up at him daring to be slightly hopeful. "Really? How?"
"I am sure there is a magical equivalent of electricity that can be purchased from the witches. Do your money-making thing again and we can go get it now," Ash suggested.
Ruby deflated. That wasn't possible because all the jewelers and pawn shops would be closed for the day by now. "We can't until tomorrow at the earliest. All this food will go bad. Unless…do you have a dungeon? A cellar? Somewhere cold?"
"There is a dungeon but I don't see why you would need to use it. We have no prisoners."
"I don't need to keep anyone captive! I have to go back to the store. You don't have to come with me. But could you move all the foods that are cold down there for me? I'll be right back," she said as she dashed off back to the car.
'Right back' actually meant more like 'almost an hour later' but Ruby did get what she needed and lugged it inside.
The whole castle was dark. Moonlight shone through some of the broken windows so she was able to make things out a little in the rooms that had windows. The ones that didn't were a lost cause.
Since she went to bed early last night, she hadn't realized that there wasn't a single light source in this entire place. How was she supposed to survive?
She squinted into the darkness. "Ash? Where are you? I can't see anything!"
"I'm over here," he called.
"Where? I'm completely blind at night."
Ash appeared in front of her so suddenly that she flew two feet in the air in a panic, immediately crashing back to the ground because of her bad wing. "Watch it!" she shouted irritably.
"Sorry. I didn't think about you needing light to see either."
Ruby sighed heavily. Of course he didn't. Vampires were nocturnal. They would be able to see in the dark perfectly fine.
"Whatever. Just help me with this, will you? I need to bring it to the dungeon."
He did as he was told, taking the heavier of the two objects she carried with one hand and gripping her wrist to lead her down to the dungeon with the other. She wasn't comfortable being led blindly but had no other choice.
It was pitch black down there so she had to tell Ash what to do since she couldn't see a thing. She had bought the largest cooler they had to be filled with ice and function as a makeshift freezer. The dungeon was cold enough that it should hold out for a while. It was hard to believe it was the middle of May based on temperature alone.
"What is this for?" he asked.
"I'm hoping it keeps the food cold until I can get a freezer," Ruby said tiredly. "I'm going to bed now. It's been a long day. Can you lead me up to the bedroom?"
Instead of taking her wrist again, Ash lifted her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She yelped in surprise. "What are you doing?!"
"I figured this was the most effective way to carry you without affecting your wings. Am I wrong?"
Well, no. But that didn't make it any less weird. She hadn't been carried like this since she was about sixty years old and still living with her parents.
Ruby had nothing to say to that so she let it go. Why did it always seem like she and this vampire were at a stalemate? They had only been together for a little over a day and this sort of thing had already happened multiple times. Talk about species incompatibility!
She made it back to the bedroom and flopped onto the top of the covers with a sigh. This was getting ridiculous. She needed to make a list of things this castle needed to make it habitable for a fairy in the next few weeks before she went back into town tomorrow so she didn't have to go back and forth so much.
Funny how being on the run makes you realize how much you take simple comforts for granted. Clothes to change into. Electricity. Light. Food. Ruby would have to make a comprehensive list of basic necessities of life to get immediately before she left this place.
She would need to make more expensive jewels for tomorrow if she wanted to have enough to get what she needed for herself and start buying furniture for this gigantic place. With any luck, she would be able to rake in at least $20,000 this time. She still needed to stock up for her eventual escape.
Thankfully, she set up a bank account separate from her aunt and uncle as soon as she was legal in the human world. She ran away from them with nothing but her extra thin wallet in her pocket that held a debit card with only $200 on it and the clothes on her back.
Right now, funds were low because Ruby had been spending as she went, totally winging it. It wasn't like her aunt and uncle ever gave her spending money so she had very little to work with from the start but knew it would be easy to get more.
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