Chương 15: Snakes (1)

"I'm tired," Annalise muttered, leaning back against her door after she entered her room.

Working for Beatrice was less work than the jobs Mavis assigned to her, but she was tired nonetheless. Another day had come to an end and tomorrow would be her day off to do whatever she wanted.

"I just want to soak and get in bed," she said, bending down to take off her shoes.

She already filled her stomach thanks to Beatrice dismissing her early and Jonah being more than happy to pass her dinner before the other servants. It was by some miracle that Mavis had not walked into the kitchen and found her eating.

Annalise proceeded to walk further into her bedroom, taking off her uniform as she did so, but before she could get the first button open, something caught her eye. The blanket on her bed seemed to be moving. It wasn't a lot of movement for her to have seen by the door, but now that she was close to her bed, she could see there was definitely something under the blanket.

"What now?" Annalise asked out loud.

Annalise cautiously lifted the blanket and to her surprise, there were beetles and worms with dirt, placed under her blanket. Some had crawled away and started to roam her bed, looking for an escape.

"I am not in the mood for this. Who disturbed your life to try and scare me?" She asked the tiny creatures.

Annalise ignored them for now and went to the window to open it. "There's a good breeze tonight. I will sleep with it open. I'm afraid all of you will have to find someplace else to sleep tonight. I don't like sharing my bed when I'm so tired. I'll make sure to get revenge on the people who disrupted what you were doing," Annalise said as she picked up the beetles and worms one by one.

The other girls were told she grew up on a farm so she didn't see why they thought these bugs would bother her.

"This reminds me of the days when I used to collect insects and build a tiny kingdom. I was always destined to be a queen. One day will we still rise up and take over the world? For now, you can go back to what you were doing," Annalise said, tossing them out onto the ground.

Hopefully, most of them would survive the fall, but then they would have to watch out for the birds that roamed the yard.

"Only the strongest can survive my army," she shrugged her shoulders. "Now I have to wash a blanket I cleaned two days ago," Annalise sighed. "Why couldn't they have left out the dirt?"

Annalise stared at her messy bed stained with dirt. Her tiredness quickly left her body now that someone had made the mistake of giving her more work to do. "Alright, let's play games," Annalise decided to join the fun.

First, she needed to find out who was the person to sneak into her room and do this. Annalise had a few people in mind, but she did not want to act just yet without knowing.

Annalise walked to her bed and pulled the dirty blanket off, balling it up to take with her. She would show whoever had done this how to be better at pulling these games. Sleep was now tossed out the window as Annalise had something fun to do.

Annalise left her room and started to walk back to the kitchen where most of the maids had to be now to get their dinner before going to bed. As she neared the kitchen, Annalise heard the loud commotion with the men and women's voices mixing with each other.

Before going into the kitchen, Annalise stood in a corner where she could not be seen by anyone going into the kitchen and looked at her reflection in one of the windows. She tried to create an appearance as if she was in distress about finding worms in her bed. 'It would be so much better if I could cry,' she thought.

Once Annalise thought she had created the perfect illusion that she was afraid, Annalise continued to walk to the kitchen to start her plan.

"Annalise," Cara was the first one to notice her friend walking around with a blanket. She wanted to ask what was wrong, but Annalise was such a strange person that Cara considered this to be normal for Annalise. "Do you always walk around with your blanket? Is it your favorite from childhood? You're embarrassing us," she whispered as she walked to Annalise.

The knight's were passing through the kitchen alongside the maids and this wasn't the first introduction Cara wanted Annalise to have. If others started to find Annalise weird, more than she already was, Cara might be seen as weird by association.

"Were you crying?" Cara asked when she neared Annalise and noticed her expression. It wasn't every day she found Annalise looking sad. "What happened?"

"Someone put worms, beetles, and dirt on my bed," Annalise said in a soft tone, but it was heard by a few of the people who were watching Annalise and Cara.

"Did someone hurt you?" Jonah's loud voice was heard over all the others speaking. He helped bring attention to Annalise and her blanket. "Who the hell did something to you?" He approached her with his hands on his hips and his wooden spoon ready to hit anyone that interfered with Annalise. They had to do something bad if Annalise was walking around looking sad or…

Jonah stared at Annalise who looked right back at him. 'This little brat,' he thought, tempted to hit her over the head for making him worried. He was reminded of the first day he met her and she had conned him out of cookies by giving him this sad expression.

Unfortunately, Jonah was too far into whatever game she was playing by being too loud a moment ago.

"What's going on here? Why is there a blanket in my kitchen?" Jonah asked. He was still curious about the blanket and what Annalise intended to do by coming back here with it when she had already eaten.

"She said someone put beetles and worms on her bed. Good thing I don't share a room with you," Cara said, eyeing the blanket to make sure nothing could drop out on her. "Please tell me you tossed those things far away from here-"

Cara's words were interrupted by the sound of people laughing and someone accidentally snorting in the midst of their laughter.

Annalise looked to her right at a group of maids who liked to think they ruled the house. Not surprisingly, Laura was there along with Cindy, Fiona, and Tanya. They were Mavis's group of followers so it came as no surprise they disliked Annalise.

These maids would mess with anyone they disliked or anyone who Mavis sent them to bully in her place. They had Mavis's protection and were never punished for the things they did.

"I see," Annalise said, finished with her test. "I am going to bed," she turned and exited the kitchen.

"What the hell just happened?" Cara looked at Jonah.