Let's Play!

" Alright, but what is going on?"



She asked her master again, moving to look up at him, tugging on his shirt now, still half asleep, so unable to help her childish mannerisms until she was fully awake.

Lot's eyebrows raised up markedly and he patted her head lightly, trying to bite back another wave of laughter.



"The monster downstairs got into trouble again." And then he went to walk out of the room. Sleep did sound like a good idea.

Nodding, nuzzling her master, pulling his shirt off him sneakly, exhausted for some reason, she was unaware how much trouble she could get into at the moment as she shivered, tugging his four sizes too long shirt on, looking up at him through sleep clouded eyes, mind trying to work through a fog.



Hearing his comment, she looked at him oddly as he turned to walk off, confused even more now.



" Monster?"

Lot blinked a few times, not really having too much of a physical choice as far as the loss of his shirt. However, as he turned around, he turned around again. He looked at her and his shirt with the buttons one-off. He then looked down at himself. In all of his years he had never... How did she do that?



"Yes. The monster." He eyed the shirt a moment more. And then the modernized human tendency emerged. "What crack are you on?"

the comment bringing her a bit more out of her sleepy state to stare at her master, lettign her brain catch up the rest of the way as she took in the shirt she was currently wearing.



" well, I was cold."



She replied honestly, looking him over curiously now.



" What kind of monster? It's not the snake and your calling him a monster, is it?"

Lot frowned.



"No. I would never call Ilford a monster." As if on cue, the snake's head popped around the corner of the door.



"And I'm going to get cold now." Not really, but that was beside the point.

" I'm sorry master."



She purred softly, moving over to Ilford. She was kind of becoming fond of the little guy.... After all, he atleast seemed to like her cooking. Running her hands over Ilford lightly, she looked up at her master.



" why have a pet monster? what is it? will it hurt me?"

Lot just stared at her for a minute as she took Ilford in her arms. The snake began to wrap his body around her arm and waist. He adjusted his head as to fill the stroking capacity to his maximum liking. Yes. Ilford was hamming it up. Lot rolled his eyes at the snake.



"It's not a pet."

" Then, why have it?"



She asked curiously, nuzzling the cool reptile wrapped about her, continuing to pet him, not too concerned with him deciding to crush her or something. After all, if she was going to be killed, she figured it would already have happened. Course there are worse things then death, but let's not worry about that.

What happened with the snake was even funnier now. Kind of like how a dog will shake its leg or how a cat will give a purr, Ilford's tongue flicked out and in with a steady rhythm. He was happy.



Lot just scowled.



"It keeps coming back." The first time it had been annoying. The second time it had been amusing. And when he tried to kill it and it lived, Lot suddenly discovered that he liked it. But he wasn't about to tell Elizabeth that.

" will it hurt me?"



she asked again, placing a light kiss on Ilfords nose as she continued to shower him in attention, setting at her master's feet, wondering why he didn't just get rid of the monster if it kept coming back and he seemed to dislike it so.

Lot frowned, a deep crease of irritation forming between his eyebrows.



"It's not a pet." He turned now and began to walk down the hallway. He couldn't really say for sure. Probably not. It had never hurt him. But then again, he was a lot sturdier than the girl. Either way, he wanted to look at the damage. He would have to... oh, wait, idea!



"Elizabeth, come on."

" coming, Master."



she purred smoothly, starting to get use to her role in the house, trying to stand with Ilford, which proved to be a bit more challenging then originally anticipated, so she wobbled and fell once before getting it right the second time, catching up and following Lot ( Snake still in tow, petting him gently and apologizing for falling the whole while).

Ilford hissed at Elizabeth disdainfully. But then again, he really couldn't stay mad at her for more than two minutes.



Lot made his way, mostly consisting of downward staircases. There was a certain point when nothing had any windows, and then it could be assumed that they were underground. But what was strange was the face that this part of the manor didn't seem to be as modernized as the rest. There wasn't even electricity - as made obvious by him lighting a torch and continuing down.



"You aren't afraid of the dark, are you?"

" Not the dark so much as what could be in it."



She replied honestly, moving a bit closer to her master, holding Ilford a bit snugger to her, following him on, cool stone steps brushing on the bottoms of her feet and making her wonder how far this set of stairs went.

Ilford started stretching towards his master, something about the manner of his movements suggesting that he was nervous.



Lot stopped in front of a huge wooden door, complete with the old fashioned pull ring. He opened it and it creaked as though complaining for having its rest disturbed. The light from the torch shone into a room. There was a lot of... stuff in there. Most of it was covered by dusty sheets, but it was obvious that the place had been disturbed recently. A standing mirror had been knocked askew, the sheet only hanging on to the corner. The dust on the stone floor was stirred and bothered.



Lot looked around. Nothing moved. There was a new broken crate with glass shards spilling all about it. Some furniture was toppled and the sheets tangled about it. But nothing moved. Lot lit another torch before putting them both in two rings on the wall.



"This will need to be straightened up."

Victoria just glanced to her master, not giving him any response, if he expected her to do so, with a monster lurking about, he was a fool, not to mention, that glass looked like it would hurt her bare feet.



Holding Ilford closer as she surveyed the damage about the place, she let her eyes return to her master, not liking this place.

Lot just stared at her back. At least for a few moments. Then he glanced back to the room and to her again.



"Well?" And then he noticed her bare feet and sighed.



"Why didn't you put shoes on? For crying out loud." He glanced at the room thoughtfully before walking over to a stack of crates and pulling one off. He considered it for a moment before pulling off the next one. As though this was the biggest inconvenience in the world, he opened it, ruffling through. The first thing he pulled out was an old dress. It was a silvery creme color, made the beautiful way with victorian lace. But he just tossed it carelessly over on a sheet, rummaging through and throwing a couple things out. He pulled out a pair of shoes - the kind of flat shoes that women used to wear under long dresses.



"Here." He tossed them to her.

cathcing the shoes, and luckily able to maintain her balance, Victoria was getting use to moving with Ilford, now the only problem was, she couldn't really clean up with nothing to work with... and the issue of a monster... she just stared at him a bit more.

This time Lot just stared her back. He didn't have any epiphanies or whatnot. He really didn't see the problem with this. Well, not in the stupid didn't see but the does-not-care didn't see. He didn't have any of the problems she did.



"What now?"

" thinking he was somewhat crazy, Victoria shook her head slowly.



" You can't even tell me if the monster would hurt me or not.."

Lot sighed.



"I can tell you it won't." Doesn't mean that it's true, but he could definitely tell her.



"Besides, it's not even in here." He kicked a piece of furniture as though to prove it. The sheet slid off of the red satin upholstered bench.

Victoria looked over Lot for a moment. Then her eyes drifted over to the dress he'd thrown, picking it up curiously.



" This is nice, you know..."



then she got nosey... as was the case when told to clean, she needed to know what she was dealing with.



" why do you have all these things?"



She asked, still absently petting Ilford.

Lot blinked a few times as though just now noticing that he had moved something else. He looked at them and felt a little bubble of something unpleasant in his stomach.



"I don't come down here very much, so they've been here for ages. Besides, you never know what you'll find in an old house." Ilford began to release Elizabeth as though bored and thunked down on top of a crate.

" I like it, they're nice."



victoria purred, looking to Ilford, then her master.



" Can I bring some of these things upstairs? I'll keep them in my room out of the way...."

Lot considered her for a long while. Maybe that would be a good idea. Another sort of incentive to keep her around longer.



"It's whatever. I don't care." He walked over and picked up his snake before moving on towards the door. "Just put everything back in order down here. There's a closet one door down."

" Can't I keep Ilford down here with me? "



victotria asked with a pout, still moving things about slowly.

Lot looked down at the snake, who looked right back up at him. He laughed slightly and peeled the constrictor off of himself.



"Sure, but a poodle is braver than he is." The snake began to squeeze his wrist as he tried to pull it off. Lot scowled. "Oh don't act that way. It's true, you big weenie." He pried the snake off, who dropped to the floor.

" that's okay, I like him, and we can talk about what I'm making us for dinner. "



victoria replied, movign to pick Ilford up. Lightly wrapping him about her so she could return to cleaning.

It couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes after Lot left that it happened. There was a faint scraping, not nearly as horrible as it had been, in the hallway. And then there was a pattering and the door that had been pulled halfway shut swung open wide. Something, moving at an incredibly fast speed, darted between the boxes and under the sheets.

With a screech loud enough to wake the dead ( Or even undead) Victoria jumped, looking about in the dim light, not sure what to make of what just came in, contemplating her escape at the moment... Silently cursing her master. Evil thingies in the house wasn't cool.

Ilford, meanwhile, had (heaven only knows how) slithered up into the fixture hanging from the ceiling. It was a little dome with spots to stick candles if one wanted more light. The screech startled the thing, and it began to screech too, a very high pitched sound as it continued to dart around, the sheets fluttering and a light scraping sound following it.



Lot was nowhere to be found. Well. He was actually upstairs. He just hadn't gotten down there yet.

Victoria noted lack of snake and darted out of the room when the thing seemed to be on the other side of the room and was making a clear dash upstairs, not understanding why her master didn't get rid of the thing.

Lot had heard the shriek. (And he was pretty sure that the neighbors twenty miles away had too.) However, as he was turning down the staircase to the first underground floor, he fell. Not that it was his fault. He had been exactly the wrong spot so that when he slammed into another body, the back of his weighted knee was caught and it buckled.



"WHAT THE HELL?!" Ilford was still in the lighting fixture.

Victoria scrambled to move so that she was behind her master, and was perfectly content with the safety zone he provided, even if he was angered with her at the moment.



" I'm not going back down there, it's creepy."

Lot got up and towered over her, his shoulders hunched forward with anger.



"Oh yes you are." He reached out and grabbed the back of her shirt at the nape of the neck.



"Come on."

Victoria wormed and ripped her shirt, getting free, looking up at her master, whiter then he right now, shaking her head no.



" Please, master.... "

Flames dances in Lot's eyes as he dropped the fabric he held bunched in his hand.



"Now!" He pointed down the staircase, with an expression that said 'either go on your own, or I'll throw you down there'. The man was far from pleased.

" Master...." she plead soflty as she walked down, completely terrified, shaking as she walked.

Lot ignored her, stalking down after her. He stopped at the room, relighting one of the torches that had gone out.



"What's your problem?" He looked around, not seeing anything. If the thing was in there, it was still. Ilford looked down at them out of the fixture.