Seren felt sick as they made their way up the steps to the three-story house. The breakfast they’d had was now creeping up the back of their throat. Their last encounter still had them shaking, that could have been them. They rang the doorbell and tried to stop their hands from shaking. Reaching up to adjust their hat caused them to panic when it wasn’t there. Subsiding when they felt the weight of their hat in their pocket.

The door unlocked, and Mrs. Houper opened the door. Seren smiled and held out the coin purse and paper with the addresses and notes Seren had made.

“I did it,” Seren said with a forced smile. “Uhm, how do you want me to give back the vest? It’s under my coat…”

“Oh,” Mrs. Houper said genuinely in shock. “I didn’t expect you back…” She looked back into the house.

“Well… come in, don’t stay out in the cold.” Mrs. Houper left the door open for Seren to follow. Seren looked in the house, feeling the heat of the house on their cheeks.

“Do I have to take off my shoes?” Seren asked.

“Yes, dear.”

Seren frowned but entered the house and started on taking off their shoes again. Mrs. Houper shut the door behind them.

“You stay put and I’ll be right back, all right?” She said, Seren nodded as they put their shoes to the side. She vanished into the house and Seren felt like they’d throw up. They stared up at the ceilings, finding them covered in carved and painted artwork. Rationalizing that if the worst part came at the beginning and end of the job, then that wasn’t too bad. They could get things done either really fast or really slow and still make a decent amount to live off of. They lifted the strings on the coin purse.

It felt over a hundred ingts. A hundred. It felt heavy. Seren felt their already heavy heartbeat get faster as an intrusive thought whispered into their ear;

Run

Electricity rushed through their muscles as they thought about sliding their shoes on, or abandoning them completely. With a hundred ingts in their hands they could buy whatever they wanted. New shoes, new home. It felt like Seren had accidentally stumbled upon an open window in the world and if they could leap through it, they could be somewhere warm and safe.

Seren dropped the bag and coughed. Their imagination ran away and forgot to let them breathe. Heartbeat in their ears, Seren contemplated how fast they could get their shoes on. They’d get farther if they had their shoes on.

Seren knelt down. Trying desperately to swear they wouldn’t steal. But they pulled their shoes to them and slipped back into them. They didn’t want to take up too much time, after all. They were just here to drop things off, there was no reason to take off their shoes and stay awhile…

“All right, let’s see what you got.”

Seren jumped upright as Mr. Asche, followed by Mrs. Houper rounded the corner. He stopped at the sight of them with their shoes on but untied.

“What are you doing?” He asked. Narrowing his eyes behind his glasses. Seren dropped their sight to the ground.

“Don’t like not wearing my shoes,” Seren mumbled. “Feels weird.” They quickly snatched up the coin purse and their notes and held them out towards Mr. Asche. He looked at them skeptically, but took the offered items. He felt the weight and stared harder at them, Seren held their breath. Ducking down to tie their shoes so they didn’t have to keep staring into the distrustful glare.

Mr. Asche looked at the notes Seren had taken and stared off into the middle distance blankly.

“I have a question. Without thinking about it, just say the first answer that comes to mind, what is the highest amount of money you can imagine?” Mr. Asche said. “Just how high is that number?”

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“Uhm…” Seren tried to come up with a number and not just ‘a lot.’ “Probably about 100 or maybe a little over? I mean a hundred is a lot. It’s a lot a lot. That’s like… more than I even know what I would do with.”

“I see.” He said with a small nod of understanding. “You have a gift for finding money but no proper sense of worth.”

“No, I know what things are worth.” Seren said idly. Standing straight when their shoes were tied. “That’s why people keep getting mad at me when I buy stuff. It’s just not worth what it’s sold for, so why should I pay more than it’s worth?”

“You aren’t wrong.” He said and turned to the housemaid. “Can you run to records and grab… let’s go with fifty-one.” Mrs. Houper nodded and vanished. Mr. Asche put the paper and purse down on the side table.

“You can’t imagine numbers higher than three digits?” He asked. Seren had to pause as they tried to conceptualize that numbers could go that high.

“They get bigger than three numbers?” Seren asked.

“I take it your education is sparse,”

“I don’t know what that means.”

Mrs. Houper appeared with a small leather-bound book. She handed it over and Mr. Asche flipped idly through some of the pages.

“These,” he said, turning the book for Seren to see. “Are the numbers we routinely deal in.” Seren’s eyes went wide. There wasn’t a single number on the page lower than four numbers.

“How do people have that much?” Seren asked.

“You’d be surprised at the amounts people have at their disposal.” Mr. Asche said while handing the book back to Mrs. Houper. “Now, I am rather impressed you brought back anything at all in such decent condition. But about this last number? Five? Really? Do I look stupid?” Seren stared at him blankly. They knew they were being accused of something, but they weren’t sure what.

“No?” They said. “That’s what they gave me. They said they didn’t have anything else. And the shop was kinda dusty, and the market was loud and it made my ears hurt.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“When my ears get confused, I can’t hear the ingts.” Seren said simply. Mrs. Houper, still holding the book, stared at Seren like they’d grown an extra head.

“So you couldn’t hear if there was more. That’s what I’m hearing?” Mr. Asche asked. Seren nodded. “So you instead took them at their word?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Seren asked. “They can’t lie if it’s written on paper.”

“Mm… sixteen indeed.” Mrs. Houper said sarcastically as she left the room to put back the book. Seren frowned and stared at where she’d vanished.

“You believe that?” Mr. Asche asked. Seren nodded slowly, feeling like they were somehow in the wrong. “Really?” Seren nodded again.

“I see,” He drawled. “Don’t go anywhere, I’ll be right back.”

“What? Why?” Seren asked suspiciously.

“Because you’re going to learn a very important lesson today.” He said before leaving Seren on the doorstep. They were extremely uneasy at being left alone in the unfamiliar space, especially after being told they would learn something today. A phrase which never had pleasant conclusions. Again Seren considered running, they had much better odds of getting away with it since they had nothing on them except…

Seren took a breath and felt the restrictive vest holding them. They whipped off their coat and yanked the vest over their head. Dropping it to the ground and pulling their coat back on. Getting it back into place when Mrs. Houper came back.

“Where’d he?”

Seren shrugged, then pointed to the vest on the floor.

“Where do you want me to put that?” They asked.

“I’ll take it,” She said, scooping down to pick it up. Seren bent to pick it up which caused the two to stutter. Seren slid back awkwardly allowing Mrs. Houper to pick up the vest.

“Sorry,” Seren said quietly.

“It’s okay,” Mrs. Houper said. Seren couldn’t help thinking she sounded really disappointed and annoyed. Seren fidgeted with their fingers and rocked back and forth on their heels. Picking at their fingernails again as they waited for Mrs. Houper to walk out of sight again. She huffed as she walked around the corner.

“No shoes on the carpet! The cleaners just left!” She shouted. Seren stumbled back, even though they weren’t on the carpets or even past the point where shoes were forbidden. Mr. Asche rounded the corner without acknowledging Mrs. Houper yelling at him for wearing his snow boots in the house.

“Come on,” He said, not stopping to look at Seren. Opening the door and walking out without shutting or waiting for Seren.

Seren slid as they rushed to follow.

“Shut the door!” Mrs. Houper yelled. Seren slipped on the cold sidewalk, falling on the stairs. They reached back and pulled the door shut before jumping to their feet and running to catch up with Mr. Asche already halfway down the block.