The place was huge. It towered over us, casting out what little light seeped in from the dense forest that surrounded it. Tall Iron spiked towers poked up into the sky, even as parts of its roof sagged with long-lost shingles. It was apparently a Victorian mansion built by some famous unheard-of architect, but to me, it looked more like an old horny toad.
“We're supposed to clean this?” I said, staring up at the monstrosity of a house. “I mean don’t get me wrong I’m happy to have the job but…”
Crystal slammed the door to the van closed and placed the last of the cleaning equipment on the long-overgrown gravel road. She stood and stretched, framing the ‘Crystal’s Crystal Clean Cleaning Service’ logo that was already starting to chip off the side of her van.
“Yes!” she said with more energy than was necessary.
A ping emanated from her behind and she quickly reached back and grabbed her phone from her back pocket. She glared at it for a minute before quickly jabbing at its face. A smirk tugged at her lips as the shrill sounds of cheering emanated from the scuffed black rectangle before she stuck it back in her pocket.
“Oh please, don’t thank me, you’re helping me out. I can’t trust any of the other girls to not pocket something on a good day, and clean is relative. Not to mention, you’re like the only one that would be willing to sleep in the van. Oh, and I sent you an invite to ‘Precious Kingdom’… I know you’re not a gamer, but we could play together, and you could send me gifts and stuff… in exchange, I won’t conquer your kingdom.”
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I made my way back to her and grabbed half of the equipment. “Nope, that sounds too much like my current life.” Shouldering the heavy backpack vacuum I made my way toward the house. She was always trying to get me to play the latest phone game with her. But honestly, I just couldn’t wrap my head around why anyone would want to pretend to own property.
We clomped up the overgrown walk, the equipment clanking with every step.
“So, what’s up with this place, and what does relative cleaning mean?”
“Well, it’s quite the story. So, Mrs. MacLeod wants us to go through and find anything that looks valuable. Anything she can sell on the down low, small things, and whatnot. She’s getting ready for a divorce and really wants to screw Mr. MacLeod over. Apparently, he brought women here, and she thinks he hid something expensive.”
We ascended the steps of the large stone porch and stopped in front of the once ornate entrance. Its carved double doors had been worn with time, threatening to impale anyone with one of its many splinters if touched wrong.
“What expensive thing are we supposed to be looking for?”
Crystal put down her supplies and dug around in her pocket producing a long, tarnished key. She slipped it into the lock and turned it.
“Apparently a mirror.”
“She wants us to lug back a mirror.”
She placed the key back in her pocket and carefully turned the door handle.
“No, she wants us to break it,” she said, kicking the heavy door open.
It let out a long groan as it slowly opened to reveal a nearly empty corridor. The only thing taking up the wide expanse of the entrance was an exquisitely carved table; with a chipped teacup sitting on it.