William was lost for words. He had thought of what he would do if the woman started yelling or tried to hit him or something. But then she just had to say something very strange and asked him if he wanted to kill her.
William sighed and let go of her two hands. He then said "I'm not here to kill you" while looking at the woman. He looked at her straight in the eye and said "I'm trying to sneak in the building when I noticed you're trying to kill yourself in your sleep. I can't just pretend I didn't see that" he added helplessly.
The woman looked at him without saying anything, seemingly thinking if he said the truth or not. She wanted to ask why he wanted to sneak in the building but then he did stop her from hurting herself further, so… Does she need to thank him and be grateful that he came sneaking inside her room today?
That's right, the woman is Alexandra. She had been having nightmares every day ever since the slaughter happened. The dream today was even more intense than usual, it must be because she heard the talk at the lounge mentioning the slaughter and her memories became vivid again. If the man didn't come in time, she might be in trouble now. Even her hands are both bleeding so hard already, and it seems to be caused by her own nails.
"Thank you" Alex then said to the man. William was even more confused now. He didn't expect the woman to thank her for sneaking in. Well, in a way he did save her. But he also sneaked into her room, so it's strange to thank someone who sneaked inside your room isn't it?
William sighed again, this situation is so strange, he didn't even know what to do now. "Well this is a strange turn of events… However, I must ask you to remain quiet and let me come inside the building. I'm looking for a precious book" he said to her.
"What book? I'm not sure we had a lot of books here" Alex answered him. She thought the man wanted to steal some jewellery or kidnap some woman in the building. That's the only 2 reasons that she could think of why someone would want to sneak inside the purple rose.
Oh wait, their leader, Madam Garnet, is supposedly one of the leaders of the underworld. Won't he get in trouble if Madam Garnet found out someone is sneaking inside her establishment? The man could get skinned alive or tortured so horribly she can't even think of what they are gonna do to him. Her thoughts went wild thinking what a cold-blooded underworld leader would do to someone who offended her.
"I have a special book that my idiot friend lent to a worker here last night. I need to retrieve that" William answered her honestly. Since she already knows he came sneaking in, he might as well tell her the whole story and hope she will cooperate.
"A book with a red cover?" Alex asked the man. She remembered Lulu saying her frequent customer had lent her a book to read and that she was very happy before they went back to their respective rooms to sleep. She had seen that the book had a red cover.
William's eyes lit up and answered "Yes yes! Do you know where it is?" he asked, hoping to get some answers. "I'm pretty sure Lulu carried it to her room. I can take you there if you want, but I think she would be sleeping now" she answered the man. "She should wake up around 10, do you want to wait here? I can distract her while you take the book" she suggested.
Alex's answers surprised William even more, she hoped the woman would let him off but she is even suggesting to help him out. "That would be great!" he answered with a big smile. He felt relieved that he got someone to help him retrieve the Cinnabar dust back. He really can't afford to lose that. Little did he know that Alex thought Madam Garnet would skin him alive if she found William snooping around inside her establishment, so she decided to help him get away safely.
Alex nodded and walked to the bathroom to clean her wounds. Her palms would need bandages now since she made deep wounds there. She tended to her wounds and wrapped them all up while William was just looking outside the window. It's almost 10 now and if what she said is right, Lulu should be waking up soon.
"Lulu had a morning shift to sweep the garden this morning" Alex finished wrapping her wounds and walked out of the bathroom while speaking to him. "Oh so that's why she would be awake soon" William said. He's actually quite lucky to find an accomplice, he was wondering where he should look because he didn't know where Lulu's room is.
After a while, the clock showed the time was 10.15. They could hear doors being opened and people walking across the hallway. William wondered what he should do to hide. If the room is quite far, he might be recognized by someone before they reached her room. After a while, the hallway turned quiet and no one seemed to be around for now.
"Lulu's room is across the hallway, the third door before the end of the hall" she said to him. "I will call her to help me look for an earring I lost last night" she added before leaving the room. William peeked outside and looked at the woman's destination. He hid inside the room again after he saw her knocking on one of the doors.
He could hear the door opening and someone talking across the hallway. He then heard two pairs of footsteps walking down the stairs. He peeked outside the door and saw no one there. He hurried to the door Alex was knocking earlier and noticed it's not locked. He came in and saw the book he's looking for sitting at the nightstand
"My Cinnabar dust!" William shouted in joy. He quickly hurried to open the book and grab the pack hidden inside, thankfully it is still in there. After putting the book back above the nightstand, he hurried out and went back to Alex's room. He left a note saying thank you at the table and left from the windows.
After 30 minutes or so, Alex came back inside her room. Obviously, they didn't find any earrings downstairs since she didn't lose any. She was just making an excuse to get Lulu out of her room and helped William not being skinned alive by Garnet. She saw the note left on the table and knew the man had succeeded. Well lucky him, she thought before crawling back to bed to sleep again. She was still sleepy.
A man rode a carriage in the middle of the bustling city market. He was super relieved and had a big smile on his face. William was so happy that the pack had not gone missing. If it has… He didn't know what to say to his client. He felt quite lucky to found someone to help him, it would have been much harder if Alex were not there. However, she thought back on the woman trembling on the bed while hurting herself. His smile disappeared and his expression turned serious. He wondered what could possibly happened to the woman that made her have such terrible nightmares.