It was late evening as Valerie and Anthony spent some time alone together and, she was called to the Kings room. Of course they could have retrieved any other maid in the castle but Valerie was Malphus' personal maid so she was called instead of anyone else.
She walked down a series of hallways before she made her way through the right door. She opened the door without knocking first, believing since she was was called for the King would need her right away. That wasn't the case.
Malphus walked out of his bathroom with nothing on except a towel around his waist. His hair was still wet, letting water drip on his face and the floor. His chest was large, and with the water on it he seemed more daunting than usual. She went to look over him again but when she reached his face this time she realized that he had caught her staring and he was now looking at her with a sinister smile.
"Ah! Mi'lord, please forgive me." Valerie turned around and closed the door. It took him 3 minutes to get dressed and when he opened the door again the smile that formed on his lips had vanished, making Valerie think he was angry at her.
"Again please forgive me sire-" Valerie was interrupted.
"You know to call me Malphus, instead of any of those formal names." The smile on his lips had once again formed.
Just by the way the man was looking at her made her heart jump, the way he smiled like they were best friends -which were- then dropped it like she had just killed his mother in front of him, had her head spinning.
"You are no good for my heath, if you keep looking at me like that I will just melt to a puddle of goo." Valerie mumbled under her breath while looking at his and her own feet.
"What's that darling? Speak up." Malphus heard what she said very clearly.
"Nothing, what is it that ..." Valerie lifted her head up to look Malphus in the eyes, but instead of asking the question she intended to, she got lost in his eyes. It was like he had put the same love potion on her that was supposed to be given to him.
"I need? You." was his simple answer, but Valerie wasn't listening completely as she was still lost somewhere in his eyes.
"Of course, I'll go get-" Valerie snapped back to reality when she realized she had almost told the King that she'd give herself to him.
"Oh! No- that's not what I-" Malphus took a step closer to Valerie to close the current space between them and the door behind her.
"So now, you refuse the King of something he could so easily have?" Valerie shook her head.
"No I just-" Malphus interrupted Valerie again.
"So then I can have you them, hm?" He grabbed Valerie by the waist.
"No I meant-" Before Valerie could reason out what she was trying to say, she felt lips press against her own.
For a moment they just stood there and kissed, everything seemed so right at that moment. It didn't matter if someone where to walk in and see them, they didn't care. All they needed was each other at that moment, nothing more. Nothing else would satisfy this craving hunger they had, except each other.
Their lips broke apart and now they were just standing in each others embrace. "Malphus..." Valerie said in an almost whisper like tone.
"Sh.. leave now, but stay away from that butler." Malphus leaned in to whisper in Valerie's ear "Or the poison spider might bite the dog who attempts to save this flower from his web." Valerie left his room confused and flustered, for the most part she understood that he was the spider, she was the flower, and Anthony was the dog.
What messed with her head was why a dog would pick a random flower to shoo a web away from, or why a spider would spin his web around a single flower instead of something that won't let the wind break it's web. Why would the spider spin around a flower in the first place? Flowers are to be seen and not touched.
Simply, she couldn't figure out the reason Malphus choose a spider a dog and a flower would use those instead of dragon, night, and princess, or some other odd figure of speak only the high-class men knew about.
Valerie walked back to her room to end her day, but she couldn't stop thinking. Not just about what Malphus said, but about everything in general. Where Mary had gone, how Lilly went from Queen to maid to dead. How she hadn't intended on having children but now had Alan, how she didn't want to leave her family to go the castle but now didn't want to leave the castle. How she hadn't visited her family in a while, about what would happen if she didn't disable that love potion in time. About what would happen if Francis and Malphus ended up together, about what if Chris moved her to wherever before Malphus found her. About how Dorthy and Edwin were doing, about if she'd go to this year's high school meet up. About if she'd ever see Ora, Alice, and Katherine again.
Then as she finally had nothing more to think about, she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.