A little spider crawled across the window sill. Its body was covered with silver hair and its round eyes were dark as the night sky outside. It crawled down the wall and across the narrow corridor as if it had done so many times before.
A mahogany door stood tall in front of it, and it peeked up from the floor at its opponent.
"Waah! Waah!"
"There. There. The needle's gone now."
A woman's voice sounded from the opposite side of the door.
"Thank you, doctor...about the fees...how much is it?"
"Oh, you can pay it later whenever you can. I have known Jake for quite a while now."
"Oh, thank you! Thank you! May Lord bless you!"
The door's handle rattled, and the little spider scurried away. The old wooden planks creaked feebly under the woman's feet as she walked down the hallway, and out of the front door of the clinic. The rusty bell over the door rattled loudly before gradually coming to a rest.
It grew silent inside the building.
The little spider cautiously waited a moment before deciding to shift; its body began to glow with a cool silvery white light like that of the full moon on a clear night. Its form shifted as it grew taller and half of its 8 limbs disappeared; vaporizing in thin air.
A gust of wind blew inside from the window, and that silvery light began to scatter like flakes of snow; melting the moment they touched the floor.
It was a human girl who now stood outside the doctor's office. Her eyes were black and as if hinting at her 'gifted' form, her hair were silvery grey. They fell in waves over her shoulders, and reached past her waist.
She now wore a simple white frock that twirled around her small frame as she turned to knock at the door.
"It's open," the doctor said from behind his small desk. The square-shaped glass window to his right let the light from the street lamp outside invade his office room that had little furniture; his mahogany desk and cushioned chair were across from the door, and he had placed a stool to his right to check his patients. A little behind the stool, and pushed against the wall was an old wooden bench that would creak loudly whenever more than two people sat on it. To his left was a screen of sky blue curtains, and hidden behind them was a single bed for examining the sick.
The door was pushed open, and his eyes fell upon the girl who had returned to give her report.
"Maki!"
The man's cheerful greeting made her stomach twist, but she wasn't foolish enough to let it show on her face. The doctor's clear blue eyes were like a vast sea, but they held no calmness in them. Instead, they seemed to encage a raging storm as they looked at her from across the room.
"I have something to report, Voyer."
She instantly got to her business; eager to get away from his suffocating presence, and hide in the familiar darkness of her own small room in the attic of the very building she was standing in.
"Why are you in a hurry, little Maki? Let's have something to eat first. I'm starving!"
He stretched his arms over his head, and leaned back into his seat. He looked tired by the way he yawned loudly and rubbed the corner of his eyes.
He looked like a man in his late twenties, but that wasn't his true age, not that Maki had any idea about what it really was despite have been living with him for the last 12 years of her life.
He wouldn't age.
As usual his straight white hair were parted from the left. He tucked the left half of it behind his ear, and every now and then, he would run his hand through the other half to keep them from falling into his eyes.
"I killed a person today."
The easygoing smile on his face turned stiff, and Maki decided to continue her report.
"Drake Ballins, the owner of the Little's inn."
"Drake..."
He trailed off as he tapped his fingers on the surface of his desk.
"He had already leaked the date for the next human auction before I sliced open his neck-"
Smash!
The water glass had smashed into the door right beside her head. Its shards scattered everywhere, and Maki brought her hand up to her cheek to touch the glass piece that was stuck into her skin.
'That stings.'
But she didn't let the pain show on her face, or maybe she had forgetten how to.
"Useless."
Voyer ran a hand through his hair.
"What else has that lowlife spouted?"
His voice was low and deep, and his gaze held the anger that was building up inside him. He would not let anyone ruin his plan. Not when he was so close to seeing that person again.
"Nothing."
"Send a letter to the Marquis."
"Yes."
"That incompetent scoundrel needs to keep his dogs in check."
The threat hidden in his calm voice did not go unnoticed by Maki, and she nodded slightly.
"Yes."
There was ringing of the front door's bell; someone had come to see the doctor. Voyer raised his hand, and gestured her to be dismissed.
"Also, clean this mess."
She looked down at her feet where the glass shards laid. The light from the ceiling bulbs reflected from their clear surfaces, and she narrowed her hurting eyes.
She stretched out her hand, and from the tips of her slender pale fingers sprang out fine silvery white threads. They attached themselves to the pieces of the broken glass, and with a swift motion of her hand, Maki lifted them all up much like a fisherman catching a fish with his rod.
There was a knock at the door.
"Is the doctor still here?"
A man inquired from the other side, and Voyer glanced at Maki. She did not need to be told twice. With the glass pieces held in her palms, she went behind the curtains.
"Come in."
She heard Voyer say in his professionally polite voice as she opened the door that stood to her right. It made a creaking sound as its aged hinges whined to her. She stepped into a dimly lit corridor that had large bare windows lining up one of its walls.
She walked down the silent hallway; her footsteps lighter than feathers, and her cheek tinted with her blood like crimson trails left upon untouched snow.