Revisited: Part Two

      Ok, she thought silently, When he stops looking, I'll turn around and sneak into a doorway. Then, when the coast is clear, I can run for the exit and go home!

      Now they were turning a corner and entering into a grand dining hall. The ceiling in this room, just like the foyer, was high, allowing the conversation being held at the far end of the carved wooden dining table to be magnified by the echo. Seated at the end of said table was a yellow Blumaroo with spectacles balanced on his nose and a red Kougra, who presumably was his wife. They were surrounded by several other pets. The butler pointed to the Blumaroo and the Kougra and led her toward them. "Those are the owners of this house."

      "THEM?!" screeched Jenny out loud, a thought that she hadn't meant to think out loud. The conversation stopped, and everyone in the room turned to stare at her. She blushed deeply.

      "Yes, yes, of course." The Scorchio turned around now. "Well, I'll be leaving now... I have other duties to attend to." He started walking back across the room, and it was just now that Jenny realized he had a limp.

      Still blushing, Jenny sat at the table at the invitation of the Kougra. "Well, Jenny," she said after Jenny had introduced herself, "I suppose I should introduce everyone else." She continued to do so.

      Seated at the left of the Blumaroo was a yellow Usul with curly blonde hair who hadn't made eye contact with Jenny since she arrived. This was due to the compact she held in one paw - her eyes seemed to be glued to it. Next to her was a quiet blue Gnorbu. "He's a mime," the Blumaroo explained in a whisper to Jenny. To demonstrate the point, the Gnorbu nodded and got up from his seat to do the infamous "mime in a box" act.

      "Yes, yes, sit," the Kougra said with a wave of one of her paws. "Sit," she repeated. He obeyed.

      The last person on that side of the table was a Kyrii with crazy white hair. He wore a pair of enormous glasses and kept using large words Jenny didn't know, such as "defenestration." On the opposite side of the table, seated on either side of Jenny, were two pets that actually appeared normal. One was a pink Aisha, and the other was a green Xweetok, who seemed to be a bit shy.

           The group conversed about the sad deflation of motes and plushies in Neopia, but they were interrupted several minutes later by the butler. He came back into the room, doing his insane limping walk, but this time he was followed by another pet. "I brought you another applicant, master," he croaked.

      The Kougra rolled her eyes. "What have I told you about calling me master? This isn't a horror novel, so knock it off. Your 'master' commands it."

      The pet following him was a scruffy looking Gelert with a scar above his right eye. He gazed at the group sitting at the table with a sort of untrusting glare and silently sat down.

      "Well," creaked the butler, yet again sounding like a pet out of a horror novel, "perhaps we should start. I doubt there will be... others." He laughed maniacally.

      As the Kougra leaned over to the Aisha, Jenny overheard her whisper, "Don't worry. The word 'others' always seems to set him off like that." Then she stood up and clapped her paws together. "Well!" she said cheerfully. "Since it seems that everyone who is coming has arrived, we might as well start with a tour of the house. How does that sound?"

      Statements of agreement were made in unison around the table, and everyone got up to tour the house. "Now," the Kougra said, holding her paws up to gesture to the room they were standing in, "this is the grand dining hall. The ceiling was carved by a team of professional carpenters. This long dining table seats fifty pets, and all the chairs, as well as the table, were custom ordered. On the floor beneath the table you can see this beautiful plush red carpet. It was imported from Meridell, and it is the only thing in this room that isn't historic. In fact, I'm sure that even the dust up on the chandelier is historic!" She laughed nervously, then immediately regained her composure. "Just kidding! Our cleaning staff makes sure to get up there to clean it at least once every two weeks. Don't worry, though," she continued, seeing a worried expression on the Aisha's face, "if you would get the job here, you wouldn't have to do that. Your job would be to clean the library, which I'll get to later on in the tour. Now, if you'll just follow me this way..." The group followed her out of the dining hall and into a hallway.

      "Right over here, we have the entrance to the ballroom. It's not used much anymore, but some previous owners of this house used to hold grand parties in this room. Would you like to come inside?" Without waiting for an answer, she walked in, expecting the rest of them to follow her. She rambled on for several minutes about the fabric that was used to make the curtains, which hung on the glass windows stretching from the ceiling to the floor, but Jenny was starting to tune her out. Standing in the center of the wooden floor and glancing around the large room, she was able to envision what it had been like, years ago, when parties - no, party wasn't a word worthy of her vision - grand balls used to be held in this room. She could imagine the pets, the ladies dressed up in elaborate gowns escorted by gentlemen in tailored suits and top hats, dancing around the room while an orchestra played soft music in the corner. Specifically, a couple of Lupes in her dream caught her attention.

      The gentleman was a tall green Lupe, and he was escorting a blue Lupe who was a bit shorter than he was. She wore a single strand of pearls around her neck and clutched a small purse in one hand. Unlike nearly all the other pets in the room, however, they weren't dancing. They appeared to be having a quite intense discussion in the corner of the room with a yellow Blumaroo. Interestingly, he looked like a younger version of the Blumaroo that had been seated next to the Kougra in the dining hall. Now a pet in a black suit, carrying a platter of fancy hors d'oeuvres, had come over to them, interrupting their conversation. The male Lupe gave him a slight look of annoyance, saying as politely as he could muster that thank you, but no, they didn't wish for any at this time. They went back to their conversation, and a grandfather clock across the room chimed midnight. Minutes later, the Blumaroo angrily went stalking at the room. The exact time on the clock read 12:04. Now the Lupes were-

      "Hello?" yelled the Kougra, now leading the group out of the room's exit. "Are you coming?"

      "What? Yes, sorry." Jenny ran to catch up with the group.

      "Next," the Kougra was saying as Jenny finally rejoined the group, "we're going to look at the kitchen. The kitchen is rather large, so I'm going to warn all of you to stay with the group and not get lost." She looked at Jenny pointedly.

      She really wasn't kidding when she said that the kitchen was "rather large." In fact, the word large really didn't do it justice. Enormous was more like it. Gigantic, colossal, HUGE! Shiny, stainless steel counters ran the entire way around the room, and it seemed that different kitchen gadgets were everywhere. The Kougra pointed out two large doors in the back of the room. Those were for the pantry and the freezer, and none of the pets in the group should attempt to enter them, even if they got the cleaning job. She insisted that there was no need to enter them. "Besides, you wouldn't want to get locked inside," she said with a slightly menacing tone. Next to the doors were large closets full of all sorts of cleaning items, such as mops and brooms, and also kitchen utensils: spoons, forks, knives, rolling pins, cookie cutters, and the like. Also in the kitchen were a couple large sinks. Although Jenny had seen the vast number of dishes stacked in one of the closets, she still couldn't imagine why such large sinks would be needed to clean them. The two sinks were both large enough for someone to sleep in! "The pets who wash the dishes must have it rough," joked the Kyrii weakly. He, as well as the rest of the group, seemed to be just as uneasy as Jenny felt. Jenny, of course, knew her own reasons for feeling uncomfortable... but was it possible that the rest of the pets had seen something in this house as well?

      Just as the Kougra was about to tell them all about the incredibly interesting and captivating process through which the silverware had been made, the lights in the room went completely dark, and someone screamed.

To be continued...

Author's note: If you don't know what defenestration means, look it up! It's a great word!