Intangible Part 5-Of Cheesiness and More Plans

Author's Note: My band director only ever makes back-handed compliments (except to me, apparently). Today he took ten minutes out of band class to sing Jack's (my brother, who plays trumpet) praises. Are we in the Twilight Zone and no one bothered to tell me?

ALSO: When/If you review/comment this, can you tell me whether you would prefer longer chapters or more frequent updates? Just curious, and thinking over which option I'd like to do. Today's part is extra-long though!

ALSO (AGAIN): Funny story (in a self-deprecating way): I meant to publish this Friday (get into a routine), but I accidentally saved it as a draft because I'm daft. So I went to check comments/reviews (to see about the question above), and realized I didn't click the right button. I swear, I'm about forty years too young to get dementia! Okay, I'll be quiet now.

Okay, so I’m lost. Why does this place have to be so huge? I get it, it’s to be intimidating, but it’s just annoying. Time is running out for my sisters, and I’m now in a hallway full of bedrooms. And not the servant’s rooms either. Everything here looks expensive.

Poison, poison. Bad guys in the movies always had antidotes, in case they used it on themselves, right? New plan: find Lilith's room and tear it apart.

Looking into the rooms, it’s pretty easy to find hers. All I had to do is look for ‘spoiled brat’. The walls were a light shade of pink, and everything shimmered in a way that hurt my eyes. Jewels were littered everywhere, and the girl had shelves on her wall to hold about fifty different tiaras! Striding over to her desk, I saw lots of different colored and shaped bottles full of smelly substances. Great.

Something tells me Lily is a cheesier villain, so I forgo looking through the bottles in favor of looking for loose floorboards. No such luck, not even under the enormous pink rug on the floor under the chandelier. Who is arrogant enough to have a chandelier in their bedroom?! Just one cut of the ropes holding it up while she was sleeping… no, focus!

Striding over to the desk, I examine it, looking in the drawers. The bottom drawer… it looks smaller on the inside. Punching through the wood, I barely miss the glass bottle located in the secret compartment in the bottom of the drawer. Got ya!

Now to find the dining room. Though I can now save them regardless of if I’m too late, I don’t want to take any chances.

I love plans. I had moved past the hallway full of bedrooms, to find myself in a dingier portion of the castle. Servant’s wing? Everything here is cliché, so it’s likely. Stealing away into the nearest room, I felt a grin slip onto my face.

I stumbled into the dark laundry room, seeing buckets of water and some heavy-looking rocks I presume were used to beat the dirt out of the clothes. Great. Next you’ll tell me there’s no wifi. Bingo. The room connected to a little plain of grass in the shadows of the palace, near where the forest surrounding it began to creep towards the castle. The maids had strung the wet clothes up to dry, including a maid’s uniform and a hooded cloak. I snagged both, and nearly cried with relief. I had desperately hoped they wouldn’t be wet, and with all the luck I’ve been having, my wish had come true.

They were warm and dry when I put them on, but I still felt uncomfortable. I was a little muscly, in a toned kind of way, but I was lanky. The dress was made to go down just below the knees, but on me it just covered the top portion of my birthmark on my upper thigh, leaving a sliver of it showing like a shadow on my skin. It had pockets, so I slipped the bottle inside, nestling it carefully to avoid breaking it.

The cloak was big enough to cover me completely, made for someone with a body like the Hulk. It had a long enough hood to hide my facial features from prying eyes, but too long in the way that I was tripping on the length of it, my bare feet snagging on the hem of the stretchy material. Speaking of feet, I should have grabbed some cute kicks from Lily’s room when I was there. That would have stuck it to her. As it was, I couldn’t find a pair, so I pushed it to the back of my mind for a bit.

For my plan, I couldn’t wear the cloak, which was wicked cool, and it pained me to part with it. Lily wouldn’t stop until we were dead or she was, I figured. She might be a horrible villain, but she was both persistent and patient, which made her dangerous. Come on, Tabby, think. Think think think think thi-

Oh. Okay. Step one: Stash the cloak. Looking around, I see nothing, no corners wrought with shadows, no conveniently placed potted plant, nothing. Scurrying back inside, I catch sight of a… wall of cubbies? Last time I used one of these, I put little handwriting packets in there. Ah, Kindergarten. No stress lemon zest. I found one in the left back corner of the room, as far from the in-use ones as possible, and quickly stuffed the cloak inside. The black fabric perfectly matched the shade of black closest to the back of the cubby, making it seem to be empty.

Step two: Find the girls. Easier said than done. Fluffing my unruly locks to hide my face, I stepped into the hallway and knocked on other doors. A few yards down, one finally opened. I put my head down, and scuffed my foot against the floor.

Appearing contrite, I tried on my best innocent voice, and looked at the woman between the strands of hair. “Hello ma’am, I’m sorry to bother you. I’m new, and I got lost.” Nice. Where did that sheepish note in my voice come from? This sounds way better than when Lily tried her baloney innocent voice.

She smiled warmly. Bingo. “Where are you headed too, sweetheart?”

Turns out I didn’t think far enough ahead to come up with an excuse. “I’m going to the dining hall… I-um... I… well.” I stuttered, reaching backing into my stash of medieval movie facts, looking for a plausible reason as to why I was going there, but she saved me the trouble.

“Going to dust, are you? I’ll lead you there, but then I’ll clear out so I don’t get you in trouble with the head maid. If you newbies show up late to a cleaning appointment, Delilah will give you doody duty.” She laughed at her own joke, but I was too busy thinking about the perfect opportunity she had gifted me to hear her. She lead me down a series of twists and turns, and I snapped out of it to pay attention to the way back to the room the cloak was stashed in.

When we got there, she smiled and left, and I wasted no time in pushing the grand double doors open to reveal the imposing high-ceilinged room hiding behind them. In the middle was an ebony polished wooden table, spanning the length of the room, with at least fifty chairs surrounding it. Placed in the center of the table was a forlorn blue cake. Tabby was devastated to see that she was too late. Terra and Tammi were slumped over in the two chairs closest to the cake, their skin pale and breath slowing.