Chapter Text
Cold.
So cold that it was burning.
It was all she could feel, her eyes remained closed, scared of where she might be.
She could hear the wind rustling the branches of trees, was she in the forest? She felt too scared, too powerless to open her eyes or move her body.
She heard a voice calling out her name, but it couldn't be, who would ever look for her ?
“Ivory…”, a voice called out, full of warmth and affection, how could such a sweet voice call for her?
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“Ivory wake up it’s time”, he said while gently shaking her.
Ivory woke up slightly surprised by being removed from her nightmare.
“Oh I didn’t mean to startle you, you can sleep some more, if you’re tired that is, it’s already time for us to be up you know” Seraptor said.
“Thank you Serapter and no I'm not tired, just a bad dream” Ivory responded.
“Is there any problem, you can take rest if you want, I'll ask Clown if I can cover your shift, I wouldn’t mind,” Serapter stated.
“No, Im fine, jus-just a bad dream as i said”
“Ok, I’ll go and ask Zam what he wants for breakfast, you just get ready”, He said as he took his leave from the room.
Ivory got up and stretched, she didn’t realise how much she had coiled up during her sleep, she hadn’t had a bad dream in weeks, why now? She got dressed and went down to the kitchen to inform Ash about Pyro’s breakfast.
“Mr.Pyroscythe said that he wants sausage and eggs for breakfast”, she said to Ash. Her stutter had gotten better as things became more calm.
“Yeah, got it.”, Ash replied.
She then took the plate and headed up to Pyroscthe’s room. The Hemlockes preferred to have their breakfast in their rooms but would go to the dining room for lunch and dinner. How peculiar? She thought to herself before knocking on the door.
“Sir, it’s Ivory, I have your breakfast ready.”
Pyroscythe opened the door,”Ah, good morning Ivory, I’ll take that off your hands”, he said as he took the plate from her.
“Good morning Sir, do i n-need to clean your room ?”
“Not now Ivory, maybe sometime later, I’ll inform you then, you can do your normal job”
“Ok sir.”
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Ivory having completed most of her work took her break by playing the piano, the tone was neutral with the slightest tinge of impatience, the thought of the intentional destruction of the boiler weighed on her mind. Who could have done it? It couldn’t have been the same person who killed Mysticat since they were held in the police station at the time of the attack.
The piano tones started becoming faster and sharper.
It couldn’t have been an outsider since they would have to walk past most people to reach the staircase. All signs point to somehow inside the house but who would do that, she mulled over various faces thinking about their motivations.
Her hands started flying trying to keep up with her thoughts, with almost every key having a sharper tone than the one before it.
Her mind then wandered to Serapter’s words.
“Remember last time we started accusing each other of doing horrible things and then it turned out to just be some random psycho that broke in and did it?”
He was right, he must be right. It would be idiotic of anyone in the mansion to do it.
Crash
Her hands and thoughts stopped immediately, the noise was from the boiler.
Without hesitation she got up and out of the room to see who was breaking the boiler and-
Kantje.
He didn’t see her but he still ran up the stairs, Ivory followed later after recovering from the shock.
She ran up the stairs and past the rooms to try and chase after Kantje.
“Woah woah, slow down Ivory.” Clownpierce stopped her in the kitchen, not knowing what had occurred.
“Did you see Kantje just now, sir?” She asked him.
“No, what’s the deal?”
“Kantje broke the boiler and then ran away.” She then also ran out, not stopping to listen to what Pierce had to say.
“Ivory? What’s the matter?” Serapter called out with worry, seeing Ivory tensed.
“Serapter, have you seen Kantje just now?”
“Uhh no, why?”
“I think- I think he broke the boiler. He was in the basement just now, I don’t know where he went”
“Woah ,wait what? The boiler’s broken again?”
“Yes, Call the fire service, I saw the fire spreading from the boiler. I’m sorry i’ve gotta go, you should tell Clown about the boiler please”
“O-okay but, w-wait what happened?”
“Kantje broke the boiler and ran away!”
“Alright ,well just calm down for a second okay? Maybe he was going to tell someone that -”
“He wasn’t!” Ivory looked out the window, immediately spotting Kantje leaving the estate.
“He’s there”
“Hey Ivory!”
“Call the fire service and help Mr.Pierce!” She said before running off.
“...Uhm, Okay”
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Ivory followed Kantje from a distance throughout Emberton. She noticed him looking behind every time before taking a turn.
She saw him go down into a staircase in an alleyway and went down after some hesitation.
She found a closed door and pressed her ear against it to hear what Kantje was doing.
“Hey”, She heard Kantje say to someone in the room.
“Is it done?” An ominous voice asked him.
“Yes, can I have the money?”
“Was everyone eating dinner?”
“Well I left but they were just about to.”
“So you don’t know.”
“I-i-i i almost got spotted by someone I had to leave early”
“Someone saw you?”
“No,no…”
“Were you followed?”
“No, nobody's following me!”
“Ok”
“Well this has taken long enough”
“Look, I don’t know if you’ve tried but it’s hard to pull a stunt like this in a house filled with people.”
“Don’t talk back to me.”
“Look, I did everything you’ve asked, can you please just give me the money?”
“Okay, we’ll go check to see if you did a good job in just a few hours.”
“Alright, ok.”
“But you’re cal- you’re calling the fire department right?”
“Of course, of course, you did leave the gas on in the kitchen stove, right?”
Ivory, startled, immediately started running back to the estate not bothering to listen to the rest of the conversation.
She ran through Emberton’s various streets which she had walked down many times before now with tears in her eyes.
She heard a loud explosion in the distance and the sight of birds flocking away from the general location of the whitepine estate.
“No, no, no, no, no!” She cried as she ran back to the place she now called home, coughing and out of breath sometimes but never stopping.
Her vision was a blur of the real world between her tears and all the memories she held with her colleagues-no, her friends, Serapter, Loppezz, Div, Pyro, Vi, and all the others came back in her fleeting memories as she closed up the mansion whose smell of smoke extended past the mansion itself.
When she finally arrived, she saw the fire department there having already pulled out many of the members of the mansion.
She saw Ash passed out on a stretcher, Muu passed out next to him on another.
Clown was helping the firefighters pull out the survivors.
Vi was out and coughing out the smog, Zam was patting his back to get it out faster.
Clown carried out Pyroscythe with the help of Ross.
Noticing the lack of Serapter, she ran into the burning mansion.
“Serapter!” She called out, hoping that he might be able to hear her.
“Ivory!” A weak groan came from the stairs, she saw her friend on the stairs coughing and looking like he was about to pass out.
She ran to his side and caught him before he fell to the floor, he was heavier than she expected but she managed to drag him out the fire and into the cold winter air, she laid him down on the ground. Her tears spilling over her face as he passed out.
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