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.. . . . ]| Startling Thought |[ . . . ..

Bassett awoke, his eyes stretching themselves open from the confines of sleep. This was the second night in a row that he hadn't been able to sleep the whole night through. Granted, he should have been able to sleep a full nine hours, especially after Pey drained a substantial amount of blood from him, but it seemed like things were taking a slow and steady turn for the worse considering Bassett's sleeping schedule. He shifted from his bed and turned towards the window, the corks on his horns that he usually put in place to protect the state of his pillow squeaking as he moved. He blinked at the rectangle in his wall, feeling a cool draft...

Cool draft? Bassett blinked, not quite understanding this "draft" that was raising bumps all over his skin. The window was shut. He was sure that he shut it. Being a newborn demon and all, Bassett was very cold all the time now and he always kept the window shut to keep himself that much warmer. But when he forced his eyes open, Basset discovered that his window wasn't shut. It was wide open.

Odd.

The soldier lifted himself up, his pajamas all askew, and he uprooted his legs from the masses of sheets he had stockpiled on his makeshift bed. He was about to solemnly swear to himself to beat Pey in the morning somehow someway for opening the window, when he saw something fluttering in the window and th-

SMACK

...Into his face. Bassett helplessly flailed at his face for a few moments, nearly falling back onto his hammock. Finally, he pulled the strange thing from his face and looked upon it from the light coming from the window.

...Fabric?

Not any ordinary fabric, but fabric...That looked and felt familiar, like it was a part of something he once knew. He lifted it to his face again and gingerly smelt the faint aroma of honey, spices, and burnt offerings. His eyes widened. He knew this smell. He knew this fabric..It belonged to a young girl he once knew...A young girl who grew up startlingly fast...The same girl who gave him a necklace...The very one he held in his collar, beneath his skin, responsible for his being a newborn demon.

Could she? No...She was gone...Or at least, that's what he last knew of her...Could she be back? It was a startling thought, either way.

Quite firmly disturbed now, Bassett jumped and rushed about helplessly in his room until he noticed Pey daydreaming on the ceiling.

"PEY!" the soldier, hissed, catching the Nameless' attention. "Pey! Listen! Did you open this window just now?"

Growling, the demon stirred and opened his inverted eye upon the other, his bloodied frown deepening, "No. Jeez, do you blame me for EVERYTHING?"

"Most of the time, Yes," the soldier snapped, "But seriously, did you?"

"I said NO," the demon snarled, "What do you want from me?"

"I just...you didn't sense anything in here? Nothing at all? Look at this fabric..."

Pey rolled his eyes, scuttling down from the ceiling to stand in front of Bassett, poking him meanly in the chest, "No, I didn't. No, I don't. No, I will not. And no, no no no NO!! Stop freaking out all the time, Button. Go back to sleep! That thing is probably just trash blown in from the ******** street. Now leave me alone!" Huffing, the demon scuttled back to his corner in the ceiling and turned his back to Bassett, mumbling all the while, <******** fleshbags..."

The soldier wasn't appeased. He needed better answers than those, so, scrambling to get himself together, Bassett decided to take the long way down to the old demon shoppe. Perhaps they would have something there. Perhaps Edward would know.

.. . . . ..

.. . . . ]| Public Service |[ . . . ..

Leaving the Daemonologie shop, Bassett runs into Ein, a fellow summoner in the most inconvenient of ways.

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.. . . . ]| The Thing in the Bathtub |[ . . . ..

After a hard day's worth of work and paranoid glancing about his shoulders, Bassett wanted nothing more than to relax and have a sit-down where he could enjoy a plate of half-heartedly cooked baked beans and biscuits. Pey was in the same room, sleeping on the wall. Bassett tiredly dismissed the dull thump of sound. It must've been Pey changing positions. He had less of an aptitude to stay awake for long periods of time in this world apparently, or so was his excuse. Bassett knew he was just lazy, but this provided him with time to savor a rare silence. There was s drip of water onto his hand, which Bassett presumed was Pey's saliva. The soldier wiped it off and away. He was going to get rest tonight, he decided, taking another mouthful of his simple dinner. He was going to take advantage of his master's trip away from home and get some well-needed rest.

The next drop of supposed saliva was tinged with blood. Bassett stared at it dumbly for a while until he realized the color swirling within it. "...Blood?"

Looking up, he focused his gaze at Pey, but it was to his surprise to see that he was no where near him and his table. It came from upstairs.

Bassett lifted himself up slowly from the table, entirely forgetting about his meal ont he table. He started towards the stairs slowly. Galvin wasn't home, he knew, so what was going on up there...? As he ascended the stairs, his soft soled shoes clipped against...water? Bassett lifted his feet, furrowing his brows as he heard the suck of it against his shoes. Thoughts of leaving the sink on rushed through his mind and he hurried up the steps, each step upwards making him feel more and more disquieted. That wasn't right. This water had blood in it. Something was wrong, he felt, something was very wrong.

Bassett followed the rivulets of water to the source, the upstairs bathroom. That was Galvin's master bathroom, the most elaborate of the house, the one Bassett only ever stepped in to clean. Very carefully, he opened the door, and as he did, a swirl of bloodied water flooded his feet. He frowned in disgust and looked up, moving into the bathroom and it's gold plated finishing. His eyes immediately moved to the sink and then again over to the other side of the bathroom, where the master bath sat...overfilled...overflowing...with blood.

Within it was a body.

Bassett heard himself give a cry and he found himself frozen where he stood. His soldier self prompted him with curt and loud commands, but his servant self spoke to him with hurried pleads to run away. Curiosity though, would always get the upper hand, so, very slowly...slowly...Bassett inched forward until he could see the body within the tub. It was a girl...Naked...Short dark hair...Covering a mass of mush and red. Such gore was a familiar sight to Bassett and he hardly flinched at the sight, the boiled skin...But what he did flinch at was the horrid smell. The servant threw his sleeve over his mouth and he inched ever more forward, trying to see the face of the body. But the water was trembling, unclear, with the running water. Bassett had to blink.

It was gone.

Bassett looked at the draining water, his eyes wide, watching as the blood ebbed away into the darkness of the hole. Shuddering, Bassett straightened himself up and looked around. All the water was gone. The watery blanket of blood was gone from the floor. It was just a dream. But no, Bassett was sure that it was not a dream, the draining puddle of water in the tub decreed that it was reality.

Or was it?

The soldier stepped out of the bathroom slowly, treating it as if it were an infected hospital room. Gulping, he closed the door, and, shaking terribly, returned to his meal, which he spent the next two hours, staring at, watching it as it grew colder.

.. . . . ..

.. . . . ]| Herr Drosselmyer's Doll |[ . . . ..

Bassett seeks some time in the garden to restore his clarity and senses, but it is interrupted by something he least expected.

.. . . . ..