Henheart's Universe

In the same stand where Maki had kept the work gloves were also several drawers that contained various odds and ends tools. Searching through one of them, she found a pair of slightly rusted snips that apparantly hadn't been used in some time, but were still sharp nonetheless. Using these, Maki snipped the plastic bands that had held the coffin's lid in place for storage. After the finding of a second corpse in the castle shortly after Lady Washu had departed, Maki had ordered an assortment of these coffins made up and stored here for possible future use. And sadly, a half dozen of them had been used since then and now Mr. Carnesir made the seventh of these and soon to be the eighth deceased buried by Maki in her tenure as the castle's sole caretaker.

Quietly she worked, first removing the lid from the coffin and then inspecting the box for defects or unwanted refuse. Once satisfied that it was usable, Maki lifted up one end the litter bearing the corpse of Mr. Carnesir and dragged it over the top of the open coffin. With careful placement, she set the litter down with the corpse positioned exactly as it would rest in the coffin. Maki then unbound the corpse and removed her numerous safety pins from the linens of the litter. Silently, the corpse settled comfortably into its new home. Then one at a time she withdrew the long wooden slats from the linens of the litter and set them upon a couple of pegs protruding from the shed's stone wall, opposite the shelving that held the spare coffins.

Tucking in the excess linens, Maki carefully placed the lid upon the no longer empty coffin. Going back once again to the tool stand, Maki returned the snips to their drawer and took out a rather ordinary claw hammer. From another drawer she took a box half full of ten penny nails and set them on the lid of the coffin near the center. Maki removed the work gloves and carefully began to drive the nails, one by one, into the coffin lid to secure it. She wasn't much of a carpenter, but Maki was careful enough to position the nails correctly and not hurt herself with the hammer. It didn't take long before she was finished with her somber crating task. After putting away the rest of the tools, Maki went to the door and looked outside.

The air still had a chilly bite to it and now that she was no longer working Maki began to feel uncomfortably cold. A soft breeze around her ankles sent a shivering chill up her legs and back and Maki hugged herself and waited, trying not to shiver. Just about the moment she would've gone back to the castle to get her coat, Maki heard the telltale growl of a diesel engine in the distance. One side of the courtyard that Maki looked out upon bordered on one of the castle's fortified outer walls, and near the center of this side of the courtyard was in fact one of the fortified outer gates. It had not been manned in modern times of course, but when Maki heard the sound of the engine she strolled quickly across the courtyard to open the gate for the groundskeeper that was coming with his truck. The gate itself was a guillotine type structure that was designed so that chains and pulleys moved the gate and counterweights so that a normal human person could operate it. Fortunately modern technology had been employed to motorize all of this so all that Maki needed to do was turn a key in an electric switch to open this medieval wonder of brute strength defense.

Maki stood aside as the groundskeeper drove his truck through. Except for Maki herself, this fellow was the only other person that worked at the castle these days, and even then only part time. The lack of any visitors or other occupants made for minimal grounds maintenance requirements. The truck stopped right next to the shed where Maki had been working almost as if it knew exactly what to do, and from past experiences, its driver did. When he shut the motor down, the air became peacefully silent again. The man opened the door and dismounted from the truck. He watched Maki as she approached him from the gate, his face wore an expression of grim annoyance. He was an older fellow, maybe around sixty, but built like an ox with skin darkly bronzed from decades of work outdoors. Like Maki, he wore no jacket, but the cold didn't seem to bother him in the least, in fact there were many other things on his mind.

Eventually Maki-chan quieted down and with a sniff she looked up. Maki was of course humilated by this outburst of unprofessional behavior, but a quick glance around the dimly lit corridor brought some sense of relief for her. Save for herself, no one else was there to witness her embarrassing blunder. "It really did feel good to let that out" Maki admitted to herself "but I'm glad that no one else had to see that" she sighed and levered herself back up into a standing position.

The materials she had been carrying still lay scattered on the floor so Maki quickly gathered them up and began to walk down the corridor again towards her original destination. Maki remembered what Moshman had said about Mistress Washu being the one really responsible for what had happened and since it did make sense, Maki felt a little less guilty about her failure. As always, as long as she had work to do, Maki's own life, her loneliness and guilt just faded into the background as she kept herself busy with whatever needed attending to at the moment.

Then she once again entered the dungeon chamber where the corpse of Cirdan Carnesir still lay. Maki set her candleholder down in the middle of the room where it would light the area as efficiently as its tiny flame could. She set down her bundle of linens and the two long wooden slats off to one side, away from the body. From her apron pocket, Maki drew out a surgeon's mask and tied it on her face to cover her nose and mouth. Next, from the same pocket Maki pulled out a pair of black industrial latex rubber gloves and stretched them one at a time over her hands and uniform sleeves. To her chagrin, Maki was familiar with handling corpses and knew that she had to take these precautions to avoid endangering her own health. She spread the first of the linen sheets out on the floor and then rolled the corpse onto it. Rigor mortis was beginning to set in, so Maki stripped Cirdan's corpse of his clothing as quickly as possible. Even in death he was a handsome, almost godlike creature, but Maki fought down the regrets that were trying to rise in her at the sight of him. She quickly wrapped the body in the sheet it was lying on and then opening up another sheet, she repeated the process once again. Cirdan's clothing, she tied up in a linen bag and set that aside for later. Maki would incinerate the bag and its contents at the earliest possible convenience. Taking the last two sheets, Maki laid them out on the floor and set the long wooden slats on top of the sheets. The slats were positioned so that the two layers of sheets were divided into three equal rectangular areas with the slats protruding about one meter beyond the sheets both ways. When the positioning was correct, Maki folded the sheets over the slats and formed herself a makeshift litter. She fastened the sheets with a number of safety pins which wasn't a trivial task while wearing rubber gloves, but this was among many unusual tasks Maki had become proficient at in her years working in Castle Henheart. All that was left to do was roll the body onto the litter and bind it securely. Once she had completed this, Maki removed the rubber gloves and mask. Maki had one more piece of linen that was really an odd scrap that she had fashioned into a wide strap a few meters long. This Maki tied to the slats at one end of the litter so she could lift it. Now that the preparations were complete Maki turned with a sigh "Now for the hard part" she muttered to herself in the silence of the dungeon. Standing between the slats, Maki faced away from the body bound to the litter. She crouched down and picked up the linen strap and ducked her head under it so that the strap passed behind her neck, then over the front of her shoulders, and lastly under her armpits. Careful not to pinch her hair under the strap, Maki stood up and lifted the litter up on one end. The other end remained on the floor as Maki picked up her candleholder, leaned forward, and took a step, dragging the litter behind her.

Among all of the bodies she had dragged out of the castle over last two years, this was one of the heaviest Maki quickly realized. For some reason she couldn't quite explain Maki felt like this drudgery was something that she needed right now. Leaning forward again, Maki placed her foot on the first tread of the stairway up out of the dungeons.

Oh, no worries, the bright pinkness helps keep the mold down. ^_^

Moshman, feeling confused and guilt for Maki-Chan, stared at the dusty floor despairingly. He finally walked up to her and abruptly put his hand on her shoulder, "I know what it's like being alone and drowned in guilt," he said reassuringly, "but going on like this will only make things worse. As for Washu, I'm not afraid of her at all. All she can do is stare a hole in me. She left you alone, it's her who needs to be punished not you. Tell her that you tried to reject my offer, but that I simply ignored it. After all it is a pretty big place, and really chilly in here. It must be hard to do all this on one's own, especially with the grief you're experiencing."

Moshman let go and walked towards a wall and slid down on the cold floor.

"I know you don't really mean that, but if you wish for me to leave, I will."

Meanwhile, Moshman peeks out from a corner at Maki-Chan, he grabs a broom and offers a lending hand on maintaining the vacant old decrepit castle.

"Mind if I stick around for a bit? Looks like there's a lot of work to be done around here hey?"