YAY At long last, I have been able to post stuff! Woohoo! And also, after so much of the sometimes necessary evil known as "filler" (ick), here it is: the JOlt in the story you've all been waiting for!! (Oops, clumsy me!)
And now, on with the story! Pyra

It was already December, December 4th to be exact. 4, the unlucky number.

I had spent more than enough days—weeks, actually—doing next to nothing. I had made up my mind to approach Kanaye over the issue of my lack of work to do. But as it turned out, I didn’t have to do so.

After a very late breakfast, just as I was about to ask him if he was ready with any more of his rooms, he said, “Oh, by the way, Hisa, I cleaned out a few more rooms upstairs. You can do the 3rd-floor hall today, and there’s a room and the guest bathroom that are ready. I finally cleared those out… sorry for the wait…”

“Oh, no trouble at all,” I lied. “Go at your own pace.”

“No, I’m sorry. It’s not like you to be out of things to do, I can tell…”

“It’s nothing. I actually get to relax a little, for once,” I joked.

He smiled, and said, “Also, if you need any help, I’ll be staying home today.” He got up and took his plate to the sink. He nudged me toward the side a little during the process, saying, “I’ll do the dishes today, so you can get started.”

I was a little surprised. “Um… thanks,” I managed. Where did this ultra-kind side of his come from? It just seemed that he was being even nicer than usual.

I gathered my cleaning materials and headed up. Osen soon joined me, saying sarcastically, “I’ve been delegated to help you out today.”

“Oh, c’mon, am I that bad?” I teased as we reached the hall.

Together, we got the hallway done in well under an hour. The room that Kanaye had spoken of was also completely empty, so we got done with both the hall and the room before 2 o’clock.

“Whew,” I noted as I entered the bathroom, “we’re making great progress! At this rate, we’ll be done with hours to spare before dinner!”

“Yeah, well… I hate to burst your bubble, but wait ‘till you see that bathroom,” Osen said as I looked.

It was a mess. No words could describe the level of messiness that room had attained. It was as bad as the kitchen used to be, before I had a crack at it. There was trash all over the floor, and there were a few mysterious, dark stains on the sink, toilet, and bathtub. There were even a few of the same stains on the wall. It didn’t help that all four were white, either—stains sometimes still show up some on such light colors.

“Wow, this is so kitchen-mess redux,” I said, putting on a face mask before the stench could get to me.

“You can say that again,” Osen said as he climbed onto the shelves above the sink with wet rags tied to his feet and tail.

We got to work immediately. After we cleared the room of trash, I scrubbed the stains off of the walls and tub; Osen got the sink, floor, and shelves. It took a long time… it was several hours before I finally was satisfied with the stains and began to dust the ceiling and polish the mirror. I couldn’t help but notice the elegant and wide full-length mirror. How could Kanaye let such a beautiful mirror get so dusty as to not allow one to see anything in it?

Osen finished his tasks as I began to work on the particularly well-stained toilet. I had finally gotten all of the stains off of the outside, and had begun to clean out the inside of the toilet. The porcelain lid to the tank was very heavy, and I finally got it up and leaning against the wall before I set to work.

It was then that Osen showed signs of being extremely bored. Every once in a while, when he was done but I wasn’t, he would start dancing around, or jumping on shelves and dancing around dangerously—in such a reckless manner that each time he did it, I was sure he would fall off.

“Cut it out, Osen!” I said loudly. “You know how much I hate it when you do that. It’s dangerous.”

“Ahh, I’ll be alright,” Osen said joyfully. “I’m a cat, for Pete’s sake.”

“Osen, you’ll fall and you’ll get hurt! You can’t be too careful,” I said, almost at a shout. I straightened my back so I could keep an eye on him.

In that moment, Osen slipped and almost fell off the shelf he was prancing on. “Osen!” I cried out. He righted himself, grinning.

But in my reaction, I had moved my left hand away from where it was dutifully holding up the heavy toilet-tank lid…. Which fell on my arm.

All I heard was a resounding craaaaaack.

The pain was excruciating.

Osen’s jaw dropped, and he stopped his gleeful prancing to stare.

I shut my eyes tight, trying to scream, make a sound, let the pain out. I finally managed, “Ff… ff… Ff!...”

Osen drew back, expecting a swear to escape my lips.

“… fiddlesticks!!” I finally managed, forcibly and loudly. Tears and sweat began to pour down my face.

“Oh my God… oh my God…” Osen kept saying. “I gotta get Kanaye… wait here, Hisa, I’ll get help!” he said. I didn’t hear him in my pain, but I did see something that looked like a little winged monkey flying out of the room out of the corner of my eye.

Several long minutes passed. I tried not to cry, but I couldn’t help whimpering. It was just too much for me to try to control the pain; I was in turmoil, groaning and trying to hold it all in, until Kanaye arrived.

I eventually heard running footsteps approaching. Kanaye soon ran into the room, flanked by Osen. It seemed he was trying to shush Osen, as if he were upset at the cat; Osen was saying, “Her arm’s probably broken—“ but Kanaye cut him off with a wave of his hand.

“Hisa?” Kanaye asked as he approached me. “Can you talk to me? Can you tell me what’s wrong?”

And I couldn’t—but not because I was in pain.

I had seen something in the mirror—something looking like some human-sized, half-formed, clawed demon with bat wings and short, light brown hair.

And it was standing in the mirror where Kanaye was standing now.

Kanaye followed my gaze to the mirror, saw what I saw, and said, “Oh, shit.”