Not-So-Cheap Thrills

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 10, Post Number 240

-Outside Haunted Castle, midnight-

Wearing her casual outfit with blue backpack and brown boots, Lucia had also brought both Shining Light and Lumie with her for this job. She would need them both because tonight she was on a mission to Haunted Castle, another place in Fiore that was infamous for paranormal activity. Lucia had been to the Abandoned Cabin and she had been to Silent Cemetery, but tonight was her first time going to Haunted Castle, where things that were a lot worse than zombies were rumored to live. Lucia was going inside the castle on a mission to retrieve some expensive family heirlooms belonging to the Fontaine family, a wealthy family residing in Capital Crocus.

Three of the Fontaine family's daughters, deciding to go to Haunted Castle for some thrills to spice up their lives, had worn heirloom necklaces that had been dropped or otherwise misplaced when they fled the castle. They reported hearing a lot of strange noises throughout their tour and experiencing poltergeist activity at least twice before losing their nerve and fleeing the castle after encountering what they believed to be a vampire. Lucia was not sure whether they had really encountered a vampire or not, but she would be ready for vampires with Shining Light in hand.

Lucia took a moment to stand outside of the castle and see what she was going into. True to its name, it looked like an old castle, but it did not look like one of those castles that had been renovated to be a home by weakening the walls with numerous windows. It was sturdily built and looked like it could still withstand a siege. Its sheer size made it loom over the viewer and made the castle look like it was daring visitors to enter.

"Wow, that's a really big castle!" Lumie commented from his candleholder.

"Yeah. It's also home to things worse than zombies... if the rumors are true. And they have a lot of space to call home." Lucia replied to the tiny candle. The pair looked at the castle for a few moments longer before locating the wooden double doors that visitors could use to get in. Lucia walked towards them with Lumie in her left hand and Shining Light in her right hand. She got to within three steps of the doors before she felt a strong sense of foreboding that was practically weapons-grade and paused to recover from the intense feeling.

"Hey Lucia, are you OK?" Lumie asked her. Lucia did not respond for a few moments as she shook off the feeling.

"Yeah, Lumie. I'm fine. Thanks." Lucia replied as calmly as she could once she felt up to speaking again. She then temporarily holstered her pistol so that she would have a free hand with which to open a door. She grabbed the right doorknob and twisted it, then pulled the creaking door open enough to go through it. She closed the door behind her.

-Inside Haunted Castle-

Lucia turned around to find herself in an elaborate foyer lit by brass chandeliers that had actual old-fashioned candles as opposed to small Lacrima globes to provide light. She liked the old-fashioned chandeliers because they lent a touch of class to the atmosphere, but now was not the time to appreciate the decor. Taking her eyes off of the chandeliers, she looked forward and spotted a golden necklace attached to a circular pendant lying about three meters away on the red carpet with gold borders beneath her feet. Lucia carefully walked over to it and looked around to make sure that she was not going to be attacked before she bent over to pick up the necklace.

Once she was sure that she was in the clear Lucia walked over to it and scooped it up with her right hand. She examined the front of the pendant and saw nothing of interest. She turned it over and saw a name engraved on the back.

Agatha Fontaine

Knowing that she had found one of the three heirloom jewelry pieces belonging to the Fontaine family, Lucia carefully lowered Lumie to the ground, took off her backpack, opened it, and carefully put the necklace inside before closing it up and putting it onto her back again. Once she did so she picked up Lumie's candleholder.

"I saw something shiny, Lucia! What did you find?" Lumie asked Lucia.

"I found one of the three pieces of Jewelry that I was hired to retrieve." Lucia told Lumie. Now that she had picked up the necklace, she looked around her and learned that now she had a choice to make. She could go left or she could go right.

"Which way are you gonna go, Lucia?" Lumie asked Lucia.

"I have no clue, Lumie." Lucia replied while looking left and right. She had no idea which way to go. The Fontaine sisters did not pay attention to their surroundings as they fled and were unable to give Lucia approximate locations for their missing jewelry. As a result Lucia would have to explore the whole castle and pay attention to gleaming objects on the floor as she explored.

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While trying to decide which way to go Lucia looked around her elegant surroundings and noticed that she was surrounded by paintings of rustic scenes. Unable to resist the temptation to take a glance, Lucia walked closer to one of them and noticed that the painting was an oil painting of an old-fashioned log cabin sitting in the middle of a thick forest. The painting was so detailed that the blonde could almost see the splinters in the logs that the cabin was built out of. She could also see the individual limbs of the trees surrounding the log cabin.

"Wow. It's so detailed." Lucia said to herself as she admired the artwork. Just to the right of the log cabin painting hung a painting of a red barn sitting in the middle of a grassy field on a bright, sunny day. Outside of the barn was a middle-aged man wearing simple farming clothing opening one of the doors. Again it was an oil painting and it was so detailed that she could almost see the individual blades of grass in the grassy field and the fabric of the man's clothing.

Tearing herself away from the incredibly detailed paintings that were a delight to look at, Lucia looked around and tried to decide which way to go to continue her search. After weighing her options, Lucia decided to go down the right hallway and see where it took her. Picking a path at random was hardly the best way to conduct a search, but without any information on where the remaining two pieces of jewelry were dropped, the blonde mage would just have to search the castle until she found the missing two pieces.

Lucia walked slowly while listening out for any sounds of the castle's residents heading her way. She also walked slowly so that she had a better chance of spotting any more jewelry that had been dropped during the flight of the Fontaine sisters. As she walked Lucia could not help but to be attracted to the paintings that lined the walls and were spaced neatly apart at three-meter intervals. They were all paintings of rustic scenes and they were just as detailed as the ones in the foyer.

One of the standouts was a painting of a shepherd boy standing watch over a flock of sheep grazing in a pasture. The shepherd boy wore a straw hat to cover his short black hair and standing at his side was a dog with long fur and a coloration that matched the fur length and coloration of a Border Collie. Lucia looked at the painting a little longer than she should have because she marveled at the detail put into the painting. If she ran into the castle's owner and they were in a mood to chat she should ask who the painter was so that she could look into acquiring some of their work.

Finally tearing herself away from the painting, Lucia moved on. She walked down the hallway and stole glances at the occasional painting that caught her eye, but she did not stop because she had a job to do and did not have time to waste admiring artwork. On the right side of the hallway was what looked to be a staircase that led up. Upon seeing that Lucia picked up the pace and reached the staircase in two minutes of brisk walking. Lucia put her right foot on the first step and began walking up with Lumie's candleholder in her left hand.

-On the second floor-

Lucia climbed the staircase and reached the second floor without incident. When she stepped onto the second floor she gazed at her surroundings. The area was lit by Lacrima lanterns instead of candles in brass chandeliers and the lanterns were spaced at twenty-five meter intervals, leaving parts of the area in dim light.

The blonde focused forward and saw a hallway with a lot of paintings that stretched for at least fifty meters before branching to the right. She turned right and saw a hallway that stretched the same distance. It had an opening where the branching path to her left rejoined the main hallway and it also had a staircase to the right. Going down the hallway to her right was Lucia's first instinct, but she decided against it because a piece of missing jewelry might be on the branching path.

"Which way do we go, Lucia?" Lumie asked Lucia.

"We go straight. A piece of jewelry might be on the branching path." Lucia replied calmly. Without further delay she began to walk forward down the hallway while listening out for the castle's guards or other sounds of danger. Unlike on the first floor, the second floor did not have any carpet to muffle her footsteps. That worked in her favor because just as people could hear her walking she could hear people walking as well.

Lucia's eyes inevitably turned towards the paintings and noticed that this hallway's artwork had a hunting theme. One painting featured a proud-looking man with a powdered wig on his head wearing a red coat with gold buttons and white pants with black knee-length boots. He was standing proudly over a downed fox with two hunting dogs sitting at his feet. In his hands was a gleaming flintlock musket.

Another painting featured a hunter in green clothing standing in a forest. He was aiming a bow at a stag that was running towards some underbrush and the hunter looked like he was just about to release the arrow at his quarry. The painting was so detailed that she could see the look of concentration on the hunter's face and the muscles of his arm as he was about to release the arrow.

Lucia kept walking until she reached the corner of the hallway, where she turned right and looked down the dimly lit corridor. She thought that she could see something metallic gleaming in the distance, but with the dim lighting she could not be entirely sure what she was looking at. Lumie looked up at her and asked a question.

"Hey Lucia, what's that?" He asked before pointing his little arm down the hallway to draw her attention to what he saw.

"I don't know, Lumie. I'm checking it out." Lucia told the little candle before starting down the branching hallway to see what the gleaming object was.

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Walking slowly and carefully in order to have enough time to react in case she was walking into an ambush, Lucia moved towards the mystery object sitting in the darkness. The light in the corridor was dim, but she had a solution to that particular problem. Lumie could light the way.

"Lumie, could you light up the area for me?" Lucia asked Lumie.

"Sure thing!" Lumie said with a can-do attitude. He crossed his little arms and concentrated. The pale blue flame on his head grew larger and the radius of the light he was casting reached out to twenty-five meters. With Lumie lighting a good chunk of the area Lucia could see much more clearly than she could moments ago.

"Thanks, Lumie." Lucia thanked her candle companion for shedding some light on the dimly lit corridor.

"No problem!" Lumie replied. Confident in the quality of the lighting, Lucia pressed on down the hallway and reached the mystery object after two minutes of brisk walking. She knelt down and scooped up the metallic object in her right hand, then stood back up. Lucia raised Lumie to get more light and noticed that she was holding a silver necklace with a circular silver pendant attached to it. Unlike the piece that had belonged to Agatha Fontaine, this piece had a sapphire embedded in the front of the pendant.

Lucia turned the silver pendant over and looked for a name engraved on the back. Sure enough there was a name engraved on the back.

Margaret Fontaine

Lucia had just found another piece belonging to the Fontaine family. She set Lumie down on the floor and took off her backpack. She then opened the backpack, carefully put the silver pendant inside, closed the backpack, and put it on her back again. She picked up Lumie and began walking until she reached the path that led back to the main hall.

Lucia turned right and followed the corridor until she was back in the corridor she would have walked down had she not went straight ahead at the entrance to the second floor. She entered the hallway and walked down it while stealing glances at the artwork. The theme for this area's artwork was aging and death.

One of the paintings that had caught her eye was a picture of four female figures. One of them was of a young blonde female child wearing a white dress and clutching a doll standing to the left of a smiling young woman with waist-length blonde hair in her mid-twenties to early thirties wearing an elaborate white dress and clutching a bouquet of roses. To the young woman's right was a middle-aged woman with shoulder-length blonde hair wearing white clothing and holding folded clothing who was not quite as happy as the young woman to her left but looked to be reasonably content with her life. To the middle-aged woman's right was a tired-looking old woman in white clothing with shoulder-length white hair and standing with the help of a brown wooden cane.

Lucia moved towards the staircase and noticed another eye-catching painting on the right side of the hallway. She stopped to look and saw a painting where a skeletal left hand holding an hourglass in its palm slightly lower than the skull that sat just to the right of the hourglass. Both objects sat squarely in the center of the painting. The grains of sand in the hourglass were about to run out and the skull was looking at the viewer as if saying to them that their time was soon going to run out.

Lucia did not need reminding about her mortality. She had already died once and had come back through means unknown to her. If she died again Lucia felt pretty sure that there would be no miraculous resurrection to save her a second time. The next time she died her death was likely going to be permanent.

Lucia turned away from the painting and walked towards the stairs that would take her to the next floor. There she hoped to find the third and last piece of jewelry and claim it so that she could get out of here. She had spent way too much time admiring the paintings on the walls and she needed to get a move on. Once Lucia reached the stairs she began to carefully ascend them with Lumie in hand to light the way up the dark staircase.

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[Total Word Count: 2,670/5,000]

-On the third floor-

Lucia ascended the staircase and looked at her new surroundings. The blonde mage was now standing in a grand banquet hall with a wooden floor that featured large tapestries hung on the sturdy walls that bore coats of arms. Of particular interest was a large brown tapestry positioned on the center of the left wall as if it was intended to be the centerpiece of the display of tapestries.

The tapestry in question bore a black shield with red swords crossed diagonally down. Below the shield was a motto woven in a strange lettering style and woven in a language she did not recognize, but it looked fancy. The words were woven in black and located on a white scroll positioned just below the black shield.

"NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT"

Lucia did not know what that phrase meant, but it looked important. It looked like a personal or family motto. However, she did not recognize the coat of arms on the brown tapestry or any of the other coats of arms on the tapestries surrounding it. Lucia did not have time to ponder its meaning, so she turned to look for the missing piece of jewelry. Once she had it in her possession she could get out of here and return to Capital Crocus.

Lucia looked up and noticed that on the ceiling hung golden candelabras with actual candles burning in them. She found that to be a classy touch for a large banquet hall. Without further delay Lucia walked towards a wooden rectangular table that dominated the room, but it was not just any old table that had been put here. The table was handcrafted and made of a rare wood; judging from the dark color, it looked like mahogany. The table was covered with an immaculate white tablecloth and fine silver plates sat in front of empty wooden chairs that were also carved out of mahogany to go with the table.

"Wow! Look at all of that!" Lumie said to Lucia with awe on his voice. The blonde slowly approached the table and took a closer look at the plates. They were old and they looked like they were made out of real silver... Lucia wondered how much it cost to buy those plates. Just one plate probably cost enough to pay her rent for a month and that was a conservative estimate.

"Yeah. Real silver plates. You don't see those very often." Lucia said in awe. She really liked the decor of the banquet hall. It had a nice old-fashioned touch that was eye-catching but not too ostentatious. Lucia blinked and realized that she was wasting time again.

Forcing herself to focus, she turned her attention away from the plates and began looking on the floor for the third and final piece of jewelry she needed to collect. Lucia spotted something gleaming in the light near the head of the table. The blonde mage gave a small smile.

"There it is." Lucia said softly. She walked past the table and walked up to the object. She bent down and scooped the object up with her right hand, then stood up straight and examined it. It was a golden necklace that looked almost exactly like Margaret Fontaine's, but there was no gemstone embedded in the pendant like the necklace that had once belonged to Margaret Fontaine.

Lucia turned the pendant over in her right hand and looked at the name engraved on the back.

Helena Fontaine

Lucia smiled widely. She had found all three pieces of jewelry the Fontaine sisters had left behind when they fled Haunted Castle after being spooked by whatever it was that they had encountered. Lucia set down Lumie, took off her backpack, opened it up, gently placed the golden necklace inside, closed the backpack, and put it back on. She then picked up Lumie's candleholder in her left hand.

"Did we get all the jewelry that we needed to find?" Lumie asked Lucia. The blonde looked at him and nodded.

"Yeah, Lumie. We found all three pieces." Lucia said happily. Moments later she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up and got the feeling that she was being watched by invisible eyes. Now that she had gotten what she had come for it was time to get out of here. Lucia drew Shining Light and turned around, then began walking briskly towards the staircase. She did not want to stay here any longer than she had to.

"C'mon, Lumie. We're leaving." Lucia said to Lumie. Clutching Shining Light in her right hand in case she ran into one of the castle's residents, Lucia did not feel like the handgun would do her much good against whatever lived here. She certainly did not want to stay and find out what lived here.

The sound of boots walking on wood filled the banquet hall as the blonde made her way to the staircase in order to begin the process of leaving Haunted Castle.

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[Total Word Count: 3,506/5,000]

-On the first floor, ten minutes later-

After moving carefully through the second floor Lucia had carefully walked down the staircase that led to the first floor. Once Lucia had walked down it she did not waste any time in locating the exit door and walking towards it as quickly as she could walk. The feeling that she was being watched persisted throughout the second floor and gave the blonde extra motivation to keep moving and not look back. Lucia stole the occasional glance behind her just to be certain that she was not being followed.

"We're almost there, Lucia! There's the front door!" Lumie said to Lucia, pointing towards the wooden double doors she had entered the castle through with his right arm.

"I'm so glad to see those doors, Lumie. I can't wait to get out of here." Lucia replied in a glad tone of voice. She had not seen anyone or anything yet and she was not going to wait to see if anyone was home. She had gotten what she had come here for and she was going to leave so that she could get back to Capital Crocus in one piece. Lucia began to break into a jog so that she could get out of here faster.

The artwork on the walls that had once captivated her was no longer appealing. If she wanted to go to an art gallery she would find one in a place where she could see exactly who was watching her at any given time. She was sure that Capital Crocus, Magnolia Town, or Talonia had an art gallery she could go to without having to worry about invisible stalkers watching her every move.

Lucia reached the door, hurriedly holstered Shining Light, and reached for the doorknob of the door with her right hand. The door opened and Lucia felt the hair on the back of her neck rise again as she glimpsed a tall human figure in a black tuxedo standing a meter or two away from her out of the corner of her right eye. The blonde did not dare look at them... she flung the door open and ran as fast as she could go before the mysterious figure could capture her.

-Outside Haunted Castle-

Lucia slammed the door shut, then turned around, drew Shining Light, and began running as fast as she could possibly go. She had just taken three running steps when she heard the door open behind her and panicked.

"Lucia, who's that standing at the castle entrance?" Lumie asked Lucia in an innocent voice.

"I don't know and I don't care, Lumie! I'm not stopping to find out!" Lucia told Lumie while running for all she was worth. When she heard rumors that vampires lived in the castle she thought that people were making things up, but now she was not so sure. She might have seen a vampire after all.

"Is he following us?" Lucia asked Lumie while running. She hoped that the mystery figure was not following them.

"No. He's gone back inside the castle and the door's closing." Lumie responded. Lucia was relieved to hear that they were not being pursued. That was one less thing they needed to worry about on the way to Capital Crocus. Getting back to Capital Crocus was going to be difficult, but that was mostly due to the length of the trip, not because of any special hazards along the way. It was going to be a long walk to Oshibana so that she could buy a ticket for the train.

-Capital Crocus, the train station, five hours later-

After a lengthy three-hour walk to Oshibana Lucia entered the town and after a lengthy search located the train station, where she bought a train ticket to Capital Crocus. The worst of her troubles were over once she had gotten clear of Haunted Castle and had entered Oshibana, but she was not quite able to relax until she was on board the train. Once on board the train the worst thing Lucia had to contend with was fatigue. The walk to Haunted Castle had been exhausting, as was running from the mystery figure she had spotted near the exit. Lumie had to talk to Lucia to keep the blonde awake... she could use a cup or two of very strong coffee.

Two hours later a mildly rested Lucia stepped off the train in Capital Crocus and quickly made her way out of the train station, deftly weaving through the sparse crowds with Lumie in hand and Shining Light in its holster. She was on a mission to take the jewelry to the Fontaine residence as quickly as possible before her flagging stamina gave out. Her feet were killing her and she desperately wanted to go home and go to sleep for awhile. Lucia hoped that she did not have too far to go to reach her destination because she was not sure how much longer she could keep walking before she gave out.

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-Capital Crocus, the Fontaine residence, thirty-five minutes later-

Lucia had managed to stay on her feet long enough to find the Fontaine residence thanks to some friendly locals at Capital Coffee who pointed her in the right direction. She had followed their instructions to the letter and found herself standing in the nice part of town outside a large white mansion with a brown wooden door located at 1950 Prosperity Plaza. Lucia slowly walked up to it, wiped her feet on a black WELCOME mat, and pressed the glowing doorbell button on the right side of the doorframe. The door opened to show a slender and middle-aged black-haired woman wearing a blue jacket with white blouse, blue knee-length skirt, and blue dress shoes.

"Oh, you must be the mage we hired to retrieve our heirloom jewelry! I'm Judith Fontaine!" The woman greeted Lucia. Lucia momentarily put aside her fatigue and spoke to the woman in a cheerful tone.

"Yes. I'm Lucia Winchester." Lucia introduced herself.

"Did you manage to find them all? All three pieces?" Judith asked anxiously. She seemed more concerned about getting the jewelry back than she did about Lucia's well-being. Lucia wordlessly set Lumie down and took off her backpack. She then opened it up, carefully removed all three golden necklaces from the backpack, and handed them to the woman. Judith was so glad to see them that she practically snatched them from Lucia's hand.

"Oh, there they are! The necklaces that belonged to Agatha, Margaret, and Helena Fontaine! You're such a lifesaver, Miss Winchester!" She exclaimed joyously. Lucia wordlessly closed her backpack as the woman went back inside the house, then emerged with a bag of Jewels. She handed the bag to Lucia, who nodded in appreciation and put the bag inside the backpack before closing it, putting her backpack on, and picking up Lumie.

"Thank you so much for finding those necklaces, Miss Winchester! When I heard that my daughters lost them I almost fainted! I hope they learned to keep up with the family heirlooms the next time they borrow them!" Judith thanked Lucia again and expressed the hope that her daughters had learned their lesson from this experience. Lucia was not sure what lesson Judith wanted her daughters to learn from this, but it did not sound like that she wanted to teach them to be more careful when picking a place to explore. It sounded more like the woman's concern was what happened to the jewelry. Lucia kept her mouth shut and let the client talk.

"Well, I'd better get going. I've got to tell my family the good news. Thanks again, Dear!" Judith Fontaine thanked Lucia before shutting the door. Lucia paused for a moment, then turned around and began walking away from the Fontaine residence. She had done her job... now it was time to go back to Talonia and get some sleep. She was not going to walk back to Talonia, so another visit to the train station was in order.

-Talonia, Lucia's hotel room, two hours later-

After another lengthy train ride from Capital Crocus to Talonia and a fairly long walk to her hotel Lucia had finally made it home. She shut the room door behind her, then took off her backpack and walked towards the bed with the backpack's straps held in her right hand. She set it on the floor beside her bed. She set Lumie's candleholder in the middle of the nightstand beside her bed and took off the holster containing Shining Light, then placed it beside her pillow. Lucia then sat on the bed and unlaced her boots, then took them off.

Lucia was glad to finally be home. She had done a lot of traveling today and now it was time to relax. She had secured enough rent money for awhile longer thanks to the reward money Judith Fontaine had given her for retrieving the jewelry from Haunted Castle. Lucia needed to look into finding a cheaper place to live so that she could keep more of her savings to spend on things like home furnishings, but that could wait for awhile. Right now she really needed to sleep. Once she woke up later today she would get a cup of coffee and review the apartment brochures she had collected to date, but right now she was so tired that she could not even begin to focus on reading brochures.

Lucia wordlessly swung her feet around to the right and placed them on the bed, then began reclining until the back of her head hit the pillow. Lucia closed her eyes and soon drifted off to sleep. Today had been another successful day for her and she hoped that there would be many more successful days for her ahead. Maybe one day she would finally meet Diana face-to-face and get a chance to reconnect with her youngest sister.

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[Total Word Count: 5,160/5,000]