The next day, I found myself in the basement surrounded by a sea of junk, not knowing where to start.
Angel Boy had found me earlier this morning, having been instructed by Ash to show me my duties in his stead. I'd followed him through the maze (I'd taken to referring to the building by this very apt, at least in my opinion, nickname) and down to the first floor where he opened a door to reveal a dark staircase leading down.
My imagination did its best to convince me that I was about to get murdered when I saw where we were heading. Creepy basements will do that to you. And while I didn't get murdered as soon as I stepped into the large basement, I almost would have preferred it to what I saw.
Spiders. A lot of them. Among the shelves of random trinkets, papers, and equipment were webs, spun in every open space between the clutter. Most people would picture a few cobwebs when they think of an abandoned storage space, but this was beyond insane.
I wouldn't have said that I was afraid of spiders. Not to say I like them enough to keep one as a pet, but I could coexist in the same space with them. However, when you're wading through what should've been open walkways and feeling spider silk catch on your hair and little legs scurrying along your skin, it's enough to gain a new phobia.
Angel Boy had gotten out as quick as he could, leaving me the basic directive of organizing everything before leaving me to my misery. I couldn't blame him. I certainly didn't want to be here either, but I don't get much of a choice. I asked for this, literally.
Though, when I suggested cleaning, I was expecting something more along the lines of vacuuming and scrubbing toilets. Not… this. I didn't even know there was a basement until today, a spider infested one at that.
I really did think Ash had it out for me. Why else would he give me this job? According to Angel Boy, nobody has touched the basement since the building swapped hands back when the guild purchased it. In my opinion, it should stay that way. Let's just ignore it, how about it?
Unfortunately for me, though, Ash decided this needed to be done and I willingly signed myself up as his slave. Ugh.
Mentally resigning myself, I braved forward, brushing spiders off as I made my way down crooked aisles. The lights were poorly designed, single bulbs spaced out that had to be individually turned on by tugging a string. It was an annoying task to turn them all on, but I'd rather go through the effort than be surrounded by darkness. That was too much for my nerves at the moment.
Once I could see, I grabbed an old, forgotten broom I had seen and started to work beating down all the webs. I needed to actually be able to work down here without having to do a frantic dance every time one of those creepy crawlies decided to use me as a jungle gym.
Having the foresight I lacked, Angel Boy had brought a roll of large trashbags down, which I used to scrape clods of spiderwebs into off the broom. It took longer than estimated, close to two hours had passed when I checked my phone.
Stretching out my back, I looked over at the mess I still had to deal with and groaned. No way this is getting down in one day. I don't even know what I should be doing with all this stuff. So much of it just looks like worthless junk, but I don't know if Ash wants to keep any of it or not.
Deciding to play it safe, I stuck to cleaning, saving the decluttering for after I could ask about it. I swept the concrete floors, amassing quite the pile of dead bugs, then mopped down the floors to try and combat some of the stains.
There was a surprising amount of cleaning supplies scattered around. I found the mop in a stash of other goodies: paper towels, scrub brushes, and a bunch of cleaners. Some of the chemicals were definitely expired, but I chose to ignore that.
Along with the floors, I also put some time into dusting. I made sure to get the lights and the edges of the shelves. I didn't bother with anything on the shelves yet, I figured I would get to it when I actually started organizing.
I stopped when I could no longer ignore my stomach rumbling. I checked my phone again and noted that it was already dinner time. I had totally skipped lunch. I guess I was just too in the zone, something I never thought I would say about cleaning.
All the lights had to be turned off before I could leave. I was sure that Ash could more than afford the electricity bill, but it would burn out the bulbs and it just felt weird to leave lights on. When I got to the last one closest to the stairs, I pulled the string and bolted, almost tripping over the bottom stair in my haste.
I might not have seen any ghosts while I was working, but the creepy feeling had never left and I wasn't taking any chances.
I made my way up to the second floor, exhausted from the hard work I had done. I had planned to head straight to my dorm and enjoy a quiet evening by myself, but I was drawn into one of the many break rooms by the sound of unfamiliar voices.
Angel Boy sat on one of the couches with a surly Willow beside him, talking animatedly with three people I had never met. Two men and a woman.
The men must have been related, their facial features were too similar not to be, with muted red hair and sharp cheek bones. The woman was a lot softer looking, hiding shyly behind curled brown hair and shrinking into the couch.
The S rankers knew I was there immediately, despite my attempts to be quiet. Angel Boy turned to me and motioned me over, grinning happily. "Grey! Come meet the new members of the guild!"
I walked over, sinking down into an unoccupied armchair across from the three strangers. I felt more than a little awkward being in this situation. I didn't really like meeting new people. Unless they were as easy to talk to as Angel Boy, I usually couldn't find the words to keep a conversation going and everything would just end up becoming uncomfortable.
"This is Cory, Jesper, and Kayla," Angel Boy introduced, gesturing to each person as he named them. I nodded in simple greeting.
"I'm sure you're wondering, so I'll just go ahead and tell you. Cory is my younger brother by two years," one of the redheads said, Jesper.
"Nice to meet you," I replied, not knowing what else to say. I was actually wondering about that, but I didn't enjoy being called out on it.
Angel Boy was more than happy to fill in the silence. "They just joined today. They came from a smaller guild that was disbanding due to funding. I saw the opportunity and swooped in before they could start looking for a new guild."
Jesper smiled in acknowledgement while the other two stayed mute. Angel Boy looked at me, waiting for me to say something, but I just nodded. I really didn't want to be here right now. I just wanted to relax into a warm bath, not be subjected to this social agony.
Speaking of which, free will. I don't have to wait to be dismissed. I can leave, so I'm going to.
"Well, it's been good meeting you guys, I'm going to go take a rest if you don't mind," I said blankly. "It's been a long day."
Angel Boy frowned, but I was already standing up. "Nice meeting you Grey!" Jesper called after me as I walked out.
Distantly, I heard Angel Boy saying, "Don't mind him, he's usually a lot friendlier. I guess he really must be tired."
I was, but I mostly just wanted to escape. Leave it to me to make things weird. Whatever. I can worry about the new additions to the guild tomorrow, I just don't want to deal with it right now.