Josephine knocked onto the wooden door and announced that tea was ready. She was ready with it quite a while ago actually, but tried to listen in, as rude as it might sound. Sadly, no clear sound came through even after she held her ear to the cold wood. Her master was known for his collector’s spirit and possessed many magical items, so he probably owned some kind of mechanism preventing sounds to pass through. The person inside could hear her perfectly though, as she quite often brought drinks to him and he never failed to respond. While most servants would bring their drinks inside and not bother their masters, rules were quite different when it came to this specific room. The governor would always take the drinks himself, so she waited patiently for him to open the door. Depending on the mood, he’d sometimes even thank her.

A few moments passed and the door opened, but the person who reached out was the magus.

“What?” He asked in his weird voice. It honestly creeped her out, but she didn’t have the luxury to dawdle.

“The tea’s ready,” she said matter-of-factly and passed the silver tray to him. “Where’s Master?” The door was open wider than usual thus she took a peek inside. It was dark, so she couldn’t see what was so special about it. The governor seemed to be sitting in his chair looking out the window.

Was he the type to daydream like that? It was the middle of the night of course, but that wasn’t the point.

“He’s writing a… leeter.” He obviously wasn’t, but who was she to argue with a magus. Her hands trembled as she held the tray in front of her, the man didn’t intend to take it from her it would seem.

“Can I bring the tea in?”

The mage seemed to ponder for a moment, before shaking his head.

“No. He want no tee.” Confusion overtook her. She was pretty sure he asked for it specifically.

“Wai-” The door slammed shut.

What the hell…? What am I supposed to do now…? She stared at the tray for a few moments when someone walked inside the corridor. It was Sergeant Gibs.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“Ah, nothing. The master asked for tea, but apparently no longer wants it.”

Gibs mused that nobles were nobles and nothing could be done about it, even if he was but a meager third son of a baron.

“He’s speaking with that fella still?”

“Yes. Apparently he’s writing a letter now.”

“Is that so…” He thought for a moment. “Why don’t you just bring it in?”

“But master always tells me not to go insi-” “Bah, I don’t know why you women are so fainthearted all the time,” He cut her off. “Give it here, I’ll bring it. What can he do to me?” He took the tray and walked up to the door. Josephine only stared at him from the sidelines, wondering what might happen.

Gibs knocked loudly three times and after a short pause opened the door as wide as he could.

“Sir Governor, here’s yo-” The tray dropped onto the floor. “What in the damnation?!” Steel slid out of a scabbard and Josephine couldn’t help but peek inside.

The room was a mess. Blood splatters covered the white carpet and sofa, glass was shattered while bookcases were toppled. And worst of all, the culprit was still inside. He sat on the governor, who lied on the sofa unmoving. His eyes were white and blood flowed out of his mouth. A look of terror was stuck on his face.

***

Having dismissed the annoying human, the undead moved towards the red table. A man named Josset Gide sat in his leather chair next to it and trembled. His face was burned, and he couldn’t speak for some reason. Smoke still lingered in his throat.

Fools. They are absolute fools. How easy it was to trick them and get into their homes. Why are they so stupid? All I had to do was nod and agree with all they said…

The undead felt vain happiness as it smashed the glass of the display cases, finally able to let go of its ‘human’ act. The shattering material sated its hatred and it wondered why the humans held it so precious. That man even told to not touch it, what weirdos they were.

Under the display it noticed an ancient crooked knife, it’s color reminded it of old yellowish bones. Then it saw the necklace, it ‘eyed’ it for quite a while actually. The first time it saw it, it was dumbfounded by the existence. Did humans like holding onto the teeth of their kin? Upon taking both of the items a blissful feeling washed over its soul, satisfaction, though for anyone else it would’ve looked like an undead partaking in some kind of cursed ritual. The human leader also possessed a knife of his own, with which he even tried to stab the undead, so it wanted one of its own, mainly to one up the soon-to-be dead man.

After reminiscing about the experience it decided to try out the same move on him. He placed the still trembling man onto the soft couch - it was white, thus the blood should look even more satisfying - and with a single thrust stabbed the man’s abdomen. He tried to scream in pain, but all that came out were muffled sounds of a beast. As expected, blood started to flow. It was dark and nice to look at. Gripping onto the handle even tighter the undead twisted and turned the knife. Ground meat also looked satisfying, but the face of a dying person remained the best. Shouldn’t they be happier? They don’t know what greatness awaits them in undeath. Yet.

This was partly the reason why it came to this massive structure filled with the living. It wanted to share this greatness with them, just like that horse. Oh how happily it pranced around. It no longer felt hunger nor thirst. It didn’t have to worry about anything anymore and could fully enjoy it’s unliving horsy life. The other reason was the delicious smell of demise people left in their death of course.

Shaking its head to focus on the moment it followed up with a few more stabs, until the man’s eyes no longer glistened with life. Although the charred one looked particularly impressive for the undead. It wished its eyes could burn so brightly.

As a streak of blood dripped out of his mouth the undead felt a sudden realization. Pushing the stomach inwards made the flow stronger! If it had a face, it’d probably be grinning like a child right now. Sadly, after a couple of tries it felt like the man was running out of juice and displeasure returned. It wondered why it got so disappointed all the time. Maybe it was just a matter of balance between happiness and not? Most likely it was right, since it noticed the glistening white teeth and a rush of excitement overtook it again. Unfortunately, as it stabbed the knife into the gums of the teeth, someone knocked loudly on the door once more. If it could the undead would be frowning right now. Maybe it should play with that other human as well, since it’s so eager to interfere all the time.

The door swung open, surprising it, and a man entered with a glistening tray. It held the so called ‘tea’, it was something mortals depended on to continue their living. When the human saw the undead’s work he dropped it in awe. It could only nod to itself and feel proud that someone finally acknowledged its work.

“Y, you, you demon!” The human lunged towards the undead. His hair was grey and his face wrinkled, but even in that aged body his movements were fluent and precise. The undead wasn’t sure why he was being attacked, but instinctively dodged the slashes of the steel sword.

“I’m undead.” It corrected the man, who had a weird mix of anger and fear on his face.