Chapter 195: The Chest

Nectar (Skelly)

Skelly opened the chest and peered inside. His collection had grown significantly over the past few weeks, and he was quite proud of himself. It had taken time and effort, but a lot of things took time and effort, especially for Skelly. That didn’t matter. This was his treasure, and his alone.

No one knew what he kept in the chest. He hadn’t told anyone what was inside, scared that they might take it from him.

“Mmm, yes,” he said, giggling to himself. “Very good.”

A sudden sound made him snap his head around just fast enough to see a chochlik disappear out of the door. Had it seen him? That couldn’t be allowed. No one could know about his treasure, especially not chochliki! Those mischievous spirits always tried to get into the cathedral, playing their stupid pranks. Kuba and he had done a good job keeping them out, but Hecate had let several of them inside to help with Kasia’s birthday party and now they wouldn’t leave.

If that chochlik had seen his treasure, he’d surely tell the others and they might try to take it for themselves! Skelly had worked too gosh darn hard to… accumulate his hoard and he would die before he’d let anyone take it from him! Die again, that is! If he could… which he wasn’t sure of.

“Come back here, you!” he called after the chochlik.

He didn’t understand why Hecate had let them in. They had bad energy. Everyone here was his friend, except for those chochliki. They always tried to hide his broom, and now they were after his treasure!

Skelly grabbed his broom and rushed to the doorway, but as soon as he jumped out into the hall he bumped into Kuba.

“What are you doing, buddy?” Kuba asked.

Skelly watched the chochlik fly around a corner, and if he could sweat, surely a bead of sweat would have rolled down his temple.

“Um. Hi, friend! I was just…” Skelly tried so hard to think of something that his teeth started clattering. He looked down at the broom in his hands. “Cleaning?”

Kuba looked at the friendly skeleton who stood there, knees bent, holding his broom with two hands as if it were a quarterstaff and he was about to have a fight. He chuckled to himself and shook his head.

“You sure take cleaning seriously, huh?” he said, patting Skelly on his bony shoulder.

“Haha, yes! Cleaning is serious. A clean mind starts with clean living quarters.” Skelly weakly raised the broom. “No dirt will escape me!”

Kuba smiled. “Makes sense. You’re doing a great job, Skelly. I’m really proud of what you’ve done to the place. You could practically eat off the floor here.”

Skelly did not understand why Kuba would want to eat off the floor, and he also felt a little bad about lying to Kuba, but sometimes you had to lie a little. Just a tiny little lie for a good cause. Kuba would understand. Or maybe Kuba would not understand if he saw what Skelly kept in his chest. He might even get upset if he found out.

The thought made Skelly increasingly nervous, and he had to fight the urge to look in the direction of his treasure. Looking now would only make him look suspicious, though, so he couldn’t. Skelly tried to smile in an attempt to convince Kuba everything was fine, that he didn’t have a secret hoard no one could know about. Unfortunately he was a skeleton and smiling was difficult without muscles and skin, so he just opened his mouth. He was also so nervous he started to shake.

“You alright, Skelly?” Kuba asked.

“Y-yes! Friend!” Skelly shouted, just a little too loud.

Kuba raised an eyebrow and stared at him so long that he was sure Kuba suspected something. Every second not chasing the chochlik was a second it could tell its friends about Skelly’s treasure, though, so time was of the essence. Without another word Skelly sort of danced around Kuba, then ran off after the chochlik. Kuba was left confused, staring after the nervously shuffling skeleton.

Skelly was just in time to see the chochlik fly around another corner, and as soon as he himself rounded it, he nearly ran into Phisto. Thankfully, he managed to jump just in time to avoid him, but in doing so he tripped and fell, his broom dropping to the floor.

He scrambled up and saw that not only had the chochlik had stopped moving—it was laughing at him!

“You think this is funny?” Skelly yelled, pointing a finger at the hovering chochlik. “You think my pain is a joke? We will see who laughs last!”

The chochlik blew a raspberry and did a little loop-de-loop in the air. “What are you hiding in that box?”

“None of your beeswax!” Skelly snatched his broom off the floor and held it like a spear. “Forget everything you saw, or I will… I will… sweep you!”

The chochlik laughed and flew right past Skelly’s head, then back to where it was hovering before. “I’m going to tell everyone the skeleton has a secret box!”

“No! Don’t you dare!” Skelly panicked and swung the broom at the grinning chochlik. The chochlik, however, dodged every swing with ease and only laughed louder. Skelly was getting desperate now. If the chochlik told everyone, they’d come to inspect the chest. They’d force it open. And then… then they’d know!

The chochlik dodged another panicked swing and flew farther down the hall, giggling the whole time. “Everyone!” it said. It looked to be heading toward one of the doors that led outside.

Oh no! Skelly thought. If it goes outside I will never catch it!

Desperate, Skelly ran as fast as he could to stop the chochlik from leaving, but he was too late and the chochlik slipped outside. To make matters worse, when he tried to exit the door, he tripped and fell! He rolled outside and lost his broom in the process. Looking back, he saw Phisto sitting in the doorway.

Oh no! Did I hurt poor Phisto? That darn chochlik will regret it if I did!

But the cat seemed fine. It was licking itself and hadn’t even seemed to notice Skelly. That was a relief.

A terrified screech pulled Skelly’s attention back to the chochlik. Had something happened to it? Slowly, he crept toward the sound, only to find Audrey Three holding the chochlik with one of his vines.

“My, MY,” Audrey Three’s deep voice boomed. “What have we here?”

“Let me go!” the chochlik screeched.

Audrey Three turned his massive head toward Skelly when he heard him approach. “Skelly, my boy, how are you?” the giant sunflower asked.

Skelly looked at his feet. “Um. Not so good, actually. That chochlik has been awfully mean to me.”

“Has he now?” Audrey Three held the chochlik closer to inspect him. “Then perhaps I should eat it, hmmmmm?” He grinned, revealing his enormous, sharp teeth.

“No!” the chochlik said. “We taste very bad! Very bad! I wouldn’t recommend it. You’ll get a stomach ache.”

“I am a plant. Plants don’t have stomachs, little one.”

“I swear! Look at me! Your roots will rot! I’m poisonous!”

“Hmmm,” Audrey Three said. “What do YOU think, Skelly? CLEARLY we cannot let this behavior go unpunished. It might give the rabble around here IDEAS!”

“Um,” Skelly said. “Maybe you could give it to me? I could have a talk with it? I could give it a stern talking to.”

“Sure,” Audrey Three said, handing the chochlik over to Skelly.

The chochlik tried to bite him, but only hurt its teeth on his bony fingers.

“Now be nice,” Skelly warned. “You and I are going to have a little talk.”

Skelly had no idea what he was going to talk to the chochlik about. Skelly also had no idea what to do with the chochlik. He could make it promise not to tell anyone, but he didn’t believe chochliki were capable of holding promises. If he released it, it would surely tell everyone straight away. That was quite a pickle he found himself in.

He took the chochlik back inside his room and sat in front of his chest. He always did his best thinking when he sat in front of his chest.

Who did he know who was really smart? Hmmm. Hecate! Hecate was probably the smartest person he knew. How would she deal with this chochlik? That was easy—she’d probably shoot it. The problem was that Skelly had no pistols, and pistols were simply too violent for him. So what could he do?

“Skelly?” he heard Kuba called from far away. “Where are you, my friend?”

It was as if a torch got lit inside of his head. He didn’t have to decide right away. He could think about it some more! He could just put the chochlik inside of his chest and deal with it later. Yes, that is what he would do!

Skelly slowly opened the chest.

“Are you finally going to show me what’s inside?” the chochlik laughed, but when it saw what was inside it went pale and its eyes grew large. “No! What the hell? No!”

“Don’t worry,” Skelly said. “I won’t hurt you. I’m just going to put you in my chest.”

“Please! No!” the chochlik screeched. “By Chernobog’s black tongue! No! I won’t tell anyone! I’m sorry!”

“It’s too late for apologies,” Skelly said as he put the chochlik inside of his chest, a shadow passing over his face. “Now you will join my friends. Be nice to them, you hear?”