It was one of those moments that whenever you thought of them, you wanted to slam your head against a wall. “How could I be so careless?!” Talking to yourself was a sign of insanity but you did it nonetheless – already stressed to the max, bordering on madness. It was such a close call, moreover if anyone found out, you would have been done for. You’d heard of the torture chambers hidden somewhere below the palace and it was a place you most definitely wanted to steer clear of. People don’t come back from there, let alone sane.

You inspected the massive rip along your sleeve and grimaced, it showed from the bottom of the sleeve all the way to the top of your shoulder, revealing your right arm in its entirety. Clutching your head in your heads you groaned and wondered how you would ever explain it to the maids and the rest of the harem. It was in your desperation that the cherry on the cupcake was that you were lost and had no idea where you were even going. Just walking around aimlessly at imaginable hours of the night was certainly not on the list of things a high-class lady should do. You just wanted to hurry up, return to the chamber and get back into your bed before anything got way out of hand, with the constant reminder that it was still only the first day and you’d already broken the most important rule which was to not leave the quarters.

Tip-toeing awkwardly along the outer corridors of the buildings, but too afraid to actually go in, you circled around the place hoping to see a familiar sight that would lead you closer to the right chambers. You had never realised how similar they all looked. You had wanted to retrace your steps like you did last time, but it was too risky to go back- what if that guy was still there? It was getting colder and panic began to rise in your chest. You wondered if the night could get any worst – but naturally, in the hands of fate, things would get heaps more inconvenient for you.

“My god, what is a lady like you doing out so late.”

The worst swear word imaginable spelt itself out in your mind’s eye and you kept your head lowered, the place where you had bumped it against the other person still burning an inferno.

“I… uh… got lost…?” It sounded more like a question and you were still waiting for his response. It was a while and he didn’t answer so you peeked slowly up at his face, which seemed friendly enough and he looked down at you, and shrugged lightly.

“Fair enough.” He muttered. A big sigh of relief swept through you as you calculated that he wouldn’t be a threat to further ruin the night and your hunched shoulders, relaxed and then straightened your posture. You looked at him closely, inspecting his face and his milky skin shone clear in the night, his features were clean, nothing too out-of-place and he had the most peculiar dimple.

“Are you squinting because you have bad night vision, or because I have something on my face?” He inquired with amusement, pulling out his fan from his robe sleeve and slowly unravelling the wonder.

“Neither.” You answered hotly, retorting his look of entertainment at how stupid you must have seemed. Before he could continue and ask you what then, if you were indeed looking at his face, it was that so caught your attention, - you cut in: “do you know how to get back to uhh…” you tried to make it less obvious that you were part of the harem, if this man turned out to be someone of authority, “the maid quarters that served the harem.”

“Ahhh… so you’re a disobedient maid. You know, girls like you often get punished for their unruly behaviour.” He looked casually to the side as he flicked his fan and you puffed up your cheeks in chagrin.

“Could you please just give me the directions; I’ll suffer the consequences later.”

“Alright, alright, no need to get so impatient.” He chuckled and then pointed to the end of the corridor. “Luckily, you’re not far from it – it’s straight down there and then to your left. You might want to find your sense of direction before you continue serving here.”

You mumbled a quick thanks before running, almost sprinting in that direction, leaving the man thoroughly amused but baffled as he wondered when, if ever, such an occurrence would ever happen again. Upon reaching the maid’s chambers, you figured out where to go from there; after walking through a series of rooms, you found where you originally started off your adventure and slid inconspicuously under the covers. You estimated there were about 2, maybe 3 hours before the sun would rise ad you planned on fitting the total amount of ‘beauty sleep’ you’d lost to be made up in the meagre time.

Unconsciousness lulled you into your dreams and there you gratefully accepted its embrace, for unbeknown to you, the next day would be even more chaotic.