“There’s nothing you can’t wipe clean with a scrub brush,” she mumbles under her breath, repeating her boss’s unhelpful advice from earlier.

The scrub brush in her hands moves roughly across the dining room floor as she tries her best to suppress her anger. Yesterday, she was mopping the floor but her boss had felt mops just didn’t make his floors clean enough. This morning he greeted her with a gift, a scrub brush that would help her clean better this time. She had nodded and told him she will try her best, all while thinking of how she wished she could shove it down his-her hands tremble with anger. Taking a breath, she rubs the scrub brush in more gentle notions.

Her boss is a strange man. A strange man who is hard for most to get along with. He had few friends but many wives. Poor women who thought—well she wasn’t sure what they thought. In her eyes, he looked like a man who perceived himself as more handsome than he actually was. His bushy beard so black it gleamed blue. His eyes are soulless as they pick at every part of you. Overall, he had no charm or anything that would account for basic appeal. Maybe that’s why none of his wives lasted long? They fell under his spell only to realize they were kissing a donkey.

He also was hard to work with but after nine years she was his longest lasting employee. Her secret to keeping her job was simple. She stayed quiet, and made herself invisible from his sight. And whenever he did notice her she just nodded and promised to do her best. Over the years, he had gifted her bonuses that was just the expensive jewelry his wives left behind. She didn’t complain especially when she went to the pawn shop and came home with a good sum of money. From his gifts alone, she had managed to get her kids in private school. Yes, as much she disliked him she couldn’t complain. If it wasn’t for him who knew how many jobs she’d have to juggle to keep her kids in the best schools.

She moves the scrub brush to clean under the table. Yesterday, he had complained about scuff marks so she works hard to make it unnoticeable. She’ll probably have to shine the floor too so it’ll have that extra sparkle that he likes. She lets out a heavy sigh as she scrubs. Hearing the door to the dining room open, she continues her work but in a more quiet manner. He must not notice her because he’s speaking to someone in his loud booming voice. One would think someone that loud you’d hear constantly but every room in the house was sound proofed for some reason.

“Big wedding,” Is all she hears from him.

“You’re really getting married again?” She heard someone reply.

The voice is familiar and she recognizes it as his lawyer.

“I have too, you know the rules,” he says then starts choking.

She rolls her eyes. He’s probably smoking a cigar again which meant she’ll be stuck cleaning up the ashes.

“But this would be the seventh bride, don’t you think people will start being suspicious?” His lawyer asked.

She stops scrubbing. Suspicious of what? She wondered.

He laughs. “Have you seen the women I choose? No one even misses them.”

Her heart pounds in her chest. Why would those women be missed? Weren’t they…oh god. The sound proofed rooms. And there was one time she found a bloody shirt deep in a pile of his dirty clothes. She had dismissed it because he had come back with an animal scratch…Oh! Oh no. That wasn’t from an animal scratch was it.

“That’s true,” his lawyer chuckles, she hears their footsteps move to the middle of the room.”We put out one little cover story about them running away cause they couldn’t handle elite life and no one talks about them again.”

“Exactly, and I give their valuables to my maid who pawns off all the evidence of their existence for me.”

Fool! She’s such a fool! She never asked questions or cared to know more about the wives. Maybe if she did then…then they wouldn’t be dead.

“Smart,” his lawyer compliments.

Their footsteps reach the other side of the room. The door opens and closes. They were in the kitchen now.

She moves from under the table, crawling to the edge and peeks out. Empty. Filled with relief, she slides from under the table. She had to tell the police. Those poor women. And she…she had unintentionally helped covered it up. Moving toward the door that lead to an open hall, she hears the door from behind her open. She freezes, her fear seizing her way before her employer has a chance to.

Her fear is what allows him to take hold of her. His grip on her is tight. His grip is deadly.

“Such a shame, you were always a perfect employee.”