InsaneJournal

When Marcella returned to her employer's apartment that afternoon, the ring box was in her pocket like a stone. John sat at his coffee table in his newly-appointed apartment, flicking through files. Marcie resented it, but Isabelle had done a good job of directing the renovations. The room looked modern, luxurious, and classy.

"Sir," she said as she let herself in, and John looked up from his work to greet her.

"Well?"

"I picked up your dry cleaning, returned the suits to the store and insisted they remake them entirely- and they will- and retrieved these from your office," she said briskly, placing a few items that John had left behind there. "And- Malcolm has delivered this." She placed the ring box on the table. John looked at it, then at her.

"What is it?"

"I don't know, sir," she replied, keeping her face carefully blank.

John picked it up and shook it, then opened it up. He too shut it again quickly in surprise, but in his case a look of glee snaked across his features and he opened the box again to take a better look. He laughed and covered his mouth with one hand. His laugh was high-pitched and a little unstable, and he kept giggling as he took the tooth out and held it up to the light. "And look, there's some flesh caught on it," he crooned, marveling at the handiwork. Marcie watched his face, enthralled at the change that had come over him, hardly daring to breathe in case the spell was broken.

A loud crash from the kitchen did it. John jumped almost guiltily, clutching the tooth close to his chest a moment like it was the Ring of Power and he was Gollum. Then he pushed it back into the box and shoved it at Marcella, making her take it.

"Get rid of it. I can't have it here."

"Get rid of it?" she repeated, confused.

"You heard me! I can't have that disgusting item in my home. Throw it in a skip or in a river or something, anything, just get rid of it!" he hissed, just before the figure of Isabelle appeared in the doorway.

Marcella's face was a perfect mask, a polite smile covering whatever thoughts she kept close. The ring box was slipped into her jacket pocket as smoothly as a card hustler (another trick she was no stranger to).

"Will there be anything else this evening, sir?" she asked, as John looked around to his beloved and gave her such a sickening, simpering smile as Marcella had ever seen on him.

"That is all, thank you Marcella. I will see you tomorrow."

Only once she was safely out of the building and walking away did she dare to take the box out again, and only opened it when she got back to her tiny apartment. The tooth didn't seem so scary now she was used to it. In fact, it was pretty interesting to look at. One thing was for true and certain though- she was not going to get rid of it.