~~
Shawn
~~
I was losing hope, but I kept going. I knew that we needed to check them all. I knew that if we gave up halfway through, we would always wonder if we missed something. Though it was hard. I could see the frustration on Dietrich's face, a look that matched what I was feeling.
“Keep going, Shawn. We only have a few shelves left.” He was right about that. Three shelves of unchecked books. Three shelves of potential discovery and nearly guaranteed disappointment.
The next shelf fluttered before us, showing us their pristine pages with no added messages. Now the next to last shelf. Frustration. Anger. Thoughts of failing. All of those passed through my mind as I saw that these pages were just as blank.
“Dammit.” I heard Dietrich growl the word softly into the room. It was barely audible over the loud fluttering of the pages. It was almost like standing in the middle of a flock of birds. That was what it sounded like with the books moving.
.....
Finally, the last of the books were making their way off of the shelf. The newest set of disappointing bird books were flapping their way over to us. Around and around, they flew with nearly a single letter written in invisible ink. Around and around, they circled us like they were bullies on the playground that were making fun of us for being so gullible and stupid.
“Wait!” Dietrich shouted. It was so quiet in the room that his voice nearly scared me. I had to physically stop myself from jumping out of my skin at the moment. “There. Look!” He was pointing at a book that was close to the bottom of the group. It actually looked like it was the last one to come off of the shelf. Was this literally the last book in the room? And if it was, how did they know that it was going to be the last book? How did they know what order I would pull them in? Or was it just a coincidence?
“Grab it, Dietrich. Pull it away from the others so I can put them back.” He did as I told him to. Walking over to the books and taking it from the flying flock of pages and covers. Once he had the book, I sent the others back to the shelf, putting them back in the order that they came out in. And sure enough, the last place on the shelf was the one that was empty.
“What does it say?” I asked him as I hurried over to him. I saw that Dietrich had stepped near a candle and was holding the book up. It was turned to the last page and the words were written on the nearly blank sheet.
“How? How did they know?” He looked up as he handed the book to me. That was when I saw the words that were written there.
'Welcome, King and King of Vampires. We welcome you to tour our home. I hope that it brings back memories for you, King Dietrich. Happy remembering and happy searching. We will be seeing you.'
“Dietrich? How did they know that we were coming? How did they know that it was going to be us here? Was there someone here today? Did someone leave this message today? Or was it left in advance?”
“I don't have the answer to those questions, Liebe. I am sorry, but I don't know what to say.” I saw that Dietrich was looking at the door that led to the rest of the house. “Something isn't right here. Something is wrong.” He was repeating what was said outside. He was right though. Something was wrong here. Something was happening that we didn't know how to explain.
“We need to search this place and get out. I don't think that it's safe. Let's just find something that will point us in the right direction and then we will get out of here.” I could feel a slight amount of panic coursing through me. “Come on, let's go.”
I took Dietrich's hand and pulled him toward the door that led into the rest of the house. I took the book with me though, sliding it into the inside pocket of my jacket. I wanted to show the proof of what we had found.
“Wait a minute.” Dietrich said as he pulled away from me. He ran back toward the trunk that he had opened earlier. After a moment kneeling in front of it, he came away with a brown leather satchel and came back to where I stood.
“What is that for?” I asked him, curious about the reason why he needed that.
“I took some of the candles. This bag was something that Alaric used to use as well. We can put anything that we find inside of it.” He held it up and showed me the initials that were on the golden clasp, AJ.
“Then here, put this in it.” I handed him the book that I had taken as well. “Now come on.” I rushed him out of the room and into the hall that was beyond.”
“The first floor will have the kitchen, the dining hall, and the training hall. The second floor will be storage rooms and Alaric's office. The third and fourth floors will be bedrooms. And the basement will consist of the dungeons and the wine cellar. He was an avid collector of wine.”
“Then should we go up before we move down to the basement? Or should we start in the darkest part and move up?” I wasn't sure which option would be best at the moment.
“Hmm. I want to check out Alaric's office, but how about starting on the fourth floor and making our way down. Then we won't feel as if we're repeating as much. The stairs are inside that door there. They are closed off and very annoying. It was the thing that I hated the most about this place.” I saw Dietrich shutter a little. “Come on, let's get this over with.
It was now Dietrich that was pulling me in the direction of the stairs. When he opened the door, I saw a tightly winding staircase leading upwards.
“This is actually terrifying.” I shuddered as I looked up the dark passageway.
“Yes, again, I hate these stairs. But come on, let's get it over with.” Dietrich hurried in and I followed after him. They were not wide enough for us to walk side by side. Hell, the stairs were barely wide enough for one of us to walk normally. It was so claustrophobic in that broom closet of a stairwell that I felt the need to shrink in on myself and hunch over so that I wasn't about to bump into something and get hurt. Not that I couldn't heal or anything, it was just on principle that I didn't want to be injured.
After several agonizing minutes, we made it to the top of the stairs and exited into a hall that was filled with eight total doors. One of them was none other than the door to the stairs that we had just exited. The door across the hall from the stairs was just a linen closet that I swear was wider than the stairwell was.
To the right of the door there were two bedrooms and to the left of the door there were four. In total, there were three bedrooms on either side of the hall. We started on the right so that we could check the shorter end of the hall first. The first room was a little bit of a surprise. It was not small by any means, but it was crowded. There were four sets of bunk beds in the room. And crammed in there were eight small dressers.
What was even more odd about that room, was that there seemed to be a lot of stuff that was left behind by the previous occupant.
“This is not how these rooms were before.” Dietrich looked around the space and took in everything that he saw. “This used to be a room for one person, or a couple. Not a dormitory style group setting. And none of this is antique. This is all modern.”
“I would say so. And why is there a laptop on that bed.” I pointed as I walked over there. “If this place has no running water or electricity, how were they using it?”
“Good question. Perhaps there are more secrets lying in wait for us to discover.” Dietrich took the computer from the bed and put it in the bag. “Let's look for more clues.”
The closet in that room was empty aside from some clothes and empty hangers. The dressers were mostly empty, but they missed a few things when they were clearing out. There were some papers that were scattered over the floor that we collected. We would need to check them for hidden messages later, but for the time being, we were stuffing them all in the bag. I did notice that the papers seemed to be flyers for different businesses that were in the nearby cities. Flyers for nightclubs, convenience stores, shopping malls, and many more. Things that teenagers would grab when they were out and about.
What was the purpose for these flyers? Did they have another meaning? Or were they just pieces of trash that were left behind when the group left in a hurry? I didn't know for sure and that meant that I was going to be worrying about it incessantly. It would be on my mind until I was able to read them with the red candle.
