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CAULDER HOUSE WASN'T TOO FAR out from the hunter's cottage, perhaps only a twenty minute—give or take—drive.
Located just on Danny Street, like the man told them, the small road opened up into a huge expanse of land hidden within the dense pine trees. There was a wrought iron fence that enclosed a two-storey mansion, and a padlocked front gate that Dick had opened with ease.
Neither of them spoke when Estela parked the car just in front of the gravel driveway, pulling her lips downwards when she saw the flickering lights through the curtained windows. As if that didn't make the place creepy enough. She reckoned that the mansion would have been a nicer sight during the day, and if the facilities were being tidily kept.
"But it's all locked up, ain't no one in there." Estela would have believed what she'd been told—if it weren't for the flickering lights.
Dick got out of the car first, followed by the other two as they took a few moments to gather their wits.
"Are we ready?" he muttered to the air; the first words he'd spoken since Kory's monologue in the car.
He looked at them, catching Estela first, then felt his heart ache and swell at the same time when he saw her face: brows set in determination, lips in a straight line—a stranger would think she was in a pit of dread, but Dick knew better. The way her dark eyes shone, like twinkling stars within a black hole—it was the same whenever they ran a mission, bold and ready.
"Let's go," Kory announced, voice ringing like an army leader, and marched towards the front door.
"Let's go," Estela repeated under her breath and walked, but not before finding Dick's eyes to give him one swift nod; a token of peace for the time being, leashing her pride and the fresh memory of the hour before to give him a traditional good luck.
She took a breath of fresh air as Kory kicked down the door, forcing herself to forgone everything except saving Rachel and fighting whatever comes their way. But even when they finally stepped foot inside the manor, her eyes adjusting to the dark and the annoying gutter of the lamps and chandeliers, she couldn't help but remember what Kory had told Dick just minutes before.
"You may have gone through some bad shit. I may have too, I don't know. But what I do know is that no one manages alone. I don't have to remember much to remember that."
"Hello?" Dick called out loudly.
Estela blinked away her thoughts and dared to wander deeper in the house, keeping her footsteps as light as possible as she surveyed the room. No one had answered Dick, but that didn't just mean the house was completely empty.
