Echoed Lullabies (Lunar Chronicles x Reader)

Chapter 9

Immediately I was put on the defensive. A woman who had been in the Lunar military hiding the long lost princess of Luna wouldn't leave her house exposed. No, something was wrong. Horribly wrong.

Thorne pushed past me and stepped into the foyer. He peered up at the wood-paneled stairway. To our right was a living room, filled with rugged furniture. To our left a kitchen with a couple dirty plates left at the table. All the lights were off.

There was nothing out of the ordinary in the front room, but I still kept my guard up.

"Hello?" Thorne called. "Miss Benoit?"

"The signal is coming from upstairs," Cinder whispered.

The stairs groaned beneath the weight of her metal leg. Small screens lined the wall, alternating pictures of a middle-aged woman in a pilot uniform and a girl with flaming red hair. Though chubby and covered in freckles as a child, later pictures showed her quite stunning, and Thorne gave a low "Hello, Scarlet" as we passed.

I tried not to roll my eyes.

"Miss Benoit?" Cinder called again. Her hand shook as she pushed open the first door off the stairs.

I prepped myself to see a decaying body sprawled across the bed.

But there was no body.

The room was in upheaval just as the hangar had been. Clothes and shoes, trinkets and blankets, but no human being. No corpse.

I glanced around the room and spotted something on the vanity beside the window. I paced to it and picked up the small ID chip for the others to see.

"Well, here's Michelle Benoit," I said sourly.

Cinder huffed and whirled around, pushing past Thorne to the hallway.

I examined the room one more time, but it just looked like it had been searched thoroughly. There were no blood spots, no obvious signs of struggle. Still, that didn't mean there wasn't a scuffle. Michelle had left of her own accord or was taken. Same with her granddaughter.

Neither option meant good things for us.

I joined Cinder in the empty hall.

The house was abandoned. Michelle Benoit wasn't here, and neither was her granddaughter.

"We should talk to the neighbors," I recommended. "They might know something."

Cinder sent me a sideways glance.

"What?"

"Why are you helping?"
The photo seemed to burn in my pocket.

My gaze fell to the floor. "Because whether I like it or not, I have a tie in this somehow. I can't just stand by without trying to get some answers."

Cinder stared at me before shaking her head. "We can't talk to anyone. We're still fugitives and you're technically a hostage, in case you've forgotten."

"Trust me, I haven't," I muttered. I stared at the rotating pictures. Michelle Benoit and a young Scarlet kneeling proudly beside a freshly planted vegetable bed. Were there more pictures of Michelle and me to find?

"Come on," Cinder said, dusting her hands as if she was the one who had been digging in the dirt. "Let's get out of here before the Rampion attracts any attention."

The floorboards clapped hollowly beneath us as we tromped down the stairs and rounded the first landing.

The front door swung open.

We froze.

A pretty girl with honey-blonde curls froze in front of us.

Her eyes widened, first with surprise, then recognition. They fell to Cinder's cyborg hand and the color drained from her cheeks.