APRICITAS [ENG] || Johan Liebert || Monster

Chapter 25 - The Inscrutable

As you can easily guess, it took her quite a long time, almost a week, to find The Three Frogs, even though she consulted with Dr. Reichwein every day. They both didn't know Czech, so they couldn't ask for directions, and Schuwald didn't give them the exact address, because he didn't remember it himself.

That day, late in the afternoon, Emiko stood by the tenement house, at the entrance of which there was a hanging oval plaque with three painted frogs, and she quickly realized that this was the place she was looking for. She began to look around, hoping she might meet some resident with whom she could speak broken English-German, but at this time of the day, the narrow alley was empty. The girl sighed, then, thinking little, slowly opened the door and went inside to investigate the mystery.

The first thing she smelled, it was the smell of old wood mixed with dust. When she closed the door behind her, after a while her eyes got used to the dimness there, and she noticed the wooden stairs leading to the second floor, as well as the doors of the apartments on the ground floor. There was absolutely no sound or light coming from behind them, which led her to the conclusion that the tenement house was completely abandoned.

Or maybe not...?

Mindful of every step she took, as silently as she could, she started climbing the stairs to the second floor to make sure that no one was living here. With her right hand, she was supporting herself on a dusty, slightly broken railing so as not to stumble on the stairs, which also had a lot of unevenness caused by the passing time.

'On a fundamental level, everything is subject to the time... Heidegger said'

Emiko carefully examined a small corridor on the second floor, where there were two doors - one right next to the stairs, and the other, slightly to the right side of the building. Without much thought, she pressed the handle of the first of them and began to open them... for unknown reasons feeling a growing unease within herself. She didn't understand why, but along with the emotions flowing into her, an unpleasant cold began to creep inside her and take over her entire body...

The girl with a quick movement removed her hand and put it near her heart. It was beating at an accelerated pace, as she slowly came to realize that she was in some very lonely place hidden from unwanted guests. It was as if the disturbed unknown ghosts of the past decided to rid themselves of the source of their anxiety by binding her in icy chains and trying to force her out of there with invisible force.

At the same time, however, a memory began to smolder in her soul... A memory so close to what she felt now that, contradicting all reason, she stretched out her right hand and pushed the door, which slowly opened wide, creaking terrible. The sound reached her ears, merging with the scene she had experienced in Verden two years earlier...

The house where the murder happened and where his name was associated with it...

Terrible chill and cold.

The light of the last rays of sunlight filtered through the window opposite the door, which, although invisible on the ground floor, was still reaching the upper floors with the last of their strength, illuminating the room with a weak heat. One of the panes had a small crack through which a faint gust of wind crept into the room, lifting dancing dust particles in the air, escaping upwards into the darkness...

Emiko stood on the threshold of the open door, watching the whole sight, unable to move or even breathe. There was an overwhelming silence all along. She felt as if the whole city had suddenly died out, and she alone stayed alive.

Emptiness.

Shaking all over her body, she took a small step forward...

The step by which she broke into a place where memories of the past lived...