where our memories lie

Gold Heart

The house seemed to have three floors in total, not counting the attic. Their trek up to the third floor went without interruption and the stairs were almost perfectly silent. Ink had thankfully gotten past the initial shock jitters and was back to running up and down the halls with seemingly no cares, touching the edges of paintings as he went by and commenting on the detail each one held. The artist had come to a stop in front of one of the smaller paintings, propped up in a frame on a little table to one side of the hallway. 

"Hey, take a look at this one! It's all.. monochrome. Black and white." Ink leaned in to get a closer look at the picture, going as far as to pick up the whole frame itself. 

"I know what monochrome means, Ink." Dream looked at the photo when it was handed to him, tilting it so that Blue could also look. The other skeleton whipped out his smartphone and took a quick picture of it, uploading it to a site and navigating through multiple buttons that Dream didn't even want to try guessing the function of.

Ink took the frame back from Dream and set it on the table where he'd found it, standing on his toes to try and get a look at what his blue-clad companion was doing.

"Are you looking it up?" 

Blue nodded in response, a light smirk showing on his face when the result came up. He cleared his throat, preparing to read it aloud to them.

"So I went and looked around for the kids in the picture, and it turns out they went missing like.." Blue squinted, scrolling down a bit. "Maybe ten years ago? So it was fairly recent, in terms of missing ghost children." He shrugged, tapping on a few more links.

"It doesn't really say how they died though. I think they just marked them as missing and called it good."

"Well that's a little.. irresponsible, isn't it?" Dream scowled at the screen of Blue's phone.

"And boring! It doesn't say anything about how they died!" Ink pouted, doing a little spin and pointing up at the ceiling where a long string was hanging down. 

"Now- I'm pretty sure that is going to open the attic! So, tall people- get up there and tug it down!"

Dream and Blue looked at each other for a moment before the baker approached the string, being the taller of the two. He grabbed it tightly and tugged it down, the stair ladder unfolding with a cloud of dust. The trio froze upon hearing a child's giggle float down from the open attic above them, a glow appearing briefly before fading. They all shared a look, Ink eventually pushing Dream forwards towards the bottom of the ladder. 

"Well, you have the flashlight. Good luck!" Ink gave him a thumbs up and a weak grin, worry clearly written on his face. The taller one looked to Blue for help, though the only help he really provided was another thumbs up and his phone held up to record. Thanks for nothing, I guess..

Dream put his hand on the ladder and gagged as he felt his bones touch the thick layer of dust, a shudder going through his body. He didn't bother looking back at the other two skeletons behind him, taking a deep breath and making his way up the ladder and into the attic. The baker wasn't sure what he expected, but it wasn't this. It was packed full of several items he didn't recognize, and last he checked, the current homeowner was the first one since his family had left it. To him, it just didn't make any sense.