sophie.

Chapter 6

The first thing I had to do (after awkwardly crawling away from the window until my feet were free,) was find the light switch, or a lamp, or even a candle, I don't know, just something to show me where I was going. Reason why? Trying to stand up, I discovered that I had crawled under a table, and hit my head against its underbelly.

"Shit!" I cursed, first loudly, then immediately quieter after remembering where I was. Okay, okay, feel around, I instructed myself, and did so, pawing at the floors, as well as the airspace above me, until I deemed it safe to stand up and continue on in that fashion. It took bumping into (and unexpectedly falling forward onto) a recliner, ramming my shin against a ruthless cupboard knob, and nearly falling into a suspicious laundry hamper before I miraculously found a door, and consequently, the light switch that was installed just left of it on the inside.

Oh.

The walls were a dark red with some faded gothic pattern, paired with a few matching chairs and a really small glass chandelier. Other than that, it was a mess. There was the aforementioned laundry hamper with a expectedly small load stored within it. Given that Adrien disappeared, though, it kind of made sense that there wasn't much left, clothing-wise. A ragged record player was put in the corner, and around it on the hardwood floor were many boxes of records with moth-eaten covers, parted in a way that someone in the room could travel to and from the record player with relative ease (that is, if the light was on). The recliner, which had previously swallowed me whole, failed to match any other decor, and seemed more of a garage sale find than anything else. Same went for the study desk, which had a few crinkled pieces of yellow paper and fountains pen sprawled about. Various knick knacks and notebooks were strewn across the floor, and it looked like an awful disaster had taken place.

Adrien's things, they were still here, and the room radiated of him. But this mess, it was of some foreign intervention. Surely not the authorities? I paused for a moment to think about it until I realized I left Sawyer stranded outside the building, standing suspiciously by an open window. I turned back toward the door and started to head off, but looked back briefly to see if there was anything in the room that was better left out of Sawyer's sight. Heading over to the desk with the crumpled up papers, I was about to pick up the one closest to me, but hesitated, and pulled out a pair of gloves from my back pocket and put them on. It was a good thing I planned beforehand.

The papers were a dud; all of them were scrawled with a few nearly-illegible words which, under my scrutiny, were worthless. I put them back where I found them and carefully made my way out the door and into the hallway, where the only light available to me came from the room I was previously in. Carefully padding downstairs, it made me nervous to imagine that someone was still in the house. But I knew my fears were irrational; considering the fact that Adrien, who was the only person who actually lived here, (Valentine had his own house outside of Polo) had vanished, and that the police were obviously absent, I had no reason to worry. So I relaxed, then made my to the first floor.

At this point, it was dark again, so with another struggle, I felt around the wall at the base of the steps for another switch, and to my luck, voila! The back room of the antique shop was revealed to me, and I discovered how cramped it was compared to the area upstairs. A whole wall of old books made up the east side, and a study desk sat against it, similar to the one in Adrien's room, but more work-like and plain. With a metal lamp watching over a small pile of books, I made my way over and searched mindlessly for something of interest, but all I found was a do-it-yourself knitting guide, an informational brochure about the ethics of martial arts, and a picture book of giraffes. I gave a short laugh and walked away, through the next door, and into the main shop. Thank God, the windows from the front of the building let in enough moonlight, so I didn't have to feel blind again.