The book of clues

3 - Empty Books

The car made a sharp turn that woke Lilly up. She opened her eyes slowly and looked through her window, it was really dark outside. She could barely see her surroundings. Sometimes she saw a silhouette of a few trees passing by but that's about it, she had no idea where they were. The headlights of the car were just enough to see where the road was heading. There were many stars out here, so bright, like she had never seen before. She could feel they were riding on a bumpy road.

In two hundred meters, you will arrive at your destination. The GPS said in its ordinary boring voice. Lilly leaned forward and stretched her arm out to tap Alex on his shoulder, who was sleeping in the front seat, snoring lightly. He had fallen asleep with his mouth open and backpack in his arms. It even looked like he was cuddling it. Lilly shrugged. Alex really loved his backpack. There was a collection of all kind of survival stuff in there. He had a rope in there, a Swiss pocket knife, a flashlight and some other junk, just in case he wanted to go on an adventure in the woods. "W-what is it?" She heard him mumbling. He yawned loudly. "We're here," she said gently. Looking out of the front window they could now see a huge house coming into view. The car stopped in front of it. "Let's just get our suitcases and the things you need for tonight. We'll take out the rest tomorrow when it's daylight," their mom said while turning off the engine. Alex swung his backpack over his shoulder and took his suitcase out of the back. He rolled it to the steps in front of the door. Took his flashlight out of his backpack and shone the light on the house. Everything was made out of wood, some of it was rotten, some looked in pretty good shape. Some windows were broken and there grew ivy on the walls. He clicked the flashlight out and put it back, it was really cold outside, a cold breeze crossed his neck which gave him goosebumps. He wanted to get inside badly. There was a small shed over the front door. He left his suitcase underneath and went back to the car to help his sister and mother.

Lilly and Alex opened the door carefully, it creaked and squeaked. He shone his light inside. There was a big hallway with three doors on each side. At the end of the hall on the right, there was a stairway, it looked creepy. Alex clicked on the light switch, but nothing happened. "This is not working, it's probably the power switch, I'm going to look for it, be right back." Alex walked inside, Lilly who was still standing in the doorway nodded. She was petting Fluffels who laid in her arms half asleep. She tried to see her brother, but Alex and his flashlight were out of view. She heard a crack coming from the right, then a little further on the left. What took Alex so long? "Got it!" She heard her brother yell. The lights snapped on, one by one, also a sound in the distance of a fridge started up. She stepped inside. The hall was so big! The walls were painted in beige, the floor was made of dark wood covered with a large red carpet with motifs on. She putted her bunny on the floor and inspected the hallway for a while. There was one big painting between two doors on the left side of the hall. She stopped in front of it and admired it. It was a picture of an old man with gray hair and a moustache, wearing small round glasses and had a disturbingly big nose. He had a wandering glance. "Would that be him?" Alex asked as he came standing next to her. "Our grandfather?" He took a closer look at the picture. "Perhaps," she answered, "well, you do have his nose!" she laughed. "Ha-ha, very funny Lilly."

"No, I wouldn't know, ask mom," She said, still looking at the man in the picture.

Their mother came inside with the suitcases. "Aha, I see you guys managed to turn on the power. Here, take these upstairs. You can go pick a room." She turned back around. "Mom? Is this man in the picture our grandfather?" Lilly asked while pointing at it. Jules came out of the doorway so she could have a better look. "Yes it is. This is the father of your father," she said pleased. The kids had never met this man before because they had no connection with their father and his family at all, they had barely seen him. He had to leave the kids a few years after Alex was born, 'he had his reasons' mom kept saying. Alex couldn't remember him at all, Lilly a little. Mom turned back around to get some more stuff out of the car. "Oh, and Alex?" She said with a threatening tone. "Don't go explore all of the rooms tonight, you can do that tomorrow, okay?" "Yeah sure," Alex said back as he rolled his eyes, then turned to Lilly. "I'm going to take the biggest room!" He yelled at her, took his suitcase and ran in direction of the stairs. "Oh no, you won't!" She hurried to her suitcase, picked up Fluffels in the other hand and chased her brother up.

Upstairs, she didn't see nor hear her brother. So she just picked a random room on the left. She grabbed the handle of the door. "This is mine! Take another one!" her brother yelled from the inside. ''Okay, okay!'' she looked around and walked to the door next to this one.

As she opened the door, a cold breeze came towards her. She turned on the light and placed her suitcase against the wall. She inspected the room. It was chilly. There was a large half empty bookshelf placed in the corner of the room which came in pretty handy, because she had taken all of her books with her. In the middle of the room there was a large bed, with a nice sheet on it. On the other side, there was a small but big enough wardrobe. There were red silk curtains waving because of the wind. She headed towards the window and closed it. Immediately it was a lot less cold. She opened her suitcase and putted her clothes in the wardrobe. After that, she arranged her books on the bookshelf. In the mean while she took a quick look at the old books that already were placed there. Two of them had nothing written in them, and the others looked like old diaries. She was going to read them later, but now she was too tired to read, so she just wanted to get some sleep.