Strangers in the Dark

The Study

#( wow, I cannot believe so many people read this. It's amazing, thank you all so so much)

    The next morning I woke up to the clatter and voices of moving men. I rubbed my eyes and checked the clock that hung on the wall, 12:25. I made my way downstairs, still in my pajamas. I stood in the entryway of the kitchen were Oswald stood giving orders to a large man in a blue jumpsuit. I yawned and stretched.

  "Morning Oswald," I said through the yawn. He turned to me and his face lit up.

  "(y/n)! you're up! I thought I was going to have to leave without seeing you." he said. I scrathed my head sleeply.

  "Leave?" I questioned tilting my head.

  "Yes,dearest, I told you last night before bed that I've got a meeting." he explained.

  "A long meeting?" I asked. I really didn't trust myself alone with my thoughts.

  "No, I should be back by three. Ida made you breakfast and I'll ask her to warm it up." He walked towards me and placed a kiss on my temple. "Please eat." he said quietly. I nodded and he turned, heading for the door.

    As he put on his coat, he pointed a finger at one of the younger men. "Rember, you break anything and you'll regret it." Then he left.

   I ate a few bites of an egg and some toast and drank some juice. I left the plate on the table so Oswald would see. The movers were done by 1:30 and I was in the house alone. The silence was startling and felt like a stone in the pit of my stomach. The only sounds to be heard were the ticking of an old grandfather clock and my footsteps.

  I'd only seen a little bit of the large house; the kitchen, the dinning room, Oswald's bedroom, Oswald's study, and the sitting room. I decided to explore a bit. 

   Most of the rooms were guest bedrooms or rooms used for storage or more interesting rooms lined with books that i reminded myself to visit later. When I made it up to the second floor and found more of the same thing. However, there was Oswald's study. I had only been in there once and then only breifly. I opened the heavy wooden door. The study was still and orgainized like a photograph, frozen in time. Every piece of paper and pencil perfectly pristine. Small beams of light broke through the closed blinds and landed on the old, glossy desk. Behind this was a large wall-to-wall bookshelf that was filled with thick, weathered volumes. I studied the titles embossed in the spines as I ran my finger along them. There were things I'd never heard of The theory of war, Love lost, Wayne Tower: an empire in the making. There were also more popular works like Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, To kill a mockingbird. I came across a particularly large volume, leather bound and worse for wear, Theory of a serial Killer. I began to pull it off the shelf but it caught on something then, *click.* The whole wall began to move and I jumped back.

  Dust fell to the ground as the wall stopped with a sudden jolt. I stood for a moment, thunderstruck, by what I was looking at. It was a small room with a single chair in the middle; leather straps attached to the arms and legs. The wall was lined with knives, guns, bottles with odd liquids in them, and any torture device you could think of.

  I covered my mouth with my hand as a painful flash crossed my vision;My mother strapped to a chair much like the one that stood before me, my father looking down at me and smiling

  "remember ,(y/n), this could only be possible because of you. You've been a good girl." I could still hear him say, and the hollow ring of the gunshot. My heart pounded in my chest. I grabbed the sharpest knife I could find and rushed out, clicking the book back in place. I rushed to the nearest bathroom, feelin like I could vomit my breakfast up at any moment.

    I hadn't done this in years. The memories flooded back all at once in a painful spiral. The visions of blood ,my mother and mine, mixed harshly and unforgiving. Your Fault! Your Fault! Your Fault! my mind screamed. I locked the bathroom door.