Madness [ Claire Sequel ]

Chapter 2

Kira's POV

"Here you are, Miss." The man held out a silver key, which I thanked him for and took. I stepped out of the building and started down the sidewalk, walked forward. Right outside of this city was a building, a building I would now come to own.

I stood before the two story home, memories coming back. Dreadful nightmares, lengthy hours of training with Zak, the witnessing of the loss of my mother, and protecting Zero from her father's ruthless attacks.

Where were they now?

With a frown, I took the steps up to the front door and pressed the key to the lock. I twisted the key and sighed in relief when the door opened, unlocked.

Inside, I saw that nothing had been removed. I smiled at the familiar living and dining room, then shut the door after I stepped inside. The air was still, and I turned to the thermostat, hoping that it still worked.

Amazingly, the AC activated without objection. I suddenly remembered why my pay at the academy had been so much less than everyone else's; Zak used that pay for the bills. I'd always been paying  bills. At least now I could say that the house was really mine.

I knew the fridge wouldn't be stocked, so I would have to buy some food. I also needed some clothes. It sounded as if a job would be needed.

Before I could get into that more, I started upstairs to my old bedroom. It was just as I'd left it when I'd left for the academy; the bed was made, though covered in a layer of dust, just as everything else was. My dresser and vanity were empty,though I wasn't too worried about that.

The bathroom across the hall had a few spare towels, a pack of razors, a few boxes of toothpaste, and extra toothbrushes never used before. There were boxes of hair ties, hairspray, and the like under the sink with the toothpaste and toothbrushes, along with a first aid kit, cleaning supplies, and extra toilet paper. I blinked in suprise; I would've thought they'd emptied all of this out.

I stood up, grabbing the cleaning supplies from the cabinet under the sink. The entire house needed cleaning, so I might as well start now.

Cleaning the bathroom took twenty minutes; sweeping, mopping, and cleaning the counter, sink, mirror, toilet, and bathtub really didn't take that long. It wasn't challenging, since I'd faced many and worse challenges than cleaning a large bathroom, but I was glad to see it done.

I set out to my bedroom, and stripped my bed of its sheets and pillows. I put these sheets in the washing machine downstairs, pouring the softener and main wash into the machine before-hand, and pressed "START". I stood before it, making sure it worked correctly, before heading back upstairs to finish cleaning my room.

At the end of the hall upstairs was a closet full of extra towels, blankets and sheets, dust rags, wood furniture polish, the vaccum, and the steam-cleaner. I grabbed the vaccum and dust rags, carrying them both into my old room. I dusted off the dresser and vanity before vaccuming the curtains, the floors, and the corners of the room. I made sure to vaccum the closet and get all the cobwebs. Then, I took the steam-cleaner and deep-cleaned the floors. This all took me an hour.

I repeated these steps with the other five bedrooms -- the master bedroom, Zero's old bedroom, the guest room next to my old bedroom, and the two guest rooms downstairs -- which took me five and a half hours. I, then, moved to the kitchen, dining room, living room, and den.

Cleaning the kitchen didn't require as much effort as it did time. I cleaned the counters, sinks, swept, mopped, dusted, polished, and cleared the cobwebs. I ended up putting all the dishes in the dishwasher, due to all the dust. Cleaning the kitchen took me half an hour.