What Lies Beneath

Chapter Nineteen: Unsolved

Delphine arrived at the house sometime after five o'clock in the evening. As her taxi driver pulled up in front of the house, she found that she was surprised by how secluded the property was. The entire town had a fence around it, luckily the letter she'd received had a passcode for the lock. That didn't stop her from feeling like she was a prisoner yet again.

When she first saw the gate, the thought of turning around paced through her mind. After all, she had just escaped one prison, she wasn't about to walk right into another.

No matter how big of a temptation it was to leave, her curiosity wouldn't let her depart without first investigating. So, without much hesitation, she found herself in front of a large wood door.

The house seemed to be quite old, and not well maintained. The grounds looked freshly mowed, but the grass was riddled with yellow straw like patches. However, mixed amongst the yellow were areas of heathy dark green. There was a deeply wooded area off to the right side of the house that wrapped around the back. All in all, there really wasn't much to look at.

After she rang the doorbell, she listened to it as it chimed on the inside. The sound reminded her of the old chapel bell that her mother used to take her to on Sundays.

The instant the doorbell rang its last bell, the door swung opened to reveal an elderly woman. The woman had her grey hair pulled back tightly in a bun at the nape of her neck. Her thin mouth was set into the shape of a frown and her eyes were the color of mud.

"Bonjour, mon nom est Delphine."

"I beg your pardon?" Delphine watched as the lady's eyebrows squinched together in confusion.

"Sorry. What I meant to say was- hello, my name is Delphine." Even though she knew practically every language known to man, French was still her default.

"I know. We've been expecting you." The woman stepped back from the door and ushered Delphine into the house.

The entry way of the home was lit by a small window off to her left and what looked like small gas lamps on the wall. The age of the home was obvious from the cracked paint and worn wood floor. Even so, it was quite beautiful.

"How long have you lived here?" Delphine found her attention drawn to the photographs on the wall.

"Two years now." Agatha didn't mind sharing this information with their new guest. She figured that it really had no relation to anything important.

However, just because she was willing to share small insignificant information, that didn't mean that she was open to discussion about anything else.

Delphine found that she was speechless. For someone who knew so many languages, she could not think of a single word to say. She supposed that it was because she was so taken by the beautiful architecture of the home.

After having spent most of her life locked away behind the same four walls, she found that it was quite difficult to get over the vast magnitude of the outside world. In fact, she was so lost in thought that she almost missed the fact the woman had started walking down a long hallway that extended from the room that she was in.

Delphine followed the woman, her eyes still full of wonder and amazement at the sheer vastness of the home. She had seen photographs depicting homes from this century, but she never thought that she would be standing inside of one.

The house, which was enormous on the inside, seemed to stretch on and on into the distance.

The halls were decorated with benches and a few tables with gorgeous antique vases. All except one that is. Delphine spotted glass shards laying across from one of the tables next to a wall. She figured that it must have been recent since there was a dust void still noticeable on the table where it used to sit.

Delphine thought about asking the woman what happened, or even where it was that they were going, but the silence was so prominent that the thought of speaking terrified her. So instead, she remained quiet.

When the woman finally stopped, it was in front a of a large wooden door, much like all the other ones that seemed to take up residence in every door frame in the house.

"This is where you will sleep. If you need anything or have any questions, please ask one of your neighbors before tracking Gwyneth or myself down. Dinner is in an hour. If you need help getting to the dining room, again, ask your neighbors." The woman reminded Delphine a lot of her father. He too was very strict about the rules.

"Thank you." Instead of responding, the woman turned on her heel and walked away.

Having nothing else to do for the next hour, Delphine decided to use her time wisely and unpack her small bag of clothes.

The only thing that Joe and Bobby found by the time that the library closed, was an old obituary for the reporter. It wasn't much to go on, but again, it was all they had. So, when it was time to leave, Joe snapped a photo of it with his phone, since he couldn't take it with him.

It seemed odd to him that the only thing that they had found was the obituary. When Joe was a kid he remembered his father talking about old newspaper stories about a gas leak from the town, but when he was searching through the papers from around that time, he found absolutely nothing about a gas leak, or missing children for that matter.

He supposed that his father could have been mistaken, or even talking about a different town, but that didn't explain away the fact that if he were to ask anyone, he knew about it that they would tell him the exact same thing. No, something very strange was happening, he only hoped that he could figure it out before it was too late.

His friend Bobby offered to give him a ride back to his apartment, but he refused. He needed time to clear his head. He had a lot to think about and possibly not a whole lot of time left to figure out his new mystery.

All through the day he racked his brain trying to remember the many old stories that his father used to tell him, but he couldn't seem to recall much of anything about them.

He used to laugh at his father's stories of ghost and a supernatural house. Joe had thought that he was crazy at the time, but based on what he knew now, he was sure that his father was right. Too bad it was too late to ask his dad for help.

Joe's father had passed away a couple of years after he'd finished college. He was an old man by that time. He hadn't met Joe's mother until his late thirties. Unfortunately, he couldn't ask his mother either. She had perished in a car accident Joe's freshman year of high school. After her death his father retreated into himself until it got to the point where he couldn't even remember his own name.

The doctors said that it was Alzheimer's, but Joe could never quite bring himself to believe it. He supposed that he couldn't bring himself to believe that he was losing the only family that he had left to a disease with no cure.

Before he even realized where he was, he found that he was already unlocking his front door. He felt the wave of exhaustion hit him just as he finished kicking off his shoes.

Having not slept in the last twenty-four-hour period, you can imagine how exhausted he was.

Instead of walking all the way to his bedroom, which was inconveniently located in the back of his apartment, he opted for his couch. Which was only a few short steps away.

As soon as his head hit the fluffy arm rest, he was out.