House of ghouls

DAY 1 (part two):

Uni woke slowly to sun shining through the bedroom window, sitting up from his bedroll and rubbing his eyes.

He glanced over and saw the puddle that had been on his floor was no longer there, either dried up, or had never existed in the first place.

"What an odd dream." He mumbled to himself.

After getting dressed, he decided not to brush his teeth in the upstairs bathroom again, as he was a little too nervous to see if it was still flooded or not.

The house was less creepy in the morning, the sounds of birds singing in the overgrown trees outside the windows, and morning sun filtering through the foggy windows.

He decided that maybe this place wasn't so bad after all, and that he'd just been jumpy and paranoid yesterday. Wandering through the quiet house in bare feet, he found himself in the kitchen.

Various pots and pans hung from the ceiling, though he was sure they were covered in dust and cobwebs, just like everything else in the old house. He flinched a bit when they clanged against each other lightly, but realized it was just a breeze coming in from the open window.

He walked over to it curiously, it being the first open one he'd seen so far. There was a small windowsill herb garden sitting on the counter just inside of it, surprisingly well cared for from what he could tell.

It did look quite over grown for the pot it was in, herbs hanging off and sprawling over the counter top, but he was sure he could replant it at some point.

Water dripped from a leak somewhere in the ceiling, which explained the plant was still alive after all this time, he supposed. He'd probably need to fix that leak, but it was watering this plant, so for now it could stay.

He rummaged through the cupboards, and not to his surprise, found nothing. They were mostly empty from what he could tell, but he did find an old rusted key. He had no clue which door it opened in the house. It could've been none of them for all he knew, but he was curious, so he slipped it in his pocket for later.

After looking around the house for a while, exploring some of the first floor, he decided he should probably pick up some food from the grocery store down the road. At least he had a working fridge.

When he climbed all the way back to the third floor, he found that his wallet was no longer in his bag. He frowned, remembering quite clearly that he'd left it in the same pocket he always did.

He tore apart the small room, triple checking anywhere that it could've been. Without another explanation, he thought that maybe he'd brought it with him when he'd been exploring, and had left it somewhere on the first floor.

Retracing his steps, he checked everywhere it could've logically been, but still found nothing.

"Well great," He huffed, standing in the kitchen and scanning over the countertops. "Now I don't even have money to buy food with."

He fished around in his hoodie's pocket, but there was nothing there except for his phone, and the rusty key.

He held the key out in his palm for a moment, looking at it. It was definitely strange, as far as keys went. The metal was twisted and curled, and had what looked to be the numbed eight on it's handle.

His gaze trailed to the cupboard he'd found it in, and his eyebrows furrowed when he saw it was slightly ajar. He could've sworn he'd closed it before.

Carefully, he nudged it open with a spatula he found in a drawer, and saw it was just as empty as it had been before. Except for a small leather wallet, sitting in the middle of the vacant space.