Free Web NovelChapter 138: The Old Mansion II
I needed to get out of here as soon as possible, but I hadn’t found out enough. It was merely my suspicions that this house belonged to vampires― if Damon had not told me that there were vampires near Everhaven, I would have simply assumed that I stumbled upon the house of a rich eccentric human with a fondness for antiques and a love of black and white photography.
That could still be true. I told myself to calm down and continue to search for clues.
I picked up the photographs, hoping I could figure out the identities of the people inside them. Most of the photos featured a lot of good-looking strangers, but there was one that made me pause and take another look.
Was this... my mom?
I immediately took the photo and looked at it more closely, while trying to recall how my mother looked in my memories. I was only a mere child when she passed away, so my memories were, of course, more than a little fuzzy. The woman in the sepia toned picture looked a bit like her, but the ages didn’t match up.
Maybe this was my grandmother. I quickly took a picture with my phone so that I could refer to it later. Then I went around to explore the rest of the house with increased urgency, now that I found a link, no matter how tenuous.
Then I struck gold. My eyes caught a downturned photo frame, as though someone quickly tried to hide it. I set it to rights and froze.
There was no mistaking it this time. I was looking at the picture of my mother, or at least, my mother when she was younger. This photo was in color, so I could clearly see the similarities between us― she had the same voluminous brown hair and lips as me, but her eyes were a startling shade of blue.
She didn’t have the necklace with her, so I assumed this photo must have been taken before she met my father. After all, she looked so happy in the photo, beaming brightly at the camera.
My fingers traced the edges of her smile wistfully. How long has it been since I saw her happy face? Surely she must have been happy when she was with me, right? Even if I came from such a scumbag like my father?
Tears welled up in my eyes and I hurriedly brushed them away. On impulse, I removed her photo from the frame to keep in my bag, before putting the frame back down again.
The occupants of this house must have known about my mother to keep an old photo of hers. Just as I was about to continue digging for more clues, I heard the sound of something falling from the top floor.
I froze, holding my breath. Could the wind have toppled something on the top floor?
Then, I heard the sound of footsteps, along with the creaking of the floorboards. I cursed inwardly; that was definitely a pair of feet belonging to a humanoid body walking up there, and it wouldn’t be long before they came down and saw me loitering in their living room. I had to get out of here quietly. freewёbnoνel.com
I gingerly tiptoed my way through the living room, but then my foot bumped against the side of a coffee table as I turned out into the lobby. A delicate silver urn perched on the side of the table wobbled precariously and I dove down to catch it before it fell.
Unfortunately, my feet made a loud thump that echoed ominously through the house. My eyes darted upwards, and I caught sight of a moving shadow.
Shit. I immediately tossed aside the need for stealth and ran out of the house, the urn still in my hand. I nearly collided with Gus who was already standing at the front of the open door.
"Harper! I heard sounds coming from the house. Is everything alright?" Gus asked worriedly, and I wanted to smack him in the head. Why did he see the need to telegraph our presence to anyone who was listening? With the volume of his voice, even a sleeping vampire would have woken up from their slumber.
Did he want me to get captured?
"Come on, stop talking, we need to go," I said hurriedly, grabbing him by the arm. "There’s someone in the house!"
To my surprise, instead of running away like a rational being, Gus actually peered into the house and went, "I don’t see or smell anyone though. Are you sure?"
His voice was still loud. This was how I was going to die― all because of my werewolf companion who didn’t have a concept of inside voice and didn’t know how to keep his mouth shut.
"Gus, I know what I heard, come on," I said with gritted teeth. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
"Alright, alright, let’s go." Sensing my anger, he hurriedly left the house and we got into his truck.
As he drove away, I couldn’t help but turn back to look at the house in the rearview mirror. Perhaps I would get Damon to visit this place with me, since it was quite near Fangborne. I wanted to know if there was anything else I could find of my mother, other than one photo. Maybe the other rooms might yield better results.
"What’s that you got there?" Gus asked, gesturing to the silver urn in my hands.
"I don’t know, I just took it because it was going to fall off the coffee table," I said with a sigh. I slowly turned my newest souvenir around in my hands; for something so small, it was surprisingly heavy. If it contained ashes, it must have been some very dense ashes indeed.
I tried to pry it open, but the lid was stuck. Upon closer examination, I realized there was something brownish clogging the tiny gaps, preventing me from opening it.
Was it tree sap, rust, or blood? I recoiled in disgust, wanting nothing more than to toss it out the window.
