"This blows," I dumped my bags next to the mattress I was assigned to. It was torn, almost flat and looked older than Ninjago itself. At least I didn't have to sleep on beanbags like Zane. There were only three mattresses, so Zane volunteered to sleep on the floor. Thankfully, we found a few sacks of beans in the corner of the attic.
"It wouldn't be so bad, if Cole hadn't picked an attic as our home!" Jay glanced at Cole, who was currently speaking over the phone with someone. He told us it's Misako, the woman who makes her guests sleep in the attic.
Cole finally turned around. He looked like he was completely done with all of us, and I'm pretty sure that he was. He walked up to the middle of the room and started some sort of announcement, "Misako's going to be here in about ten minutes, so make yourselves look presentable."
It was clear that he was talking to Zane. The white scarf around his neck made him look ridiculous. Then again, I didn't look much better. My hair hadn't been gelled in more than seven hours, of which most had been spent in a old and rusty bus. Literally. A good quarter of the bus was covered with rust.
"Are we going into the sunlight? If so, I refuse to remove any clothing," Zane asked. "She plans on drinking tea on the first floor, so I'm guessing that no, we aren't going outside," Cole answered after a brief moment of thinking. Jay hopped to his feet, "I hope this tea is going to be cold, because even in shade, it's boiling hot!" He proceeded to go down the wonky stairs, each step causing a creaking noise.
I followed him, taking a closer look of the pictures next to the stairs. There were three in total. One was of a woman with brown hair, and two men, one with blonde, the other with brown hair. The one with brown hair looked smiled like he was ready to kill a puppy, while the other barely smiled at all. The woman was the only one with a 'normal' smile.
The next photo was of the same woman and brown haired man, though their hair colour was gone. An unsettling feeling came over me when I looked into the man's eyes. I couldn't put my finger on what had me on my toes, but it was certainly there.
The last picture seemed out of place. It didn't look like it was taken years ago, as it featured a small child wearing a black hoodie. He had blond hair, so I figured there was some sort of love triangle between the three people seen in the other paintings.
A loud thud caught my attention. Jay had already dropped something. "What are you doing? I get that you don't like sleeping upstairs, but you don't have to break anything," I sarcastically asked him. Jay smirked, holding a teapot, "And you don't?"
"I wouldn't break her teapot. I would take it out on the tree next to her house," I replied, "By the way, why does Misako has such an obsession with tea?" The cupboards were filled with cups, pots and many, so many, types of tea. The teapot that Jay knocked over was one of five, each different. Maybe she was a tea fanatic? This village seems kind of weird already...
I was ripped away from my thoughts by a silent knock on the door. Without even bothering to wait for a reply, the person behind the doors opened them. They slowly entered and greeted us, "Good morning, I hope you are comfortable here."
It was the woman from the picture, but this time she looked much more unhappy. And yet she tried to hide it with a mellow smile. Her clothing looked as if she was an archaeologist or something. I wonder why did she even live in this town. It doesn't have the longest history or whatnot.
Zane and Cole entered the room simultaneously. Cole politely smiled upon seeing the old woman.
"Good morning to you too, Misako."