Nothing belongs to me.
XXXVII: Archaic
"What is this place?"
"Don't you know?"
Scorpius didn't like the smile tugging at the young woman's lips. There were a lot of things about this girl he didn't like – like how she dressed willingly in long, billowing robes in the middle of August and how she seemed to have an explanation for all his questions, but wouldn't share any.
"No." he answered finally, truthfully, staring around the house this stranger had taken him to.
"Not yet."
It had once been a magnificent manor. Now it was anything but.
There was an archaic aura about the place that suggested no one had lived here in ages.
But then again, perhaps, it was the state of the mansion that gave this fact away.
A thick carpet of dust coating the marble floors muffled his footsteps, and quilts of cobwebs hung daintily from the high ceiling and elegant chandeliers.
Even through the years of grime, Scorpius could sense some of the manor's former grandeur. Already, he could imagine fine crystal, delicate china, and crisp linens upon gleaming, polished surfaces.
Sounds behind Scorpius told him that the young woman had followed, and he raised his cell phone again for light.
He stood in front of a grand staircase.
"Is it safe?" he whispered, but Scorpius didn't bother to wait for an answer though and took a step.
In his mind, questions exploded like fireworks. Who was this girl? What was this place? And why had she taken him here?
He wanted nothing more than to spin around, traipse out of this dust bunny burrow, and forget everything. If it hadn't been for his desire to know, he would have.
A sudden movement, out of the corner of his eye, tore him from his thoughts.
On the wall next to him, he could see the outline of something, something large. Scorpius wiped the dust away to see a face staring at him through a window.
It wasn't a window, though, he realized, but a portrait, a portrait of a man. A handsome man with a handsome face. His face.
Their resemblance was uncanny, as if Scorpius were staring into a mirror. In fact, the only thing that differed was their eyes: this man had grey eyes, and his were brown.