Chapter Seventeen: A Trip to Ember Hollow

I arrived in Ember Hollow on a gloomy, overcast Saturday, which seemed to match the seemingly melancholy town I had passed through to reach the address Mole was reaching out to me from. The Victorian home of the address had been a little intimidating upon first glance until I got closer and saw the bronze plaque on the door:

RESCUE AID SOCIETY

Call on us anytime

"Mole, what have you been up to?" I questioned, then rang the doorbell. After a few moments, the door opened and I was greeted by a young man in his early twenties.

"Welcome to the Rescue Aid Society," The man told me, "my name is Will, how may I assist you?"

"I'm looking for Gaetan Moliére." I responded, trying to say Mole's name correctly. He let me inside, closing the door behind me. "He asked me to come."

"Oh, you're one of Mole's guests." Will responded, "We were expecting you, his other guest is in the library. I'll show you the way, follow me." He then led me down the hall and into the library. "If you could wait here, Mole will be with you shortly." Then closed the door behind him.

"Vinny, it's good to see you, it's been awhile." I heard from behind, "How's the flowershop?"

Knowing the familiar voice, I smiled lightly before turning around to face Audrey, "Good. How's the garage?

"Good." She responded, "Any idea what we're doing here?"

"No."

"You're both here to help Mr. Mole with whatever is in the basement." We heard a young voice on the other side of us. We looked to the other side of us, which had a desk and a chair that was currently facing the bookshelf behind it. The chair swiveled around to reveal a young dark haired, blue eyed girl with a book in her hands. She set down the book, which upon closer inspection had been Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan of the Apes, on the desk.

"Aren't you a little young to be reading that?" Audrey asked.

"Aren't you a little old to be agreeing to go somewhere without knowing what you're agreeing to?" The girl countered, and then moved on here, "My mother taught me to read and since I spend most of my time in here, I have a pretty vast selection. This is much easier to get through than Verne's novels."

"Olivia, I thought I told you to be in another room this morning." Mole told her as he walked into the room.

"And that's why I'm in here." The young girl, Olivia, responded, "You didn't tell mother you were having people come to help with what she's doing in the basement. I want to see her face when she finds out."

"Hey kid, what's your mom's name?" Audrey asked, curiously.

"Chr-" Olivia started, before Mole spoke up.

"That's enough out of you." Mole told her, rushing her out of the library. She then knocked at the door to which he opened.

"If you're going to kick me out, at least give me my book." She told him, holding out her hand. He gave her the book and then closed the door.

"I'll have to go over this quickly before she tells her mother." Mole told us.

"Who is her mother?" Audrey asked again.

Mole looked down, biting his lip, "You'll know soon enough."

"Then why not tell us?" Audrey asked, "It's not like she has anything to do with us being here."

"It does." Mole responded, "It's her family home."

Audrey looked at him confused, "You invited us to random woman's home to help her with her basement?"

"I invited you to help a friend." Mole corrected, "Whether she wants it or not."

"Do we know this friend?" Audrey asked, to which Mole nodded reluctantly as the door opened to reveal Tia. She was coming in with blue prints in hand, as she read through a journal.

"Well, Mole, attempt number 563 has failed." She stated, setting the blueprints down on the desk, and turned around, leaning on the desk, setting the journal down, "So I'm told you hired people to help with the laboratory." She then looked over to us, "Hello Audrey, Vinny." Then looked back at Mole, "Olivia mentioned it as I was heading over. I thought we agreed that we would ask for help when we had run out of options."

"You've just finished attempt number 563," Mole reminded her, "We've reached that point."

"Oh I don't disagree." Tia replied, "But for them to be here now means you wrote them a while back." She looked back at us, "How long?"

"About a week." I answered.

"Same."

She nodded, and continued, "Well, since you're here, you might as well help."

This had been her family's home that she and Mole had rebuilt along with a few others like Will that they had enlisted into their group along the way. The town had been reconstructed by the group and other volunteers as well. Currently, two of the other members of their team were out of the state. The only thing they hadn't done was the laboratory in the basement, which was filed with different machines and weaponry. The only problem was that there was no access into laboratory. There had been so much damage to the only known door that it wouldn't open. They needed access into the room without destroying the home in the process.

"Have you thought about trying to find another way in?" Audrey asked.

"Yeah," She nodded, holding back up the journal, "And I thought it'd be mentioned somewhere in his research journal, but it has pages ripped out and what's remaining of the pages are burnt. I've tried to study what is left in the journal to see what is at least in the laboratory so that we could maybe just leave it alone, but the jargon makes it even harder."

"Can I see the journal?" I asked her.

"Have at it." She responded, tossing me the journal, "You'd probably know more about what it's talking about than I do. If you could study it and let me know what it says in more layman's terms that would be very helpful."

"How can I help?" Audrey asked.

"That's up to Mole, the laboratory is now his project." Tia replied, pushing herself off the desk, "I'm taking a few days off. If you want to stay here, you're both more than welcome to, there's more than enough room." With that she left.

"How can I help, Mole?" Audrey asked.

"Help find what's in the journal and how to restore the laboratory." Mole answered, "She may say it can stay the way it is, but it would make her happy if it could be. It would be even better if it could be made safe for Olivia as well."

"Is Olivia yours?" Audrey asked Mole.

Mole vigorously shook his head, "No, no."

"How old is she?" I asked him.

"Five." Mole answered

She was mine.