Author's Note: Sorry about the lack of update last week, RL caught up and I spent an unnecessary amount of time doing some research for a later chapter, and so I didn't actually get anything written. On the other hand, the next few chapters are (hopefully) going to be far more awesome than this one (which I realize is kind of disappointing) and hopefully on time. I considered posting a preview, but decided against. The chapters are short enough that any meaningful preview would spoil the punchline, so you are just going to have to wait a week. See you then!
Snow was not willing to unlock the door right off the bat. Despite the fierce curiosity that had taken her, she had not abandoned all common sense. Unfortunately, that meant she was trapped on the outside of the door, with no way to tell what was beyond it.
She tried getting down on her hands and knees to try and peek underneath the door through the crack where the floor and the door met, but was unable to see anything. The door was fitted well, but she wasn't sure if the tightness of the crack or complete darkness in the room beyond thwarted her.
Feeling pessimistic about her chances but unwilling to give up just yet, Snow then attempted to peek through the cracks in the side of the door, particularly by the hinges. As she expected, the door was fitted to tightly to allow anything through – though she felt compelled to spend several minutes verifying the fact.
In frustration, She pressed her ear up against the door, again, not really expecting to hear anything, but feeling the need to try. She closed her eyes and strained her ears, hoping to catch even the slightest sound. Just as she was about to give up, she heard it. The same thumping sound she had determined was a heartbeat yesterday with Blidarmd. Unfortunately, it startled her so that she jumped in surprise, and lost focus.
Re-hearing the heartbeat proved to be surprisingly difficult, almost like it was trying to hide from her now that it knew she was trying to listen to it. However, after an excruciatingly frustrating amount of time in which Snow began to wonder if she had imagined it entirely, Snow finally heard it again. interestingly, after listening to it, she determined that it was actually two heartbeats, just out of sync. After another few minutes of listening, and of trying to remember what Blidarmd's heartbeat had sounded like, she reached a somewhat shaky conclusion that the heartbeats belonged to two people, not animals.
However, that raised another question, she had been here listening at the door for more than fifteen minutes, and she hadn't heard a single movement. Maybe they were sleeping? Except that doesn't sleeping lower your heartrate? So maybe they were small animals that only had a slow heartrate because they were sleeping? But that meant that if they were people they were probably awake. But if they were awake, why weren't they moving?
She suddenly wanted to whisper through the door. But she paused – she was determined not to make any stupid mistakes, and so spent several minutes arguing with herself about the pro's and con's to trying to set up a dialogue with whoever was on the other side of the door, assuming she even could.
However, before she had reached any sort of conclusion, she heard the soft sort of rustling that meant movement, and it proved to be the catalyst that pushed her into action.
"Who are you?" She said it in a stage whisper – hoping to penetrate the door but not attract attention from others. It still sounded like a shout in the complete silence she had been listening to.
There was no response. The rustling stopped. In fact, even the heartbeats that she had been listening to seemed to fade into silence.
"I'm just curious!" Snow said quickly, "I'm not trying to trick you." Despite the seeming impossibility of it, the silence only deepened.
Fishing for any kind of response, Snow added, "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."
The atmosphere thickened and darkened. It felt like the inside of a tomb. Snow hesitated. Now what do I say?
She put her ear back against the door, but no matter how hard she listened, she couldn't hear either heartbeat.
Finally and suddenly she gave up. Jerking to her feet with an audible huff, fixing the door with the best glare in her arsenal, and then whirling and stomping up the stairs in frustration. She was going to find out who was on the other side of that door – and no-one was going to stop her.