4
Vicki emptied her suitcase into the closet as she scanned the room from the huge poster bed to the view of the old house in the tree line of the woods outside the window. She passed her hand over the faint layer of dust on the bureau as she heard her door jarred open. Carolyn brushed against it carrying a huge single tray with a covered plate as she entered and placed the tray down on the desk.
"I knew you'd be hungry." The lovely blonde turned round with a secretive grin. "I reheated some of the roast. Hope you like eggplant!"
"I don't mind." Vicki felt accepted as she clicked on the extra lamp. Carolyn reacted slightly to the extra light in the room as her eyes adjusted. "Have you eaten already?" She asked her newfound sister.
"Hours ago," Carolyn beamed as she gazed upon her new relative and saw a lot of their mother in her. "I hope you like this room. It was mother's. There are fresh linens in the closet if you want them, help yourself to anything in the kitchen and if you wake up in the morning and I'm not around, don't panic. I'm a bit of a night owl. I usually don't go to bed till four in the morning and I often sleep till six in the afternoon."
"I'll keep it quiet." Vicki spoke softly as she sat before her plate and grinned. "Why I just bet you want to return to your coffin in the basement." She chuckled a bit.
"Something like that." Carolyn chuckled too with a toss of her long golden locks. "Oh, if you want to go to town, the keys to the town car are on a hook in the kitchen. Have a good night."
"Good night." Vicki sipped her drink. She reacted as she found it to be red wine; she'd never had it before. She ate her dinner quietly and was soon showered and changed for bed. The sheets were cold, yet fresh, as she marveled at how Carolyn handled the house by herself. She remembered her saying something about a servant who came round every so many days as she read the book by the bed. Her watch read it was well after midnight as the found daughter switched off the lamp and lapsed into unconsciousness.
She wasn't sure if she was asleep yet when she heard the noise. She may have been just drifting off, but she soon found herself cocking her head to a noise. It was sort of a... creaking noise, no, a crying sound. She was sure it was someone crying as she pulled back her covers and pulled on her wrap. She wasn't sure which room was Carolyn's but someone was crying. Her gaze fell on the door at the end of the hall as she wondered if it was a bedroom, but as she reached to open it, she found it was locked to her as she turned to look down the other way. Someone in the house was crying long mournful sobs as if they had lost their most beloved. It didn't sound like Carolyn's voice. It sounded like it might be an older woman in the house. Gliding through the house as if she were her own phantom, Vicki wondered if there could be another person here in the house as she rapped at one bedroom door and stuck her head inside it.
"Carolyn?" It was a boy's room. One single bed sat against the wall waiting for its master as books and models gathered dust. A deserted pair of clothes sat folded neatly on the corner of the bed in silent witness of the empty room. In the corner, a baseball bat laid upright with no one to hit balls with it. Vicki glanced around harmlessly as she stepped back and closed the door to the room as she listened again. The crying was a bit further as she headed to the door to the foyer. She placed one foot out on the balcony eerily lit by the stain-glass window to her left and looked down as she saw a woman exit from the doorway under the balcony, hurriedly cross the landing in the dim colored light and enter the darkened drawing room. A bit older than Carolyn and with short dark hair, she held something like a handkerchief to her face as she passed beyond Victoria's vision and glided effortlessly out of sight.
"Hello?" Vicki moved lightly down the stairs to the bottom floor as the doors of the drawing room closed to her. Barely sealed to her, she pushed them wide and looked inside. The room was empty but for the continuing blaze in the fireplace and the crying was gone. She wondered if the person had left through the back hall in the corner across from the fireplace to the dining room. Passing the piano in the room and locked doors to a garden behind the mansion, Vicki found herself in the dark recesses of dining room. The room seemed deserted as the huge oak table sat waiting for grand meals to be served upon it. There were enough chairs for sixteen people here as she touched the dead flowers and dried leaves in the centerpiece. Scanning the emptiness meeting her, she peeked to the kitchen a second then headed through the dining room back to the foyer. It appeared abandoned as chairs sat up on top of the breakfast table undisturbed. She could not believe that Carolyn lived here all alone in this huge house when she could invite several friends to live here rent-free and keep her company. Could the old woman be one of them and if she were, why did she not at least mention her?
"Where could she have gone?" Her voice asked the darkness.