What was taking them so long? Karla wondered. Soon it would be nighttime. What if something happened? What if they were held up by something, the same way father had been held up? No, you're being ridiculous.
And you're being dishonest with yourself, a part of her seemed to speak to Karla, that paranoid part she wished would just go away.
Her father had been making a new weapon of mass destruction in their basement, and neither he nor Eren told her anything about it. Not that it was any of her business, really – wait, of course it was! It was everyone's business! And then Eren departed with agent Jeremy, or Auror Jeremy, or whatever he was. How convenient, she thought, watching the television. Well, she wasn't really watching it attentively, merely fidgeting with the remote control. She had a tendency to fidget when deep in thought, which was most of the time. She had turned the TV on more as a distraction from some of the more troubling thoughts that came up–
Someone was inside the house.
Ever since she was a child, Karla had a strange ability to sense when someone had entered the house. She never told anyone about it for fear that people would laugh, but it was true and she could not explain it, but wherever she was, her very first home in Germany or that awful apartment on the outskirts of Berlin, even here in London, her eardrums would vibrate for a moment whenever the door of her home opened and closed.
She did not hear any doors opening now, but she felt that same sensation in her eardrums. Someone was inside, she was sure of it. She got up from the leather sofa and snuck over as silently as she could to the closed living room door, bent down and looked through the keyhole. Nothing. Nothing in the hallway. But she could hear it coming from the room closest to the entrance, on the right. The faint yet unmistakable noise of someone walking up the stairs. Opening up the door, she was struck by another faint sensation, that she should take the kitchen knife with her just in case. And so she did.
Thus armed, Karla stepped into the hallway. The first door from the living room opened on her and Eren's bedroom, but that wasn't where the noise was coming from. She went past it and to the second room, the one she heard the noises from. Since her father had the basement all to himself, they were forced to convert what was once the guest room into a pantry of sorts. Here they kept their gardening tools, cleaning tools, another refrigerator, and in the centre of it all a spiral staircase leading up. Karla entered this room just in time to catch a glimpse of the intruder's shadow.
Father had the basement to himself, and also the second floor, and they had spared no expense to provide him with everything he needed. He had everything Karla and Eren had downstairs. His own bathroom, living room, bedroom, kitchen, even his own study, and that was where this spiral staircase led to.
Karla climbed up slowly, silently, hoping to catch the intruder by surprise. Malachi had sent his men here, she was sure of it, but why? Was there something else he needed from them? Eren did mention they had run out of supplies. No, that couldn't have been it, Malachi said he had supplies of his own. What, then? Did they require some equipment? Some papers to help with their research? This kitchen knife in their backs? She had never been in a life or death situation before, but if they thought they could just come and go as they pleased, they had another thing in store for them.
The study was dark. It was dark even at midday, that was how her father liked it. But now it was winter, and days were short. Downstairs, sunlight was still streaming through the windows, however weakly. Up here, she found she had to turn on the light. Hands stretched out in front of her, she went for the switch next to the door of the study and pressed it.
Nothing. No one. Did they already leave the study? She tried the door, but it was locked from the inside. The windows were closed, the air inside stale. And though she had turned on the light, the shadows in the room seemed slow to recede. They lingered near the heavy desk by the windows, by the bookshelves covering every wall in the room. She was a big girl, not afraid of the dark anymore, but even so there was something about the shadows that just did not feel right.
Suddenly there was a hideous screeching noise, like someone was scraping a fork against a plate, and the shadows came alive, took the shape of men in dark hooded robes, and a gorgeous young woman. „Miss Jäger. We're here to take you to your father."
She tried to fight, she tried to fend off the invaders, slashing wildly with her knife. She thought she got one of them across the arm but it did not even slow them down. The shadows seized her, and the bloodied knife clattered on the floor. She was gone.