There, on the ground, Olive was lying on his side with a shocking look on his face. His eyes were wide like a marble, staring at what stood before him.
It was a man in his twenties with auburn hair and a green emerald eye. He was wearing a butler suit, slightly messy and worn with a few stains on his white long-sleeved shirt.
"What are you doing?"
Eddie asked, looking at Olive with one of his brows raised, all confused and curious.
'T–This guy...'
Olive, however, stared at Eddie with a mad fury in his brown eyes while his body was shaking, along with his breath. His face was slightly pale, but Eddie didn't seem to notice it, seeing how mad his brother looked.
For a second there, Olive thought he had seen a ghost in a suit or something. What was he supposed to think?! It was hard not to mistake him for a ghost when his white shirt was stained like that! Not to mention, the dim light limiting his vision, which also did not help him in the current situation whatsoever!
Moreover, if Eddie was here all along, why didn't he call him?! Did he try to scare him on purpose?!
'Bastard!'
The mad fury in Olive's eyes kept burning — aiming towards his brother — intensely without shifting his gaze, and under those eyes, Eddie felt somehow nervous.
He wanted to open his mouth but didn't seem to have the courage to do so. He hesitated again for a while before clearing his throat and asked, finally finding the courage.
"Um... Are you okay?"
There were no answers except a groan escaping from Olive's teeth.
Olive felt frustrated towards Eddie... but that feeling came and vanished quick. Because it was most likely that his brother didn't notice him due to the loads of junk blocking his viewpoint from seeing anyone. If that was it, then there's no one to blame.
With a sigh, Olive lifted himself up from the floor and wiped the dust off his clothes. He looked at Eddie and said:
"I'm fine..."
Then he paused for a moment, while glancing at the old stuff in the storage, and added:
"...Where should I clean?"
Eddie blinked a few times, from the confusion, and shook his head a second later. After that, he said:
"Uh... alright I guess."
He looked at Olive dubiously, seeing how Olive's furious eyes had vanished all of a sudden. Following that, he continued as he pointed his finger somewhere in the corner.
"Go separate those boxes with the electronics from boxes with the antiques over there. Oh, and make sure you..."
Eddie gave him a few more instructions about what tasks and things he needed to do and avoid. Nothing hard really...
'Sounds easy enough.'
Though Olive knew that there were countless boxes full of antiques and old electronics in the storage — most likely a company's prototype — he did not protest to do so. Since compared to the other job he thought he would be doing, this one was rather simple.
Better than taking out the contents in the boxes and distinguishing what things he needs to throw and what not.
'Thank goodness I was wrong.'
Olive turned his head toward where the boxes were, and when he saw them, his face was drained of blood yet again.
'...Hmmm, maybe not.'
In the corner of the room, mountains of boxes were stacked on top of each other — standing at least three meters both in height and width... But that was not what made him pale.
...No.
The real culprit in question was where the piles of boxes were located. And looking at it, shiver ran down Olive's spine.
At the furthest point away from the stairs, a corner loomed in darkness caused by the failure of the dim light illuminating it, where the boxes were.
Olive couldn't help but gulp — given how many boxes there were, he had no doubt that he'll be spending quite the time in the darkness — sweat rolled down his forehead.
At the very least, the situation will not feel as eerie as earlier. With Eddie being around, he would not sense a cold thin hair behind him but rather a person.
Very relieving.
Eddie let out a groan as he stretched his body. Eddie had been cleaning the storage for an hour straight now — maybe more, maybe while he was at the café — and almost half of the storage was clean. So naturally, he would feel exhausted.
With that, Eddie let out a sigh. Not an exhausted sigh or anything frustrated... just a sigh, a relieved one, weirdly.
"Anyway, while you're at it, I'll clean that side over there."
He pointed again, this time, towards the opposite side of where Olive would be cleaning...
Olive's heart skipped a beat when he saw where his brother was pointing. It was... concerning little knowing that his brother would not be there to accompany him around the dark corner.
But in hindsight, maybe splitting up is for the best, since it would be more efficient to clean two places at a time rather than one. Even though he would have preferred otherwise.
But what's there to worry about? Besides, Eddie would most likely be one or two rows behind him.
'Still, I wonder how far he'll be.'
Following his brother's gesture, Olive glanced at the location where his brother would be cleaning. Suddenly his face paled again.
'...Ah, I'm in trouble.'
Olive's assumption was wrong... very wrong.
Turns out, it was not one or two rows behind him like he had thought it was. As a matter of fact, it was not even four! It was at the end of the row.
The furthest one from him, and the closest rows to the stairs.
He was about to open his mouth and protest, but Eddie beat him to it.
"Alright, chop chop! There are a lot more things we need to do."
With that, Eddie walked away from Olive, toward the end of the row, and disappeared from his sight, leaving Olive alone.
He stared at where Eddie went for a long while. Then, he looked at the piles of boxes sitting in the dark corner for a while longer.
"Urgh..."
Olive massaged his temple without shifting his gaze.
No matter how much Olive wanted to protest, there was nothing he could do.
Well... maybe not. But he promised his father to help Eddie clean it. And if he ran now, he would break his promise and responsibility — maybe even getting himself into trouble.
Plus, what would he even say to him? 'Sorry, your son ditched his responsibility because the dark corner ran a chill down his bones and marrow'?
Absolutely not!
Taking a deep breath, he finally took a step forward and headed toward the boxes reluctantly.
***
It has been no more than half an hour since he started separating the piles of boxes.
At first, it was frightening to wander in the darkness barely shone by the dim light, but as he gradually separated the boxes, the fear slowly receded the more he lifted the boxes.
'I guess you can't really focus on the frightening part when you're all tired and hot.'
Still, even with his fear lessening, it was nonetheless there — just not as much as before.
Lifting the boxes, Olive walked toward the cart with boxes that he had lifted on it and placed it on top of another box.
Thud!
Dust flew as the boxes fell on another, causing Olive to cough.
He didn't know how long the boxes had been in the storage, but judging by how much dust they collected, he could assume it was pretty long.
Not like he cares... all he cares about was to get the hell out of the storage as quickly as possible. If not the storage, then at least the dark corner.
Olive swung his hand, making the dust flew away from him. Then, he shifted his gaze toward the piles of boxes — which had lessened.
His job was simple, place the boxes on the cart and bring it to the platform next to the stairs. In fact, his repeating trips from the platform play a huge part in his decreasing fear.
Olive sighed, which then followed by a step forward.
Time seemed to fly by as he continued his job with nothing else to think, except lifting and moving. When he, was done separating the boxes, Olive then moved to his other tasks.
By the time he came to his senses, it was already more than an hour.
Olive sat down on the floor with his knee supporting his arm, his chest heaving up and down from the exhaustion.
'How the hell Eddie cleaned this storage for years?!'
No wonder his father asked Olive to help him! This place is a nightmare! Both literally, and metaphorically! And there was still a place he needed to clean!
Olive was frustrated when, out of the sudden, a corner of his eyes caught a shadow near the racks, causing his head to turn abruptly. However, when his eyes landed on where it was, there was nothing.
"Eddie?"
No answer came out. Only silence...
Olive glared at the rack with a groan escaping his lips. Then he got up, and slowly moved toward the rack, but at the same time distancing his body away, just enough to look at it, but give him time to make an action.
When he almost reached the racks, Olive quickly jumped sideways facing his front body toward the aisle.
Nothing...
Narrowing his eyes to avoid missing a single detail, Olive calmed down and moved to continue his other tasks when all of a sudden, he felt something touched his shoulder.