"Oll....ey....ke up...Wha... pene..."
A faintly familiar voice vibrated against Olive's eardrum. Feeling too weak to do anything, he tried to open his eyes. As it fluttered, a pang of dim light attacked his vision instantly, enough to make him wince. His eyes weren't opened fully, and all he saw was a foggy object blocking the dim light.
Letting out yet another wince, Olive weakly lifted his head and sat down. Straight away, a sudden wave of dizziness assaulted his head. From his view, the surroundings were all twisting and spinning unpredictably, causing him to falter a bit.
His hand, which he had lifted to massage his temple, seemed to be getting the job done in relieving the strange lightness in his head. Nonetheless, it would take some time before it finally goes away.
After massaging his head for a few seconds, he was able to focus clearly again, but still a bit blurry. His eyebrows furrowed, with a puzzled eye looking around and examining the surroundings.
There, in front of him, he saw Eddie crouching down with one of his knees on the floor, his face filled with concern. The last time he had seen his brother this concern was before he became a butler during his golden age of mischief. Of course, that was only because one of his pranks turned out badly and had injured Olive.
But after becoming the household butler, his mischief was thankfully tamed.
'What happened?'
What happened indeed... the last thing he remembered was sensing a living thing's shadow standing before him like a ghoul trying to kill him. And before he knew it, here he was lying on the floor feeling lightheaded.
'Wait... the shadow!'
Olive hurriedly shifted his head and took a glance over Eddie's shoulder, ignoring his baffled look. Much to his relief, it was just an old mannequin with a hat slightly sloped as if it were about to fall.
'That... That would explain the movement.'
"Hey! Are you going to tell me what's going on or keep on ignoring me?"
The sudden bark from Eddie had made Olive flinch a little, a kind that was not easily noticed.
Turning his head toward the mannequin again to take a good look at it, he closed his eyes gently. Barely a heartbeat passed when he opened his eyes again and answered:
"Yeah, umm... I'm fine."
Letting out a hiss, Olive then told Eddie about what had happened when he was absent, pausing occasionally to calm his dizziness. He told him how, while he was searching for the key, his flashlight — a cell phone, technically — died, how it was too dark for him to see a thing without a speck of light. He told him everything. Except for the part where he had sensed the mannequin's shadow.
That part, however, was a story he would rather not tell Eddie.
After finishing the story, Eddie nodded curtly. Finally, he got up and reached out his hand toward Olive, who took it instantly the moment he saw it.
Olive steadied himself up, making sure that his balance was set. Eddie too extended his hand to support him.
When he finally stood straight, Eddie looked at Olive and said:
"I think that's enough for today. Go drink some water and take a good rest."
There was a hint of concern in his voice. And although it was faint, it was definitely there.
Olive would be lying if he said he wants to stay here and help him, but at the same time, he also felt guilty to walk out the exit and take a rest. After all, Eddie had cleaned the storage for a lot longer than him. He really wants to help his brother — he really does — unfortunately, the pain lingering on the back of his head got the better of him.
Olive looked up and saw Eddie searching for something. It took him a few gazes before he finally landed on a certain spot near the racks.
"There, found it."
His legs then move away from Olive, walking toward the rack not far away from where they were. Olive, with curiosity nagging over him, glanced at a spot where his brother was heading.
As it turns out, he was walking toward a chest on the rack, situated near the end of it. There was a keychain in the keyhole of the chest. Eddie then took it, put it in his pocket, and patted it.
'He said it was a key...'
Of course, not that it matters what he had said. Since it would make no difference during his search whatsoever. He would still take it if he saw it anyway. What was he? An idiot?
The real question was, how had he missed it?
Maybe because it was dark...? Yeah... yeah, that makes sense.
Well, at least one of his questions earlier had been answered. About why Eddie brought the key down here. Turns out he needed it to open a chest.
Made much more sense.
Now, however, a new question arises. Why did the exit key have to be put in the same chain as the key for the chest? No really, why? Isn't it much more convenient to use it separately?
He felt rather doubtful about the decision, for many reasons at that. Simply because its outcomes would place somebody in a terrible situation, like him, for example. Though there was nothing he could do about that now, except advise Eddie to separate it into a different keychain...
Eddie approached Olive with his hand securing the keychain in his pocket. Then, he took it out and showed it to him with one of his fingers in its loop.
"I'll make sure not to leave it around next time, sorry. In case there is another blackout."
Suddenly, he clicked.
"Ah, yes, the blackout! I figure you deserve to know about that, considering what happened."
He laughed hesitantly and coughed, but Olive somehow felt that the cough wasn't right, and instead, was blurted out of embarrassment. Maybe it was because of his awkward laugh?
As if the cough never happened, Eddie continued:
"Anyway, the Engineers downstairs were experimenting with a prototype. Of course, to do so, they would need access to the building's electrical system. Well... let's just say that the prototype ate more than it was supposed to."
After digesting Eddie's story, Olive just nodded. What was he supposed to do? Blame those Engineers for doing their job?
Ridiculous.
Eddie then prompts Olive to head upstairs and take a rest. Still, Olive refused to. Because he promised both Eddie and his father to help clean the storage, even if it creeped him out. But the back of his head still hurt from the impact earlier, so it didn't take a lot of convincing before he finally gave in...
As he was taking a step toward the exit, he glanced at the mannequin one more time. Its porcelain surface and hat on top of it were covered in dust, indicating the passage of time.
But it felt weird.
Somehow, he didn't feel the same presence as earlier when the room was filled with darkness.
Just as he thought that, he abruptly stumbled on one of the junk littered on the floor.
'Damn it, not again!'
By then, it was too late though. He unavoidably hit the ground with a loud thud, making the storage echo again. Luckily for him though, instead of falling backward, this time, he fell forward on his stomach.
Still... it was embarrassing.
Why did he have to fall twice on the same day? Was he really that clumsy?
No... no, of course not! He was anything but clumsy, he was graceful.
Yeah... graceful. The exact word for him.
Really suits him well.
Olive was in no mood to lie flat on the ground again, who knows how long he had passed out? So, to no one's surprise, he impatiently tried to stand up and placed his palm on the floor to support himself.
Then he promptly stopped.
Instead of touching the dusty floor, his palm was touching a white cloth with a hard object underneath it. It looks just like a cross, its size was as long as a man's leg.
The moment his eyes fell on it, he immediately recognized what it was, even with it being covered by the cloth.
...Obviously, the loud impact would attract some attention.
Heading back toward Olive again, Eddie looked at him with a nonplussed face.
"W–What happened?"
Gritting his teeth, he answered.
"Isn't it obvious? I fell... again."
Paying Eddie no further attention, he lifted the cloth up revealing the object underneath it.
And just like he had guessed, a sheathed sword revealed itself as he pulled the cloth.
A sword.
A beautiful longsword...