All the Pollinators that were collected outside the house instantly followed Humphrey's command, bursting through the front door like a pack of wolves. The violet-colored gas continued to hang in the air, slightly obscuring the environment from the group. It wasn't for another ten seconds before one of them knelt beside the generator-like device, pressing a button that instantaneously collected the smoke back towards a single point.
"Spread out," Humphrey lowered his mask and slowly scanned the surroundings. In the dim lighting of the crimson moon that could barely penetrate through the windows, the interior of the house was decked head-to-toe in lavish items, making it resemble more like a palace than a criminal's estate.
Shinso, who was nestled among a small team of Pollinators, separated from the squad and approached Humphrey, his gaze skeptical.
"What if they're not here?" Shinso asked him, stuffing his hands into his pockets.
Humphrey looked back to the indigo-haired boy, arching an eyebrow and smirking. "Even if they're not here, that doesn't mean we still can't gather relevant information about them."
He took two steps forward down the hallway leading to the foyer, tracing his hand along the wooden walls, which were covered with paintings.
"The best way to study something is to figure out what it left behind."
Shinso slowly nodded his head, pretending to understand his words. He had been in this house more than twice already, so he already had a somewhat decent idea of how large it was. Aside from the foyer, he'd figure out where the bathroom and the bedrooms were. Shinso observed Humphrey dig into his left pocket, his hands clenching around a miniature device that was cylindrical in shape.
With the click of a button, the device emitted a blinding ray of light in the direction of the fireplace—it was a flashlight!
"I didn't know you had flashlights," Shinso commented, walking beside Humphrey as they entered the living area.
The plush armchairs and wine table were exactly as Shinso had previously seen, aside from some dust hanging in the air. The fire was extinguished, only charred wood and a steady stream of smoke were an after-tale of its purpose. Two glasses of wine sat on the round table in front of the fire, the sides smeared with the dark crimson liquid. Some even pooled around the rim, slowly dripping down the exterior and onto the table below.
"They had drinks," Humphrey gestured towards the glasses on the table. Shinso turned and nodded his head.
"What if they're drunk right now?"
Humphrey chuckled as he approached a massive bookshelf sitting adjacent to the fireplace. His fingers worked meticulously over the books, pulling them a few inches off the shelf by their spines. Shinso silently watched from the sidelines, and he couldn't help but chuckle to himself. What Humphrey was doing reminded him of a detective novel, where the sudden pull of a book would trigger a secret entrance—maybe even a trap of some kind.
"If they're drunk, they probably wouldn't notice if we trigger their secret entrance," Humphrey smirked as he continued pulling at the books.
He turned back to Shinso as he continued pulling the books. "Meet up with the other teammates and see what you can find; let me know if anything happens—maybe I'll hear it anyway."
Shinso nodded and soaked in the words, committing them to his memory. Without saying anything further, he turned around and made his way out of the living room. In the light filtering in through the windows, he caught sight of the countless paintings lining the foyer's hallway. Some of the paintings showcased battles, with soldiers clad in mottled, bloodstained armor driving their spears into a howling, shadow-breathing dragon.
Some of the paintings depicted macabre scenes of nude women and men, striking poses as their countenance was sketched by an artist. Others depicted natural scenes, like a row of evergreen trees plastered behind a sheet of hazy, grayish-white fog that rolled through a field of grass. In the background, the sun slowly set, and the tiny, almost inscrutable dots of stars began to swim into the sky.
Shinso's eyes suddenly widened when he caught sight of one of the paintings. It showed none other than Catherine, kneeling beside a young girl clad in a plaid skirt and bonnet, her light-colored hair perched in a bun above her head. Catherine's face bore a smile as she gazed at the young girl, placing a hand on her shoulder.
In the girl's hand was a small wooden bear, almost looking like a toy. Does Catherine have a child or a little sister?
In the background of the photo, Shinso could see a rather unassuming house perched atop a hill, alongside a field that seemed to roll on for miles before stopping at the edge of a thick, almost foreboding forest. The house was made of dark-colored wood, with a deck that overlooked a small pond.
Below the photo were a few words scribbled in elaborate, almost noble script: "The star of my life, the one that illuminates my dreams and desires, my dear Jesibel—my dear daughter."
A sudden flash of light outside the window snagged his attention. Shinso's stomach bubbled with unease as he slowly approached the window, peering outside. Above, dark clouds began to roll in, obscuring the clear, star-filled sky, but never gracing the crimson moon that shone in the void. The slow rumble of thunder abruptly passed over the kingdom, almost shaking the house to its foundation.
"A thunderstorm in the winter?" Shinso thought to himself, leaning in closer to look out the window even more. Another flash of light passed in the distance, near the line of evergreens, just near the snow-covered forest. This flash of light wasn't white or blue in color—but a deep crimson, almost like blood.
Shinso's instincts suddenly flared, and the boy rustled the curtains shut and turned back to the foyer and hallway, away from the window. Although he was never one to be scared of storms, the eeriness of the crimson lightning and the dark clouds—coupled with the fact that he'd never seen a storm in this new reality—had his heart thumping in his chest, threatening to pump into overdrive and knock him off his feet.
His mind began to race, should he inform Humphrey and the other Pollinators, or stick to his mission? Just then, he had a thought. The Pollinators were native to this reality, meaning they've most likely dealt with this type of storm hundreds—if not thousands of times in their lifetimes. Obsessing over this would most likely make the Pollinators think he was either emotionally immature or arouse different concerns—maybe even that he wasn't from this reality to begin with!
Shinso shook those thoughts from his mind and kept walking down the hallway, reaching the end and approaching a flight of stairs that ascended into the darkness above. It most likely led to the second floor of the house. Shinso tapped his pockets, realizing he didn't have a flashlight or means to illuminate his surroundings. His attention suddenly gravitated to the kerosene-powered lamps lining the hallway.
Upon closer inspection, they looked simiar—if not exact to the ones that Wilfred had used inside of Madame Fitzgerald's manor. His mind flashed back to the experience, recalling the process that Wilfred had described when attempting to disarm the Tremebrus. Shinso's hands worked with precision as ever sharp instruction and process echoed in his mind, quickly guiding him through the steps. Soon enough, the lamps flashed on along the staircase, allowing Shinso a view upstairs.
The staircase stretched quite a long distance, making Shinso question if the height of the house was only spaced by these two floors. After a deep, shuddering breath, Shinso began to ascend, gripping the side handrail with trembling fingers. He wasn't afraid of the height or the lamps going out mid-walk, but his mind constantly backtracked to what he had seen outside.
As another rumble of thunder echoed through the house, Shinso habitually held his breath. Once it ceased, he kept walking, the stairs creaking under his boots. When he finally reached the top, the boy let out a sigh of relief, looking back at the first floor in victory. The first thing he did was assess the windows of the floor, moving like a phantom to close them all with quick precision.
He once again followed Wilfred's instructions, activating the lamps on the second floor. Shinso hissed and closed his eyes as an overwhelming burst of light flooded the second floor from all the lamps being activated in quick succession. After seeing everything properly, the second floor was nothing special, just another hallway lined with doors.
Shinso took another deep, shuddering breath as he walked forward again, reaching the first door. It was colored with dark purple paint, a color that reminded Shinso of most of Catherine's attire. He quickly deduced that this was Catherine's bedroom, and opened the door, allowing the light from the hallway to spill inside.
The bedroom was much larger then Shinso had anticipated, with a queen-sized bed on the far end of the room beside the closed window, and a small dresser nestled beside it with numerous drawers and compartments. A large, full body mirror was perched in the far corner just beside her alcove closet. Shinso gazed into it, seeing his own reflection in the mirror standing like a phantom in the doorway.
Shinso stepped onto the carpeted floor, making his way over to Catherine's bed. After closing the window, he quickly assessed the surroundings. Her bed was neatly made, with countless pillows sitting at the head, and an extravagantly made silk blanket draping off the sides, almost touching the floor beneath. Within the patterns of the blanket, Shinso could make out countless figures like gargoyles, phantoms, and demonic countenances boring into his very soul.
In the corner of his eye, Shinso swore he could see an illusory, shadow-like figure rush past the doorway and down the hallway at lightning speeds, whispering like the wind. He snapped his head back to the door, gazing into the dimly lit corridor with the vigilance of a wolf. His hands, now slightly clammy and pale, grasped the edges of Catherine's silk blanket, causing it to wrinkle.
He took a few deep breaths, silently assuring himself that he was alone and safe, before turning back to the bed and dresser. Now that Shinso stood more closely, he noticed that all the drawers of the dresser had been locked shut with intricate, patterned padlocks. They hung below the spherical handles, yet the hinges and hooks prevented anyone from entering these drawers.
Shinso knelt down, carefully inspecting the locks with a clinical, almost surgical aptitude. At this moment, a sharp buzzing sound emanated from his pocket. It was the pocket watch he had gained! Shinso dove into his back pocket and took out the bronze pocket watch, the object glistening dimly in the lights. The chain the watch was suspended on began to shake and tremble violently, before shooting out of his grip and beelining in the direction of Catherine's pillows.
His stomach churned and fizzed with unease, but he couldn't deny the effects of a mystical object. Without any further hesitation, Shinso climbed onto the sheets and began to rummage through Catherine's pillows for whatever the watch wanted him to find. Shinso's sweaty hands soon found respite, wrapping around a small, cold object—it was a key!
The boy removed the key from the pillows and slipped it into the first padlock of the drawer, removing it and peering inside. As he opened it, the objects within quickly became known. One of them was a fountain pen and some dried up ink, alongside a scroll. But one of the items took him aback; it looked like a messily folded up piece of paper.
Shinso's curiosity got the better of him, and he took out the paper, unfolding it and gazing at its contents. His brows arched once he could properly decipher that it was ...a memoir.
"Catherine Bridge, March 3rd 1577.
"I don't see why the demons wanted my dear Jesibel, she was a kind-hearted, plump soul that I birthed as my own, to be raised and fostered under my care alongside Carter. They demanded a heavy price, and the cost would've been beyond that the toll of death had upon myself. Even to this day, my heart ebbs and weeps with regret, for my dearest daughter will forever be escorted by the clutches of De-Taylel, and the otherworldly, putrid clenches of the Underworld."
As Shinso finished reading those words, the trembling of his body had increased. He didn't know what to say, what to do. He knew that the young girl in the painting was her daughter, but her fate, what Catherine had to do to ensure her own survival, was a penance that she had to pay, even if he didn't exactly know why.
"I need everyone on this site, now! Body beneath the floorboards!" One of the Pollinators hollered from downstairs.
In normal situations, he could have immediately reacted, but now, he was too shocked by what he had read to react. All he knew was that they had just found the corpse that Catherine had mentioned underneath the floorboards.