Halloween I.F. – “Going Dark” – Day 2

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It would be terribly stupid to ignore their brother’s unasked-for reminder to unpack the frozen goods first, Fern reminded themself regretfully. They’d never hear the end of it if Adrian had to come all the way back out here just to deliver them more groceries, even if it was a little tempting to make him jump to their will.

They grabbed the heavy cloth grocery bags, doing their utmost to carry all three in one trip. The front hall gave way to stairs up on the right, a hallway forward to the kitchen, and some kind of sitting room to the left.

The kitchen was fairly roomy, with a table in one open half that had three chairs around it—for a one-bedroom place?—and generous cabinets. The fridge and freezer were clean on the inside except for a single box of baking soda to keep it fresh, and was lit up and humming. 

They unloaded the groceries quickly, perfunctorily, starting with the frozen goods as instructed; they more or less shoved in the refrigerated goods in a rough order to make things easier to find later. Meats on the middle left, cheese on the right, veggies on the bottom. 

There was no dedicated pantry, but opening the cupboards revealed that one of them had plates and cups, another had a few appliances that were kept there to not overcrowd the counter—a toaster, a kettle, a small food chopper and, oddly, a small portable radio that might offer some entertainment at some point—and the third double-cupboard had clearly been used as a pantry before. This last was mostly cleared out, but had a couple boxes of tea in it, along with a sealed box of off-brand cereal, and an opened bag of flour that Fern wasn’t sure if they trusted.

They threw the rest of their groceries into that cupboard with the ones that had been left for them and shut the doors before anything could fall out. Survival prep: complete.

On their way back through the hallway, they noticed that the side of the stairs up had a door in it; storage, maybe—or the fuse box, perhaps, something worth keeping in mind in case there were any problems later. The risk of spiders kept Fern from checking immediately; besides, they were on a roll with unpacking things.

Since there weren’t any on this floor, they had to assume the bedroom was upstairs, so shrugged their backpack back on, then grabbed their suitcase and began dragging it up, trying to keep the wheels from hitting the wood stairs too hard. 

Fern’s curiosity about the size of the place immediately paid off. There were three doors on the second floor, two of which were open—a bathroom and the master bedroom where Fern was to sleep—and the third of which was firmly closed and presumably locked, with a printer-paper sign taped to the outside reading “OWNER’S STORAGE, NOT FOR RENTERS USE.”

Fair enough, they supposed, though they were terribly curious. There didn’t seem to be any cameras set up in the hall, either… 

No, they were unpacking right now, they reminded themselves, and they had only received the front door key, even if this lock looked plenty old and jimmy-able. 

They headed into the master bedroom—a big room with a large bed against one wall, a nice writing desk to one side with a closet next to it, and a TV on a dresser on the wall facing the bed. They pulled out their bag of toiletries, their laptop, and chargers, and then decided they’d unpacked enough. Clothes could move into the dresser or closet later, if at all.

The bed turned out to be comfortable enough when they laid on it, but despite their Olympics-level ability to sleep anytime and anywhere, they weren’t in the mood to sleep. Instead, they stared up at the ceiling, listening to the unfamiliar sounds of the woods for a few long moments and feeling themselves coming perilously close to thinking about their problems before instead grabbing their phone and being immediately reminded that there was no internet access.

They sent a brief text to Trev to say they were here safely, and saw it go gray as it tried to send. Only time would tell if it got through. 

Fern swung their legs back off the side of the bed. Maybe it was time to look at some of these rooms in more detail, they decided, really do a deep exploration of where they were likely to be staying. They’d seen a lot of rooms in passing on their way through that they could return to—and the grounds outside too, of course. Any of them would be a fine starting place.

But where to start?

[Comment below with a suggestion for Fern]

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