While Trey dragged her Grandpa-by-choice away to store the gardening supplies, and set up the camping stove, Elsbeth decided to investigate the additions to the cottage. The main floor was a single room with a bathroom on the west wall. The stairs to the loft was also on the west side wall as the bathroom. Under the loft stairs there were two shelves with a rod hung above to serve as a closet. All of this was exactly the same as it had been when she’d been here before, so Elsbeth walked around the room multiple times completely unsure of where the entrance to the additions had been placed.
Finally, after doing everything including checking the loft for secret floorboards, Elz took another walk around the outside of the house. She passed Trey and the Old Man marking off a garden plot in the back, but didn't stop to talk to them. Peering into the window of the first room on the north side of the cottage she tried to judge where the doorway was in relation to the rest of the house. It only took a few minutes of measuring footsteps and peeking into windows for her to finally come up with a guess.
Not much later, the back of the closet under the stairs swung open to her touch. It had taken a few minutes to locate the hidden latch but it was fairly easy once found. Still feeling upset at herself for not having noticed the changes the night before, Elz was more on guard and determined to be more thorough in her exploration of the adjoining hallway and the attached rooms. She stepped through the short passage behind the doorway and and scanned the hallway beyond. There were two doors on the opposite wall and a narrow spiral staircase leading upstairs into the second loft area. Elz decided to check that out after searching the bedrooms.
The smaller of the two rooms contained a full sized Murphy bed, with the mattress still in plastic, a dresser and a single matching nightstand on the left of the bed. On the opposite side there was a closet door. Elz moved the furniture and folded up the bed to ensure that she didn’t miss anything further. She didn’t. There was nothing else to be found in the small room. The closet was also empty, but it was deeper than Elz had expected. Standing in the doorway of the closet, Elz could see that the dimensions were off—even with the Murphy cabinet built in to the wall. The cabinet didn't go as far into the wall as she would’ve expected it to. After checking it out for a few minutes, she came to the conclusion that it could be because of something in the other room. She could wait until she checked that room out.
The larger room boasted a queen sized Murphy bed and matching furniture, with the addition of an en-suite bathroom. Elz carefully conducted a search of this room as well. There was nothing to find by moving the dresser and night stands; the closet and en-suite were pristine if not for the dust of disuse. She stood in the doorway of the closet as she had done in the other room and eyed gauged the depth of bed’s cabinet. Like the other, it too seemed to stop almost a foot short of where it should’ve. Elz figured that from the depth of the closets, there was approximately two and a half feet of unaccounted for space between the bedroom walls. Finding no hidden doorways in the closet, and no latches anywhere else in the room she assumed that it was most likely a hiding spot, and determined to figure it out later. After completing her search of the rest of the room, she approached the foot of the bed. Grasping it by the frame, she lifted and began folding it closed. The bed offered no resistance, folding easily into the cabinet. The floor underneath was empty, but Elz was surprised to find that the platform under the bed was simple plywood. Everything else around the house had been built with such sturdy construction materials that the plywood was an astonishing deviation. Always suspicious, she stepped in to take a closer look. She pored over every inch of the platform finding nothing out of the ordinary, but a switch on the side of the frame caught her eye. Trepidation and curiosity blended as she flicked it, holding her breath for the results. Nothing happened… she flicked it again in both directions and then gave up. Remembering the darkened keypads on the shed and garage doors, she chalked it up to a lack of electricity.
Content that she’d checked everything, Elz lowered the bed, and turned to leave. As the bed settled on the floor, a soft “snap” sounded and a low hum briefly vibrated through the floorboards. Elz hurried over to the closet to check the walls there but nothing had changed inside. Going back to the bed, she reached under the frame and felt around for the switch she’d found. She pressed the switch and the hum stopped. At the same time she felt some motion under the bed. She lifted the bed part way and looked underneath but there was nothing to see. Holding the bed up she flicked the switch again but nothing happened. An idea formed in her mind and she put the bed down once more and pressed the switch again. The vibration began and once again she felt a brief sense of movement.
Elz lifted the bed again, this time it was much heavier than before. Once it was fully folded up, she stepped away to see the result. There was now a six inch deep sunken section of floor under the bed. The floorboards from that section were somehow attached to the plywood at the bottom, now front, of the closed Murphy cabinet. Where there’d once been a simple wooden platform supporting the mattress, there was now a small arsenal of weapons instead. Knives, swords, guns and even a few tools, were all strapped to the underside of the floorboards-turned-weapons-rack.
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Wary of the stability of the sunken section, Elz carefully stepped into the lowered section of the floor. It was solid. Elz walked across it noting that that it was finished with the same wood as the original flooring. As she approached the middle of the section, a small section in the wood floorboards caught her eye. It was painted like a knot, and the wood around it was painted to match, however Elz could see a faint circular outline around the entire section, it was too perfect to be natural. She knelt next to the board and ran her finger over the “knot”. She could feel the difference and trace the outline of the circle with her fingertip so after a bit of deliberation she pressed the knot, certain that it was a button.
With a soft click and a whirring sound a section of the floor slid away to reveal a hatch with a ladder leading into a lower room. Lights came on in the room below, surprising Elz because there was no electricity on the rest of the property. Drawing one of her ever present guns, Elz leaned into the hatch to look around the room below. The space was furnished with an open floor plan. On the far end of the large room, there was a kitchen area and next to it an open door through which Elz could see a bathroom sink and mirror. Closer to the center of the room, a few feet away from the ladder that led down from her hatch, there was a platform on what looked like a hydraulic stand. On the top of the platform was an envelope— the only personal item she’d seen since arriving at the cottage. On the floor beside the stand, stood an army foot-locker. Elz felt a pull to check it out.
At the bottom of the ladder, Elz stopped to look around again. At the side of the room furthest away from the bathroom, there were standing mobile shelves installed. On these rolling shelves were an assortment of goods— everything from canned food to books. Although the air was not stale as she’d expected, the smell of the various oils were strong down here as well. The hum of fans offered an explanation for one observation, and the weapons lining the walls on explained the other. A few feet away from the ladder, a keypad console showed a line drawing of the farm and listed various rooms and their statuses. On the list, which also listed the shed and garage, Elz noted the inclusion of “Armory” as well.
She cursed softly, then sighed.
What had started out as a simple vacation in an old farmhouse had turned into trespassing in a well equipped safe-house, and the extent of the changes to the property seemed to indicate that their unwelcome visit would not be excused by a simple “so sorry, we didn't know anyone lived here.” Elz was fast coming to the realisation that she would have to call the airship sooner rather than later, and get her family away from the cottage. The more she uncovered about the property the more she feared that the residents were still around, just very well hidden. She wasn't afraid for herself, but she made it a point to avoid confrontations with humans. Harming people, even aggressive ones, was a personal boundary for her and something she desperately did not want Trey to have to experience. Moreover, in this case, they were the interlopers and she wanted to avoid any confrontations where they were starting out in the wrong. Still, she was immensely curious and if she was going to walk away from her dream home, then she would satisfy that curiosity first.
Drawing closer to the footlocker she could see, drawn on the lid, the three-lions design that decorated Trey’s weapons case. Surprised and now more confused than curious, she pulled the heavy box away from the platform to give the lid space before opening it. Inside, the smell of well oiled leather hit her nostrils. She blinked at the pile of cured Muta-hare hides, neatly folded and packed away. She took them out, unfolding them to discover a blanket made of hides, and a coat similar to the one she’d made all those years ago. It was much smaller, hers was made to fit Mataias’ six and a half foot frame, this seemed to be sized a little larger than Trey’s size. The stitching was neat and precise, almost invisible, and definitely not hers.
Her confusion warped into a sharp pain in her chest when she focused on the envelope sitting on the platform. Her name stood out… in very familiar handwriting.
Elz slammed the chest shut and NOPEd right back up the ladder. She closed the hatch and returned the bed to its open position. Sitting on the edge of the mattress she took a deep breath. She could come back to this later. She was going to enjoy her time with Trey and not think about Mat and what he’d done to their hideaway. She’d expected to miss him a little while hanging out here in Ireland; thought she would share some stories with her kid and maybe make plans for what they would do with the property if they were able to get it. In that moment, being there and discovering the extent of the work Mat had put into renovations and security… she didn't want to go down the road of what could have been.
Five minutes and many tears later, Elz exited the bedroom and closed the closet behind her. Satisfied that she’d finally solved the mystery of the house, she wasn’t ready to go into the loft and find anything else. The property was no doubt safe for them to use, so she collected the supplies she needed to make breakfast and headed outside.
The safe-room downstairs was a problem for another day.