Chapter Eighty-Two

It didn’t give.

Asher twisted the doorknob again, pushing against the door with his shoulder.

“Is it locked?” Lila queried, craning her neck to try and see if there was a keyhole in the doorknob.

“I didn’t think the interior doors had locks,” Asher replied swiftly before crouching down and peering at it. “Although… this one seems to.”

With a reluctant sigh, he pulled out his lockpicking kit.

“I really am getting too used to this,” Asher said quietly, tension wrench and pick in hand. “Breaking and entering into places with you wasn’t on my bingo cards for this year.”

“Glad you qualified that one as being ‘with me’ specifically,” Lila teased as she watched him insert the tools into the keyhole.

“What can I say,” Asher replied with an easy-going grin, “with Mum going missing last year, my bingo cards only had room for solo tasks.”

“You… really weren’t going to tell anyone, were you?” Lila questioned quietly. He stopped moving his tools and looked up at her with a sigh.

“Not if I could help it, no. Maybe I would’ve broken down and told Isaac, but definitely not as early as February.”

“I’m glad you told me.”

“Even though it’s been crazy as hell since then?” He paused, giving Lila a brief sideways glance before mumbling, “Even though it meant hanging out with me?”

Lila crossed her arms, frowning so deeply that she wasn’t sure her face would reset. “I don’t regret a single second with you. Even before I figured out I liked you in that way, and even when I got rejected-” he winced but she continued, not even stopping for breath, “-if I got the option to do this year over and have a different English partner, I’d pick ‘no’ every time. Heck, even Piper’s stalking and bullying me isn’t something I’d erase because it… brought us closer together. At least, it strengthened my resolve anyway. It would’ve been easy for me to just back out of the investigation, rescind my assistance, and all that. But I chose to keep going, against some batshit psycho girl who tried everything to get me to back off. And because of that, I got to know a side of you I’d never seen before. Well, a few sides. A-And I f-fell for all of them…” Lila trailed off, suddenly aware that she’d spoken far too long, and said far too much. She wanted to snatch her words out of the air and shove them back in her mouth, but it was too late, of course.

Asher stared at her, his mouth agape, for a few moments. Then, the tension wrench fell out of the keyhole and onto his leg, startling him. His face turned pink again as he clumsily picked it up.

“Wow,” he said simply, inserting it back into the keyhole. “I… don’t know what to say to that.”

“I don’t think I could handle another rejection.”

“Lila-”

“Only joking. It’s a shit joke. Sorry. I just suddenly feel very awkward now.”

They both fell silent. Asher began to work on the lock before he sighed heavily and stopped again.

“I don’t regret it, either. Even though it gave me very confusing feelings when I was with my ex. I… I’m glad you don’t regret it. I have a few regrets from this year. But telling you is not one of them. I’m glad I did, even if it was kinda an accident. It’s been a rollercoaster of a year and the fact that you’re riding it with me… is something I’d never thought possible, and I don’t want to let it go.”

He stared into the lock, inhaling deeply for a second. Lila could see that the tips of his ears were scarlet.

“One of my biggest regrets, of my entire life, is that I…” Asher whispered, bowing his head towards the door. “I got fucked over by… her. I’m trying my best, but…” his voice cracked, as though he was about to burst into tears. Instead of that, he took a shaky breath and gripped his tools tightly.

“Let’s break into this bitch,” he uttered, gritting his teeth and shuffling backwards just a touch. He tilted his head and looked at the lock from a different angle.

Lila was glad that Asher changed the conversation topic from them to the task at hand. She was still incredibly embarrassed from her oversharing, and the fact that it wasn’t going to lead to anything made her vulnerability even more painful. Though, the fact that Asher had said ‘let’s break into this bitch’ was amusing enough to lightly lift the corners of her mouth.

Surprisingly, Asher seemed to be battling incredibly with this lock. He wiped his brow before sitting fully on the floor. Ten minutes passed with no success and increased frustration on Asher’s part.

“What do you think’s up with it?” Lila asked, sitting down next to him. He shrugged.

“Beats me,” he said, his eyes narrowing sharply. “I’m gonna try another pick.”

He did so and didn’t seem to have any further luck with it. He swore under his breath as he selected yet another different pick.

“You swear a surprising amount,” Lila commented, realising only too late that she’d said it out loud. He dropped his pick and looked at her with round, surprised eyes.

“What?”

“I just noticed it,” Lila replied. “Not that it’s a bad thing. Well, I dunno if it’s a ‘good’ thing either.”

“Well, it’s pretty Australian to swear a lot,” Asher countered, trying the lock again. “But I guess I have been swearing more this year.”

“I mean, you’ve got reason to,” Lila said softly. “I dunno, it just surprised me a little when I first heard you swear. Y’know, being the good boy Dux and all that. Plus, Isaac doesn’t swear much.”

Asher turned his head and gazed at her face intently for a moment – just long enough to make her blush again.

“Guess he doesn’t. Didn’t really notice, since we’ve been friends forever. Maybe I should ask him about that,” he finally said simply, turning his attention yet again to the lock. “I’ll have to ask after I get this fucker open.”

“Feel like you just said that to be funny,” Lila chuckled. He winked at her, a half-smirk on his face.

“Caught me.”

Lila gingerly picked up the lockpicking kit, almost as though it was an explosive. Asher’s eyes tracked the kit’s movements briefly before refocusing on the task at hand. Lila opened the kit and looked through the rest of the tools. None of them really struck her as being particularly useful (or useless) in the circumstances, but she figured that she may as well attempt to be helpful – even if it was just to pass a new one over.

After several more minutes, Asher sighed, cracking his neck.

“Time to get serious,” he muttered, changing his seated position so that he was as close as possible to the lock.

“… if you want, I could give it a go,” Lila suggested quietly. He glanced at her before nodding.

“Let me just try for a little bit longer,” he said lightly. “If I still can’t get it, then it’ll be all yours.”

A great, echoing bang startled both Asher and Lila into standing immediately. Her heart leapt into her throat, strangling her and leaving her gasping. They both stared down the hallway, the ticking of the various clocks crawling down her spine. What was that?

Then, a hum floated through the dividers. It was Gabriel.

“By the sounds of it, Gabriel’s in his side,” Lila whispered to Asher, her body relaxing considerably.

“Yeah,” Asher agreed, seeming relieved as his shoulders loosened up. “That freaked me out.”

“Same,” Lila breathed, lowering herself back down to where she’d been sitting. Asher followed suit, though he seemed unable to concentrate. It wasn’t hard to imagine why – Gabriel’s humming had graduated into a belting wail as he clanged about on the other side of the divider. Just what the heck was he doing?

As soon as Lila pondered the question, any sound from Gabriel’s side of the house ceased. Lila shot Asher an uneasy look. Though the quiet was far more welcoming, what caused it?

A beat passed. Then-

“Found ya!” Gabriel gleefully cried. “Fantastic.”

For a split second, Lila had the horrifying thought that Gabriel was talking about finding herself and Asher. But, as Gabriel still didn’t appear in Marlene’s side of the cottage, she reasoned that he must’ve been looking for something that wasn’t available in Asher’s house.

Gabriel began humming again, the sound becoming softer and softer before another bang shook the dividers.

“It’s probably the front door,” Asher surmised in a whisper. “But we should still be quiet. Just in case.”

Lila nodded in agreement. She couldn’t hear Gabriel anymore, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t hear them.

With trembling hands, Asher continued his attempt to open the lock. Gabriel’s interruption had seemingly flustered him, his hands remaining unsteady over the next couple of minutes. Gabriel’s side of the worker’s cottage remained silent the entire time. Finally, with a long-suffering sigh he removed the tools and passed them to Lila.

“Here,” he said shortly, scooting over so she had easy access to the troublesome lock in question. “I can’t figure out why I’m having this much difficulty.”

“My current guess is that it’s rusted,” Lila reasoned, shuffling towards it. “Or you’re just not doing a very good job.”

“Hey!” Asher objected playfully. “Of course I’m doing a very good job. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be in here, having this conversation.”

“Touché,” Lila smirked, rolling up her sleeves. “Let’s see if an amateur like me can get it open.”

“You’ve absorbed so much knowledge by now, I’d hardly say you’re an amateur.”

“Why thank you.”

“Anytime.”

They both shared a chuckle as Lila put the tools inside the lock. Truthfully, she had no idea what to do except to try and mimic a key. She wiggled the tension wrench before settling on a particular angle. Lila visualised as best she could before giving up after half a minute.

“Oh, come on,” Asher teased. “Where’s your tenacity?”

She gave him a flippant eye-roll before trying again.

“Watch me get this open,” she said jokingly.

Perhaps her joking tone had been too soon – there was a satisfying click within the mechanism. Lila and Asher stared at the lock before looking at each other and back again.

“Looks like I was doing a shit job,” Asher said hoarsely. Lila suppressed her snort and twisted the handle. It opened with a rusty creak, echoing through the hallway.

“What’d you do that I didn’t?” Asher asked anxiously, his eyes flickering towards the darkness beyond the doorway.

“Nothing,” Lila replied earnestly. “Seriously. I just waggled it.”

“You waggled it?”

“I… waggled… it? Is that not-”

Asher burst into hearty laughter, interrupting her question.

“Sorry, sorry,” he said through shallow breaths, a ripple of laughter carrying through. “I wouldn’t describe it as waggling. I would describe it more as a jiggle.”

“Welllll, I waggled it,” Lila laughed. “That was probably what you were doing wrong.”

“Yeah, righto,” Asher smirked. They both laughed together for a moment before their attention turned back to the ajar door. The change back into seriousness nearly gave Lila whiplash as they exchanged a look.

“Ready?” she whispered tentatively. Asher grimly nodded before pushing the door open even further. He entered with another apprehensive look at Lila, the door groaning as it admitted him. Lila followed close behind.

“It’s so dark in here,” Asher said in a low voice. “Is it not daytime?”

In response, Lila fumbled for her torch and it flickered on, shining a bright stream of light onto a desk. The whirring hum of a computer system only served to add to the unwelcome eeriness crawling across Lila’s skin. Asher turned his torch on as well, casting it along the walls of the room. Lila watched him touch a switch, and the room was suddenly bathed in harsh, artificial light.

Blinking rapidly, Lila’s eyes adjusted quickly, the full contents of this room swimming into view.

“A… study?” The words left Lila’s lips as she processed what she was seeing.

Along the back wall was a desk, not too dissimilar to the ones in Asher’s study, atop which was a surprisingly modern desktop computer with two slim monitors. Both were black, but as Lila looked up above them, she saw three additional screens winking to life. It felt almost as though they were synced with the lights.

With a sinking feeling, she saw herself and Asher appear on one of the screens. Each screen seemed to be split into nine rectangles, some of which looked hazy or were completely black. One of the rectangles showed a clear view of the kitchen in Marlene’s side of the cottage, featuring a porcelain duck that Lila remembered inspecting closely. Other rectangles displayed various angles of the rooms they had already visited. Lila tried to think of where cameras could have been placed that would have escaped her notice… but the feasibility of cameras being placed in the requisite spots was doubtful at best for some of them. She uneasily tapped Asher on the shoulder.

“What?” he asked, spinning around to see where she was pointing. His jaw dropped. “But we covered everything,” he insisted meekly. “What even is that angle?” He indicated to one in particular that showed a view of the coffee table and its contents. “Like, are her projects that important to her?”

“I think we need to deal with the more immediate problem of her knowing that we’ve been in her house,” Lila said feebly. “Should we try and find those cameras?”

“And, what? Cover them up?” Asher asked, though not unkindly. He brought a finger to his chin contemplatively. “I think that wouldn’t change anything. We can try and delete footage, but I don’t know if we’d be able to get rid of everything.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

Lila fell silent, her mind racing. What could they do?

“We’re here now,” she finally said, bringing Asher’s attention back to her. “We just have to gather as much as we can. Hope she doesn’t say anything, but plan for her to.”

Asher clenched his jaw, audibly inhaling. His expression looked resolute.

“Can’t do anything else but that,” he said simply. “Let’s get to it.”

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Lila wheeled around and began looking directly opposite the computer setup. To her surprise, she was confronted by an array of figurines from video games within two glass display cabinets. At least, that’s what Lila thought – they didn’t look anime-esque, at least. There was also one shelf entirely dedicated to especially detailed or otherwise precious-looking animal statues – mostly ducks, of course. Above the cabinets looked to be some artwork depicting fantasy landscapes, with fairy lights intermingled throughout.

“What’re these?” Lila asked, gesturing to the human figurines. Asher looked around wildly before looking incredibly perplexed.

“Feel like some of those may be from WoW.”

“WoW?”

“World of Warcraft. I’m not that familiar with it, but that’s at least Sylvanas.”

“Huh…”

“I’d been wondering what she does with all her money,” Asher said drily, turning back to the computer. He began typing before adding, “Turns out buying cat-ear headphones, figurines worth over $500, a wicked computer set up, and duck statues was the answer.”

Lila stifled a giggle as her eyes looked over at the wall on the left beside the cabinets. There was a very large frame that looked to be housing a corkboard with a seam running through the middle. It was littered with photographs of various things – at a glance, Lila could see plenty of ducks in lakes, a photo of Marlene with Asher, Gabriel, Asher’s Dad, and a woman that Lila recognised as Tabitha and a few of a tortoiseshell-coloured cat lounging in various poses. Underneath one photo of the cat wearing a cable knit jumper was the words ‘Mr Snugglebutt the Third in all his glory’ scrawled on a note in purple marker. Smiling, Lila stepped forward to inspect the other photos.

One looked very recent – a Polaroid of Marlene at Beans & Biscuits with a couple coworkers, all grinning by the barista station. Written in permanent marker underneath was the writing ‘Welcome Lena!’. There were a couple more of Marlene with Asher’s parents, Gabriel and Asher. One picture showed Marlene with just Tabitha, looking over at whoever took the photo with very serious expressions. It looked like someone drew wizard hats on both Marlene and Tabitha in permanent marker, though, so it mustn’t have been that serious.

There was a photo of a much younger, early-teens Marlene standing with a blonde lady, whose face was mostly hidden by massive sunglasses. Was this Marlene’s Mum?

There was something distinctly odd about the corkboard frame, now that Lila had absorbed the photos pinned to it. Sticking out of the bottom of the board looked to be two handles. As she reached for it, the room was alight with a bright pink colour.

“Wh-”

“Sorry,” Asher instantly apologised, and the light turned off. “Looks like she’s got some strip LED lights along the ceiling. Turned it on by accident.”

“You’re good,” Lila replied automatically, turning back to the board. She tugged at the handles and it revealed an even more expansive board covered with pictures. Pictures of… Piper?

“U-Uh,” Lila uttered hesitantly. “W-Why’s Piper-”

Quick as a flash, Asher was already behind Lila’s shoulder, staring wide-eyed at the board. It was absolutely littered with pictures and handwritten notes. One showed Piper unclipping a sock from a washing line, another showed Piper lurking outside Asher’s house in a Forestglade College uniform, and yet another showed Piper standing casually across Asher’s driveway in a Mulberry Heights uniform. One detailed Piper in a hoodie at the shopping centre, crouched around the corner of the board game store, tying her shoelaces, and yet another showed Piper walking behind a girl who looked distinctly like Holly.

Lila’s eyes just about fell out of her head as she touched one specific photo – one where Piper was sitting at the bus stop right outside Lila’s house. The next photo showed Piper looking up towards Lila’s driveway, dressed in all black.

“What’s Marlene doing with all these?” Asher whispered hoarsely, his eyes roving the entirety of the board. There was a note pinned underneath a school photo of Piper – ‘Piper Leigh Baker, b. 15 March 2007. Parents Kerry and Nigel Baker. No siblings.’

“No idea,” Lila replied in a hushed voice. “This… is bizarre.”

“I can’t look anymore,” Asher added with a shudder. “I’ll just be… over here. By the computer.”

He shuffled off in that direction and Lila glanced back at the photo wall. She began to close it when one last photo caught her eye. It was a photo showing the inside of a window of an unfamiliar house. She peered intently at it. It appeared that it featured a corkboard similar to this one on the wall, dotted with photos of someone who looked exactly like Asher.

A rush of tingles overcame Lila’s body and she slammed the corkboard shut. The photos on the front of the board fluttered, though none fell off. She hoped that it wasn’t a picture of Piper’s house, but given the context…

Lila shot Asher a brief look, but he was otherwise occupied. He didn’t seem to realise her gaze was fixed on him, at least. She was able to turn to look elsewhere but realised with sudden urgency that she should probably take a couple photos of the corkboard. She took some of the front and of the inside, chastising herself for almost forgetting to do the one thing that they were there to do.

Almost as though it had just occurred to Asher as well, she saw him unearth his own camera and take a couple photos of the computer setup. Hoping it hadn’t just been her who had forgotten, Lila turned to the right-hand wall adjacent to the door.

Upon this wall stood a large, freestanding wooden wardrobe stained a rich, chocolatey brown. Lila frowned as she touched it. There was definitely a split in the front of the wardrobe, but no identifiable way to open it. She called for Asher to come over again.

“What’s up?” he asked, staring down at the wardrobe. “Oh. That… is probably a push door?”

“A what?”

Asher reached over and pressed on the middle of the split. Nothing happened. Frowning, he tried again and it still remained steadfastly closed.

“Odd,” he murmured, looking around both sides of the wardrobe. “You ever seen those doors that don’t have handles? In kitchens and stuff. Most of the doors in my kitchen are like that. You press on a certain point and it pops open. Probably has a proper name, but I dunno it.” He frowned as he looked back at the wardrobe. “But… this doesn’t seem to work that way. I can’t see any other doors or openings, so Marlene must be able to get into it somehow.”

“Unless it’s a joke. Having an imposing, unopenable wardrobe to trick would-be robbers,” Lila suggested playfully.

“Don’t reckon she’d have that kind of humour, what with the fact that it was a mission to get in here in the first place,” Asher replied truthfully, his expression serious as he crouched down and felt the bottom of the wardrobe. Nothing happened and he sighed.

“I seriously can’t see a keyhole to even attempt breaking in,” he said, reaching for the pocket that was hiding his lockpicks.

“I guess that’s that, then,” Lila responded, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at it, as though she’d be able to see better that way. “She can keep her secrets about this wardrobe.”

“Yeah.”

Asher stood up again and Lila snapped a picture of the wardrobe on each side she could see before turning her attention to the computer setup. The CCTV was still rolling, and definitely still showing Lila and Asher snooping around this room, but there was no one else nearby that they could see. Lila pursed her lips and trained her eye on the wall next to the CCTV cameras.

“A Bachelor of Security Studies?” Lila’s statement ended up sounding much more like a query and Asher turned to her, holding two duck statues.

“A what?”

“That’s what it says,” Lila responded simply, pointing to a framed degree on the wall. “Bachelor of Security Studies.”

“Huh,” Asher uttered, setting down the two statues and standing next to Lila. “What University is it from?”

“Dunno,” Lila frowned, tilting her head. “It looks weird, don’t you think? Is it fake, maybe? I can’t see her name on it.”

Asher peered closely at it, attempting to take it off the wall. It didn’t budge even slightly and he relinquished his hold on the edges.

“It looks like there’s some frosting on the frame,” he said, standing back and tilting his head as well.

“Like… chocolate?”

Asher looked at her with disappointment in his expression before evidently realising that she was joking by her cheeky grin.

“Anyway,” he swiftly moved on, though she could see the slight smile on his lips, “it looks like she’s got a thin pane of frosted glass or something in there with her degree. You can only see what it was for, and everything else is obscured.”

“What’s the point in putting it on the wall, then?”

Asher brought his hand contemplatively to his chin. “Honestly, looking at how neat and orderly she is generally, I just think she didn’t want it to be creased. Or maybe to prevent it from fading.”

Lila held back a laugh as she thought about how serious Asher’s answer was. It evidently wasn’t a very good attempt, as Asher immediately questioned what she was laughing at.

“Sorry,” Lila responded, a giggle escaping her mouth. “I just… thought it was kinda funny that you’re both neat freaks-” Asher made a sound of disapproval but Lila carried on, “-so you being able to get into her head about that was startlingly expected. You two are probably far more similar than you realise.”

“I mean, I don’t know her that well, beyond being my family’s maid. She’s never really told me about her life. But I know her general proclivities, at least.”

“From how fast you closed that drawer before, I reckon you know a bit more now,” Lila quipped. He stared at her for a moment before his face turned a bright, ruby red.

“Says the one who couldn’t figure out what Isaac was going on about in the Applied Tech building,” he retorted.

“I was innocent then. Then you guys just had to ruin that for me.”

Asher pressed his lips together before rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry.”

“For what?”

“Ruining your innocence.”

Lila couldn’t hold back this snort. “Didn’t need it anyway,” she said, her eyes twinkling with mirth. “Rather it be taken away from me by you than anyone else.” She paused, her own face turning red. “That sounded… entirely not what I intended.”

“I get it. Don’t worry.”

Asher turned around and began rifling through the drawers underneath Marlene’s computer setup. The atmosphere felt stiflingly awkward now, and Lila wanted to kick herself. ‘Why do I keep doing that?’ she thought angrily. Shaking her head, she now took in Marlene’s desk. Hopefully, if they continued their searching, the awkwardness would just melt away.

Her eyes fell upon the stack of books lying on the left-hand side of the desk. Most were innocuous fiction novels, but one stood out amongst the rest. With trembling hands, she pulled the textbook out from the stack.

Without a doubt, as she flicked through the pages, this was the one that had disappeared from Asher’s parents’ study – the one that she’d shoved the note to Robin in. Was the note still in here?

She flipped through the pages with far more fervour. She couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary pop up out of the textbook. Frowning, she pulled out her phone and searched for the photo she’d taken back in Asher’s parents’ study. Undeniably, it was the same one – or at least, on the same topic of social media marketing in the new age.

“Marlene wouldn’t need this, right?” Lila asked, turning the pages from the beginning again.

“What?” Asher asked, brandishing a miniscule, bedazzled duck. He swiftly put it down upon seeing the look on Lila’s face.

“This textbook,” Lila clarified, holding it up. “I mean, surely she doesn’t have time to do anything else, what with her café job and her maidly duties.”

“Maidly duties?” Asher smirked, collecting the textbook from Lila’s hands. He flipped through it briefly before knitting his brows together. “That is a weird one for her to have.”

“It’s also the one that went missing from your parents’ study.”

“The one you were obsessed with?”

Lila lightly pushed his shoulder and he snickered, passing it back to her. “Wasn’t obsessed with it. The fact that it went missing was just weird,” Lila explained.

“Did you take a picture of it just now?”

Lila swore, shoving the textbook back to where she could remember it was sitting, and snapped a photo on the disposable camera. Then, a strange sound caught her attention. It seemed that Asher was trying to get into one of the drawers in Marlene’s desk.

“You might ruin her whole setup if you pull it like that,” Lila said disapprovingly, moving closer to see what he was doing.

“Yeah,” Asher agreed, whipping out his lockpicking set. “I was trying to see if there was a keyhole, and there is. It’s under the drawer.”

“Weird,” Lila murmured as she watched Asher lie beneath the desk, looking akin to a mechanic.

“Do you reckon,” Asher’s voice sounded muffled as he worked on the lock, “that she’s got an excessive amount of locks?”

“Nah,” Lila replied, now looking closely at the desk. “You saw the dividers. It’d probably be pretty easy for Gabriel to get in here if he wanted to.”

“Guess so.”

With a minute or so of concentrated silence, Asher hummed a chest-opening song that Lila recognised as being from the Legend of Zelda due to the playthrough videos she’d watched with Asher.

“Dun, dun-dun dun-duuuun,” she sang, her mouth twitching into an amused smile. Immediately, Lila heard a loud bump underneath the desk, rattling everything upon it for a moment.

“Ow…” Asher groaned, sliding out from under the desk with a wince.

“You okay?” Lila knelt next to Asher, her eyes roving over his appearance. He gingerly rubbed the top of his head before nodding.

“Yeah, I just hit my head,” he explained grumpily. “I was surprised that you knew the end to that.”

“’Course I knew,” Lila smiled. “We’ve only watched, like, a hundred episodes of let’s play videos on Zelda games.”

“When you say it like that, it sounds a bit much,” Asher quipped, slowly spinning towards the drawer. “Sorry.”

“I like it,” Lila stated plainly. “Nothing to be sorry for. They’re always a good watch.”

“You actually like it?”

“You would’ve heard me complain if I didn’t,” Lila assured, crouching next to him, peering intently at the drawer. “What do ya reckon is in here?”

“We’ll find out in a second,” Asher responded as he pulled the bottom drawer open. It was full of several scraps of paper and plastic tubes. Some of the scraps of paper had writing on it, but it didn’t look comprehensible in the slightest. Was it a different language?

Asher snapped a couple pictures of what was in there before rifling through the contents. There was also a pair of scissors and some pens, but otherwise nothing else of significance.

“Weird,” Lila muttered. Asher glanced at her before making a sound of agreement.

“Let’s at least pull out the stuff with writing on it,” he suggested, moving aside slightly so Lila could help. They plucked out pieces of paper with any markings on it and laid them out on the floor. Lila took photos of the paper, despite still being unable to make sense of any of it.

“What do you reckon the bottles are for?” Asher asked after a few moments of clear consideration.

“No idea,” Lila sighed. “Wish we could take one.”

Asher took a photo of a couple of the bottles and they both shoved the paper back into the drawer. He then tried to open the second drawer.

“What the heck?” he murmured to himself as he pulled at the handle again. The desk slightly shuffled forward and he let go. “I unlocked it though,” he added, more to himself than Lila.

“Here, let me help,” Lila offered, “it might be jammed or something.”

Her help only served to pull the desk forward slightly. They both immediately let go, Asher sighing heavily.

“Damn,” he uttered. He rattled the first drawer and it similarly didn’t open.

“Guess that’s that,” Lila replied simply. “We’ve gotten a good look around, at least.”

“Yeah,” Asher agreed, standing up straight. “But… it makes me hella curious to know what’s in the places that won’t open.”

“Same, but what can we do?”

“Yeah, you’re right. Of course.”

Lila caressed the top of a pink, glittery A4 notebook that sat just below the keyboard. It looked fairly innocuous, and she asked if Asher had looked in it.

“Nah. Been looking more at the computer and the figurines,” he said, pointing to a blocky Creeper and Minecraft fox. “Looks like we’re not the only ones into Minecraft.”

“Honestly, it’d probably be rarer to find someone who’s not into Minecraft, or at least doesn’t know about it,” Lila replied distractedly as she opened the cover of the notebook.

“The heck?” she muttered as her eyes took in what she was seeing. Pictures were strewn across the first few pages, seemingly glued on. Pictures of Asher’s Dad outside the private hospital he ran. Pictures of Lila’s Dad talking to Asher’s Dad in the hospital. Several headshots, clearly of employees at said hospital. Some pictures were circled in permanent marker, and others were crossed out, also in permanent marker. Lila took pictures of what she saw, but there was no writing accompanying these photographs. Where did Marlene get these from? And why did she have them?

“That’s so weird,” Asher commented, his body shuddering. “Why’s that in that notebook?”

“Probably trying to hide in plain sight, or she was working on it recently,” Lila suggested, closing the cover. Looking at its contents was starting to make her head spin. Actually, remaining here, with everything she’d discovered with Asher already, was making her head spin. Information overload was certainly an understatement.

“Oi!” Asher suddenly barked, bending low to the ground. He reached out his hands, as if trying to catch something, before stumbling. “That cat’s back. And it’s got something around its neck.”

“You saw something that quickly?” Lila queried, whipping around to face the cat. All she saw was its tail brushing the doorframe. Lila glanced at Asher and they wordlessly followed at a brisk pace.

Now that Lila could see the cat properly, she saw that he indeed had a bright red collar – one that she couldn’t recall seeing when it scratched Asher earlier. Something seemed to be attached to it – something that looked similar to the plastic bottles in Marlene’s desk. The cat didn’t look back at them, meandering down the hallway in a way that suggested to Lila that this was part of its daily routine.

Asher was a couple paces ahead of Lila, his arms still outstretched like a particularly lame zombie. He swatted the air but was unsuccessful in catching the cat yet again. The cat didn’t seem to be in a hurry, though. To Lila, it looked like it was playing games with them.

Eventually, it led them out of the hallway and back into the living space. Asher and Lila exchanged another look and separated, silently having formed a plan to surround the cat.

It looked up at Asher before hissing and sprinting around the room, towards Lila. She tried to grab it, but it slipped past her fingertips, leaping up onto the kitchen counter. Lila clumsily stumbled after it, almost knocking a duck statue onto the tiles. She caught it just in time and replaced it immediately where she assumed it had been sitting before looking for the cat again.

She found it grooming itself atop the fridge only a second later. Now that it wasn’t walking around, Lila could see that not only was there a bottle attached to its collar, but a rolled-up scrap of paper within it. Her curiosity was burning brightly within her mind now. What was on that note? And had it been on the cat before? Or… had someone been watching them and tied the note to the cat just now?

Asher hurried into the kitchen, trying to grab the cat from the top of the fridge. It hissed again before jumping off and curling itself around Lila’s legs. She immediately attempted to seize it, but it dashed away again, back out into the living room and along the top of the couch.

“That fucking bastard,” Asher huffed before chasing after it. Lila followed suit and the cat looked at both Lila and Asher with its amber eyes, as though challenging them both to catch it.

“We’re gonna have to dive for it,” Asher said in a low voice, not taking his eyes off the cat for even a split second. He slowly encircled the couch so that he was directly opposite Lila, who bent her knees slightly so she could leap forward.

“On three,” Asher whispered, bending his own knees. “One… two… three!”

They both jumped forward in unison, Lila grabbing hold of its fluffy tail, and Asher gripping its shoulders. It began to yowl, its voice horridly screechy and intermingled with more hisses. Lila let go of its tail as Asher continued to hold it.

“Quick, help me get this off!” he cried. The cat’s back legs flailed and kicked as it continued to shriek and Lila rushed forward. Its complaints were upgrading to a scream as she fumbled with the collar, unable to see where she could take the note or bottle off without taking its collar too.

“Ow!” Asher yelped, though he kept his steady grip on the cat. It had managed to scratch his hands even more deeply now. Panic was injecting itself into Lila’s veins as she fumbled with the latch.

“Mr Snugglebutt?”

Lila and Asher both stopped moving, though the cat kept hissing, its arms slicing through the air with fury. They stared at each other with fear-stricken eyes. That was Gabriel’s voice.

“What’s wrong buddy?” Gabriel continued, his voice coming closer to the divider. “Are you hurt?”

“Fuck,” Asher breathed. “C’mon, we gotta go!”

“I’m trying!” Lila breathed back, instantly struggling with the latch again. “If he’d just stop mo-”

“I’m coming in,” Gabriel announced sweetly, “I’ve got some duck pâté with your name all over it, Mr Snugglebutt. You just can’t tell Mum. She’d probably murder me.”

The collar came free, and Lila clutched it just as Asher lightly threw the cat onto the couch. Her mind whirled as she checked she had the bag on her shoulder still, shoving the collar and its bottle into the depths.

Rattle.

“That’s the fucking divider,” Asher’s whisper was drenched with panic. He gripped her wrist and pulled her towards the front door. “Go, go, go!”

Lila was struck by the horrid feeling that they might’ve left something behind. Did she have her camera at least?

Asher wasn’t letting her run through her mental checklist of where she’d put things as he continued dragging her to the door, the cat continuing to meow loudly. The rattling only became more intense, serving as a rhythmic backing track to Gabriel’s musical rendition of “Here, kitty, kitty! Uncle Gabriel is coming to rescue you!”

Lila’s hand grazed the disposable camera within the bag just as Asher opened the front door. They both tumbled out, with Lila feeling thankful that Gabriel’s singing and the sound of the dividers would drown out their escape. Asher gently closed the door behind them, just as Lila heard Gabriel exclaim, “Mr Snugglebutt! Did you turn all the lights on again?”

Without a destination in mind, they both sprinted away from the cottage, the sudden icy air pummelling Lila’s face, adrenaline pumping through her ears and legs.