Saskia shivered as she looked at the dark and gloomy entrance, then stared at one of the poor white flowers facing the ground. She intended to touch one of them but before she could, Sophie put her hand over her shoulder and shook her head. Although Saskia obeyed and recoiled her hand, she had a lingering feeling; an inexplicable wish to capture the ephemeral flower between her fingers.

“I guess we will have to stay the night in this five-star hotel,” Winnie rested her hands on her hips in disdain, staring at the house. “Do you think they have scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast?”

"Don't you think it's strange that it's still night? And the moon… It wasn't like that before, was it?" Saskia was shaking in fear. "Like blood—"

The terrified girl covered her mouth when she finished pronouncing that word, afraid it would cause something to appear next to her. Was she only now noticing the strange colouring of the moon Sophie had cautiously observed for so long before?

Without any word, as she now was used to, Sophie Riviere reached the door handle to see if it was not closed. The door — decorated with dry red flowers she identified as roses —­ made a creaking wood noise when she left it wide open. Nothing could be seen on the inside except for darkness.

“I-I don’t think it’s a good idea to go in there—”

Winnie and Sophie glanced at her with a look that said ‘We know’ but no word escaped their mouths. Instead, Sophie put her hood over her head and stepped into the dark. The others quickly followed, even with Saskia’s reluctant look.

“Close it,” were the first words that came out of Sophie’s mouth after their argument.

With her mouth shut, Winnie did as she was told, blinking her eyes in a hopeless wish to adapt them to the lack of light. After a while, standing close to the door and each other, they could see what was inside.

It was nothing extraordinary; it had what you would expect of an abandoned cottage in the middle of the woods: old dusty furniture covered in spider webs and vines. There was only a kitchen/living room area with counters, a table with two chairs, a ripped couch, a mirror, and an old wooden dresser under it. There were also two doors that they had yet to explore but their guess was a bedroom and a bathroom.

Winnie sat on the couch and used her hand to call Saskia to do the same. On the other hand, Sophie reached for the dresser and opened every one of its drawers. On the last, there was a small crumpled note along with a chamberstick and a candle.

“What did you find?” asked Winnie, curious.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Even though Sophie rolled her eyes, she handed the paper to Winnie, hoping she could read it. In the meantime, she went to one of the doors and opened without ceremony. Inside was only a bed with no mattress, a wardrobe, and a bedside table which she got closer to, opening the only drawer it had. Nothing.

“Hey, Soph,” called Winnie. “You should see this.”

Sophie did not bother to close the drawer and left to find Winnie. Even in the darkness, she could see her friend, who is not known to be afraid like Saskia, was breathing heavily. Winnie hurriedly extended her the note.

“It’s what it says that doesn’t make sense to me,” she began. “I might be going crazy or not seeing right, but that thing says it’s a gift for three.”

“We are three—” Saskia had her hand cover her mouth again.

With effort, Sophie squinted her eyes to try to read the small note written in cursive. It appeared to say:

< In a meadow full of flowers, wild and free,

I found a lovely gift for three. >

It was signed at the bottom right with a “T”. Those two seemed nervous, but not Sophie, she just stared at it without expressing anything. Then, she left the paper on the dresser and went to the bedroom without a word, not even glancing at the girls trembling on the couch.

There was only a place she had yet to explore: the wardrobe. For a moment, a favourite book of Aramina crossed her mind, but she hastily brushed it away. She expected it to be as empty as the rest of the house. However, despite all the spider webs she had to take out of the way, there was something useful on the bottom of the wardrobe, almost hidden by old rags. If not for an insignificant shine, Sophie would have missed an engraved silver lighter.

She immediately lit the candle and went to see her friends again. They were surprised by the sudden brightness in the middle of all that dark but at the same time, felt instantly better. It was as if the light in the candle was their precious life. Sophie held the chamberstick tightly, afraid the light would disappear and leave her like Aramina did.

“What are we supposed to do?” asked Winnie, finally letting go of her mask. “We can’t stay here forever, can we? I’m starting to feel hungry…”

“What if they really are after us?” Saskia hugged her legs. “Just waiting for a mistake; an opportunity—”

“We should see if there is something in the house to help us protect ourselves,” suggested Winnie.

Sophie reminded herself she had a light source and went to the other door. At first, she gambled which door was the door to the bedroom and got it right on the first try, but she never opened the other door just assuming it was a bathroom and of little interest to them.

In the back of her mind, Winnie’s idea was not complete rubbish. Nevertheless, she saw what happened to Aramina and did not desire that to repeat itself, and she knew it would be impossible to escape or fight back if they were found. Maybe — just maybe — that cottage in the middle of the woods would be their ticket to freedom.

With one hand holding the chamberstick and the other on the door handle, Sophie opened the other door with an expression that indicated a feeling different from indifference. Terror.

Then, she slowly illuminated the room. It was bigger than she expected but it was still a bathroom. It had an old toilet without a lid, the seat up and adorned by moss; a broken mirror with a golden frame over a dirty porcelain sink; and a big golden bathtub that looked out of place. Sophie looked over it, searching for some invisible clue; something that could be referenced back to the note, or to where they were. Her fake serenity left her when she saw nothing, not even mud. There was no hope for them.