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To her left was another twin bed, but this one had a ruffled bedspread and was the shade of pink bubblegum. Beside the bed was a white side table. Sitting on top was a silver lamp base with a pink shade sat on top, with a smattering of jewelry around the base.
Why would her mom or her Aunt Maisie, leave without their personal belongings?
The jewelry didn’t look like anything Mia would be caught dead in. Her mom had mentioned the Madonna-look being en vogue at the time, incorporating bangled bracelets, not the handmade, earthy kind she and her mom wore with various colored gemstones joined together in twisted macramé, but with plastic beads and geometrical designs in various shades of neon colors.
Likely manufactured in factories that were unsafe for the environment.
She turned toward the opposite side of the room. Oddly, the other bed didn’t even have a nightstand.
It was weird how one side of the room was dolled up, literally, with dolls on the bed. The other side resembling more like what you’d see in a prison cell.
She turned to catch Angus with an expression on his face she had never seen before as he stared at the stark bed to the right. He looked conflicted, as if he were both angry and sad at the same time.
“Who do you think slept in here?”
With a red face, he answered, “Ah donna ken.”
For whatever reason, Mia didn’t think he was telling the truth. But based on the emotions flitting over his bearded face, she was more concerned for him than critical.
“Are you okay?”
“Aye,” he forced out, turning as if he couldn’t stand being in the room a minute longer and was out the door. As soon as she joined him in the hallway, they continued to the next door on their left. Mia stopped, almost colliding into Angus’s back, as he paused to open the door.
Mia peeked past his shoulder, spotting a thin bath towel that was draped over the side of the tub and an old tube of toothpaste on the counter as if waiting to be used.
Mia breathed into his shoulder holding on to his arm. “I wasn’t expecting the place to seem so… I don’t know… spooky and cold and… and sad.”
“Aye, tis a dank house, full o’ wee brownies and hobgoblins.”
He closed the door to the bathroom and made his way to the next door to their left.
Mia was plastered to him as he opened the door to yet another bedroom. This one seemed more of what you would expect. The bed had a coverlet with a small floral pattern, the sides permitted to hang down instead of tucked into the mattress, military-style. There were two fluffy pillows, each one with a sham facing them with the same floral design as the coverlet.
Angus walked over to the closet door and turned the knob.
Empty.
Now, Mia wished she had checked out the closet in the first bedroom. What might they have found? Maybe something more normal and reassuring to counterbalance the weirdness of the two distinct sides of the room.
“This must have been a guest bedroom,” she said, opening the wood dresser drawer and finding nothing inside.
“Aye,” Angus replied, lifting one side of a closed blind and looking outside. The sun’s rays streaking over the floor and to the opposite wall, bringing a glow to the room. Not as much in a warm and endearing way as the streaks of sunlight merely gave a stark opposition to the rest of the dreary house, making everything seem more drab and hopeless.
They made their way back to the hallway. Mia continued to follow Angus to the door at the end of the hall, and despite bleak lighting, noticed a yellow caution tape that had been torn through the middle, hanging on each side of the door.
Mia stood back, as Angus placed his hand on the doorknob and looked over his shoulder. “Awl goan first. Stay back, lassie.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Mia muttered under her breath, as Angus turned the knob and opened the door just enough so he could look inside.
“What’s in there?” she whispered, as if there were truly brownies and goblins on the other side.
He took a minute and responded by opening the door wider and stepping into the room.
Mia followed behind him, holding on to his arm in case a psychotic spirit, who had long missed the bright light, burst out of the closet doors with a butcher knife.
The room had a cold and severe feel, much like the rest of the house. Mia eyed a wooden rocker in the corner that looked anything but inviting, and beneath two windows covered with blinds was a bed frame.
Without a mattress.
