What happened to Miwako?

I stood in the kitchen, trying to make a decision. It would be highly inappropriate to simply search the house for her. On the other hand, it would be highly inappropriate to not look for her, especially knowing that she was gone for quite some time.

What did I know so far? Miwako left an undefined amount of time ago. Definitely far too long to make a tea. The stove is turned on, but there seemed to be no gas. Thinking this, I cautiously held my hand against the kettle. It was cold.

The problem seemed to be the gas. So maybe she went somewhere to check on it.

Maybe the basement?

“Great.”, I said to myself. I was never a fan of basements but I felt like the one in this house would be especially uninviting.

“Kenzo might be able to help me.”

His room, as mentioned before, was likely the one directly next to the kitchen. At least it was the room he had looked out of before and also the one he again disappeared in.

The door looked like the other ones in the hall: old, made out of thick heavy woods that had grown for hundreds of years before it was turned into a door and with rich ornaments partly made out of wood, partly out of delicate metal works all of them of floral type.

There was a faint noise behind the door, sounding like somebody was pushing something slowly across the room.

I knocked. The sound stopped but I couldn’t hear anybody walking towards the door. Maybe he didn’t hear me and was now checking if he heard something?

I knocked again. The room behind the door remained silent.

“Kenzo?”, I asked through the locked door.

Again no sound from the room.

“Do you know where Miwako went? She wanted to make tea and now she is gone for quite some time already.”

Again no response. I might have been mistaken but I had a feeling that I heard something like a faint chuckle through the door before the pushing noise commenced another time.

I felt a chill running down my spine. What was the matter with this guy?

There were four doors guiding away from the hall, not counting the entrance door, and a staircase that led upwards.

I thought that it was highly unlikely that the entrance to the basement could be found upstairs, which was why I now walked across the hall towards the door next to the one that was guiding to the living room.

My heart was pounding in my chest for some reason. The fact that I felt like an intruder in this house aside, the whole house seemed to disdain me and to despise my presence. Still there was this faint sound from somewhere inside the house, but if I thought about it, every single corner of this building seemed to create small concerning sounds that were nagging on my mind.

“This house doesn’t want me to be here.”, I silently told myself while trying to ignore the small sounds from everywhere.

I reached the last door and gripped the handle. It sank under the weight of my hand and I opened the door.

Behind it there was a staircase leading down to the basement. Strangely there was no light burning. Maybe she didn’t go down after all?

“Miwako?”, I shouted into the darkness.

As I heard the echo of my own voice run down through the masonry there was yet another sound. From downstairs. Not an answer but a sound like somebody dropped something out of metal, that then, within its possibilities, jumped up and down on the floor a few times before remaining still. According to the movies I saw back in the days, that was the moment to make a run for it. But I didn’t.

“M-Miwako?”, I dared to shout a second time.

“Yes?”

I felt my heart stopping and I almost jumped into the air. I turned around and there she was.

“Oh my…. You could have warned me. You could have killed me, you know?”, I said holding my hand over my chest.  My heart beating wildly in it, but slowly recovering its normal pace.

“Oh, I could?”, she asked, her eyes not leaving mine.

“I….I was searching for you. You were gone for some time and the stove had no gas so…”

“So you thought I went to the basement to fix it myself?”, she laughed slightly.

A moment ago this train of thought seemed like the most logical to me, but after she said it out loud, I started to feel like an idiot.

“There was a sound down there….”, I tried to explain.

“A sound? The rats must have found their way back in again. I will have to call somebody to drive them out again, right tomorrow.”

Rats. Of course rats. A reasonable thought. But somehow, I had difficulties believing her. She guide me back to the living room and closed the door to the basement again. The darkness behind the door was grinning one last time at me and the slow but steady wind that came from the basement made the hall silently howl before Miwako closed the door.

I felt like the floor beneath me was thin, like it could break anytime and tear me down into a labyrinth of rooms and halls with nothing but darkness surrounding me and who knows what lurking just slightly out of my reach.

The warm atmosphere from before had vanished and I started to feel chilly, even if I was seated in front of the fireplace once again.

“Your brother doesn’t seem to like visitors.”, I acknowledged.

“Indeed not. As I mentioned he prefers the solitude of his room. I personally prefer having someone to talk to, to exchange news from the world outside.”

Something about how she said “the world outside” didn’t sound like she saw a lot of it so far. The way she put it rather gave the idea that she didn’t feel any sense of belonging to anything outside of these walls.

“I fear, that I am new to this place as well.”, I answered, trying to not insult her while letting her know that I wouldn’t be a good partner for these kind of conversations.

“Then tell me about yourself.”

This, at least, I couldn’t deny her since she allowed me to stay here until the rain had stopped.

“Well there isn’t a lot to tell. I always have been deeply average. My grades in school were also average and so were my chances as I was joining the workforce. Naturally I then joined the wrong company, was working myself to the bone and then….”, I stopped.

What then? I still didn’t come to a conclusion regarding my situation but thinking about the things that had happened before, this all being just a crazy dream was turning out to be less and less likely.

I tried to open the game inventory I had seen in the grassland. Nothing. Apparently, this world wasn’t part of the game.

“And then?”, Miwako asked, slightly tilting her head.

“I don’t remember.” I answered while awkwardly scratching my head.

“You don’t remember?”

She looked a little concerned. I simply couldn’t tell her that I suspected that I by now could have died already two times in a short amount of time. She would declare I was crazy and kick me out. And she would have every right to do so.

“I’m afraid I can’t.”, I responded.

In the following moment of silence I realized that I couldn’t hear the rain anymore. I took a look out of the window. The rain indeed had stopped. The clouds were gone and gave sight to a sky full of stars. The moon was shining brightly and filled the darkness with a dim light.

“The rain seems to be over. I don’t want to strain your hospitality, so I think I should get going.”

Miwako had silently, and without me recognizing her movement, changed her seat and now sat next to me on the sofa.

“Oh no. I couldn’t possibly let you go right now. These streets are dangerous at night. Also they get especially slippery after a heavy rain like this one.”

Every hair on my body stood straight and I started to shiver. Every cell of my body felt the strange urge to get more distance between her and me.

“Why don't you…., stay here…. at least for the night.”

I cautiously leaned away from her, trying to make it look like I shifted into a more comfortable seating position.

“W-well. I-if you insist.”