Chapter 9 : Mother's Room

As Edward had continued searching for clues and his mother, a noise was heard behind him. It was a low, crackling, squeaking sound. Shocked, he jolted to turn around, looking for what had caused the noise. There were no signs of movement in the living room. There was nothing broken at all. It was the sound of moving, perhaps a door opening? He walked towards the hallway, from where the sound came from.

Upon reaching the start of the hallway, he turned left to face it. There were three doors seen. The first door on the left was the room he came from. His own room, full of wooden makeshift toys and a crib for him to sleep in. Light was shining through the room into the hallway, yet the rest of the hallway was still dark. It felt ominous, as if something was waiting for him. The second door, the door on the right was his mother’s room. From Edward’s, or rather, Kieran’s memories, it was full of incense and tarot cards. All sorts of mystical things were kept there. There were no windows, and instead the light source was from candles. The smell of wax was pungent, so heavy that it would be hard to breathe in. The last room in the middle, far into the hallway was Kieran’s brother’s room. From the memories, Kieran’s brother, Johann is an official Knight who serves the Kingdom of Lunmerre, southeast of Brindle Village where Kieran and his mother lived. Though he couldn’t remember how the room looked.

Edward walked into the hallway, staying low and trying to be silent. As he passed his room, he realized it was extremely bright. If this world operated the same way it did in his world, then it would be around 2 or 3 pm.

“Wait, it’s bright out. Something’s missing. A child was stabbed in the chest, and it’s now the afternoon. But how come nobody’s here to check on him? Where’s Kieran’s mother..?”

Something was definitely off. If the mother had loved her child, sacrificed everything for him, why would she leave him for so long? It’s not as if she leaves him at home when she goes to work, because from the memories, she would bring him to work with her. Edward was on guard, and was now very cautious. Every step, though his body struggled, was as silent as he could manage. His breath, careful, sometimes running out of breath because he forgot to breathe. As continued down the hall, he noticed the door of his mother’s room was slightly cracked open.

“So this is where the noise came from”

He continued and approached the door. Just like in his memories, the smell was heavy. There was incense and scents. Though it smelled good, fragrant, something like flowers and spices, it was too heavy for his undeveloped body. There was something about it that made him uncomfortable. As he pushed open the door, the smell hit him harder, his head started to hurt. He continued pushing forward, determined to find something. The room was quite empty compared to Kieran’s room. It was a very simple room. A bed, a wardrobe, drawers, and a table against the wall, with a giant mirror on it. As Edward approached the table, he noticed that there was a lot of blood. Not just on the table, but on the ground, the bed, everywhere. Little drops and streaks of blood, footprints covered in blood and dirt. The more he looked, the more things didn’t make sense. This wasn’t the room he saw in the memories. Yes, it was empty, but there was no blood. Things were not broken, smashed, or ruined. Glass was not on the floor, nor was paper scattered across everywhere. He pulled out the chair, and climbed on top of it.

The mirror, upon closer inspection, was cracked and missing pieces. Blood was smeared on it as well. On the table, and everywhere else in fact, things were slashed. Something sharp was used. Perhaps it was the knife that was embedded into his chest just moments earlier. Dresses were ripped, the sheets and the bed mattress slashed in the wood. As he looked around the desk, he accidentally bumped into something. When he looked at where he bumped, there was a hidden compartment in the desk. It was a simple small compartment, and inside lay a book of some sorts. As Edward grabbed the book, suddenly, loud sounds were heard.

KNOCK

KNOCK

KNOCK

“Ma’am! Are you in there? This is the Village Watchmen. Please open this door!”

From Kieran’s memories, the Village Watchmen were like the village’s own Police force. Though it was not sanctioned by the government, some of the men came together to create this force to protect the village. They were in charge of the safety of the villagers, and people reported things to them.

Since the front door was locked, and mother was probably in the store, they would go there to look for her. Edward continued to open the book and read some of its contents. It was only then he had realized this was a language that was foreign to him. And yet, despite it being foreign, he could read it. It was a very intriguing language, it had many curves, dots, and such. Some letters resembled the English language, but the rest were foreign. The language in his memories, and the one that the Village Watchmen had spoken were also not English, yet he could understand.

“Is this because of Kieran’s memories that I am able to understand?” Edward had thought.

Edward paid no more attention to this detail. He proceeded to open to a random page in the middle, and there it read:

“December 4th, 1358

Today was a good day. We managed to get many customers due to the increasing amount of monsters. Many people were afraid and wanted their fortune told. Kieran was with me today and helped attract many customers. I love him so much, I wish he would never grow up. We were able to afford a bit of meat today, Kieran enjoyed it a lot. The winter has made everything much more expensive and harder to get. Sometimes, it’s really cold at night, so I give Kieran my blanket. I don’t want him catching a cold. Johann still hasn’t written back to me yet, my letter was most likely lost. Hopefully one of these days he writes back to me. I miss him dearly. At least Kieran is here with me though, I don’t know what I’d do without him. I can hear him crying. He’s probably having nightmares again, I’ll go check on him.”

He ripped to another page, this time a bit more to recent pages.

“March 19th, 1359

Today, I met a kind man. He was a customer at the store. He came in for a reading, and when he was finished, gave an extra pouch of bronze coins. He probably saw Kieran outside and wanted to do something nice. Though I didn’t ask for his name, I remember his face. If he ever comes back, I’ll have to treat him to a meal and thank him for this. It really helped a lot, with this we can afford this month’s bills. I’ll make this work. I have to make this work, Kieran depends on me. I need to save enough to send him to school. If only Johann could come back a bit, maybe it could work. I wonder how my son is doing.”

As Edward kept reading, he realized that this was his mother’s journal. She kept a log of every single day. As he was about to put it down, he noticed a page was sticking out. Curious, he opened that page and saw it had blood on it. On it it wrote

“April 25th, 1359

The same man came again. Something is wrong. He keeps following me everywhere I go. Just earlier, I saw him staring at Kieran playing with the other boys. He wasn’t smiling or angry. He stood there emotionless. I’ll report this to the Watchmen tomorrow. I’m afraid for Kieran’s safety”

And at the bottom, written in a hurry, 

“Someone’s in the house.”