The House

Chapter 13 - Day 2: Matryoshka Mystery

This cannot be!

I'm standing in front of a cabinet I dragged up to one of the easels. I have tubes of oil paint in my right hand, and my left hand is trembling around the handle of the drawer I just opened to drop them in. 

I expected some near-empty tubes of dried paint and a couple of hard, useless paintbrushes, the same as I found in another of these cabinets. What I didn't expect to find was one of the Matryoshka dolls. It's the glued one. Except, she's no longer glued. She's lying in two halves, and whatever had been inside her is no longer there!

The room has lost its comforting warmth, the air suddenly too thick to breathe. 

I drop the paint, spin around and run from the room. I don't stop until I reach the living room and the coffee table where I placed the doll last night. She's still there! I start to pull her apart with clumsy fingers. 

I'm shaking so much I'm scattering the pieces everywhere. There are only three dolls; the glued one really is missing. I knew that already. They are not identical. I recognised the glued doll the second I saw her face.

"What the hell?"

Did I do this? Was it me? In my sleep? 

I leave the doll pieces on the table and start walking towards the front door. I want out of this place. Right now!

A memory makes me stop. 

I think it is a memory. It could be a dream. It's vague and fractured, but I can make out my hands using some cloth on the doll, the smell of thinners burning my nose. I used thinners to get rid of the glue. Thinners. 

There was a bottle of thinners on one of the counters. I hardly noticed it among the debris left by past artists. It could very possibly be my thinners. Was I really so curious about the doll's contents that I got up in my sleep, found my thinners and opened her up?

What was in the doll? What did I do with it? What if it was something important or valuable, and the owners ask me for it?!

"Shit!"

I cannot leave this place before I find the contents of the doll and replace it. I don't want to be accused of theft. 

"I'm sorry, I think I did it in my sleep, so I don't know what or where it is..." It kind of sounds like a lame excuse. What if it turns out to be a stash of heirloom jewellery or... I cannot think of anything important that could fit in there, sound the way it sounded and weigh more or less what the doll used to weigh.

If it's all that important, why the hell was it under the couch?

"You're not making sense."

Well, duh, none of this is making any sense.

I need to start searching right away, but where? If I were me, where would I hide the contents of the doll? 

Well, I wouldn't. Why would I?

"Okay, where would unconscious me hide the contents of the doll?"

Unconscious me would just be unconscious... I think. This is really hard and a little discomfiting. It is like having a complete stranger in the house with me. Conscious Belle and Unconscious Belle. Wonderful. Some communication between the two would be awesome.

The doll operation and the walk through the cellar door occurred on the same night? Right. They might be connected then. What if the cellar key was in the doll and Unconscious Belle - I refuse to call her me or I - hid the other contents in the cellar? That would explain a LOT.

"Great, so what did that chick do with the cellar key?"

Probing my memory has no effect; I still only have a vague impression of my hands using a cloth with thinners on the doll. Just that. Nothing before and nothing after. Dammit.

"Well, at least I didn't walk through a locked door..."

Actually... Bummer. I kind of liked the idea of having a superpower.

I take my time, making a thorough search of the entire sunroom. All the cabinets and all the boxes, but there is no sign of a key in there. 

Taking a deep breath to calm my rising panic, I leave the sunroom and make my way to the kitchen to search each cabinet and drawer in there. I find loads of cutlery, table mats, napkins and other kitchen utensils, but no keys and nothing that would be worth hiding inside the doll.

These were the two logical places to search, weren't they? 

I'm getting a headache just thinking about the possibility of the key finding its way into any of those furniture storage rooms or the library.

I am not going into the rooms with the furniture ghosts. No way!

One possible advantage of the key being hidden in the library might be the dust. Surely if Unconscious Belle went into the library and hid the key in there, there'd be signs. Disturbances in the dust, that kind of thing, right?

I'm going to find out.

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