In The Shadows

Chapter Twenty Four

The window lead us into Xanthus's living room. It was plain and simple with a tan carpet, a dark brown sofa and chair set, and a box with a screen in the corner. There were two doorwars on either end of the far end of the wall, one leading off into a lit kitchen and the other leading off into a dark hallway.

"Remember," Crystal reminded me, "anything solid that could connect him to the rebel alliance. Don't forget to check the walls and the floor too." She went around the corner into the kitchen and began rifling through drawers.

I decided to start by venturing down the hallway, wandering to the very last door. My heart pounded with every step, my eyes sweeping back and forth across the narrow hallway, expecting the doors to fly open. Instead, it was like a ghost town. My steps were soft and swift and I reached the door in no time, gripping the handle tightly and pushing it open slightly. However, when I slipped in, I saw it was just a guest room. A single bed took up the far side of the wall, with a small nightstand sitting next to it.

I paused a moment, listening to Crystal's soft movements down the hall, before proceeding with caution. The nightstand was small and there was nothing but a book in the drawer, which revealed nothing after flipping through the pages. I checked under the mattress, under the bed and in the bed frame. But again, nothing. There was no closet, no dressers to snoop through. Crystal's words of checking the walls and floor flew through my head, and I began to press the walls, knocking on them in the efforts to look for some hollow space. But still, there was nothing.

Deciding I would have better luck elsewhere, I snuck through the door and back into the hallway. There were two other closed doors. I chose the one on my left, sucking in a breath when I stepped in front of it. My hand shook as I gripped the handle, slipping through the doorway.

It was his bedroom. The only reason I knew it was was because there was more furniture, yet it looked as empty and clean as the other room. There was a single bed, a dresser, and a small desk with a chair. My heart thundered with every step, ringing so loudly I was afraid it would pick up on the intercom. I softly lifted the gray and scratchy sheets of the bed, checking under each one before checking underneath the mattress. Nothing. I crept down to my knees and looked underneath the bed, but there was nothing except for a few dust bunnies.

The dresser was no better. I opened every drawer, lifting up every piece of clothing and feeling around every drawer. It was as if we were either wrong about this guy, and he really did have nothing to hide, or he was really good at hiding it. I pulled on the handle of the last dresser drawer and it opened with a squeaky groan, revealing neatly folded t-shirts. I rifled through all of them, careful not to mess up their pristine creases, but being thorough in my search. Right before I closed the drawer, I tapped on the sides of it, immediately freezing when I heard an unfamiliar sound. I tapped again, on the bottom of the drawer where I heard the hollow sound. Craning my neck, I didn't see anything different. It was still the light brown color, the rough texture of wood under my fingertips.

"What in the world?" I muttered to myself, feeling around the bottom. I moved the shirts over a little bit more and found a tiny button in the corner of the drawer, a little black pea sized dot that if I moved too fast, I knew I would miss.

My finger hovered over the button and I held my breath, waiting for the sirens to start blaring and for metal bars to shoot down from the walls, shutting me in the room.

1...2...3...Push.

I pushed down the button and as it came back up, it loosened part of the wood on the bottom of the drawer. What I thought was actually one solid piece of wood was actually wood with a square cut out of the center. The loose square popped above the rest of the drawer, and with molasses hands, I carefully picked it up and placed it on the floor next to me.