Bad Company (Seven Deadly Sins #1) ✅ Completed

Chapter Thirty-Two: Souls on a Shelf

Souls on a Shelf

I pushed open the door and entered, my eyes not quite registering all that it was forced to see all at once. Aunt Celeste’s showroom was like something out of the bowels of the TLC channel. It was Hoarders meets Hoarding: Buried Alive, meets Clean this House. Words couldn’t adequately describe the absolute horror of the third floor.

There were so many shelves and bookcases overloaded with every manner of tchotchkes and knick knacks that it looked like a nightmare Martha Stewart might have. Everything from old fashion china dolls, to 1950’s tins were stacked next to rocks, ceramic clowns, tacky plaster elephants, small dog and pig figurines. Precious moment statuettes were set next to Faberge eggs (which I was pretty sure were just decent looking knock-offs), and every manner of cuckoo clock ever built in the country seemed to line an entire wall. There was so much stuff everywhere, my poor brain couldn’t keep up with the visual feed it was getting from my eyes.

The only thing that seemed to be missing were books. There were bookshelves but no real books anywhere. That was kind of hard to believe. Old people loved books. It was a well known fact – surely Aunt Celeste had to have hundreds of books she’d picked up over the course of her life somewhere in this mess.

I moved carefully among all the debris and boxes of crap stacked everywhere. I was only in the first room, which seemed to be some kind of large living room. I was pretty sure her kitchen, dining room and bedroom were past this overcrowded front room. I bet her books were lined up in towers in her bedroom. Since I was looking for information, and books were a great source of all kinds of interesting information, that’s where I headed.

When I finally made my way to the back, I realized I’d been wrong yet again. Aunt Celeste wasn’t like any other old person I’d ever known in my life. All she had in her tiny bedroom was a bed smaller than the cot I had upstairs in the attic. It didn’t even have a headboard for Pete’s sake. To make matters worse, she didn’t have anything else for me to dig through. Not a single bedside table, dresser, mirror, or even a closet. It was just a four walled room with a dingy little bed, one pillow and a blanket.

There wasn’t even a window.

Disgusted with that whole situation, I turned and made my way to the kitchen. At least this room was about what I’d expected, though it was a little bigger than I'd imagined it’d be. It was a good thing too, because this was where she’d kept all her books. Cookbooks were lined up next to James Patterson novels. Nora Roberts shared her shelf with Stephen Hawking and Anthony Robbins. She had books on lunar cycles alongside nature guides, bird books, and an old College Guide from 1981. The woman was such a hoarder. Didn’t she believe in throwing anything away?

I went through all the stacks on the floor, crowding the counter, and even the ones under the small table she had in there. Nothing that screamed: Answers To All Your Questions! Most everything were the kind of books you’d buy at garage sales, used bookstores, or snag out of a donation pile somewhere. Letting out a frustrated breath, I opened up her fridge, but quickly closed it as something immediately assaulted my sense of smell.

God, she really was one of those of psycho hoarders that couldn't even throw out expired food. Gag. Good thing I only ever ate stuff out of the mini-fridge and cabinets she had in the back of the shop. It made me wonder if that had more to do with Dante than Aunt Celeste. Each time I’d dug around back there for something to eat, it was only after watching Dante go through and put a few groceries away. He must’ve known what Celeste was really like and only ate stuff he bought. Smart guy.

I left the kitchen now, walking back into the main room and taking a closer look at my aunt's shelves. I figured if there was anything that I could use to find out about what she’d done to Chase, it had to be in this room. Compared to the others, it was at least somewhat orderly, if ridiculously crowded.