“My toothbrush and other toiletries,” she answeredbashfully.
“Hmmm…” Turning to the cabinet, Crispin picked up a communaltoothbrush holder in the form of a plastic cup, plucked oneparticular toothbrush out and pitched it into the nearby trash can.He then held the cup out to her. Understanding his meaning, shereluctantly withdrew her toothbrush from her basket and placed inthe cup with the three others.
Raising aneyebrow at the lilac coloured brush, he shuddered briefly beforeplacing the cup back down on the countertop. Becky couldn’t helpbut giggle at his over-the-top aversion to something soinsignificant as a splash of colour.
“Lord, help us all,” he grumbled, ignoring her, opening thecabinet doors and crouching down in front of it.
Becky watchedcuriously as he rifled through its contents, tossing the odd thinginto the trash, muttering and swearing the entire time. Aftersifting through the cabinet, he held his hand out to her andsnapped his fingers, waving her over.
She was aboutto tell him off for snapping his fingers at her like that, but shecaught herself. Baby steps, she thought as she reluctantly handedhim her basket. He impatiently snatched it from her and proceededto place it into the corner he’d cleared for her.
“There,” he said, standing up to his significant height,looking quite pleased with himself.
“Thanks,” she said with a rueful smile.
“Yeah… well, whatever,” he said, sizing her up and down,glancing around the bathroom before picking up the trash can andleaving her there staring after him.
***
Sometime in thelate afternoon, Becky realized that she was all alone in the house.So engrossed in arranging her room, she’d lost track of time.
In dire need ofa snack, she made her way downstairs to have a look around in thekitchen. She took the opportunity to take in the rest of the houseon the way. While it appeared large on the outside, the actualinterior of the house felt small and cozy if not antiquated andcluttered. The front door was situated in the centre at the bottomof the steep staircase. The floors, banister, doors and baseboardswere of dark wood. Most of the walls were covered in ornate damaskwallpaper in various shades of burgundy and taupe.
To the left ofthe front door, she found the small television room that sherecognized from the week before, where they’d held her trial. Atthe memory of the unpleasant event, she experienced a cold shiver.Taking a deep breath, she sighed with relief that they’d changedtheir minds about kicking her out.
Attached to thetelevision room, separated by two French doors was a full on diningroom. It looked to be a tad neglected, given the layer of dust thatcovered the antique dark wood table. Pity, it would be nice to havedinner at such a lovely old table. At that thought, Becky felthomesick, realizing that Thanksgiving would soon be here. In yearspast, she’d enjoyed spending the holiday at home at Granny’s withturkey and all the fixings. This year, though, things would bedifferent since Granny had moved into the retirement home. Still,she looked forward to visiting her there. The retirement home had aspecial events dinner planned for family and friends.
Continuing herprivate tour, Becky discovered that on the right side of the frontentrance was a larger turreted room. It had the best light giventhat the windows were bowed and faced south and the walls werepainted white. In this room, Becky discovered three easels, eachwith covered canvases placed upon them. Unveiling them one by one,she noted that each painting featured very different styles andsubject matter. Realizing that she’d just moved in with threeartists, she smiled and clasped her hands together in thanks. Howpositively perfect! Perhaps they would spare her a spot in here topaint.
She realized atthat moment that there was much she still didn’t know about herhousemates. So many questions she had suddenly to ask. They wereobviously ahead of her in university since she hadn’t run into anyof them except Kelley at school.
Careful tocover up the canvases, Becky then made her way into the kitchen tosearch out a snack. The kitchen was situated at the very back ofthe house, facing the backyard. The table was positioned by thewindow. The appliances weren’t new but they weren’t old either. Thecountertop was made of stainless steel. An odd choice for theVictorian kitchen, but given the fact that this was the House ofGoths, it seemed appropriate. Finding nothing of interest in thecupboards other than a collection of mismatched and mostly chippedceramic mugs and plates, various glasses of all shapes and sizes,Becky moved to the fridge.
She sighed,finding nothing but a nearly empty carton of milk, some ketchuppackets, and a very sad looking apple in one of the compartments.She looked around the counter and found the sliced bread they’d hadfor breakfast. Unfortunately, there were only the two end piecesleft. Taking them, she proceeded to place them in the toaster. Withno butter or margarine left, she’d have to eat them dry.
As she chewedon the uninspiring meal, she glanced out the back window. Thebackyard was quite large with some tall trees and green grass,mostly unkept and overlong. There was a wooden picnic table with asoggy looking sun umbrella stuck into the middle of it. Over to theside, she could see a long driveway that must come up from thestreet, leading up to a separate old fashion garage or carriagehouse, ornate wooden doors and all.
It was dusk andthe house suddenly turned quite dark. Wondering where the boys hadgone, she turned her attention to the garage again. She hadn’t seenmuch of them all day except for this morning. Although she’d hadher run-ins with Dorian and Crispin, she hadn’t yet talked toKelley. She wanted to thank him properly for his part in lettingher stay here.
As the last bitof daylight faded away, she noticed a faint light glowing frominside the garage. Could they be in there? Curious, she dropped theuneaten portion of toast and made her way towards the back door.Directly attached to the kitchen was a mudroom, a handy if notrustic powder room, a washer and dryer, and from what she couldtell, a stairway that led down to what could only be abasement.
Once outside,she startled at the sound of the rickety old
