Apocalypsis 03 - Exodus

candlelight.
    “Where is she?” whispered Winky.
    I listened carefully for any signs of her, but all I heard was the ticking of a windup clock that sat on the night table next to the bed. A pleated linen lampshade covered a glass bulb-shaped base, the cord running over the back of the table. The white bed had decorative pillows with ruffled edges carefully placed at its head. The one in front was one of those neck rolls to use for lying in bed and reading with a book towards the ceiling. I flashed back to days in my bedroom, hours spent reading about fantasy worlds and romance that never happened for me in reality.
    I shook my head out of the past and back to the present. There was a girl in here, the original owner of the mansion, and we needed to find her before her bullet found one of our heads. I signaled for Winky to follow me deeper into the room.
    Our footsteps made no sound on the thickly-carpeted floor. We stopped in front of a huge walk-in closet. I could already see that the interior was bigger than my bedroom at home had been. A large marble bathroom was off to the right.
    “Do you see her?” asked Winky.
    I shook my head. If it were me, I would have chosen to hide in the closet, so that’s the direction I went. Winky went the other. I got to the entrance and peeked around the corner, revealing as little of my head as possible, just in case she was waiting beyond to blow me away.
    The room was in two parts. The first, where I was standing, was a dressing room. The nearby candle made it possible to see the details of the room. The center contained a cabinet with a marble top. The wood of the cabinet was dark and rich-looking, with golden knobs marking the placement of thin drawers. I walked over and carefully opened the nearest one.
    Rows of gleaming, very expensive-looking watches winked up from within, each pushed into a cushioned slot. Even in the near darkness, I could see some of them contained diamonds. I closed the drawer, looking around for the hiding place of our mystery girl. All I saw were shoes of all types and colors, shelved from floor to ceiling, sweaters folded like they were on display in a department store and color-coded by shade, leather purses and other totes lined up like soldiers on a top shelf, and possibly hundreds of men’s suits and women’s dresses and other clothes in the closet area beyond. Whoever had lived here had spent probably millions of dollars on this closet’s contents alone. I shook my head at the waste. It all meant less than zero now. If this money had been channeled into food, water, protection, and other things, this girl might not have gone bananas. So, so sad.
    I walked into the closet and pushed the clothes from side to side, looking for a girl hiding in their midst; but she was nowhere to be found. I looked up at the ceiling and saw no attic or evidence of a secret door. I got bold and kicked the walls behind the suits and dresses, listening for the sound of a hollow space. But there was nothing there. She either just disappeared into thin air or she’s in the bathroom, because she couldn’t have jumped out the window, and there is no hidey hole in here.
    I panicked a little at the idea of Winky being alone with her, so I hurried out of the closet to join her. We met as she emerged from the marbled room, shaking her head. “She’s not in there,” she said, no longer whispering. “I even looked in the cabinets.”
    “She’s not in the closet, either.”
    Winky put her hands on her hips, frowning. “That’s just too weird, right? I mean, nobody just disappears into thin air like that.”
    “Unless she’s a ghost,” I said, only half joking.
    “Please, Bryn. Don’t even think about going there. That girl was as real as you and me. She’s hiding here somewhere .”
    “Did you check under the bed?” I asked.
    Winky walked over and swept up the dust ruffle, getting down on her knees to check. “Nope. No ghosts under here.”
    “Well, we’re just missing something, that’s all. Come on. Let’s look in the closet again.” I moved to walk past Winky, but she grabbed my arm.
    “Maybe we should just leave her alone. I mean, she survived living in this house with canners. She’s either one of them or has some serious firepower in here that kept her protected. Do we really want to mess with that?”
    Winky was right, but I couldn’t get the ghost-girl’s response about Bodo out of my mind. I was banking on the fact that she respected