The Office (pt. 2)

After spending time dressing Marco's wound and staying with him while he ate, I was ready to leave for the kitchen in order to return the plate that Aurelia had given me. My brain was currently muddles and my thinking process was fuzzy because the atmosphere in Marco's room had become tense and suffocating. It seemed like there was a switch that had been flipped in both of us at the same time and the restraint we both had the show was consuming.

"Get yourself together, Kat," I shook my head at myself and gripped the banister to go down the stairs. If I let my imagination run too wild, there was just no telling what would happen. For sure my judgement would become impaired and that was the last thing I needed. Honestly, of all the people in this house to lust over. Couldn't it have been his mom or something? She was gorgeous!

Something in my brain was nagging me, but I couldn't tell what it was. It a was a recurring thought about his parents that began to circulate in my noggin when I was first making my way to his room. I didn't know much about his parents, but when I was observing them, I found big weaknesses in both, especially Vincente. Maybe it was his limp or just his old age, but something was holding him back, and I would exploit it completely.

Now what was it about Vincente that I needed to remember?

Of course! His office!

I stopped in my tracks and spun around to head right back the way I'd just come from. With all my hustle and bustle it had completely avoided my mind to check Vince's office. Also, I was sure there was probably a booby trap installed in there. Highly unlikely, but still completely possible.

To my surprise, there was no lock on the office door, and no booby trap when I walked in either. Red flags started going off in my head, but I was already a dozen steps farther than what I'd planned, so I wasn't going to question it at all. A victory was a victory, even if it was a small one. In any case, I was in no position to start looking for big victories yet.

I placed the plate on the desk and began to tip toe around the room, being careful to avoid any areas that my gut told me would include a loose floorboard. Everything in this office seemed like it could be a secret compartment or a trap door, so I didn't know exactly what it was that I was supposed to be looking for. Anything that held so much as a reminiscence of the keypad in my room was my target, and I spent so much time trying to input codes on little screens that didn't have a keypad to begin with.

Still, undeterred, I sat down in the old man's chair and opened his computer, using my hacking skills to bypass his password and get inside his files. Vincente kept everything password protected, and apparently every app and site had a different password. This man was a psychopath and a menace to society. Who keeps a different password for everything? My memory wasn't that good, I could never.

I navigated his computer expertly, quickly discarding anything with a password slot that didn't seem to match the keypad in my room. The finding of whatever they keypad was connected to was the biggest pain in my ass since that time I had to figure out how to build my own space rocket for the science fair in sixth grade. Even though I'd gotten an exceptional grade then, I wasn't anywhere near getting an A plus here.

For one, this computer was loaded, and it would probably take me all night tósete what was in this thing. Every time it seemed like I'd hit a strike, the password slot would be completely different or I'd notice a difference between the app and the keypad in my room. But then again, maybe I was forgetting some details? If only only there were a keypad right in front of my face to help me out, I felt that all of my problems would be solved! But there wasn't.

"Hello… what's this?"

The cursor glided over an application that was nameless, very much like all the other applications, but I noticed that even though it was nameless, after clicking on it, the only thing that would come up would be the internet search engine. Once again, nothing special. I was about to close it when my eyes caught something interesting. In the corner of the page, there was a little visual like folding the corner of the page in an interesting book.

I wanted to input the password so badly, but just as I was about to do so, footsteps approached the office, making me jump to quickly turn off the monitor, grab the plate, then crouch underneath the desk. Damn… seemed like my quest for answers would have to wait again.