Chapter 15

During the time that Andras Mabuz was in the Waltz of the Dead, Mallori Mallory was in the bedroom organizing her clothes, that she liked quite a lot, into the closet that Andras had told her to. When she was done, she couldn't control her curiosity and took a peek into his closet. She saw the many neatly folded and hung clothes that were all in dark shades. She closed the closet after having seen enough, but the smell of him lingered even after the closet was closed. His scent was fading, and she didn't like the feeling that it was giving her. She looked around the room and she thought of something genius. She took the pillow from the side he usually slept on and hugged it as she stuffed her face into it. A small smile crept up on her pretty little face.

Pillow still in her arms, she went down the stairs into the kitchen. She saw the food that was nicely set on the counter. She took a seat and ate with great joy. Eating was nice. She liked eating. Thinking as such, she remembered the woman who used to bring her food. Her joy dwindled as she thought of how the woman would be sad to not find her there anymore. But thinking back to the Glass Tower, she really was glad to not be there anymore. 20 years in that same old tower with little to nothing having ever changed since she first stepped on to that last floor at the age of 2 was quite boringly scary. Closing her eyes, she could remember every little thing about the glass cage she was in. Opening back her eyes to see her empty plate, "Never go back" was what she found herself saying out loud. Her own voice sounded a little odd to her.

Spending the many years without the company of anyone, she was used to thinking and talking to herself in her head more than speaking out. Thus her own voice sounded quite foreign to her. Having finished organizing her clothes and eating her food, she really could not think of anything else to do. Remembering what Andras had told her, she picked up the pillow and started exploring the first floor of the mansion.

She explored the living room, the dining room, and the foyer. She found a door in the far left to the foyer, but it wouldn't open as it was locked, she gave up on it and headed to a corridor that stretched to the right of the kitchen. She opened the first door and saw that it was a bedroom designed accordingly to the theme color of dark brown. It had a casual and pleasing aura to it. Looking at the double bed in this room, it was obvious that the one in their room was much bigger. Shutting the door, she went on to the next room. The next room had plain white walls that were adorned with multiple frames on each side. It gave a cold feeling, but it had a similar scent to Andras. Close to the end of the room sat a cold-looking stark black desk with a black leather chair sitting behind it. She nodded her head as she finished examining the room that she concluded was Andras's office and headed for the last door that was at the end of the corridor.

When she opened the door, she was taken aback by the bookshelves that covered the walls completely. The walls of the mansion were generally tall, but looking upwards to the never-ending shelves of books, they looked as if they were about to fall and envelope her completely.

She loved it.

Books had been one of the very few things that kept her company during her time in the Glass Tower. It would be safe to say that all that she had learned about life was from what she had read. The magazines and catalogs showed her the normal daily life of others while the books elaborated on the interaction of people with each other. From time to time she would also spend the endless amount of free time that she had, to observe the ant-size humans that walked and lived their life below as she watched from above, detached from it all.

She didn't know how long it had been, but as she continued to read a stack of books from the shelves had made it to her side. The pillow was now placed under her as she lay down on the carpet while reading. The books were various, they included encyclopedias, classics, biographies, history, geography, and even dictionaries of several languages. As she was going around the room, taking in shelf to shelf of books, she made her way to the far right corner of shelves. From up she looked all the way down and it came to her attention that the second last shelf was not filled with books. She was not sure what they were, so she pulled one out. She looked at the big square package and reached inside to get out a big black disc.

Her eyes falling on it, she immediately knew what it was. It was an LP record. The ones that had songs on them! She remembered how she had seen one in a history book about the evolution of music. She had once found enough courage to ask the Madame if she could have one. Madame had rejected her on the spot saying that she should be as quiet as the dead living up there. She never asked her for anything again after that.

She couldn't believe that she had one of them in her hands now. She took out a few other ones. There were some she didn't recognize, but the ones that she did, she knew to be Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Ella Fitzgerald. It seemed to her that Andras liked jazz. Knowing that she had just learned something new about him, she smiled a soft smile. A handful of records from Andras's record collection of about 100, had caught Mallori's interest. She wanted to listen to them, her eyes darted from one side of the room to the other and that was when she noticed a black suitcase looking thing under the grand piano to the left upper corner of the room. Organizing the things she had read, she knew that some record players came in that form. That's why she didn't hesitate and bent down taking out the slightly dusty suitcase.

With a snap, the suitcase opened to reveal its true shape as a record player that would allow Mallori to listen to the music stored in the records placed around her. She eventually figured out the mechanism of the record player, and the music flowed smoothly and softly to her ears traveling all the way to her heart. She hadn't heard a song properly for twenty years. Madame even used to put her phone on vibrate, so not even a ringtone. It truly had been a quiet uneventful silent twenty years that had passed by without her ever realizing that time was even flowing.

Hours passed by and the sun was starting to set, she had almost finished listening to all of the records. As she was deciding what to listen to next because the record was reaching its end, the last song on the record started playing.

"I heard she sang a good song, I heard she had a style. And so I came to see her." The song played out and by now she could tell from a single word sung in that voice, that it was Frank Sinatra. The song interrupted her search as she froze and only listened to the song and nothing else. She felt herself singing, "Killing me softly" No other song was played after Mallori had trampled on Killing Me Softly by Frank Sinatra. She continued to listen to that one song over and over again. After countless listenings, she was singing it out word by word as the song played by her side with the pillow now in her arms being hugged tightly. In the sweet comfort that the song brought over her, she fell asleep as the music continued to play. Her peaceful face while hugging the white pillow with the music playing on as she slept on the Persian carpet, the scene looked good enough to be on the postcard for heaven even though it was being taken in the devil's mansion.

Mallori was drifting in dreamland while Andras was struggling to come back to her as soon as he could. The stuck-up people who are seating arrogantly in front of him seemed to have woken up this morning with the sole purpose to talk bullshit just to keep him away from his unfortunate little missy.