What's Underneath

Sapphire's POV

"Saph? Are you home?" Sht. Alyssa's home. I felt the adrenaline rush running through my system. She must not see this. I immediately went inside. I startled when the bookshelf slowly closed. Damn. How stupid could I get?! Why did I come in? I could've just stopped Alyssa from coming inside. Now how am I supposed to get out?! I sighed. There must be a way out of here.

It's dark inside here. I couldn't see a thing. I grabbed my phone from my pocket and turned on its flashlight. I am still not able to see things clearly since the light is faint but it's enough to see where I'm heading. I roamed my eyes around and saw that this place is covered with a lot of spider webs and dust.

"Kyaaah!" I jumped out of fear when a rat suddenly passed through me. Damn! I hate rats! I almost fell from the stairs good thing I managed to balance myself. I composed myself before I continued moving forward. At the end of the staircase, I saw a door. I'm guessing that it's the exit. This basement is a waste of time. All it has is stairs all along.

I'm now in front of the door. The sad thing is that I can't get it open. It's locked. This door is making me pissed. I sighed and moved backward. I stretched my arms, hands, and legs. There's only one way to open this. And that is to kick this door open. This would be easy since the door is evidently full of dust and seemed so old.

And I was right. The door immediately broke in just one kick. But my guess that it's the exit was wrong. The room is filled with darkness and only the light from my phone served as a guide for me to see what surrounds me. I looked for a switch and saw one not far from where I'm standing. I switched it on and the room that was filled with darkness had gone. Now, I can see and observe the things around me.

I wandered my eyes around and observed everything inside. Everything was covered by dusts and spider webs. Every object was each covered with a white cloth. I pulled one near me and it was a cabinet. It has a mirror so I saw a blurry image of me. That's when I noticed that I was still holding the book. Slowly, I turned to every page of the book. Every page had a burn. It seems that someone tried to burn this book but changed his/her mind. The sad part is that I don't understand what's written on the book since it was a foreign language. I think it's written in Spanish. I should start learning Spanish to learn what's in this book. It's making me curious. Since this book is useless for now, I closed it and diverted my attention to my surroundings. I took off each cloth that covered all the things.

A large frame caught my attention beside a table. It's a family picture but I can't identify their faces. It's been scratched and covered with blood stains. This is odd. There's a lady carrying a baby and her husband, I presume, is standing beside his wife. I was about to go near the frame to get a better look but I heard a door open coming from the corner of the room.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" I saw an old man with a cane. His voice was monotoned and his eyes were throwing daggers at me.

"I-I..." I stammered. I don't know what to say. Is he the man from the picture? Is this his place? Gosh, am I trespassing?

"You..." My forehead creased at his sudden change of reaction. This time he looked surprised. Things became weirder when he smiled at me. A genuine smile. "You've fully grown. I'm glad to see you, again."

"Uh?" He knows me? I examined his face but I've never seen him before. I'm positive that we have never met. But the way he stares at me was like he had known me for years already. Maybe he had mistaken me for someone else.

"Of course, you wouldn't remember me." He chuckled. He walked towards me and in just a second he was now beside me staring at the large picture frame. "Did you know that this was the first and last picture of Tatsuo Takahashi and his family?" He said. Tatsuo Takahashi? He's the founder of this academy. But why is this here? Why does he not have it? And why are their faces filled with scratch and blood stains? Did something bad happened to his family? "You must have a lot of questions in your mind."

"Where are they now?" As far as I've known, Mr. Takahashi lives alone and has no family. What happened to them?

"That's a secret and I'm in no position to share information to anyone." I was disappointed by his answer. Hays. I guess this curiosity will keep me up all night. "All I can tell you is that his family experienced a tragedy that can never be forgotten." He smiled bitterly.

Now I'm even more curious. I've got a lot of questions in mind that I want to ask. I never thought that Mr. Takashi has a tragic past. I don't know but looking at this picture made me anxious.

"How did you find this place?" He asked and looked at the book I've been holding. He slightly smiled. "No need to answer me. It looks like you've found the book and the book lead you here. It's amusing to see you here. Well, it's what should happen. Fate has spoken." Okay, I'm super confused. What the hell is he saying?

"What do you mean by that?" Instead of giving me an answer, his response was only a smile and it made me feel annoyed.

"You should leave now, hija. I still have things to do in here." I sighed and took one last glance at the picture before heading towards the exit.

Before I was able to leave, the old man said something confusing. "In the right time, hija. You'll know in the right time." He smiled at me before turning around. He opened the cabinet before saying, "Send my regards to your, Mom." He headed towards me and pushed me out of the room. "Now, go." Then he closed the door.

Who are you, Mister? What do you mean by the things you've said? How did you know my mother? Damn! This is seriously driving me crazy!