It had been almost a year since her uncle had died and she had moved into his mansion. The mansion which she had still yet to explore. Her main concern was fixing the irreversible and crippling pain in her heart from losing the one man who had loved her, they're one man who filled in when her parents ran off to Las Vegas to gamble away all their money.
Now, now she was alone. Alone in a creepy old house with no one to bring a smile to her face. Percy often wondered if her life could get any worse. And nip I time she was feeling like the unprepossessing beige walls were closing in on her, sucking out her happiness like a Dementor from Harry Potter, she would take a walk around her house. Exploring places she had never been. When she had lived with Uncle Wolfe, he had left this old castle behind in favor of a smaller home closer to the city to help raise his niece, who was now at the age of seventeen.
Today was one of those days when the rooms were especially dark and her sorrow was threatening to drown her. Today she decided to go up, up to the attic. The one place where Uncle Wolfe had stored his most valuable possessions. He often told her stories about this house and how it was so big people had gotten lost and died, of how people had tried to break in and steal his valuables; but because they were so high up people couldn't make the journey up the stairs in one day. But stories were all that they happened to be. A man bringing whimsy to the young Persephone's monotone life. The stories of the Wolfe mansion used to be her favorites, she would sit for hours and listen to him tell about his old home. The home that he hoped to show her the day after his death.
As the young woman ascended the stairs she remembered the story of how it had taken the men building the house an entire year to build the stairs alone. She studied the small imperfections along the wood as she walked, admiring the beauty they brought. She was almost to the top when she got a phone call, which startled her, almost making her fall down the steps. Thankfully, she recovered and managed to catch herself before taking the three floor fall. Pulling her little black Nokia from her pocket. She hadn't gotten a newer phone simply because she didn't need one.
Pressing the answer button, she held the phone up to her ear, "Persephone spe-"
"Percy! Are you still moping! We have a party going on and you aren't here!"
Claudia, her somewhat friend from school had called trying to drag her to yet another party. She claimed it was to brighten her spirits. Percy knew it was because Claudia wanted to drink some spirits. And beer. And whiskey. She simply didn't want to drive the girl home. Even if it would get her out of the house. Sighing, she answered quickly, not wanting to keep the conversation going. "Sorry Claudia, not this time. I have to clean." Persephone quickly pulled the phone away, but even then she could hear Claudia going off on her about how fun it would be. Shaking her head, and smiling softly, she pressed the end call button. Going through her uncles old things always made her feel closer to him.
Percy continued up the stairs and to the uppermost level. And then to the attic. She pulled down on the cord, watching the ladder unfold. The wooden steps into the dark attic where anything could be waiting. She flipped the yellowing switch and began climbing into the dusty attic, immediately sneezing. The dust build up was like that in movies on the old books in spooky castles where the clueless protagonist picks one up and blows away the dust. If there were any books up there, she was planning on doing exactly that. It would be a fun story for another time.
Once she made it all the way up, she stood, and surveyed the room. The entire space seemed to be covered in the hollywood level dust, causing Persephone to sneeze yet again. Taking another look around she found one area that wasn't covered in dust. The corner in the far right of the room. The one area not covered in an inch of dust was also the brightest part of the attic. Percy just had to know what was over there. And why it was the cleanest, brightest place in the room.
