Oblivion

Asher

“Filled in?” Asher asked.

“Mhm.” The builder said. “Some time after Rebecca’s husband’s death, she’d wanted his study filled in. I hadn’t been able to take up the contract just then, but i had told her i’d get back to her with it when i could. I called her back after a few of my projects had cleared, but she had told me that she did not require my services anymore then. I don’t know if she ever got that room filled in?”

“You mean, filled in with bricks and stuff?” Asher questioned.

“Yes. And mineral wool. Basically, like stuffing a teddy bear’s ear with cotton. I don’t know why she wanted the room filled in though. Spare rooms are never a bad thing, lots of uses.” The builder clicked his tongue.

“Anyway, that’s it.”

“Could you tell us where this room is, exactly?” Asher blurted.

Silence followed, but atleast the line didn’t cut off.

“If I remember correctly, it should be in the library.”
Asher got up, heading out of the bedroom and turning right. The third room. He opened the red door, and numerous books on numerous shelves in the largest room in the house greeted him.
“There should be a painting, of a wolf, or something, in the night. Hills, and stars; and a house in the background. I know, because my wife helped with the interior design of that house. She loves paintings. displaying the night.”

Asher turned left and right, there it was. A large painting, about 120 by 120, covering only a fraction of the centre of a wall with a pattern of large red roses sprouting through a net of wooden squares; a wallpaper design. On either side of the painting were bookshelves, going from the ground to the ceiling. Asher stepped inside, and the wood creaked under him.

“The right shelf opens up to the study. Her husband was in the army, and some of his assignments were apparently required to be kept as private as possible, safety reasons. So we designed the room to be behind the bookshelf, the bookshelf is the door. Quite possibly my best secret room.”

“How do you open this door?” Asher asked, his left hand gripping the back of the shelf, sticking between the shelf and the wall behind it. He pulled, and Liam’s fingers appeared by the shelf too, they both pulled at it, shaking the books that sat behind glass cabinets; Asher’s right hand still held the phone to his ear. “Pull the right book in the right shelf. Its a fake for a lever that unlocks the door, so the bookshelf pulls back with a click.”

Asher let go of the shelf, leaving Liam to keep pulling at it, grunting in vain. Asher opened the cabinet doors, hardbook covers stared at him, dust coating the tops of their heights. “Which book?” Asher asked sternly.

He swore he felt the man on the other side of the call shrug. “I can’t remember.”

***

After counting more than 30 books, on a total of 2 shelves, Asher had realized that the heights of the books only varied by a few centimeters. There was no classification of series, genre, color, author, or subject, but of height.

It had been 10 minutes since his call with the builder had ended. Liam did the same, pulling at books at a lower height, both of them getting at shelves higher or lower than the other could comfortably reach. One of them must have pulled the right book, because a single click was heard.

Asher pulled harder at the green book in his hand, it didn’t come out. “Bingo.” He smirked, before pulling back from the shelve. Him and Liam stared at the shelve that had creaked open, a slit of darkness revealed behind it.

Liam lifted his palm, and Asher slapped it with his own palm; both boys cracking a smile.

The shelf opened up to a plain white room. No windows, no lights. But there was a light bulb socket, 3 infact. Peculiarly, even the floor was painted white square tiles. The room seemed to be wider than it was longer, looking at the length from the door. It must have been recently abandoned, because not enough dust had collected, and not enough pests had made home.

Asher looked around with his phone’s flash light, his eyes moving up to look at the ceiling. Completely white.

“We’re going to have to call the police for this.” He said, turning to Liam. “They need to check for DNA. Don’t touch anything.” Asher’s eyebrows furrowed as he left the room.

Olivia

The police were in her room. The police were in her room.

“Oh God.” She muttered, seated down, leaning against a bookshelf. They were going through her room. She was forced to tuck in her feet when a policewoman walked past her. The library was noisy and overcrowded, more crowded than she’d ever seen it be before.

She felt turmoil in her stomach. She had to do something, she knew that, she knew it, but her mind felt directionless. She refused to look at Asher or Liam, both of them inside HER room.

She groaned into her knees. She should’ve arrived sooner, instead, she’d buried her head in her pillow and sobbed before screaming like a baby over her stupidity. The more she seemed to try and get things right, the more they seemed to go wrong.

Olivia got up, stopped from entering the room by a tape that said ‘prohibited area’, she left to go down to the kitchen.

She rushed down the stairs, pouring herself a cup of water from a bottle that sat on the counter top. The forest loomed outside by the window. She satisfied her parched throat, before smacking her lips.

Whoever had lived in that room would not matter enough, if Rebecca could only be proved to have died not because of them but because of someone else, or herself. How?

Her mind whirred, the sound of it getting louder and louder as she climbed the steps back up to the library.

“Jackson! You need to take a look at this!” She heard a gruff voice yell. Her feet quickened, and she entered the library. A crowd of police in dark blue uniforms had gathered by the open door of the library. Maybe she should’ve set the room on fire when she could have.

Asher and Liam must already be inside, she figured. Olivia stood at the entrance, trying to look into the room, over shoulders of taller policemen and policewomen. She stood in her tiptoes, and got a view of around 6 people inside, not all of them wore the police uniform, but also other ones; vibrant yellow, or just a shirt and black trousers paired with a blue ID card. She watched Asher, his eyes focused on the ceiling, just as the older police man standing next to him yelled for all the torches to be shut off and the room closed.

The torches turned off first. And just as the room closed, Olivia caught a glimpse of the glowing ceiling.

***

Asher

Stars fluoresced above him. “Wow.” He said, awed. “This is-“
“It could mean that a child had been living here.” The policeman standing next to him said.

Asher nodded.

“We didn’t find any viable DNA though.” Someone else said, a slightly more high pitched voice.

“What do you plan to do next?” Another voice chirped.

Asher kept staring at the ceiling. Green glowing stars, stickers, or maybe paint; under a translucent layer of white, patchy and more opaque in places- painted over so messily. They were beautiful though, almost calming. Maybe, they were meant to be that way.

Olivia

The police stayed for a few more hours. Olivia might’ve been terrified, even panicked, but all she felt was sorrow. She shook her head. She had got back to sitting by the shelf, joined by Liam now who passed her a biscuit.

She bit it, tasting oat. “Good stuff.” She shrugged.

“Food is fuel.” Liam clicked his fingers in agreement. “What do you think Rebecca was even keeping in there? I mean, its a huge room. It would’ve been a waste of space to not use it.”

Olivia had to resist the urge to snort in laughter. “Oh, yeah, who knows?” She said nonchalantly.