Chapter 898

Chapter 898: Chapter 83- Shawn – Germany Part 7 (VOLUME 5)

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Shawn

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Moving on we found that all the rooms on that floor were the exact same. The clothes left behind were different, but the set ups were the same. Half of the rooms were for women while the other half were for men. That was evident by the things that were left behind. Each room did have a crude bathroom. No running water but there was a toilet like thing that was in each room with a pipe that led somewhere out of sight. I believe they had to pour water down the toilet for the ‘flushing’ to happen. The tub also needed to be filled manually. That must suck for all those people that needed to bathe on a regular basis.

Dietrich and I moved down to the third floor next. The hall was set up the same. There was a linen closet across from the door to the stairs. To the right of the door there were two bedrooms and to the left there were four of them. We checked them in the same order, moving to the door closest to us on the right first.

This room was set up differently than the ones on the fourth floor had been. There was an antique four poster bed with a queen sized mattress. The frame for the bed seemed to be carved from unstained oak, but it was sanded and smooth to the touch. The dresser, armoire, and trunk all matched the bed as well. It was open, spacious, and seemed to be a lot more comfortable than the rooms up above.

“This is how the rooms were before. Well mostly. There used to be tapestries and a rug in every room, those are missing now.” Dietrich said as he looked around. “Come on, let’s search the place.”

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The closet and dressers were completely empty. There was nothing at all left behind in the room. The bathroom, which was the same as the ones upstairs, held nothing either. Under the bed there was nothing, not even dust. This room had nothing at all for us to find. And neither did the other five bedrooms on this floor. Not even the linen closet had anything to find other than some spare sheets for the beds. There was absolutely nothing that would help us on the third floor.

“I guess these people had less to pack and fewer people to fight for space when they were packing.” I commented as I looked at the pristine cleanliness of the last room on the third floor.

“Yeah, and if the upper floor was for the recruits or trainees, then they were probably younger and potentially messier.” Dietrich said as he thought about it.

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t a messy teenager, so that isn’t necessarily true.” I shrugged.

“No, not necessarily, but the probability is high.” He laughed to break the tension and unease in the room. “Come on, we have more to search.”

We went down to the second floor next. This floor was Alaric’s office and storage rooms. That was what Dietrich had said. I wonder if there were any differences that we would find now.

The second floor had seven total doors. The side of the hall that had the stairs there were four and across from it there were three. To the right of the door there were once again two doors and down the hall there were four.

The room closest to us and the stairs happened to be a storage room. It was filled with various pieces of furniture. It looked like it was the stuff that was originally in the rooms upstairs. Well, at least they hadn’t gotten rid of it all. They had just put it all away. If there was anything else in the room, I couldn’t see it. And I wasn’t about to dig my way through that mess to find out.

Across from that storage room, Dietrich and I walked into a giant open space that looked like it might have been separate rooms at one time. Now though, it was like one giant hall. And there was a lot of damage to this room compared to anything else. There were racks on the walls that held wooden and metal swords, bows, arrows, maces, spears, knives and whips. Standing along the back of the room, or rooms, were dozens of practice dummies in various sizes and shapes. I could tell that some were supposed to be werewolves, the Hollywood version of them. And some of them were vampires. Others were holding wands like they were a witch or wizard out of those books from England. There was a climb wall and a zip line. I saw piles of mats that were used in gyms for wrestling or for landing in gymnastics. It was a training room. And I guess that explained the damage to the room.

There were gouges, knicks, cracks, and all sorts of damage to the room that had come from people training with real weapons. I even saw several dried bloodstains that had been cleaned up. Oddly though, I couldn’t smell the blood. They had stripped it out somehow and only the color of the blood was left behind.

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“What the hell? They had a training hall on the first floor.” Dietrich said as he looked around. “Did they really need to destroy the house to make another one?” He looked and sounded personally offended by this atrocious act. I guess his memories were a little stronger than I thought that they were.

“I don’t know, Dietrich. But I guess they did what they thought was necessary.” I shook my head. Come on. There are still two rooms left.” I walked out the door that was in the middle of this training room.

The door to the left of the stairs was another storage room. This one was filled with more weapons, training dummies, and first aid supplies. I guess they needed to take care of their people when the training got a little too intense.

The last door in the hall was where Dietrich said that Alaric’s office was. While we stood outside of it, his hand on the knob, I could tell that he was afraid to open it. If this room had been destroyed, I was betting that he would be extremely angry at these people. They would have destroyed most of the memories that Dietrich had of this place with this one room being changed.

Finally, after taking a deep breath, Dietrich opened the door to the office. It was unchanged according to him.

“That is the same desk that sat here when Alaric was alive. And that chair was carved for him by our friend Orson. He was a bear shifter and spent a lot of time working with his hands in the woods. It was a particularly large tree that had come down in a battle and Orson wanted to see that it had another use.”

The chair in question looked like it was indeed hand carved out of wood. There was a high back that depicted various animals and other shifters. I could see what looked like Dietrich in there as well. And another man that I was guessing was Alaric. The seat was smooth and beautiful. It looked like it was preserved inside of an ancient tree. Just like one that I had seen in a museum once. It was not something that you usually saw every day.

“Come on, Dietrich, we need to search his desk.” I pulled him over and sat him in one of the wood chairs that was facing the desk. I didn’t think that he would want to be the one to do this. He would feel like he was violating his friendship. “Just wait for me.” I called out to him.

I wasn’t expecting much. That was for sure. I knew that these people had cleared out so much of their stuff when they left here. Still, it was disappointing when drawer after drawer was empty. I didn’t even find a single pen. There was nothing.

I sat in the carved chair and sighed as I gave up. It was no use. And there were no bookshelves in here to search, it was just the desk and the drawers.

“Anything?” Dietrich asked as he looked up at me.

“Nothing.” I sighed. “I had hoped for something.” I shook my head in anger.

“Well, I guess we have no choice but to move on.” Dietrich stood and held his hand out toward me.

“Yeah, I guess so.” I walked over to him, taking his hand before heading toward the door. “I just wish that I would have found something hidden in there or something.” I could feel the anger and disappointment coursing through me.

“Wait a minute.” Dietrich came to a complete stop. “Hidden!” He slammed his hand against his head in frustration. He hit himself so hard that I watched his head fly back and then snap back almost like he was just in a car accident or something. Good thing he didn’t have to worry about whiplash, or else that would be bad.

“What? What is it?” I asked, worried about his sanity for a moment.

“Hidden! His desk has a hidden compartment. He only showed a couple of people because he couldn’t trust them. Dammit! How did I forget about that?” Dietrich was cursing himself as he ran back toward the desk. He was smiling but I could tell that it was a forced look. He wasn’t feeling happy or gleeful at all. He was angry, frustrated, and in disbelief. All I cared about was that he remembered it before we left this place. Now we had a chance to get what was hidden in there, if there was anything that is.

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