Morning all. I woke up before my alarm this morning. I sat up fully awake at four am. I was actually ambushed by a story idea. So I tiptoed out of bed with a notebook and pen and wrote by hand until everyone else was up. I like when that happens but it always feels a bit strange when a story grabs me like that. Still there is the morning prompt and it shall still be done. So timers at the ready and off we go.
Oh I am so glad I did this prompt. It has nothing to do with what I was working on, but I really like it. This does seem t be a week of mysteries though. Which is odd as I don’t usually write them…
Wednesday, February 21st: The air was stale.
The air was stale. She wondered how long it had been since anyone walked in these rooms. How long it had been since anyone breathed this air. The central heating system kept the air moving so it didn’t become vitrified, but as the windows and doors were closed tightlythe air recirculating was never freshened. ‘The sealing at least kept vermin and mold out,’ she told herself as she moved from room to room. The apartment was bare down to the floorboards and curtainless windows. Even the rods for the curtains had been taken down. She could see the hooks where the rods were supported, but the rods themselves were removed.
It was strange to walk through a place so empty and oddly sterile. The rooms smelled of stale air and dust even though she could see no dust. Slowly she moved from one room to the next. The apartment was large. There were three spacious bedrooms, a living room, study, kitchen and even a smaller bedroom where she assumed a ladies maid or housekeeper once lived.
‘The building is certainly old enough for it to have been build for live in staff,’ she thought. ‘Even with the updated HVAC.’
Her footsteps echoed on the floorboards. The apartment took up the entire top floor of the building and even had sole access to the rooftop greenhouse and patio space. As strange as it was to walk through the space, it was stranger still to know that she owned it.
That this apartment was hers.
‘Inherited,’ she thought. From a relative she didn’t know she had. Lucy smiled to herself. She hadn’t had relative since her parents died ten years prior. She was told they were only children of only children. There were no cousins, aunts or uncles. Her grandparents died before she was born and she was an only child.
‘It rather cuts down on the extended family,’ she told herself. ‘So who was Aunt Euginia?’
It was a mystery she had been turning over in her mind repeatedly for the last few weeks. ‘Ever since the law office of Burnham and Royce contacted me.’
The law office called her out of the blue with news of Euginia’s death and her inheritance. Lucy checked into the firm. She thought they looked real and not like a scam. She then had her friend George who was also a lawyer check into them. Once certain they were legit, Lucy moved forward. Thinking that she might at least figure out something from Euginia’s apartment, she made the five hour trip.
Lucy was hoping for a photograph or something to explain the relationship. Instead, she found a bare and empty apartment. ‘Maybe things are in storage.’ She thought. It was something to ask later when she met with Mr. Royce for dinner.
Ten til Midnight 