Chapter 2 Chapter 2
There wasn’t a key hidden on the door frame. She hoped it was with the other keys downstairs. At the first turn of the stairs, she glanced back over her shoulder. For a moment, there appeared to be a shadow briefly visible under the door. She ran back up and tried the door again. Still locked. Knocking on it she shouted for them to let her in. Frustrated, she pressed her ear against the door. Silence. Once again, she started down the stairs. Perhaps the shadow had been the result of the sun shining in a window.
Her frustration filled the air. Closing his eyes, he cocooned himself in her emotions. He delighted in the feeling of her frustration flowing across his body. Yes, he thought to himself, she is perfect.
Twenty minutes later she had drug in the three trunks containing everything she had brought with her from Chicago. Having been raised in the big city, she beeped the car alarm. Then locked the exterior door and the door into the utility room. While turning the deadbolt she noticed the door was dented. Curious, she unlocked the door to look at the side in the utility room. That side showed normal scuff marks. The echo from the door when she knocked on it revealed it to be a steel door. Odd. What had dented a steel door? On the inside? Shrugging it off, Olivia went to unpack the trunks.
Triaging the unpacking, she started with the bathroom and bedroom trunk. The wheels rolled smoothly across the hardwood floor in the living room. Deciding the master bathroom should be done first, she rolled the trunk down the hall to the master bedroom. Before unpacking her bathroom toiletries, she dug into the bag from the Dollar General she had stopped at. Quickly she cleaned the bathroom. Once she was satisfied that there weren’t someone else’s cooties on any of the surfaces, she unpacked the few toiletries she had brought. Later tonight she planned on searching online for bathroom décor. Over the next couple of hours, she scrubbed the rest of the house. When she had walked the house earlier, she had opened every window. The smell of the outdoors had replaced the foul smell that had permeated the house.
Fascinated by the locked door, Olivia climbed the steps again, this time with all the keys the realtor had left. One by one she worked her way through the ring. None of them worked. With pursed lips she studied the door hinges. She had never removed a door from its frame before and had no idea what tools would be required. Looking at the doorknob she saw no way to remove it either.
“Open Up Sesame!” Olivia tapped out a shave and a haircut on the door. Seemingly in response, the doorbell rang. Startled by the bells, she froze in place. Then she remembered this wasn’t the city so there was no reason to pretend she wasn’t home to hide from solicitors.
On the other side of the door, he listened to her attempts to enter. She was a determined one. He smiled. She would be a fun toy. He matched her footsteps across to the window. The delivery boy turned white before fleeing to his vehicle when he caught a glimpse of him in the window.
She hurried down the winding stairs as fast as she dared to see who had tried to give her a heart attack with church bells. Once she was under the bedroom her footsteps sounded like someone pacing her in the room above. Shrugging it off as odd acoustics since the house was empty, she swung the door open to see a delivery driver closing her gate on his way to the truck he had left in the road. Excited, she looked at the packages he had left by the door. Quickly she drug in the three boxes straight to the master bedroom. She had been worried that they wouldn’t get there until the next day.
Opening the heaviest first, she found the blow-up mattress, linens, and gel pillow she had ordered. Thankfully, she wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor tonight! After a quick glance at the manual, she plugged it into the wall so it could start airing up. While the bed was doing its thing, she set up her Bluetooth speakers to play her favorite playlist while she unpacked the other boxes.
Gleefully she pulled the green halter dress with brown dots out of the box. It was gorgeous. The kind of dress she had never had the confidence to wear before. Lovingly she hung it from the expensive plush hangers that were in the box the bed had come. One by one she unboxed her new wardrobe. All of it was feminine and slightly reveling. She had spent days clicking on the ads on her phone with the pretty women in all the pretty clothes she had never been allowed to have. Unable to hold back any longer, she grabbed the V-neck tank with sunflowers which she paired with the ripped boyfriend cut jeans. She turned to go to the bathroom to see how it looked when something about the sliding closet door caught her eye.
The doors were covered in some kind of film. The doors looked like frosted windows except at the top where the film had started to peel down. Curious she moved the trunk over to use it as a step stool. Tugging only ripped it. Not willing to accept defeat, Olivia pulled the glass cleaner and plastic putty knife out from under the sink. For the next ten minutes she sprayed and scraped the film off one of the doors. Once she was done the mirrored closet door shined. Stepping back, she got the first view of herself in her new clothes. A slow trembling smile started to spread on her face. A tear traced an equal slow path down her face. Olivia turned to look at the back of her outfit. The sunflowers made her happy.
