The Cellar

Chapter One

Emmy looked out the window, where masses of snow roared back and forth, as if unable to decide which unlucky fool's plan to cancel. It was not hers, that was for sure. No, she would never make plans at a day like this. She felt better off sitting down by the kitchen window, slowly emptying her fifth cup of coffee.

«Have you ever considered putting some sugar into that?» her ginger friend asked, looking suspectingly at the pitch black liquid. Her name was Amanda Hanson. A strangely dull name for a girl such as herself. Green-eyed with a freckly faced that was framed by fiercely red curls.

«I prefer it like this,» Emmy replied and shrugged carelessly as she helped herself to another sip.

«Weirdo,» Amanda muttered, leaving Emmy alone in the kitchen. But not for long.

«Holy freaking crap, Em!» she yelled, while storming back into the kitchen. Emmy raised one brow at her as she continued: «You know that grumpy guy at the mansion, right?»

«Yeah? What about him?» The grumpy guy at the mansion. Hah! Well, his name was Alexander Tatch, and was said to be quite the philanthropist. Back in the days, when the press still bothered calling his house, he would alway make sure to inform them of the great measures of good work he did. Emmy had read an interview with him once. He had apparently donated half his money to some charity, just as you would expect from a "kind-hearted rich man" such as himself. But judging by the look of his mansion, his previous account must have contained an amount of about two times a "hella-lot". Which it probably did. His voice was low and grumbling, so it was usually difficult to distinguish the very vague sayings that he would always mumble at the cameras. It did not take long, however, before the papers finally got tired of him and his not-at-all entertaining behaviour.

"He's gone!" Amanda gasped, pushing the paper up Emmy's face. The front page showed a blurry picture of a snowy mansion, entitled FAMOUS BILLIONAIRE DISAPPEARED with fat, capital letters.

"Shouldn't he be dead by now?" Emmy grabbed the paper, and placed her coffee gently on the table. The case had taken up about all the space on most of the pages, flashing enormous photographs of the house, old portraits of Mr Tach himself, working policemen and other random things. Emmy noticed a particular birch tree that kept reappearing for some reason, despite not having anything to do with the case. But oh, fortunately, the pages' aestethic was not at all disturbed by its presence.

"Disappeared? Was he kidnapped or something?" Emmy asked without looking up.

"I don't know. I didn't read it," Amanda replied casually.

"Of course you didn't."

Emmy squinted at the text, searching for anything of importance. These local papers always seemed to be filled with nothing but overdramatic speculations when it came to important stuff. And photographs. Loads and loads of photographs.

She turned the page and one of the pictures caught her eye. It was not of the house, nor of the police or the birch. It was a man Emmy thought she had never seen before, but he still looked vaguely familiar. The picture was followed by an interview:

Arcane Edwards (42) was the man who called the police last evening."I was visiting to talk through some personal matters, when I found that he was not at home" he told Montis Daily, still a little shaken after his discovery. He explained that when he arrived, the house was dark, cold and empty, and it did not appear as if anyone had been there for several days. When asked how he had made his way inside of the house, Mr Edwards replied: "The door was open".

"Arcane Edwards," Emmy mumbled. Strange name. Not the sort of thing you would forget, and she could not recall it from anywhere. But the name was funny. Peculiar.