Chapter 1256: Bending Down to Look Under the Bed
No, the living room wasn't just pitch black.
It shouldn't have been like this. The living room should have naturally darkened even if Bohemia had dismissed the Glowfish. Still, it shouldn't have been like it was now. In the darkness, something deviated significantly from its original form.
Bohemia clutched her skirt tightly, her palms becoming sweaty and warm. She now stood halfway up the stairs, with corridors on both sides: the left leading to the study and the right passing through the living room. In the left corridor, the Glowfish's meandering movement made the shadows ebb and flow like breathing, which was normal. But the living room...the living room...
She had three Glowfish around her, and the light from the stairs spilled down, dimly illuminating the right side. The living room door stood in the dim light; inside was an unilluminated darkness, but she couldn't figure out what was unnatural or wrong there. It was like a person with a deformed face trying to twist their chin and lips to look like a normal person's face. Bohemia kept scanning the living room but couldn't explain what was pricking her senses.
Bohemia wanted to go down and take a look but also wanted to turn around and run. But when she turned her head, she saw the silent and pitch-dark second floor behind her—she didn't want to expose her back to the living room, but she didn't want to expose her back to the second floor either.
Three Glowfish were simply not enough.
She wanted to call out and wait for Yuan Xiangxi to appear from somewhere, still wearing that hazy look as if he had just gotten out of bed a few hours ago and wanted to crawl back under the covers. He would then laugh and say that she still needed to find a sense of security from him. After all, he was Yuan Xiangxi, her husband, someone she had lived with for so long. She tried several times, and her throat felt like it had been scratched raw with nails, and she couldn't make a sound.
She feared that if she called out, Yuan Xiangxi would step out from the thick darkness in the living room and come towards her.
'Something's wrong with him, something's wrong with him...' The unmailed letters in her mind were like balloons in water, sinking when pressed and floating up when released. Bohemia turned around on the stairs, facing the pitch-black living room, and leaned her back against the railing on the other side. She retreated slowly until her lower back pressed tightly against the wooden railing. If anything came out of the living room or down from the second floor, she would see it with just a turn of her eyes.
As her lower back pressed against the stairs' handrail, Bohemia reached out with her other hand and waved slightly. One Glowfish immediately left her head and swam towards the living room.
From her perspective, the staircase blocked the lower third of the living room's entrance. Even if she leaned out to look, she could only see the light illuminating the top of the doorway. She quickly crouched down on the steps, looked through the railing, and tilted her head to look into the living room—where the Glowfish swam, illuminating the wooden floor, old carpet, beige sofa... Everything seemed normal, and she didn't see a pair of feet standing in the living room.
Yuan Xiangxi wasn't in the living room? So, there was no sound because he wasn't there?
But why did she still feel that something was unnatural just now?
As Bohemia shrank back, the handrail of the stairs, decorated with carved wooden spindles, pressed against her back, cool and hard, sinking into her clothing and skin.
The wooden handrail pressed firmly against one spot, giving her a distinct sense of solidity and hardness. In contrast, the space between two wooden spindles on her back was open, exposing her skin to the air and causing the hairs to stand up in the gap.
This only made her feel even more unsafe. Bohemia hurriedly leaned forward to move away from the wooden railing. As she was about to stand up, her gaze shifted, and she happened to see a hand retracting between the two wooden spindles.
'...What the hell?'
For a moment, she wanted to scream at the top of her lungs, yet no breath escaped her. It was as though an invisible force constricted her throat. Just as she readied herself to launch an attack down the stairs, Yuan Xiangxi's voice cut through the silence from below, calling out, "Bohemia?"
Relief washed over her for a moment, only for tension to quickly reclaim her heart, making every heartbeat feel labored and faint. "What... what are you doing?"
"I'm not up to anything," he replied, his face emerging between the two yellow wooden spindles of the staircase, looking up at her. "I was about to give you a pat, but you jumped, surpassing even the height captured in the photo. It took me by surprise... come down and take a look."
Bohemia couldn't bring herself to ask, "Look at what?"
"Were you looking for me? I stumbled upon this darkroom beneath the stairs after leaving the study, so I decided to check it out," he said, tilting his head. "Is something wrong?"
Bohemia scrutinized him, noticing nothing unusual about his appearance, then asked hoarsely, "A dark... darkroom? What exactly is that?"
"It's where you develop photos," Yuan Xiangxi said. "It was probably a tiny storage room, but we converted it into a darkroom. You'll find the camera, film, and several developed pictures left behind. It seems the last film roll was never fully developed before our family vanished. Want to come in and see?"
Absolutely not.
If he had been inside the darkroom with the door shut, that might explain why she hadn't heard any noises. The noise that startled her before likely came from him opening the darkroom door. Yet, even with logical explanations for everything, Bohemia still didn't want to go inside.
"W-we should split up and look for clues, increasing our efficiency," she said, gesturing towards the silent second floor waiting for her. "You mentioned developed photos? Show them to me—but wait, you don't need to come up here; just hand them to me over the railing."
Yuan Xiangxi's head vanished beneath the stairwell again, and shortly after that, a hand emerged over the railing. Positioned at the darkroom's entrance, he needed to step further out for Bohemia to see more than just his head or the outstretched hand. Grasping the corner of the photos, she began to look at them.
...There was a stark difference compared to the previous photos.
She might never have used a camera, but she knew that photo quality could vary. The family album photos were clear, warm, and pleasing, radiating love. The photo of her biting into an apple stood out, almost looking like a movie still.
The photos in her hand, however, discouraged looking at them or being seen by them.
They didn't feature violence, gore, or anything overtly remarkable. In one, the family seemed to be dining, but the tilted frame made it look more like a covert, hastily-taken snapshot than a family portrait. Bohemia had an unnaturally wide smile, her round eyes locked on the baby before her.
Baby Bao's head was tilted to the left as if she were about to speak to her father. Because the left half of the photo was blurred, Yuan Xiangxi and part of Baby Bao were reduced to indistinct shapes. On the right, the two smaller children sat at the table, showing only the backs of their heads.
The subsequent few photos suffered from blurring or skewed angles, never aligning with the frame edges. In one, with the three children napping under the sun, a finger obscured much of the scene.
"I can't tell if they were badly developed or taken, or maybe both," Yuan Xiangxi said, noticing Bohemia's reaction. "These photos unsettle me too. I'll develop the rest of the film for any clues."
"You know how to develop photos?" Bohemia said, handing the photos back. She instinctively wiped her hands on her skirt as if to rid herself of the images' eerie aura.
"I'm a man of many talents."
It was a good thing he wasn't following her around. The mere memory of how she used to get lost in her thoughts after looking at his face made Bohemia shudder. She responded briefly to Yuan Xiangxi and was about to leave when she hesitated, asking, "The camera is inside, right?
"Yes."
"Does it work?"
"Let me check... Yes, it's fine."
"I'd like to take a photo," Bohemia said, resisting the urge to peer into the darkroom. "Can you show me how to use the camera and help with the development?"
"It's a bit complex," Yuan Xiangxi said, coming up the stairs. "I'll show you upstairs."
Bohemia wanted to tell him not to come up, but he was already rounding the stairs. She quickly scanned him, noting his usual relaxed demeanor. He explained the camera's workings to her, unaware of her nervousness.
"What do you want to photograph?" he said.
Bohemia, feeling her heart race, summoned the Glowfish back from the living room, darkening the space once more. The feeling that the distorted faces were trying to twist back to normal also returned.
She raised the camera and aimed it at the living room entrance and the stairway corridor. With a click, she snapped a picture.
"Please develop this for me," she said, handing the camera back to Yuan Xiangxi. "I'm going to check upstairs."
As Bohemia ascended the stairs, she felt Yuan Xiangxi's gaze burning into her back. Yet, turning at the top, she saw the staircase was empty; he had moved on. Avoiding the master bedroom, she explored two other rooms. One, clearly a children's room, belonged to Baby Bao and her little brother, filled with toys and twin beds. The next room was a nursery, marked by a crib beneath a window, its screen dancing in the night breeze.
With three Glowfish constantly illuminating the surroundings, Bohemia felt a little more confident.
She doubted her diary would be in the children's room, but a thorough search in the master bedroom had turned up nothing. Holding onto hope, she entered Baby Bao's room.
She sat by the small bed with pink sheets and leaned over to search beneath it.
Dozens of Baby Bao's round faces, large and small, met her gaze from under the bed
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