Chapter 9 - The Empty Room
Mr. Bell snatched the pocket watch off the floor and charged up the remaining steps, pushing past the threshold into the dark attic space.
“Show yourself!” he shouted, hitting the wall switch near the door.
The overhead bulb flickered to life, casting a harsh, yellow light across the dusty expanse. Trunks, old paintings, and draped furniture filled the room.
It was entirely empty.
There were no windows open. The single circular porthole at the far end of the attic was bolted shut from the inside, coated in a thick layer of undisturbed cobwebs and dust. No one could have entered or exited through it.
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Yet, as Mr. Bell stood in the center of the room, a patch of floorboards near the chimney was completely dry, while the rest of the attic floor was damp with fresh, muddy footprints leading away from the chimney and vanishing into thin air.
He knelt down, touching the wet mud. It wasn't ordinary dirt. It was laced with fine, white quartz dust—the exact same mineral composition found in the private alleyway behind the Grand Bellamy Hotel.
