Chapter 17: Chapter 17: The Plant

For once my feelings and motivations matched those of Annalise almost exactly. I was anxious, somewhat terrified, and wanted to both find out what exactly was going on as well as get the heck out of there. I hadn’t done much for the rest of the day after encountering the possibility that Victor not only knew me in my real life, but may have been stalking me. I mean he knew details I didn’t know about myself. Which means I probably didn’t know him. Or if I did, I didn’t realize he was potentially stalking me. I couldn’t sleep after learning what I’d seen either, which made my anxiety even worse.

Victor hadn’t returned yet the next morning so I couldn’t confront him. Although at this point I wasn’t sure if I wanted to. In the book Annalise mulled over the new information for a bit before running around the manor trying to find more confirmatory information. At some point she sneaks out to go to town and gets nearly captured by her original pursuers. Frederick appears to save her and it’s the start of their romance. I naively thought there was no way this could happen to me. After all I was so crafty, who would my original pursuers find me? Let alone recognize me… And unfortunately because I was so overconfident, I decided to live out the next set of events almost exactly as Annalise was supposed to.

I woke up in a bed that was fortunately not on fire the next morning. My hands seemed back to normal but even without that problem, I couldn’t help but begin to pace the room. Bearon was waiting in his usual creepy placement right outside by bedroom. For once though he seemed almost benign.

“Did you sleep well my lady?” he asked as I passed him in my frazzled half dressed state.

“I did, thank you,” I replied. I noted that he offered a polite smile then went back to staring straight ahead. I almost missed the creepy smiling character I was normally used to. I didn’t have time to worry about this right now. But it raised the question of if going according to the plot made Bearon into a boring NPC. I couldn’t tell if Bearon also came from the outside. He felt like a plant at times, and other times he seemed downright foreboding. He was often his least creepy in a bear suit. I couldn’t even begin to unpack what that meant about my feelings on the matter. And who was I even supposed to talk to about any of this? After all, everyone here was basically alien to me.

I don’t know why but I felt the most warmth from Robin at breakfast. I observed her set the table in silence when I finally blurted out, “Robin, what do you do for fun?”

She turned her head very slowly to blink at me, “I play games.”

I waited for her to become a bird, and was surprised instead to see her continue to stand there in human form staring at me. I guess Annalise was allowed to act out of character in moments where she was completely frenzied. “Oh,” I replied.

Robin turned her head back to the plate before walking away to fetch what I assumed to be some random breakfast foods. I never was too sure what she was going to serve me. I also was not surprised to see her return with a bowl of something mushy and a single orange. “Do you ever leave the mansion to play games?” I asked her.

She turned her head slowly once again to meet my gaze, “not anymore.”

“Oh,” I replied again. I figured that was enough small talk to establish a rapport. “Robin I may be becoming slightly terrified of Victor,” I blurted out, “and Bearon.”

“Of Bearon?” she replied, “why?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “he’s everywhere. And he’s such a bear? … Ron.”

She blinked, “yes his name is Bearon.”

“But what of Victor?” I pressed her.

“Do you trust him?” she replied.

“Should I?” I asked, “I read some very concerning information yesterday.”

“You should make sure it’s true first,” she answered. And there it was, she was also progressing the plot. It just was happening on my timeline instead of Annalise’s. If I wanted to follow the book I needed to go mull over this while looking out a window for hours before I decide to sneak around and read everything I can in the manor. I think this latter part happened over a few days. Suddenly I was conflicted, I wanted to change the plot but I also wanted to rip apart the manor for answers.

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“Why would it not be true?” I replied, “would Bearon plant something? Did you plant something?”

She turned her head even slower this time, “why would I do that?”

I grabbed Robin by the hand, “how about we go for a walk?” Robin looked at me blankly as she reluctantly followed me outside. I dragged her into the garden and headed towards Victor’s flower. She continued to stare blankly as I headed towards Victor’s favorite flower. I pointed to it and looked to her for answers. I was surprised to observe her continue to stare straight ahead. “Does this mean anything to you? I mean do you know why it means something to Victor? After all why is he so obsessed with keeping it alive? What even is it? How could it die if it’s still alive? He did say it keeps dying… but then it’s still alive right?” I started.

For the first time since I’d gotten there, Robin’s face actually displayed some emotion. She looked completely confused. “Which question am I supposed to answer?” she replied very slowly.

“Do you have an answer to any of them?” I replied.

She continued to blink, “maybe ask them one at a time?”

I stared back at her before I started giggling. She seemed even more perplexed as I nearly bent over from laughing so hard. I finally stood up enough to try and address her again, “I don’t handle social situations well.” At this point I felt like I was just tormenting her. I coughed as I tried to return to the plot, “so now I’m supposed to go ransack the place looking for answers right?”

Robin looked horrified, “Will you be cleaning it up after?”

“I don’t know, would Annalise?” I replied.

Robin reluctantly followed me as I headed to begin my search. It’s possible Robin was just saying what she was supposed to so that I’d keep the plot going. But it was enough to give me the inspiration I needed to go digging through Victor’s stuff. I needed to find something that implied Victor didn’t write the book or that it was planted.

“Robin where does Victor keep his accounting books? Or any lists he’s made about the manor, anything he’s written?” I started, “I need to see a sample of his handwriting.”

“The study,” she replied.

“Well then we have a destination,” I said as I dragged her along with me to begin to search his books. I was not surprised to see Bearon standing watch from the window.

I stopped in front of him, “are we not supposed to go into the study?”

“Will you be needing lunch my lady?” he replied, completely ignoring the question.

I shrugged as I continued, “sure?”

I couldn’t find anything in the study. Which was surprising given that there was a pen on the desk and tons of books. But it was as if the book that had the scary details about me was the only one with handwriting. The desk drawer, the books on the shelves, the cabinet in the corner… all held nothing. I went next to some of the common areas. I expected to find something written, maybe a list of whatever was needed to keep the property going, literally anything. But it was like the whole place was scrubbed. I hadn’t even noticed Robin had disappeared until she appeared behind me with a tray of tea. Bearon was standing at attention next to her. “Lunch my lady…” I hear Robin begin as I spun to make eye contact with Bearon this time.

“Is there any written document in this manor?” I asked, “anything.”

“There may be some family records,” Bearon replied as he indicated down another hallway, “but don’t you think you’d like to eat and rest first?”

Oh yes, Annalise was supposed to conduct the frantic search in secret across days. I was doing it in broad daylight in 30 minutes. “No need for food, I’ll go rest upstairs,” I replied.

Annalise eventually finds something that indicates Victor is a lot older than she originally believed. It’s enough to inspire her to sneak off to town. Obviously I didn’t care if Victor was a vampire so I didn’t really care if I stumbled across this plot point, or so I thought at the time. I casually made my way down the bedrooms on the second floor. I was surprised to see that Victor’s room was locked. I couldn’t figure out what room Bearon and Robin stayed in (respectively). And I especially couldn’t figure out what half of these rooms were for.

Bearon was peering at me cautiously around a corner as I went barreling down another hallway. “Rest?” I heard him ask as I realized I was almost to the stairs Victor had been so adamant I shouldn’t go down. Now I was even more curious. Before I could go much further, a very loud meow took me by surprise. I stared down as a cat brushed against my legs and started towards my room. I understood this universe really didn’t want me to go down the stairs, but sending a cat to deter me? I first scoffed at the attempt to distract me.

A second meow and the large round eyes staring at me from behind me finally made me stop. It had worked, I was going to follow this cat.

I begrudgingly trudged back towards my room as my new friend happily darted in and out of my legs. It went to snuggle on the bed as I accepted my fate. I was supposed to be locked in here for a few days before I finally find my evidence and sneak out. For some reason it appeared I wouldn’t be able to find the evidence I needed until I had satisfied this first criteria. But at least I had a cat now.

Bearon almost caused me to jump off the bed as he set a tray down on the small table near the doorway. “Some tea,” he said, “I don’t recognize this variety though. I don’t think it’s from our collection. Did you happen to give it to Victor when you arrived?”

I chuckled as Bearon raised an eyebrow and bowed his way out. What I had wanted to say before I started laughing was that tea was introduced to Europe in the 1600s through the Dutch East India company. At this point I had no idea what time period we were in but I could tell you that the tea was almost surely not supposed to be there.

I flopped back on the bed as the cat headed to the table. The motion caused me to groan and follow it. Once again this cat was forcing me to move the plot in an unwanted direction. But I was so starved for comfort I also didn’t want to lose my chance to cuddle this thing.

I watched it leap on to the table and began to paw at the cup. My first thought was that I was supposed to drink this for whatever reason. But before I could even begin to take a sip I was surprised to see the cat begin to lap up the liquid in the cup instead. It was enough to keep me from trying it. I turned to go back to the bed as I mulled over what I was going to do while I waited around in here.

I didn’t have much of a chance to sit around lost in my thoughts. The next thing I knew there was a loud thump from behind me and when I turned, the cat was plopped down sideways on the floor. I almost screamed before I realized it was still breathing. I looked back to the “tea” Bearon had brought in and back to the cat that had potentially just saved my life. I went to scoop it up in my arms as my entire brain went into overdrive mode. Someone had tried to poison me with what appeared to be an incredibly potent sedative. And although Bearon and Robin had plausible deniability, I was now trapped in here with both of them for the next few days.