Take the stairs

Ada knew finding the jewelry --or anything else of value, she wasn’t THAT picky-- wouldn’t necessarily be an easy task considering how big the house was, but she thought a bedroom or maybe a closet somewhere would be the most obvious place to look, and for that she would likely need to go to the second floor.

Shining the flashlight up the stairs didn’t help much, the weak beam petering out long before it reached the top, so she took a deep breath to steady herself and began climbing up into the unknown before she could change her mind.

No matter how gingerly she placed her feet, it seemed like every other step let out a loud creak, and Ada stopped several times, straining to listen past the pounding of her heart and make sure she hadn’t gotten anyone’s, or anyTHING'S attention, though logically she knew her uncle and his friend were gone for the night.

Finally she reached the landing at the top of the stairs, and found herself in the middle of a long hallway that stretched in two directions. Sighing a little as her flashlight began to flicker, she switched it off before it completely died, choosing a direction at random and creeping down the hall to her right, carefully feeling her way.

Dusty, faded paintings lined the wall, portraits of stern-looking men intermixed with vaguely Roman scenes of debauchery, though one was well cared for and more modern looking – a detailed scene of a strikingly pale woman with long, silky hair so blonde it was almost white in light of the full moon behind her. The woman stood poised in that light, her ravishing figure draped in a gauzy, flowing material her breasts were clearly visible through. She held a glass of blood-red wine in one hand and seemed to stare seductively right out of the picture. Ada stared, entranced despite herself, though after a moment she noted without surprise that the woman in the picture cast no shadow. Everything else was so detailed that she doubted this was an oversight on the artist’s part.

Shaking her head, she continued on. She’d been making a point to try every door she came to, most opening to empty or obviously abandoned rooms without much of interest. It wasn’t until the very next door after the painting that she finally had her break, the dim moonlight streaming in from an open window revealing a fully furnished bedroom filled with old, but obviously recently used furniture. The coverlet and silk sheets on the bed were unmade, across the room rested an antique chest of drawers completely bereft of dust, and to her left a closet door hung partially open.

Ada eagerly stepped inside, the only question in her mind being whether to search the drawers first, or check under the bed for the valuables she knew had to be here. All her mother’s jewelry--Ada’s inheritance--and the money that disappeared with her uncle the night he supposedly ‘died’. No one had believed her, but she had known the truth all along, and after all these years was finally going to reclaim what was hers...