Apart from the creaks and scratching Pi had warned him about, Mathis's first day and night had went perfectly well, the food the doctor had stocked was mostly smoked meat and other products that could easily be conserved.
Neither Mathis or the surgeon had refrigeration after all, the man was lighting himself with candles after all, electricity had yet to be widespread, the only piece of high technology the dcotor had in his possession was that car.
Something the young man hadn't paid attention to when he had been given a tour, was the sheer amount flowers everywhere, every single room and hallway, there was at least on pot filled with fragrant flowers.
Pi hadn't said anything about them but he figured he would have to water them, which put a dent in his, 'not moving much' policy, as he would have to wander the manor in its entirety to do so.
"Seems like he did it before going..." he thought aloud, a bad habit he had when he was alone, his voice sounded loud in the silent home and as if responded, wood creaking was heard on second floor.
He didn't think much of it and simply looked at the grandfather clock nearby, nearly noon.
The rest of this second day was just as uneventful as the first, just like the third was.
The flowers had seemed well but on the fourth day, he thought it was best to give a refill of water.
Finding a watering can, he prepared to start but he quickly noticed that for some reason, the plants seemed to have already been watered, the level water in the pots didn't appear to have decreased at all since the beginning, he could almost swear they were higher even.
Confused, Mathis looked around, not seeing anything that could explain this strange phenomenon.
"Wait a minute" he unconsciously said, now that he truly paid attention to them, the flowers didn't actually look the same, their arrangements had changed and the number of them was odd as well.
The young man's first thought was that someone had taken care of them, as it was the most logical but then, who was it? And when had they done it?
The surgeon's fear of fires had led him to not have any carpet, so the wooden floor was quite noisy when one walked around, Mathis doubted he could have missed someone going around the entirety of the manor.
Thinking about this, Mathis began moving, checking on every flower pot, perhaps it was just that one that was strange, if so, it would be Mathis that was just misremembering something but no, all of them were filled up with water and the flowers in perfect shape, not a single fallen petal or anything.
The doctor couldn't have just came back just to do that and not notified Mathis, the man was too talkative to not say hi and if he had hired someone else for that or if he had any personel, Mathis should have known.
He searched everywhere but clearly, this manor was housing no one but him at the moment and everything was properly locked.
But just as he arrived at this conclusion, he looked up at the ceiling of the second floor.
"The attic?" he questioned to himself, he found it unlikely for anyone to be up there, Pi had said so and Mathis had heard as well, this seemed to crawl with animal life, every single movement was incredibly loud, something as heavy as a person could go unnoticed.
Still, filled up with curiosity and a certain sense of duty as the doctor had tasked with watching over his manor, Mathis went and grabbed the stick-like tool meant to open up the attic, making the trapdoor open and a ladder come down with a heavy thud that made him jump a bit in surprise.
"Definitely no way anyone could have gone from in between the attic and there without making a sound..." he remarked, feeling even less apprehensive about checking up there.
A cloud of dust descended at the same time as the ladder but Mathis braced it, his eyes stinging and unable to stop himself from coughing, he peeked into the attic, which was illuminated by strands of light here and there.
Mathis didn't know what he expected, but the place was filled to the brim with boxes and random objects, also, it wasn't nearly was large as he had envisioned.
He thought it would span as much as the manor was large but it was far from the truth, the attic was quite cramped up.
He checked here and there after climbing the whole way but after meeting with a rat that seemed to have eaten all of its brethren and was asking for some more, he escaped the dust filled attic and closed it up.
Now certain that no one was inside of the manor with him, he was only left with interrogations about the damned flowers.
He turned around, scanning the rows of doors absentmindedly.
Suddenly feeling anxious, he rushed for his room and locked himself inside, he couldn't explain what was happening and that was somehow much worse than someone living in the attic, he pushed a closet in front of the door as well, staying still until he fell asleep and awoke the next day.
Mathis was still dizzy from awakening, so he failed to notice the discrepancies just yet, but once he did, he was instantly wide awake.
First, he touched his left cheek, noticing that it felt wet, he didn't quite understand what it was due to but then, he looked forward and clearly saw that the closet had been moved back in its original spot and that the door was wide open, the key on the nightstand to his right.
"What the hell?" he stood up, running toward the door and looking on each side of the hallway, nothing there but darkness, the windows and all of the flaps were shut when he went to open them, he noticed that he couldn't.
Only then, he looked downt he stairs, noticing that some faint light was visible down there.
"What is going on?" he whispered to himself.