In the early morning, Lars took the opportunity to continue his exploration of the mansion while his family slept. A large majority of the servants were up and about already, moving with post-haste, preparing for when their employers awake.
He noticed a few of them showing surprised expressions followed by an acceleration in their activities after seeing him. A few others did not exhibit such behaviour, seemingly used to seeing him awake at such times. Lars realised that the other him must also prefer mornings.
Lars actually held no inclination towards waking early, but it was something he had to do in the military. He didn't bother going out of his way to break habits that were beneficial to him, so he continued the same routine in his own time as well.
While wandering around, he took notice of the positions for as many bathrooms as he could to begin with. Eventually, he came across two heavy doors at the end of a corridor. It looked more important than the previous rooms he had seen and had the air of a superior's office or something of the kind. Deciding to have a look and pushing through, he confirmed that it was indeed an office.
It's probably mine… Would anyone else here even have an office? I can't say for sure… Lars pondered jokingly. The room didn't have a lot of furnishing, instead being full of practical elements such as bookshelves, a desk, a decent quality chair, his own desk chair, and a lot of paperwork. He noticed a few pens strewn across the desk and a picture frame at its corner.
He took to the other side of the room, where the desk was located, and walked around it. The picture frame came into view, in which he found the same photograph of his family that he originally saw in the bedroom. It was the only decoration in the entire room except for a collection of medals placed off to the side.
"Those are medals from war…" It seems this version of myself valued his family more? Lars made a comment on. He could neither confirm nor deny such a sentiment, since he never had a family to take pride in. There was doubt in his mind that similar feelings would arise simply because he had one now.
Lars was very curious about his old self, however, since there was a discrepancy that he couldn't ignore. His body was his own and the aged version wasn't around anymore; as far as he knew, anyway. This was the case, but memories were beginning to surface about his life here. It was as if he had merged bodies in some way—with his persona dominating the result and preserving his youth.
Whatever the case, the obvious conclusion to make was that his traversal through the singularity was the decisive cause. In that there could potentially be a lead towards figuring out what was going on and returning. However, Lars had no idea in what capacity he would return—would he come back different from how he entered? Would his absence bring back his older self?
"Rhys should've explained things to me. If it was going to be so complicated, going in blind isn't reasonable…" Lars thought back to the moments before falling into the singularity. Rhys had been very brief, unnecessarily so, encouraging him to 'explore' and 'avoid dying'.
But what did she mean by explore? In this situation, what should I be looking out for? She might not have expected this happening… There's no threats to my life so far, either. Lars looked through the pages on his desk, searching for context and anything useful. It looked like he was the owner of some business and he had been dealing with the financial reports.
This wasn't what he was trying to find by sifting through his older self's belongings, so Lars didn't pay that much attention to those. He started opening drawers instead to find something more personal. Eventually, in the lowest compartment, there was a notebook with a leather cover.
Lars picked it up and looked at it. It was sealed, using a number lock to prevent others from opening it. This was probably his best chance of making discoveries but he had to unlock it first. Immediately, what came to his mind was attempting to recall it like he did with the names of his family.
A code… A code, what's the code? What code is it… I can't think of anything. Can't I just break it? Lars furrowed his brows. He was drawing nothing but blanks, nothing coming to mind. Simply remembering his family's names took time so remembering this might be impossible. Breaking it was his next idea, but then he thought of something.
Taking a glance at the picture frame on his desk, Lars had an epiphany. He reached out for it and slid the photo out of it. In the empty space, there were numbers carved into it—5543.
It's something that I would do. My memory's never been that reliable, so I would write it down if it's important to me. Lars slid the photo back into its frame and put it back to where it had been. He then turned the wheels, making the four digit lock show '5543'.
The notebook's lock came off, removing the necessity to break it open. Lars realised that the code hadn't been excessively hidden because of the fact that anyone could open it if they really wanted to. Between breaking it and not, the only difference was the ability to tell that someone other than himself had read it.
He read its contents, trying to locate useful information. A lot of it was about his business pertaining to more closely kept dealings and secrets. However, there weren't any scandals, nor was there anything alarming or suspicious; it was just typical company privacy measures. But there were a few pages he found that mentioned personal matters.
Lars read a few of them:
"28th August. I've been too busy with work. I should spend more time with my family."
"29th August. There's too much to look at, it's hard to make time. I don't think Vanessa is happy. Even if it's very little, Damien and Charles deserve more time to spend with me."
"4th September. Vanessa isn't happy, she's not trying to hide it anymore. I'm sorry. I'll spend more time with you and the kids soon, but I need to sort this out."
"4th September. F*cking bastard! Niel, you goddamn rat! You bail out now? Now? Of all times, now???"
"7th September. I was able to spend some time with Charles today, at least. But I've left Vanessa alone too long. It's been affecting me as well, I'm under too much stress. Our sex life has dropped off a cliff."
Lars discovered that he was having trouble with his family not long ago. From the documents on his desk, these accounts were from a month ago. He wasn't sure how things were now but this wasn't very important to him right now. He kept reading on:
"14th September. I made a mistake. Forgive me, Vanessa. I wasn't thinking properly under the stress."
"15th September. She came to my office again. I raised my voice, threatening her not to involve herself with me again. But I gave in. Why did I give in? I'm not normally like this. This isn't the first time someone's tried to get close to me! I've never had trouble refusing before."
"17th September. She didn't visit last night, but she came today. I can't let Vanessa know about this."
"28th September. The guilt's gotten to me. I'm giving her an ultimatum. She either reduces contact to the minimum, and never visits me again, or I'm relieving her from employment. I won't give in again. It's already gone too far."
Lars breathed in and out deeply. He still couldn't find clues towards his own situation, but instead found something else that was concerning. His older self was having an affair with one of the servants! But the name hadn't been written, so he didn't know who it was with.
"Really? Did the other me actually do that…?" Lars furrowed his brows in disbelief. He wasn't someone who found himself overly involved in relationships, but he believed in loyalty. An affair was something he absolutely couldn't accept; not from his partner, nor from himself!
As if touching upon something he shouldn't have and setting off a reaction, the sound of light knocking interrupted him. Lars stared at the heavy doors and wondered who it might be. He then had a bad premonition, pertaining to the new information collected from the notebook.
It couldn't be… Lars approached the door, lamenting the actions of his predecessor. The timing was far too perfect!
He reached out and opened it. The first thing he saw, peering outside, was the face of a woman. Lars was surprised when he realised who it was.
Lars asked, "Vanessa?"
"Oh, so you were here," Vanessa exclaimed timidly. Evidently, she hadn't knocked with the knowledge that he was inside the office.
"Yeah, uhm… Do you want to come in?" Lars stepped aside. He had already put away the notebook, so he wasn't concerned about it.
Vanessa looked surprised at the invite.
"Are you sure?"
Lars blinked twice.
"Why wouldn't I be?"
Vanessa looked at Lars blankly, then laughed. "No, no, you're right. I just thought that you would be too busy. Sure, I'll come in."
After the brief exchange was over, the two entered Lars' office and each found somewhere to sit. There was not a lot for hospitality within the room, but there was another chair that looked a lot more comfortable than the desk chair. It faced the direction of where Lars would sit, at an angle that made it easy to talk. Perhaps the two of them used to sit here together and accompany one another even while he worked.
Lars had no clue what to do with the stack of paper, so he spent more time talking than working. But Vanessa looked happy with this arrangement, wearing an affectionate smile on her face as they held idle conversation.
Vanessa mentioned, "Damien was very happy yesterday. He told me a lot about what you showed him."
"I'm glad. I haven't spent a lot of time with Damien and Charles lately, so I'm trying to dedicate more time to them now."
"They'll be excited to hear that."
Lars flashed a guilty look, before sighing, "We've been through a rough patch lately, I'll be the first to admit fault over that. I want to make sure I'm spending time with you too."
"Lars…" Vanessa gasped. She went silent, her mouth open but not saying anything.
Lars lowered his eyes, "I'm sorry for neglecting you."
He ultimately couldn't make it up to her and didn't dare to ask for forgiveness. Her trust had been betrayed, and what made matters worse was the fact that it took an entirely different Lars to replace him to make amends. Lars was uncertain if he was doing the right thing by not confessing to the affair and merely apologising instead.
Furthermore, he personally didn't love her. That was the most messed up thing about the present circumstances.
The moment was then interrupted by another knock on the door. He was confused, finding it strange now that two people had come to his office in such a short span of time. The conversation paused as he walked over to see who was there.
The door opened slightly, a maid appearing this time. She was young and attractive, opening the door with an anxious look on her face, her eyes instantly lighting up when Lars made eye contact with her. She opened her mouth to speak but quickly cut herself off when someone else appeared behind him.
Vanessa furrowed her brows, confusion evident on her face. She had no idea why a maidservant would be knocking on her husband's door at this time. Usually, if there was an urgent matter, it would be reported to the head maid and then she would go on to discuss it with Lars.
If they came across Lars or herself and needed to make something known, then of course they could briefly stop them. But knocking on the office doors directly wasn't something to do lightly. Whatever the issue was, it must be grave.
Vanessa asked with concern, "Victoria? Did something happen?"
Victoria froze, before quickly regaining composure, "Uhm, I—I'm sorry! I didn't know you two were… busy... I'll take my leave!"