Better Safe Than Sorry

[Maya's POV]

I remembered what Pesha warned me the day before.

"It's better to be safe than sorry," she said as she bought the groceries she needed to cook dinner with.

Millions of people lived in this city but at any moment, if you weren't cautious enough, one of the unassuming citizens could be one of the baron's men searching for nosy individuals to exterminate.

"I've already been caught by them before," she informed me. "However by the grace of the universe, I escaped his men before they could take me back to that putrid mansion. They probably have a rough general idea of how I look but I don't think they have a clear picture of me because I was dirty at the time of capture."

"Dirty? Why were you dirty?" I asked in confusion.

"That's because I was digging up some dirt," she answered. "Both metaphorically and literally."

"What?" I uttered, baffled.

At the time it felt like she was speaking in riddles but when we reached her apartment building, after getting me to help her out with prepping dinner, as we ate, she began to explain her story to me.

The reason why her home was so bare and only had the essential furniture was that her previous apartment had been compromised when she was caught.

I was told that I was extremely lucky to have inquired about the baron to her friend because if I had asked the wrong person, I would've been in grave danger.

When I asked Pesha why she was so interested and willing to help with the baron's downfall, that's when our conversation took a turn for the worse.

She began by telling me her childhood story growing up with a single mother and a little sister she loved the most in the world.

"She's the apple of my eye. I raised her as if she was my own daughter."

It was a long story, one that I almost yawned a few times but held myself back from doing so because I didn't want to disrespect my cash cow and decrease her production of the tasty luxurious milk I was squeezing out of her.

Long story short, the baron had kidnapped her little sister and like the rest of his victims, she was killed after the long preparation period. Then her body was buried at a graveyard where over half of the coffins belonged to people that the baron had killed.

It took Pesha almost a year of investigation before she was able to piece together the clues and discovered where her missing sister had been all this time which was what she meant when she said that she was digging up dirt.

She was investigating the dirt on the baron while also getting caught while she was literally digging up the grave of her deceased little sister.

"I wanted to take her bones and bury them in our hometown. She wasn't even supposed to be here in this city. I told her... I told her that it was too good to be true," she said, referring to the job offer her little sister received from the baron.

Caught up in the emotions of her story, she began shedding a few tears but didn't break down to a complete stop because the anger boiling inside of her prevented her from wallowing in her sorrow.

"That's the only reason why I continue living in this city, working a basic nine-to-five instead of using my college degree to good. I want to do good for her. I... I want to get revenge but I'm not capable of doing it myself. But my gut tells me that you can."

Pesha expressed her desire to accompany me in my plan to expose the baron of his wrongdoings but I informed her that if she were to do so, the two of us would be caught.

"I plan to sneak into his mansion, acquire the evidence that I need, and then disappear before they even realize that I was there," I told her.

That's why despite the dissatisfaction and the desire to get revenge for her sister with her own hands, I was alone infiltrating the baron's manor the next day.

Pesha stayed in the safety of her home and all she could do now was pray that I succeeded.

I chose to begin my investigation late in the afternoon because of the advantageous nature of the dark; "It's better to be safe than sorry."

Pesha warned me that the mansion was probably littered with sensors, lasers, cameras, turrets, etc., but my ability would render them useless regardless so I didn't even take caution about where I was walking as I made my way to the front door.

I stood by the front door for an hour, eavesdropping in on the conversations amongst the guards, trying to find a clue on where in the mansion I would most likely have the most success finding incriminating evidence.

'Master's bedroom. Top floor. The baron is not in his room right now because he's busy with his project.'

"See you on Tuesday," said a woman who was dressed in a dirty worker's uniform.

"Thank you for the hard work as usual. See you next week darling," responded the guard in charge of monitoring the front door.

As the employee was leaving through the opened door, I took that opportunity to enter before the guard was able to close and lock it.

Looking around, I felt initially overwhelmed by the sheer amount of guards that wandered the hallways.

It felt like I had infiltrated a military base instead of someone's home.

'Upstairs. I need to head upstairs. Oops. Almost knocked over that vase.'

I had to remind myself to be extra cautious. I had already been caught once before because of my carelessness.

Slowing down my pace, I only moved when I had full confidence that I wouldn't be placing myself in the pathway of someone walking and when I wasn't moving, I hugged the wall, becoming one with it.

One floor at a time, I made my way up the stairs until I reached the top where the bedroom of the baron was located according to what I've overheard.

I looked around and saw about eight doors, four on each side of the hallway.

'Which door is it?'

I was hoping that the bedroom would have something special like a unique door that made it stand out from the rest but all of the doors looked the exact same.

Crossing my fingers, I was willing to patiently wait for the two guards walking together in the hallway to give me a clue on which door I needed to enter but they were so quiet compared to the others that I've encountered so far that I couldn't help but feel uneasy.

'Do I have no choice but to check the rooms one at a time and pray for the best?' I asked myself.

As the guards turned around and began heading back toward the other end of the hallway, I opened the door to the first room on the left.

'This looks like his study room,' I thought to myself as I quickly closed the door.

I was tempted to enter and see if I could find something in there but the piles of paper that reached all the way to the ceiling told me that it would be a waste of time and if there was something important in there, it'd be like searching for a needle in a haystack.

The second room was a large bathroom with its own sauna attached to it.

The third room was a mini-library with plenty of shelves and enough books to swim in.

'Why am I so unlucky?' I sighed. 'Please be the door to the bedroom. Please let this be... nope. No, it is not.'

I closed the door to the home theater.

The fifth room was a wine cellar and I wasn't an expert on wine nor did I have any sort of interest in it but I could tell by the sheer quantity that the price of this entire room was enough to purchase another mansion.

Sixth was a storage room that held miscellaneous household items and supplies.

'Second to last door. Fifty-fifty chance. Surely I can't... I can have this bad of luck.'

The door led to a gym.

Closing it, I made my way to the last door all the way to the end of the right side of the hallway.

'At long last, I've discovered the door to the master bedroom,' I thought to myself, rolling my eyes, not even excited by this point in time.

I had been so nervous opening and closing these doors as the guards were monitoring the hallway because at any moment if one of them squeaked, I would've been compromised.

Luckily, none of them made a sign and also, none of them were locked.

'Is that confidence or foolishness from the baron?'

Waiting for the perfect moment, I opened the door and quickly made my way into the room, closing the door behind me.

I looked around, a little disappointed to be honest.

Obviously, he wouldn't be stupid enough to announce to the world that he was an evil criminal but the fact that the bedroom looked normal and didn't have corpses nailed to the wall or a fish bowl filled with blood felt underwhelming.

I shook my head, reminding myself to, 'Keep your head in the game. Focus. I need to get the evidence quick and leave before the baron returns.'

Opening drawers, I began scouring through them all, searching for anything out of place but making sure to return everything back to normal immediately after so that in case of an emergency, it would be like I was never there.

I skimmed through all the documents available and none of them had anything to do with his crimes, rather they were just important work papers.

'There has to be something I'm missing.'

I began looking for a hidden compartment, a button, or a lever to a secret room.

'Maybe one of these books leads to a hidden room,' I thought as I began pulling them down.

There were about a hundred books or so on the shelf and I went through all of them in the span of a minute.

'Shoot. None of them. Did I make the wrong decision?'

I was about to go through the drawers one more time when I saw the doorknob turn.

'Oh no!'

I quickly moved myself to an open spot in the room where I'd be able to move while invisible and avoid whoever it was that was about to enter the room if they did come towards me.

Wondering if it was one of the guards or if it was the baron himself, I was surprised to see a man wearing a mask entering the room.

He quickly closed the door and began to look around the room.

I couldn't help but feel like he was in the same shoes as me.

'Is he also trying to expose the baron? I'm sorry friend but this is a waste of time. There's nothing here. And if there is, if I can't find it, you definitely won't.'

He looked around a little longer before letting out a sigh.

'Why does that sigh sound familiar?' I pondered.

Then he took off his mask and began scratching his head in frustration.

I only saw the side of his face at first but as he turned towards my direction, in a moment of shock, I let out an audible gasp.

Quickly, I placed my hand over my mouth to silence myself.

'What is he doing here? Bell Agnus, what are you doing here!?'