54

Robin sees you looking over his shoulder, and he turns around. When he sees the door, he gasps.

"Oh—so that's—"

His breath catches. When he next looks at you, his face seems to glow with the light from his phone.

"Shall we go in?"

You only need to nod, and immediately, Robin spins around to turn the handle.

To your surprise, it opens with barely a nudge. As it swings away, you find yourself holding your breath.

Next

The attic ceiling is low, and the whole space seems only a little bigger than your bedroom. But it might as well have been a miniature city with how much stuff has been packed away up here, with towers of boxes and old wardrobes and sofas taking up almost every available inch. The space in front of the door seems to be almost the only spot a person could fit in without rearranging everything.

At first glance, you don't see anything too out of the ordinary. But if there's any part of the house that might be hiding something, you think this is probably it.

"Well, there's definitely a lot of stuff," Robin says. "But it's okay if you don't want to disturb any of this. We can always go back down."

Looking around at the maze of junk, your realize it does seem a daunting, if not impossible, task to navigate through it all without sending closets and bed frames crashing to the ground. But more than that, actually finding something up here—even if you knew what you were looking for—might be a step beyond impossible.

Still—you've come this far. All you can do is try.

"So," Robin says, and you see him start to roll up his sleeves. "What's the plan?"