65__A dusty little room of secrets

Biting her lip, Kamilla pressed an ear to the door, listening closely.
She stood back with a frown. Absolute silence. Well... had she expected to hear dragging chains or something?
Kamilla pursed her lips. To be honest, she had. She'd expected to hear at least a ticking clock. Not just any clock, but an old, dusty, grandfather clock with the ghost of Popeye haunting it.
If there were a couple of ghosts scattered about the room, she'd brave their frosty glares. If they were friendly, she'd ask them to tell her secrets of the Royal family so she would be ten steps ahead of Viktor. Surely the whole situation could be solved by just knowing what the hell it was that Rogan had against Onyx?

Kamilla squared her shoulders. There was only one way to find out.
Slowly putting her first hair clip into the keyhole, she fiddled around for a moment before realizing she had no idea how to pick a lock.

Kamilla blinked in thought. Well, in the movies they always just did this.
Tightening her grip on the clip, she moved it around even more in the keyhole, her heart lifting when she heard a click.
Her smile quickly fell when she pulled back her hand and saw that the click had been her hair clip breaking in two.
The other bit fell near her shoes and Kamilla sighed at it.
Picking out another clip, she got back to work.
After a lifetime of fiddling and jerking her fingers about, Kamilla heard another click. Groaning at the thought of another broken clip, Kamilla jerked her hand back to glare at an actually very whole clip.

Slowly looking back at the door, Kamilla wrapped a hand around the handle. Would she, who had no experience in robbery whatsoever, so easily succeed in picking locks??
The answer was apparently yes as Kamilla watch the door open a little from slight pressure.

This was it.
The moment she'd been waiting for.
Holding her breath, Kamilla pushed open the door, bracing herself for all the ghosts and the cold and Popeye's ghostly attacks.

She stopped in the doorway as the brightly lit room stood before her.
Kamilla blinked.

Nothing. There was nothing but dusty boxes stacked haphazardly around the room, the old windows uncovered and letting in as much light as the morning could give.
Kamilla couldn't deny that she was disappointed.
Where were the ghosts? Not even one little grandfather clock standing creepily in a corner.
She shook her head as she walked in. Vampire castles really needed to up their game with the scare factor.

She passed a finger over one box, leaving a single clean streak over its dusty top.
"What is all this stuff?" Kamilla murmured as she looked around at the stacks.
There were all sorts of things behind the first tall stacks of boxes.
A broken rocking chair carried a few woolen items of clothing that she didn't dare touch.
Lord knew what creatures had taken up residence in those clothes.
There were a few stacks of old papers beside the rocking chair. They were old, brown from age with little holes in the corners.
Crouching down, Kamilla took a closer look at the papers and frowned.
The titles made sense, but the rest of the writing wasn't English. From the bizarrely shaped letters, Kamilla wasn't certain if it was actually even an existing language.
She gently flipped the brittle pages aside. They had images of leaves, twigs, branches and little animals around the writing.
She looked back over the titles on a few pages. "Healing", "Deep sleep", "Life", "Love", "Soul mate", "Water", "Wine".

Kamilla frowned. These couldn't possibly be.... magic spells? She had no way of knowing if they were actual spells or not, but the bizarre writing made her suspicious enough.

She lifted her gaze to the rocking chair, eyeing the dusty woolen clothing. Gingerly, Kamilla lifted a single piece of clothing, bracing herself for the spider that might spray a web out at her like Spiderman.
No web came but Kamilla did notice something.
The clothing she'd lifted was a woven top of some sort. And it belonged to a woman.

Kamilla cringed and lowered the top. If this belonged to Viktor's mother, the late queen had a less than perfect sense of fashion.
Pushing herself up, Kamilla looked around the room. She spotted a dusty little case behind the rocking chair and was instantly curious.
In her haste to get to the case, Kamilla's foot got caught against the leg of the rocking chair and she found herself tripping and falling onto her knees.

"Oh, sonofa... oowwww!"
Kamilla cringed in pain as she sat on her bottom and rubbed at her sore knees.
Hissing in annoyance, she glared at the chair. Was the thing perhaps haunted by a mischievous ghost?
"Bloody rotten piece of wood," muttered Kamilla, delivering a sharp kick to the chair.

A sharp sound brought all her movements to a stop as something fell from the rocking chair, hitting the wooden floor.
With wide eyes, Kamilla looked at the round object that was rolling about on the floor. Its chain got caught and it came to a stop right by her foot.

Kamilla blinked at it. What was this? An amulet?
She glanced at the open doorway, again confirming that she was all alone this high up in the castle. There was only one level above this and that was an all-round tower balcony overlooking the Kingdom.

Kamilla eyed the amulet, feeling her skin chill.
Slowly, she reached out a hand, reluctant to touch the dusty metal.
When her fingers touched it, the dust wiped away and Kamilla saw gold.
Lifting it, Kamilla turned it over in her palm to inspect it. It was a golden amulet for sure.
Her searching eyes scanned the edges until she found what she was looking for. Gripping the tiny clasps, Kamilla tried to pull it open but the stubborn thing wouldn't budge.

Biting her lip, she wrapped the hem of her jumper over it and tugged to no avail.
She growled in annoyance.

She held up the amulet and looked at it from all sides.
Did it not open? Was it glued shut?
She bit her lip in annoyance before trying to tug it open once more.
The damn thing wouldn't budge!

Filled to her hair tips with frustration, Kamilla reached her arm back and flung the amulet across the room, coincidentally in the direction of the open door.

Her eyes opened wide when the flung amulet landed in the open palm of no one but Viktor.
His hand closed around the amulet as he caught it and he raised a brow at Kamilla.
"What are you doing?"

Gasping, Kamilla scrambled up and walked over to him, hand held out.
"That's mine. I found it, give it back."

Viktor held his hand behind his back and Kamilla immediately leaped forward to reach for it.
His arm wrapped around her as she struggled against him.
"That's not what I asked you," said Viktor, looking down at her as she busily attempted to reach his hand.

"Are you... kidding me?!" muttered Kamilla. "I injured my knees to find that, give it back!"
They spun about in their struggle, Viktor waiting for her to tire out and Kamilla determined to get back her amulet.
"What were you doing in here?" he asked her. "Trying to dig up dirt on my family?"
Kamilla nearly froze at the accuracy of his guess.
"Just give it-"
She gasped when her fingers snatched at the amulet and it got flung out of Viktor's hand.
They both watched as it smacked against the floor, rolled across the wood and hit the wall.

After a moment of silence, Kamilla heard a creak and watched in fascination as the amulet parted on its own and opened like an oyster.
She and Viktor both walked over to it and stood, frowning down at the open amulet.
Kamilla gasped. "Oh, my God, there are actual photographs in here."
Crouching, Viktor lifted the amulet and held it between them.

"They're not photographs," he murmured with a focused frown. "They're drawings. It's art. Old enough to have been made at a time when cameras did not yet exist."

Kamilla stared at the drawings, her earlier decision to break off all ties with Viktor King momentarily forgotten.
One half had the picture of a very beautiful woman. She had golden blonde hair and smiled sweetly in the round frame.

Looking at the other half, Kamilla pushed open the amulet and looked closely at the other picture.
It was a boy. A handsome young boy perhaps in his early teens.
She was about to ask Viktor if it was perhaps him and his mother, but stopped at the sight of the boys thick blonde hair.
Not just his thick blonde hair, however.
Kamilla felt her entire mind freeze at the sight of the eerily familiar black depth perfectly captured in the boy's eyes.