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Nate and Alice continued searching the house in silence, moving fallen papers and books, lifting empty drawers, and carefully setting aside each object as the sunset light slanted through the dusty windows.
The air smelled of old dust, wood, and something else—a hint of dampness that mixed with every step they took on the floor, which creaked softly under their weight. The echo of their movements filled the empty house, where every corner seemed to hold a secret waiting to be found.
Alice had gone upstairs a few moments before, and when she returned, her soft footsteps barely creaked on the stairs as she paused in the doorway of the study.
"Upstairs… I found traces of dirt," she murmured, discreetly bringing a hand to her nose as her golden eyes lifted toward him, "and a very faint trace of another vampire. But I can't be sure… the wet dog smell is stronger."
Nate looked up from a pile of torn papers, frowning as he processed her words. For a second, everything else seemed to fade into the distant murmur of the street, leaving only the beat of his own pulse in his ears.
"Do you think…?" he started to say but stopped, taking a deep breath before speaking more calmly. "If I had come back sooner, maybe that trail could have led us somewhere."
He let the papers fall onto the desk, rubbing the back of his neck as his gaze swept over the chaos in the room, noticing the fallen books, the empty folders, and the tracks of dry dirt on the carpet.
His eyes stopped on his father's oak desk, drawers open and folders torn on top of it, a silent symbol of everything that had fallen apart.
"My dad…" he began, his voice lower, almost to himself, "was a very smart man… but ordinary." A flicker of confusion and pain crossed his face before hardening as he spoke. "He didn't seem like the type to get involved in anything supernatural… but now, after all this, it's impossible to ignore."
He remembered his father sitting at that desk, going over contracts with a cup of coffee beside him, writing notes by hand with almost obsessive precision, saying every detail mattered, that everything had to be in its place. His figure seemed to overlay, for a moment, onto the empty study.
"It's no coincidence he had that knife, the one even Carlisle didn't know was possible to create… and now, with a vampire's scent here, I can't deny it anymore."
Alice set her bag down on a fallen chair, her warm eyes holding Nate's gaze as she stepped closer.
"If he really knew something about this world… he must have left some kind of record," she said firmly, though her voice remained soft, as if careful not to break the fragile balance Nate was holding. "We should search thoroughly, Nate. Maybe in your parents' room… or here, in the study."
Nate remained silent, his breathing evening out as his gaze drifted for a moment into the lengthening shadows on the walls.
He thought about it, picturing his father organizing papers, those nights when Nate would peek in and his father would tell him to go back to bed while he carefully filed each document into labeled folders.
"The study would be the best place," he said at last, with resolution. "If my dad kept something important, it would have been here. He was meticulous about everything, always documenting every detail… everything that could help him."
Alice tilted her head slightly, her short hair brushing against her cheek as she looked at him with understanding. A small encouraging smile appeared on her lips as she began to carefully lift the open books on the floor, flipping through them one by one with delicate movements, as if each page might hold a clue.
In that moment, as the dust danced in the air illuminated by the warm sunset light, Nate felt that every corner of that study was filled with echoes of the past, but now, he was no longer a child listening to the clack of keys or the sound of coffee pouring into a cup.
..............................................................
Hours passed in Nate's father's study without finding anything.
Night had fully fallen, tinting the windows a deep blue as the desk lamp cast a cone of light over the scattered papers. They had checked every book, flipped through pages marked with old bookmarks that only led to underlined laws or unimportant work notes. Every folder turned out to be a case, a closed file, nothing that explained the mystery that had brought them there.
Nate was starting to grow impatient. His hands moved from paper to paper with increasing haste, his breathing agitated, filling the dust-laden air.
It was then that Alice, who had been checking a lower shelf, stood up softly and approached him. She placed a light hand on his arm, her warm touch a contrast to the cold air in the room.
"You need to keep your head clear, even if you're shaking inside," she murmured, using the exact phrase he had heard so many times from his father.
Nate closed his eyes, letting the tension building in his chest ease just slightly at her words. He took a slow breath and nodded, letting the internal trembling settle under the calm Alice gave him.
She looked at him seriously, though her voice remained gentle:
"You knew your father, Nate. If he really hid something important, where do you think he would have put it?"
Nate turned his gaze toward the desk, letting his shoulders drop as he analyzed calmly. He realized how much seeing his old home in this state, ransacked and reduced to chaos by unknown hands, had rattled him. He took another deep breath, forcing himself to reason.
"My dad and I… we were alike in many ways," he said quietly, thoughtfully. "If it were me, and I had to hide something important… it would be somewhere within reach, but discreet. Somewhere you could check quickly without raising suspicion."
His eyes scanned every corner: the lamp didn't have enough space, the bookshelf would be too obvious, and lifting floorboards would be too noticeable.
Alice watched him patiently, arms crossed.
Finally, Nate spoke, his voice firm:
"The most logical place would be the desk. It's always within reach… and once you dismiss the drawers, you'd think there's nothing left to look for."
Alice nodded, tilting her head as she tried to understand.
"Do you want me to break it open to check if there's something inside?" she asked calmly, ready to do it in an instant.
Nate shook his head, determined.
"No. If it's a hiding spot, it has to be something you can open and close without moving it, so you can take things out or put them back in without drawing attention."
He sat in the old wooden chair in front of his father's desk. For a moment, nostalgia washed over him: he remembered his father writing, the smell of coffee, the murmur of the TV playing in another room. But he pushed aside the knot in his throat, focusing his mind on the present.
Carefully, he began to feel every inch of the desk, gently touching the corners, running his fingers underneath, pressing small spots as he checked patiently. He didn't want to move it too much or break anything.
When he reached the last drawer, he felt something: he carefully pushed from underneath, noticing a slight movement, an almost imperceptible shift in the structure.
"Come on…," he murmured, pressing a bit harder.
With a subtle click, the base loosened and opened without force. From the hidden compartment, a dark-covered notebook fell with a soft thud.
Nate caught it before it hit the floor, holding it with both hands as he examined it. It was a simple notebook, with bookmarks sticking out and colored sticky notes on the worn edges. As he flipped through it, he noticed it had far fewer pages than it should, but it didn't look like they had been torn out roughly. Everything inside was surprisingly organized.
Alice, standing beside him, leaned in to get a better look as Nate opened the first page. She frowned in confusion.
"I don't understand any of this," she murmured, pointing at the lines of symbols and seemingly random words that filled the pages.
Nate let out a low chuckle, shaking his head slightly as he ran his thumb over the precise handwriting.
"Looks like a cryptogram," he commented, with a mix of exasperation and a glint of pride in his eyes. "My dad… was more cautious than I was in some things."
Alice gave him a small smile before sitting down beside him, watching intently.
"Then, let's decipher it," she said calmly, with the same determination he felt.
Nate nodded, lowering his gaze to the notebook as he held it firmly.
And there, in the stillness and dust of the house, Nate felt that, for the first time in a long while, he was about to uncover a fragment of his father's true world.