Standing in front of her was the man from her nightmares. She has never forgotten his face. He, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to recognize her. While he appeared to have stayed the same age, she has grown up and didn’t look much like she did as a child.

He snapped the note off the door and skimmed through the letter frowning more and more the further he read.

She stood there awkwardly twisting her hands in front of her, unsure what she should do.

Finally, he said, “I suppose you were the best Andrea could find?”

Sarah just stared back in shock.

“You’ve been told not to go in my office?”

She nodded.

“Alright, well, we’ll see how this goes then.” With that, he nodded his head, opened the office door and walked through, shutting it behind him.

No sure what else to do, she carried on with her day, while doing her best to keep an eye on the door in case he came back out. She didn’t see him all day. At 4 pm, just before she left, she knocked on the door.

“Mr. Shultz, I’m off. Is there anything else?”

Silence.

She knocked again. Still nothing. Tentatively, she tried the handle but found it was locked as was the secondary door. Shrugging her shoulders, she left for the day.

She didn’t see him again for another month. After that, he showed up every month, stayed for a few days, and then left for another month.

She had been working there for six months when she finally decided to break into his office. She had been through every other part of the house and had not found what she’d been looking for. She tried to tell herself that she didn’t care about this job and that it was all about finding answers, but she realized that she was enjoying it in spite of herself.

She spent an entire week researching how to pick locks on Youtube, and practicing on the other doors in the house. The last time she’d seen Mr. Schultz had been 2 weeks ago and she knew that it would be another two weeks before she saw him again.

Just to be on the safe side, she slipped off her shoes to walk as silently as possible towards the door. Her hands were shaking as she tried to pick the lock. It took her longer than usual and her hands were sweating by the time she managed to get the pins to align.

The door slowly creaked open. Standing just outside the doorway, she noted that it looked similar to how she remembered as a child. Papers and books were scattered everywhere. The odd drawings she had seen as a child, she now recognized as blueprints. But blueprints to what? She walked inside to get a closer look, but the moment she stepped through the doorway, the clutter vanished. Every surface was instantly swept clean and the books on the bookshelves went from haphazard piles to all standing erect and orderly.

The desk was cleared with only a couple picture frames on the surface. She reached out to pick one up, but she stopped short when a voice rang out behind her.

“Did you find what you were looking for, Sarah?”