18/19
Peering around at each door the young girl soon found that aside from the script they were all identical. She had no choice but to try each one until she found the one Abby was in. Starting with the closest she pulled on the handle, then pushed, and pulled again. It was sealed tight, almost as though the handle was a decoration on a solid wall. The next door was the same, unmovable and pointless. Abby would most likely be through a door that would open. The third door opened with ease, its dark interior impossible to see into.
"Abby?" Camilla whispered, hoping to not have to enter the room. Having no response it seemed like the thing to do. As she stepped in to the darkness she called out once again "Abbbyy?? Are you here?"Her call was met with the creak of the door this time, shutting behind her and leaving the room a void. For a moment she could hear the beat of her heart, like drums in a silent room. Only for a moment.
Dim light filtered in through the window of the stone house she as now standing in. It was her house, the adron, were she was not aloud. Two couches sat against the wall and the tables were set up as though supper was to be served, goblets and platters laying empty in wait. The silence was once again impeding, this was a room where men talked of philosophy, it should not be empty.
Moving on she looked through the other rooms, desperate for her family. The kitchen was empty as well, the slaves weren't even there. Similarly he courtyard was bare. As she walked to the center she found her lemon tree dead and shriveled. Tears welled in her eyes as the only thing she had slightly considered to be her own was gone. If it were not for the rain she would have sat mourning her tree for much longer, but her mother would not let her to sit in the rain before, now wasn't any different. Would she even still mind?
Trodding back inside she continued her search, careful to wash her feet off first. The rest of the house was more of the same, empty rooms left they way she'd last remembered them. Finally after Camilla concluded the house was deserted she sat in the Gynaikon, thinking of what to do and where her family might be. Did they leave her? or was she to late. Did they die? Did they still love her? Thunder exploded outside, shaking the entire house. Rain began leaking in through the roof, dripping to the floor.
