Shadows in the Dark (Dark Lotus #1)

3. Brynn

Three Months Later

Letting myself in the front door, I instantly smiled when I was met by a snorting, wiggling mass of fur. I had always loved Lug Nut, but my affection for him had grown deeper since we had become roommates.

I knew that Blair’s dog was grieving her just as I was. He didn’t understand she was dead, of course, he just knew she hadn’t come home in a long time and I was now his caretaker. I’d even tried to make things as easy as possible for him by relocating to Blair’s condo in Bernal Heights six weeks ago.

The decision hadn’t been that difficult to make. I’d wanted to move into a larger space, but real estate had been out of my price range since I’d moved to the Bay Area. Blair had sweet-talked our parents into leasing this place to her years before, and I had forced my hand by having them agree to the same arrangement for me. It wasn’t like they needed to pay a mortgage on this place. My rent was just gravy since the house had been paid off long ago. My grandparents on my mother’s side had bought the damn place in 1902 and it had stayed in the family. There’d been so many offers to buy it, but thankfully, my mother had held on to it.

The floor plan had been updated to be more open, and Blair had decorated with whites, blues, grays, and natural wood tones. Her taste was the same as mine, so I didn’t need to do anything more than have an estate sale at my house and put the proceeds into savings.

It felt strange being in this space, seeing her things, and even smelling her perfume on occasion, but having to remind myself that she would never come back to this house.

A gentle whine at my feet was a reminder that the dog needed to go for a walk. “I’m sorry, buddy. I got distracted. Let me change my shoes.”

Following me to the bedroom, Lug Nut got very excited when he saw me pull out the shoes I wore each day to walk him. He was practically dancing in the bedroom, an ear-to-ear grin splitting his face in two. He was such a sweet boy and we had become each other’s support system.

After clipping his leash to his collar, I grabbed my keys, stuffed some money in my pocket, and we were off in the direction of my favorite coffee shop.

One thing I liked about Bernal Heights was that it was very walkable. So many people were out with their dogs or significant others just enjoying the evening air like Lug Nut and I were. The neighbors knew one another here, and multiple people had checked in on me numerous times. It was endearing albeit a little overwhelming, but I definitely appreciated the feeling of not being so alone.

It took us a bit longer to make it down to the corner as everyone we encountered wanted to pet the dog. By the time I finally entered the store, I was more then ready for one of the custom blended iced teas.

“Hey, Brynn. Hey, Lug Nut.” Kevin, the barista, greeted us by name, automatically reaching behind the counter for a dog biscuit. Like the good boy he was, Lug Nut sat and waited for his treat while Kevin and I chatted about what I wanted today. Once my order had been placed, I found a table outside and sat down so both of us could people watch.

Three completed miles later, I let us back in and turned the dog loose, more than ready to take a shower before making some dinner. Once that had all been sorted, I found myself mentally going through the tasks of sorting through Blair’s things to determine what I might be able to handle tackling. My eyes slid over to her laptop which was resting on the dining table. There were certain things I had refused to move, let alone touch, after I moved in. I knew I needed to get to it, though.

Selfishly, I wanted to use the laptop for myself. It was the newest model and one I had coveted for a while. I wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything overly sensitive on it, so after inhaling and exhaling on a deep sigh, I sat down and booted up the machine.

Tears swam in my eyes when I saw her wallpaper was a picture of us at the last music festival we’d attended. Sun-kissed and carefree, we’d had a wonderful time the entire weekend. We’d both swooned over Harry Styles’ performance, and I’d nearly fainted when he spotted me in the audience, waved, and blew a kiss in my direction.

We’d also had multiple encounters with other celebrities and models. For a few brief stolen hours on a weekend in April, we’d partied like rock stars and had the pictures to show for it.

I saw the password prompt on the login screen and frowned. Shit. I forgot that I‘d need a password to just get to the desktop. I had no fucking clue what password she might have used, and the possibilities were endless. It would take me forever, unless…

Typing in her birthday alphanumerically, I swore when it erred out, then did the same when my birthday also generated an error.

“Let me try… Bingo! ”

To my relief, she’d used Lug Nut’s gotcha day as her password. I watched as the machine did its thing, finally displaying the desktop and making me cringe at how messy it was.

“Good god, B. Why could you never organize your desktop and make it tidy? This is a damn eyesore.”

One by one, I clicked on each icon and folder, discarding anything that was no longer relevant. There was a folder labeled “Dog Stuff”, but when I opened it, the contents were anything but dog stuff. She’d saved all of her user IDs and passwords there. I cursed aloud at how foolish that was in one breath, while thanking my sister profusely in another. This would make things easier for me in the long run because I’d be able to go to her various accounts and cancel anything and everything she had signed up for.

Setting aside the passwords, I went to her email client and began to sort through her messages. I saw some notifications from a couple of dating sites, which made me laugh. Not even six months before, my sister had adamantly denounced dating sites and we’d even joked about them. Now, I had proof that she didn’t find them that distasteful after all.

“Not sure what I will do with that information now, but I got you, B.”

For anything that had a recurring subscription, I canceled with an explanation of why. I paid her outstanding and past due bills and requested that the accounts be switched to my name starting with the next billing cycle. One by one, I tackled the most recent messages, slowly working my way down to the beginning of the last emails she had actually read.

Again there were some from dating sites, an inquiry about switching auto insurance, upgrading her internet service… standard household things. There was one message that caught my eye, though.

The subject line said, “Welcome to Olympus”. When I clicked on it, the message began by congratulating the recipient on securing the invitation to join.

What in the world is Olympus, and why do you need an invitation to sign up?

I read through the rest of the email, noting that the link provided in the email body was personalized and would expire after thirty minutes. There was no way for me to click on it to learn more, and I swore softly under my breath.

I also saw that a username and password were required to create an account once the link had been clicked. That meant Blair had to have written down that information and saved it in the “dog” folder.

Reopening that folder, I saw I was correct, locating her login details at the bottom of her stored list. I ignored the fact that nothing was in alphabetical order because if I focused on that part, I would start to twitch.

Copying the password, I then searched the desktop until I found a thumbnail with the title of Olympus. Clicking that, a window opened in the browser, and I was taken to a website that looked like some sort of server. What the hell was this? She’d never told me about any server that she belonged to, and she told me everything, or at least that was what I’d thought. Obviously, she’d kept a few things back and I wondered briefly what else I was going to stumble across as I sifted through the remaining pieces of the life that she had lived.

Using her username and password, I connected successfully and found myself staring at various channels that looked to be chat rooms. Each channel had its own name. In a slight panic, I glanced down at the user profile avatar and saw that Blair had been smart enough to always login as appearing offline. I wasn’t sure how many people, if any, were aware of who she was, or that she was dead. I certainly didn’t want to raise any red flags that someone else was using her account.

Carefully, I clicked on the first channel at the top of the navigation list on the left side of the screen. It was some sort of event chat according to the title, and various users were doing real-time commentary on a movie that someone was screen sharing. That sounded harmless enough.

Knowing I had additional time to go through the server more fully, I logged out and glanced down when my watch buzzed, signaling I needed to move. Holy shit, I’d been on the laptop for hours. Lug Nut saw me stand and began to do his potty dance.

“You sweet boy. I’m sorry I made you wait that long. Let’s go, bubba.”

My mind still processing the secret that was Olympus, I set out with the dog on another three-mile trek.