CHAPTER 6

"Ariella, wake up. What are you doing sleeping here?" I felt someone's hand brushed my hair off of my face.

"Hmm." I curled into a ball hugging my knees to my chest.

"Ariella, come on get up it's nearly noon." It was Maria.

I rubbed my eyes and fluttered my eyes open. I sat up and looked around taking in my surrounding. Everything that happened last night came back to me.

"Ariella, are you okay?" Maria asked. "What did you do in here?"

"Hmm?" Then I remembered that the closet was in a huge mess. "Oh, I was looking for something. Sorry about that. I'll help you clean up."

"No that's fine. You look tired. Why don't you just go back to bed." she ushered me out of the closet. I took the laptop with me.

I sighed as I got out of the closet. I went to the bathroom and placed the laptop on the counter next to the door. I walked to the sink and washed my face. The cold water feels good. I then brushed my teeth and tied my hair into a bun. All this while I just kept glancing back to the laptop from the mirror. Finally when I was done, I turned around and walk slowly towards the laptop trying to remember everything that I had found out last night.

I grabbed it and half ran out of the bathroom, through my bedroom and out. I ran to Darren's room. I've never been here since the day he died a few months ago. I walk up to his desk. Every computer stuff has been taken but I manage to steal one of his laptop. I never know why they did that until now. I locked the door behind me.

I placed the laptop on top of his desk. I reached for the phone and dialed Emi's number.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Hey Emi, it's me Ari."

"Oh hey Ari. What's up?"

"I can't come to rehearsal today. Could you tell Johnny and Dee that? Something just came up."

"Yeah sure. Is everything okay?" she asked.

"Yeah. Just some family stuff I have to deal with." I half lied. Sheesh I never lied to Emi and I'm feeling guilty right now.

"Oh, okay then, I'll see you in school."

"Yeah I'll see you in school." I said.

She hung up. I put the phone down and started looking around the room for something weird.

I walked towards the book shelves and found one that seemed to be out of place. I tried to push it aside but it only moved a little. There was some sort of door behind it, just the same as Chase has. Bingo. I put in all my effort and tried to push it again. I finally manage to move just enough so that I can slip into it. I touched the door trying to find something that would engage for the thing to come out. But there was something different about this door. When I touched a spot just at the centre, some type of hologram came out. It wanted a password. Shit. I tried Darren's birthday.

"Access denied." The stupid thing says.

I tried his identity number.

"Access denied." That stupid thing said again.

I tried my birthday instead.

"Access denied."

I punched on the door.

"Shit!" I groaned when I had hurt myself. Then I saw my bracelet. I vaguely remembered that he had carved something into it. I took it off and looked at the back of the bracelet. It was my birthday and his birthday combined.

So I punched in the number. 2-3-5-6-9

"Access granted." It says.

"Thank God." I murmured.

But then the thing came out.

"What the hell?" I shrieked. I thought the password was it. But no, it wasn't. Shit.

"Voice confirmation accepted." It said.

What?! I thought this was Darren. How? Then it holds my head and scanned my iris.

"Iris scanned accepted." It said again. What the hell is going on here?

It released me and a fingerprint scanner came out. So I tried my luck and placed my hand there. I saw as the blue light scanned the whole of my hand.

"Granted." It said. Then the weird thing and the scanner slid itself back to the door.

"Welcome Ariella." It said. That made me jumped.

"What the hell?! Darren what are you up to?" I yelled at nothing.

The door opens and I saw that there are three more computers. I looked around. It was a quarter size of Darren's room. How come I didn't know that there's a secret room here?

"Hello, Ms Ariella." It startled me. It was the computer. Somehow when I access this room, the computer system is switched on.

I narrowed my eyes at the speaking computer.

"What's going on here?" I asked. It sounded stupid for asking the computer who may or may not understand what I'm saying.

"Darren has changed the whole system so that it will favor you more, Ms Ariella."