If Only They Knew

Chapter 13: Exploration

     I sprinted up the stairs, trying to ignore the excruciating pain in my front leg. I was so eager to see what was in that room. It was dark inside, and dusty. I tried so hard not to sneeze. I decided it would be better to explore with hands, so I changed into my human form. I don't think that helped, because I sneezed. I froze, remembered I was up a few floors from Angel, and sighed relief. Now for the exploration.
      The first thing to catch my attention was, well, everything. Abandoned toys, boxes, machines, and other things I couldn't identify. I began searching through the boxes. It was all a bunch of junk. Nothing in the boxes worthy of finding, nothing.
I decided to search the closet that I just spotted. I opened it, and all that came out was dust and dirt. I sneezed again. I swear, I'm allergic to the unexpected. No way it was dust, the unexpected was more likely, for many more reasons.
When the dust cleared, I saw nothing but spiderwebs. It was empty. I started to close it, but right before I closed it, something caught my eye. A dark box inside the box. I flung the box back open and bent down. I saw it wasn't locked, so no reason for breaking it. I opened it and saw some papers.
'Just business papers?!' I yelled in my head. 'So useless!' I closed the box sadly. I thought I found something interesting, but it was junk.
Next was the corner. There were many things in that corner of the room. Toys (again), boxes, chests, and some machine not taller than my knees. I had to look at the machine first. It looked old but it was shiny. I saw some things that were like buttons. I pushed one. It made a click noise. I sneezed (See? The unexpected is what I'm allergic to!). I pressed another one, and it did the same thing. It looked like paper could go in the top of it. I felt like I've seen a more modern one of these somewhere.
I started pushing all the lever button things. It was the loudest thing ever, but so fun! I almost broke it, so I stopped. I remembered the pain in my arm and it all came back. It felt like my arm was gonna fall off or snap. I grasped it and tried ignoring it. It wouldn't stop. I almost screamed in pain. I think I was screaming in my head a lot, as a substitution, but it didn't help. Now it felt like it was burning from the inside. I held it and decided to go back down, but I was stopped at the entrance. I was paralyzed when I saw what was there.
     It was a long gun, aimed at me from the trapdoor entrance.