Night of Trials

Chapter 7, Trial 4: The Inhabited Cottage

Aaron's POV
We had made our way out of the graveyard. On the way, Piper's ankle began bothering her, so I had to carry her over my shoulder.

Probably wasn't comfortable for her.

"Do you see anything out of the ordinary yet?" Piper asked.

"Like some random person in the road?" I asked.

"Yeah, but also anything else." Piper added.

"Hm....well....nothing yet." I said.

"Just let me know when you find anything strange."

"I will, sis."

After a few more minutes of walking, nothing looked different. We were still on that familiar dirt road, but unlike before in our earlier trials, there weren't as many trees surrounding us, making the scenery around us look almost like a clearing.

"Do you think you can walk?" I asked.

"Put me down and let's see." Piper said.

I stopped walking, placed my hands on Piper's waist, and lifted her off me.

Piper began to walk ahead of me. I noticed she was limping, but it was only slight.

"I think I'll be able to walk now, but I can't put too much pressure on the ankle." Piper said.

"Alright. Lemme help." I said as I ran towards her. I rolled my right arm around her shoulder.

"How about that? Think you'll be able to walk now?" I asked.

"Maybe. I'll just need to hop and try not to fall. You'll help me out with not falling, won't you?" Piper asked.

"Of course. We're family, after all." I said.

After a few more minutes of walking, the trees around us had completely cleared and I noticed an intersection. I eventually had Piper draped over my shoulder again.

The left side forked into a path that was like how we had originally started out; a small dirth path with trees surrounding us and slightly ominous, unlike now in which the trees weren't crowding around us.

"What's wrong, Aaron? Why have you stopped walking?" Piper asked.

"There's an intersection." I said as I continued looking at both the left and right intersection, just wondering which one I should choose.

"What do the intersections look like?"

"Well, one intersection is like how we started out. You know, that dark path we started on with the trees and dirt road around us. The other intersection is a house." I said.

".....A house?" Piper asked.

"Yeah. It looks like a cottage."

The cottage was a big house. It looked like it was wooden, with a black, shingled roof and a chimney poking out from the top of it.

I could see a four paneled window on the outside of the house, but unfortunately, it was so dark that I couldn't make out the rest of it.

Except that there was also a tiny little roof above the door, too.

"Hhhmm....let's go into the cottage. We could rest in there for a bit, but it also might be our next trial. Is it empty?" Piper asked.

I already started walking towards it.

"Yeah, or at least it looks empty." I said.

"Then it just might be empty. Come on. Let's go inside and check it out." Piper said.