House Trap

Chapter Five: Instant Millionaires

"Now, where's your sister's room?" she demanded.

"Follow me," Nathan said as he stormed out his bed but he didn't head to his bedroom door. Rather, he crawled toward the far corner of his room. Rachel watched him, an eyebrow raised, bewildered by what he was doing.

"Follow me." He signaled to Rachel to come over where he was. He opened something that was attached to the wall. Rachel went closer to see what he was doing. It was some sort of hatch that blended with the wall. Nathan entered into it and disappeared. Rachel bent down, lowering her head and was stunned.

A trapdoor,  she thought. She was glad that they didn't need to go to the door and expose themselves to the killers. Rachel trailed behind him into the tunnel and it wasn't long before they were out of it. Nathan gave her his hand to help her out. Rachel's eyes squinted by the sheer pinkness of the room.  Stamped on the pale pink wallpaper were a line of ballerinas holding on to a barre. Ebullient cartoon characters adorned the bedside of the wall. There were numerous wooden chests against the wall rimmed with blocks, Lego sets, and teddy bears. On top of her coral dresser was a collection of toy ponies and Barbie dolls that seemed to gaze back at Rachel like she was an uninvited guest in the room. Veering away from the toys, Rachel saw Amy asleep so innocently on her glowing twinkling star canopy bed.  She wished she didn't have to wake her up to such a threatening situation but she had to. Nathan was already ahead of her, shaking his little sister to wake up.  She's awaking into a nightmare, Rachel thought apprehensively, staring at them.

                                                                              ***

 The library room looked unrecognizable as the bookshelves barely presented any books on them. The few books that remained on the shelf lay carelessly sideways, one of them about to capsize with the majority. The rest of the dreadful books that lay on the floor were now stomped on by the two men in the room. Jay gloated, watching Scott struggling with his equipment to get the safe open. The knife he used to kill Alicia was put back in the gym bag. Scott grew frustrated as he tried again—for the fourth time—to open the safe. Without warning, he shouted at Jay to give him some space. For some reason, after Jay did back away, growling at Scott's behavior from behind him, Scott gave it a go for one last time and it worked. The safe clicked open.

Scott's face brightened, goggling at what was in it. Jay went a little closer to see what Scott saw. They both stared at it in awe. There, in the safe, lay stash of fresh new cash bundled with a thin paper band, white diamonds, and ornate jewelries that most likely have a value worth more than a million dollar.

"We've more money to pay the boss tenfold," Jay said, smiling from ear to ear.

"Of course, and we'll give the boss exactly what he asked for, and keep the rest for me—I mean us." Scott smiled, never removing his avaricious gaze from the valuables.

"Man, do you know what I can—" before Jay could finish what he said they both heard the lovely lady, robotic voice as it said,

                                   HOUSE TRAP WILL OPERATE AT TWENTY, NINETEEN...