the third person

10

ASHER

Art would've loved the library.

I silently wonder as Jane gives us a short tour of her mansion. Castle considering how big it is. I'd get lost if I wasn't following the crowd. 

I'm walking last, right behind Mary, who's walking with her arms crossed. Probably mad at her boyfriend, seeing that he already asked for Jane's autograph three times. One on a tissue paper, one on an actual paper, and one with Sharpie above his collarbone. Mary wasn't happy about the last one and she's been glaring at Jane ever since. 

I absent-mindedly listened to Jane elaborate on the details. She wasn't a bore and said it all quite interestingly. But I wasn't interested in history or architecture, or Jane Allen.

"Hey," Delilah fell back behind her friends. Just a few minutes ago she'd been there with Jane, maintaining an awkward air with occasional smiles. She hadn't been interested in the house, although it seemed as if she had already been through the demonstration.

"Hey," I whispered back. She smiled at me warmly. My stomach knotted up.

"Not very interesting, huh?" She chin-pointed at Jane.

I laughed lightly and then shook my head. "She is interesting, but I'm too tired to pay attention."

Delilah halted suddenly, and I stood next to her in surprise, watching Jane, Ryan, and Mary go. This place was a maze, I had no idea where we were. I sneaked a glance inside a nearby room, it had a billiard board and a mini-bar. I rolled my eyes and turned to look at Del.

She was peeking around the corner at which the trio had turned and where we were supposed to go. She turned back to look at me. I gave her a questioning look, wondering what she was up to when she grabbed my hand and pulled us into the billiard room I'd seen earlier.

She shut the door behind us.

"Okay, interesting, whatcha up to?"

"We need to find a letter."

"A what?"

"A letter that our ex, Olivia, gave me, which Jane stole."

I gave her a look and she sighed loudly, rubbing her face with her hands. Her trench coat stuck to her arms, I turned to look for the light switch and turned the ceiling fan on. 

"Olivia left me because of a reason she did not say. That letter has the reason, I need it."

I blinked and silently wondered what I had gotten myself into. "Right.... and where-"

"In her room." Saying that she walked towards the billiard board. I haven't seen a lot of billiard boards but this one looked rather expensive- with the intricate carvings almost reaching the ground. Del bent over and flung the table to its side. My jaw hung from surprise. I closed my mouth abruptly just before she turned.

She raised an eyebrow. "Surprised?" I didn't reply and she chuckled. "It doesn't weigh much."

"I figured."

She shook her head with a smile and lifted the brown carpet that was on the floor beneath the billiard board to expose a circular piece of wood in the floor. A secret pathway? 

Del pressed it with the first two fingers and thumbs of both her hands, and it jumped out of the hole and moved sideways to rest on the floor with an eery creak.

"How do you know all this?" I questioned.

"I've been exploring Springfield since I was a kid." She shrugged. "I've always loved mysteries. And there were rumors that the basement is haunted." She smiled with that glint in her eye.

I shook my head and scoffed lightly. 

"Okay, I go first and then jump down later." She took off her trench coat to reveal an oversized black graphic tee. She tied the trench coat around her waist.

"Where does that lead to?" I pointed at the hole in the floor. "And is it safe?"

Del gave me a look. "Would you rather die from cancer?" Saying that she adjusted her feet into the hole and plunged right in before I could reply.

"Yes," I whispered in the air incredulously, took off my overshirt, and tied it around my waist. Then I adjusted my feet in the hole, cursed Del once, and jumped. 

It was a long slide and I landed on someone's bed facefirst in less than a minute. I got up quickly and realized I was hyperventilating. I tried to calm my lungs and maintain a straight posture lest my lungs gave in to the pressure and failed. Coughs erupted from my heart uncontrollably until I was breathless and gasping for air. I lay down on the bed taking short breaths. 

"Are you fine?" Del asked.

"Yeah, just dying."

"Cool. We're in Jane's bedroom."

I looked up from the bed. The room was big and had its share of bookshelves, accompanying the king-sized double bed with pillars on each corner from which black nets hung, was a big study table to my right, with a big armchair, and a few beanbags in the book corner. Everything was brown and beige and black. There was even a brick-walled fireplace. I got up from the silk-sheeted bed and took a calm deep breath. 

The air smelled faintly of vanilla and chocolate. Then there was the smell of old books, of course, the scent that always has been stuck around my brother.

I turned to look for Delilah, she seemed to be searching the closet. I walked to her inside the closet and almost laughed out loud at the incredulous size of the place. Jane's closet was more than double the size of my and Art's room. 

Del saw me and pointed at one of the cupboards inside the closet and I pushed the million clothes that seemed to be there away to reveal one. I had just put my hands on the handle when I heard a click.

A click of high heels on the wooden floor. Del and I turned simultaneously toward the figure that was standing at the door. I saw Del roll her eyes out of the corner of my eye.

"Looking for something, fellas?"