The Luna Cure

FIVE

My stomach dropped.

* * *

I was absolute horrendous at video games. I think I had always been, but playing with the boys earlier had obviously proven that. Even when they gave me all the advantages, I was still trying to figure out which button was which by the time they had killed me.

I quickly gave the remote back to them and instead watched them get into the game, turning it into an intense battle between the two brothers instead of a friendly competition. They reminded me of my two brothers, Hayden and Harrison. They had always turned everything into a competition.

I hadn't realized that I had dozed off in the chair until one of the boys woke me. I was so disoriented that I couldn't even figure out which one it was.

"My mom just called us all down to dinner. Let's go to the dining room." He explained, putting the devices back and turning off the television.

I blinked hard, still getting over my nap. Dinner, already?

I glanced at the clock below the television. It read six thirty. Batilda had told me an hour and a half after everyone else.

"Let's go, slowpoke. Our mother does not appreciate any minute with us on the loose." Tristan said from the doorway.

I shook my head, waving them out. 'I'll be there soon. I need to use the bathroom.' I mouthed, and they both cocked their heads.

"I'd like to consider myself a good lip reader, but I'm not that good. Here, use this," Triton handed me a sleek black device out of his pocket. A phone.

My goddess, I haven't seen one of these in years. They looked so different, and so much lighter. I practically gaped at the thing.

But I snapped out of it. Triton had put me on some sort of typing thing, so I wrote what I had tried to say down.

He raised his eyebrow. "You know where the dining room is?"

I nodded. They led me down a hallway and pointed out the bathroom, and then they left.

I went into the bathroom and stared at myself in the mirror. Even after my nap, I had dark circles under my eyes. Tired couldn't even describe the amount of fatigue I looked to have been. And maybe some of it truly was the kind of energy I could get back from sleep. But I knew most of it wasn't.

I sighed, waiting a few minutes in the room. It was gorgeous, as was everything else in the house, and the marble carried on to everything in here.

When I finally felt the coast was clear, I walked out. I was relieved to find that not a single person was in sight.

The dinner was pungent from here though, which meant I should find somewhere else to go, further away from the food. Tempting myself would only be more dangerous.

So I wandered away from the food smell, up two flights of stairs, and down a few corridors. Eventually, I was as lost as could be. This place was huge, and I hadn't been smart enough to try and figure out a system to avoid this.

But I knew I still had a while before Batilda had allowed me to go downstairs, so I continued wandering.

Finally, I came across a set of double white doors. They didn't look like they led somewhere private like all the other rooms, and they were one of the few to have two doors instead of just one.