Breathe

Chapter 15 - The Entire Experience

 After dinner, like always, I headed to my room for some late night reading. Softly closing my door, I went to my bed—avoiding the remnants of a tornado that seemed to have scattered books all over my room—and lay down. Then, I grabbed the first book on my desk, cracked it open, and began to read.

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We made our way onto the porch of the house of the cliff. As we drew closer to the front door, the planks creaked louder and louder until all we could hear were its squeaks. Finally, we were facing the front door.

"Are you going to go in first?" Kirk asked.

"No, are you?"

He fervently shook his head. "I'd really prefer not to, Nat. You know, I'm not really into this thing called 'dying,' and would really prefer it if you went in first. You know, I heard that you die from dying—it's fatal."

I rolled my eyes. Pansy. But although I thought that, I couldn't help but notice the shakiness of my hand as I reached for the knob. I could barely see my reflection through the darkness of the night. And for some reason, just that made me shiver all over my body. With the knob being only a few inches away, I mustered up enough courage and gripped it tightly. Then, I turned it, pushed it, and backed away.

Creeak.

Emptiness greeted us. And with it, unbearable silence.

I glanced at Kirk. Again, with a nervous laugh, he repeated: "I'd really prefer it if you went in first."

Cautiously, I took a step forward.

Creeak.

He followed suit. Then, another. He was still right behind me. I pulled out my gun for safe measures. I heard him do the same, too. At least we were on the same page.

Suddenly, I heard something move. I pointed my gun in its direction. A bird peeked its head underneath the covers of the blanketed piano. It stared at me. I stared at it. Then, after blinking twice, it spread its wings and flew away, out passed us. My shoulders relaxed. Suddenly, I noticed my tough grip on the gun and loosened it a bit. Relax, Nathan, relax—it's just a bird. No one's in here.... probably.

Since we were already in the house, Nat took the integrity to finally stand by my side. Turning in every direction, he looked around. "Doesn't it seem like stuff got moved?"

I looked around, too. Now that he mentioned it, someone had moved the blanket off the piano from last time. And I'm sure they did. I remember hearing someone playing the piano until May—or at least, I think it was May—told them to stop. Also, the couch had been moved back to its original position and the cushions were perfectly in place.

It was as though we've never been in here.

An uneasy feeling settled in my stomach.

Was it really a good idea to come here without the others?

Shaking that thought out of my head, I instead decided to trail on. We had a purpose, and I can't lose sight of it. Not when we have gotten this far.

Walking towards the hall, I waved my arm and called for him. "Kirk, this way."

Hastily, he sped behind me, his keys jingling all the way. We sped down the uncluttered halls to the room where the secret room was hidden. Didn't want to spend too much time here, after all.

We made it to the room in one piece. Without wasting time, I went to the bookshelf and pulled all the books down. After all, one of them was bound to be the right one. And sure enough, I heard a rumble and looked back to see the walls diverging. Good.