Ridges Left to Reach

Chapter 1: The One, Who Explores

I walked down the hall of my Aunt's oddly, large house. The carpet squished under my feet as I gently, trudge down the shiver full, dark tiny hallway. I keep my ears open, listening to see if anything awoke or moved. I watched the light of my candle flicker as I shifted through the air-filled spaces in front of me. Being careful to not make a sound. "Creak"  I immediately stop in place. My legs tightly bound together, hands shaking slightly, back straight and sift, my head is tilted slightly to the side, and eyes constantly looking back n' forth until I found the thing that moved. It was the dark dogwood door of my cousin, Chase. The wood barked as the door rotated slowly on its hinges. It stops suddenly as the bronzy gold handle turns slow. The door pauses for a second, frozen in time.   

.....

Time starts again, me still holding my breath. I watch as the door gently starts to swing back shut. With the fear of something coming out that door; I wait for a minute or two in the same position, breath still hitched.
    A minute passes of standing still; If there were to be a statue next to me there would be no difference. My mind froze not letting me think, speak, or move. I finally let out a big, silent heave of carbon dioxide. As reality kicked in I started my journey up again. The long walk to the dreaded stairs wasn't fun or easy either. As my Aunt's house is quite old compared to the newly built houses a few miles away from here. The floors would creak every now and then. Now noticing this, I decided to take a little bit slower of a pace. My feet gently hitting the floor with stout, short steps. The hallway I was in, was quite a spectacle. It had fancy, gold picture frames, blue stained walls, doors of dogwood with the bronzy-gold knobs, gold wall lights, tables with gold vases with pretty white flowers, and very expensive rugs of silk and wool. It was quite a pretty thing. As if the gold wasn't enough she had million dollar paintings hang throughout the hallway.
    After a few minutes of walking like a mouse, I finally reached my destination. The marbled stairs spun in a spiral, almost snake-like. The railing, a golden rod in a helix attached to many giant black chopsticks. I hated these stairs; they're worse than skydiving. I would usually use the elevator, but as I am trying not to make noise that wouldn't help me out one bit. I took a deep breathe regretting my decision of not just asking my Aunt if I could just stay at my friend's house. But, that's not much of an adventure is that now.
  I usually only act like this at home. Most people in school know of me as that kid that is easily gullible, shy, and not worth anyone's time. So most of the time I sit in the back while everyone has fun; most of the kids in my school think I have no life so they take everything out on me. But, I used to have friends. At least I think they were my friends. But that's not true anymore. My only true friends are the stars. (her friends passed away due to a car accident that she thought was her fault bc she was the only one to survive.) I try to think on the other side of things; I always tell myself if they hurt me, they are hurting on the inside, so I just let it happen. Otherwise,  let's get back to the story, shall we?

"Blink"

The metal cap of my shoelace hits the marbled surface. I lift my shoe softly off the ground; I gently step down to the next stair. The clinking noise disappeared.

Finally, I reached the bottom of the helix. As soon as I looked down I noticed something twinkle from the light of my candle. I reached down to grab the small object. I felt the icy stone touch my skin; a slight jolt of electricity shot up my fingers and arm. I picked it up, bringing my small, gentle hand to my face for a better look. I opened my hand to see a silver-blue crystal lying on my palm. A silver chain connected to it. The crystal almost looked as if the moon and the ocean collided into a frozen icicle. I noticed the shiny twinkle had come from a small, teardrop opal. The opal intrigued me; it's off white background, covered by slivers of stars and light rays. I could see the entire rainbow in the gem. Up until now, I never have seen anything like it, the colors worked together, but did not blend. The gem was almost a painting; holding onto a story of its own, its own creator. I stared at the gem with no intent, but to keep it with me. So, I unclasped the hook and wrapped the thin, silver chain around my neck. Hooking the back. As soon as I let go I felt the same jolt of energy as before. I grabbed the gem without thinking to stop it from touching my skin.
I let the gem sit right between my collarbones. With the jolt of energy, nowhere to be seen. So, I dropped the topic and continued on with the journey to my basement. As I reached the end of the short hallway, which connected the stairs to the basement door.
My Aunt's basement door was quite out of place. The wood stained a reddish-brown, the doorknob silver, and a sign "Beware of my son." It didn't fit in with the theme of the house at all. Everything around this oddly placed door was royal-like, almost like the queen lived here. My Aunt loved anything fancy, so the first time I came to live here I was shocked to see the cherry door in the wall of a very civilized house. It truly was a fish out of water. The sign didn't make much sense either. It was out of place. The sign was a dull, gray-brown color with black letters painted on. The paint was snow falling to the ground. With flakes of black still holding on. It was hanging by a thread from a rusty old nail. The rope held the nail with its life. It was like a rope used to tie a boat down.