"I swear I'm sane. I swear there's a devil lurking around every corner of this building. It's become my shadow."
They're all hiding something. Even her parents.
Searching for a bigger house in the bustling city of Argon Winchester, the Colton fami...
River interrupted her with a laugh. "You could just say beautiful instead of reciting a thesaurus that was written using alliteration." He regaled her after their walk through Venger's territory.
They stood at the border of Kildare, the towering iron spikes stood like sentries on crime watch. They were gates, one could easily see that but that was not what Ria saw it as. She could smell it; the miasma of a mystery. It was rotten, maybe dead too but she was sure, there was a secret lurking somewhere. There's always a juicy secret behind a door. She couldn't wait to play a ravenous game of hide and seek. If only someone had told her about the ticking bomb.
Tick, tock, tick, tock.
No two people ever see the exact same thing, some aspects may be similar but at the end, we are all different. River saw a cage, an odd, familiar cage he called home, until he didn't belong; he was an overachiever, a lonely cloud.
"Come, let me give you a tour." River insisted, enjoying the sight of a teenager in complete awe, he hadn't seen someone so entrapped by Kildare. Every visitor who ever stepped in the perimeter of Kildare was melancholic, miserable, like the was nothing good to see. He doubted Kildare ever see the sight of a smile, he never smiled, not until Ria came.
Enthralled by the majestic darkness that shrouded the Manor, Ria took a step forward. The whole structure was like a crescent moon as soon as one was passed the gates. Ria and River were at the beginning of the moon's outstretched arms. Ivy climbed and crawled up the dulled grey stoned walls encircling the place. Within the moons half, there were five identical, dark maroon doors, the only thing distinguishing them from each other was the specks of gold that drew symbols onto the surface.
"Every door is marked with two symbols, I was told when my was brought here. Though I have no clue in what they stand for. Come I'll show you." River beaconed her forward, towards the first door.
They paused a few feet away from the structure not wanting to trespass.
"I'm not sure who lives here, I've actually never seen them come out before. Dead neighbours." Ria's eyes widened to his statement. River laughed again, his iconic, contagious laugh. "I don't mean it, Ria, I just have never seen them or heard them so I assume."
"You mean you theorise." She smiled slyly, an auspicious glint in her shimmering emerald eyes.
River gave a slow and polite nod. "I surely do, my lady."
"Quite the gentleman you are."
"Of course." He thought he finally understood how it felt to be understood, someone else who saw the past as an adventure and language as a necessity and not a wisecrack.
