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21: can you fit?

"Wait, so Ariel's on his way here?" I asked Benjie who nodded.

I pulled out my compact so I could see if I was looking rough or not. Once I was positive I was presentable, I put my comeback back inside of my bag and smiled. "Okay, I'm ready."

Benjie and Sol were looking at me as if I had grown two heads.

"We don't want him to find us!" Sol cried.

I frowned. "Aw...really?"

Sol grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me out of the room. Benjie followed after us.

The minute we made it to the main floor, we saw Ariel walking up the steps through the glass of the front door.

"Fuck!" Benjie cursed.

Sol pushed me towards a room that seemed to be the kitchen. Then, he opened two of the cupboards that were underneath the counter and pointed to them. "Can you fit?"

"Um, no," I answered, crossing my arms.

"Just try, just try," Sol said.

With a sigh, I got onto the ground and crawled into the cupboards. I was surprised to find that I could fit just fine. Sol closed the door and scurried off somewhere. I opened the doors a crack so I could breathe and see what was going on in the outside world.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of doors closing. Then, the sound of shoes walking against the marble floor was heard. After I heard a few squeaks, the noise stopped.

I peaked my head out and looked around before I crawled out of my hiding spot. The door of a room that I could safely guess was the pantry swung open, revealing Sol. Benjie was casually walking around the place when Sol and I got out of our hiding spots.

"Why did you hide?" I asked Sol.

"There's a camera thing there and I wasn't sure if it sent Ariel my face. Then what if he actually sees me? Cuz technically, I got his attention," Sol answered.

"If there's a camera thingy there and it sends you alerts if you had gone in, how come Benjie was able to enter?" I asked.

"Yo, what day did you break in?" Sol asked.

Benjie thought about it. "I don't remember...but I do remember that you and Ariel were super busy that day so I guess you guys didn't pay attention. And I heard gunshots when I was opening the safe so I quickly went in and closed it behind me. I didn't wat to get shot."

Sol's face fell. "You came in the day I died. Specifically, the moment I was killed."

Awkward silence.

I decided to break the silence. "You guys closed the door to the money room, right?"

Sol and Benjie looked at each other before gasped. "Fuck! We forgot!"

"You forgot!?" I yelled.

Suddenly, the sound of someone walking up the stairs were heard.

"That's Ariel!" Benjie cried.

I smiled.

Sol noticed. "Stop smiling!"

I frowned.

"Um, run!" Benjie yelled at us.

Sol and I quickly ran in the same direction, unsure of where we were going. Thankfully, we had run into a set of stairs leading upstairs. We quickly ran up the stairs until we were on the 2nd floor.

There was railing that was open to the front of the house and the railing lead to the main stairs that were also at the front of the house. As a result, Sol and I had to crouch down as we ran into the nearest room, just in case Ariel saw us.

"What is this place?" I wondered out loud, looking around.

After seeing a painting of Sol on a horse similar to Napoleon's iconic painting hanging on the wall, I quickly deducted that this was Sol's room.

Sol had his hands in his pockets as he looked around his room. "They didn't take anything out. They kept it exactly the way I left it."

He slowly made his way to the bedside table and picked up one of the picture frames that were sitting on the table. I moved closer so I could see the picture.

It was a picture of Sol and a little girl smiling with reindeer filters on them. The little girl bore a striking resemblance to Sol and I noticed she also had the Eguiluz ring on her middle finger, the same place where Sol had his ring.

"Who's that?" I quietly asked Sol.

"My daughter. She's turning 8 soon," Sol answered as he carefully put the picture back down on the table.

"You have a daughter? And she'll be 8? How old were you when she was born?" I asked before I began to do the math with my fingers.

"14," Sol answered.

I blinked. "14?"

Sol grabbed another picture from the table and sat on the bed. "When I was 14, I was dumb and I did an orgy. Then, 10 months later, Sun showed up at my doorstep. I have no idea who the mom is and to be honest, I don't care. She never showed up so why should I care? We kept Sun a secret from the media to protect her...but it's obvious that my parents did it because they were embarrassed."

He laid his back on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. "I wonder how my parents are doing...?"

I felt that I should let Sol have his privacy. It's his first time in his house since he died, after all.

I poked my head through the doorway to see if Ariel was coming up. Once I was positive, I closed the door and scurried down the stairs. As I made my way to the bottom, I saw Benjie at the foot of the stairs, gesturing me to go back up.

I proceeded to turn around but I accidentally twisted on my foot. "Ow!" I squeaked out.

"You idiot!" Benjie yelled.

The found of footsteps suddenly grew louder and I realized that Ariel had heard me. Basically limping, I ran back upstairs. As I passed Sol's room, I felt someone grab my arm and pull me into Sol's room.

"Who-" I couldn't finish what I was saying because the person had put his hand over my mouth.

I looked up and saw it was Sol. He put a finger to his lips and pointed to the small space under his bed.

I narrowed my eyes. Okay, yes, so I can surprisingly fit inside of a cupboard. Now he's trying to see if I can fit under his bed? He's obviously having fun.

Suddenly, the doorknob began to turn.

Sol and I shot panicked looks at each other before we scanned the room for a hiding spot. Then, the door opened.

Our feet shuffled on the floor as we followed the way the door opened. We ended up in the corner of the room with the door blocking us. My back was against the wall and Sol, who was in front of me, had both of his hands against the wall on either side of me.

...

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