Elmwood

5| Water Balloon Guns

The car ride passed in pure silence.

Sage insisted that she, Ellie, and I drove in our own car and followed Drex and Sebastian to their house. She probably thought they were going to kidnap us and wanted an opportunity to get away by ourselves instead of relying on their car. She wasn't wrong.

I looked out the window, sitting in the backseat, watching the setting sun. I checked my phone. It was eight-thirty in the evening. I had an hour max left before I would get in trouble for being out too late.

I couldn't believe it was only eight-thirty. It feels like a full day passed from when we were sitting in Sage's living room and eating cookies.

The cookies!

I wanted to bash my head into a wall. I still left all of the chocolate chip cookies sprawled across the kitchen floor. Why didn't I eat any when we were talking about witches and spells? It would've been a nice equivalent for popcorn.

We were on a road leading through a more spacious side of town where the houses had large lands, though they were usually wooded areas. Rising mansions stood behind the gated communities. I wasn't surprised, only looked for any new names on the private properties. I always wanted to know which new celebrity or athlete moved into town.

They were never A-listers unless they were born in the town, so Elmwood stayed largely out of major media outlets. But, it was always well-known enough to attract the lesser-known members of the upper class as well as the upper-middle class, like my classic Indian software engineer parents.

We turned onto a path that I never noticed was there before. It was right next to the fence separating a large, empty plot of grass from a neighborhood. Trees rose in the distance.

We continued following Drex's car down the straight path. Finally, we entered the wooded area and our view of the sunset was obscured. The path winded through the woods and around trees until we turned one last curve and the trees opened up to reveal a mansion.

It was three floors tall with an older architecture as if it was built in the mid-1900s. Even in a town filled with large houses, I was taken by surprise at the size of the house. It was wide and I was sure the house extended much further back than I could imagine. The trees covered our view of the outside world. It was its own little island.

We followed Drex's car and drove around the circular path in front of the entrance before coming to a stop. I looked over at Ellie who was sitting next to me and staring out the window in silence. Sage looked through the rearview mirror as she cut the engine.

"How are you holding up?" Sage asked.

"I'm fine," Ellie responded. "Let's just go in."

"Fine. But the moment you feel overwhelmed, you can just ask. We'll leave right then and there."

Ellie nodded and I looked at Sage, expecting her to ask me about my wellbeing, but she just stepped out of the car. I sighed and followed the two down the driveway and up the front steps where the Cartier cousins were waiting in front of the doors.

"Finally," Drex snapped. "I was about to rot away."

"You should've," Ellie told him.

Looks like the car ride was very beneficial to her disposition.

Sebastian snickered behind him and Drex glared before turning back to us. "Welcome to my very own mansion."

With a flick of his wrist, the large french doors flew open and we stepped inside. A large chandelier hung from the ceiling, sending fragments of light down through the room. Two grand staircases curved against both sides of the entrance hall and twisted up to the second floor.