The Locket

Chapter 22- The Secret Room At The Secret House

It must be important, I thought, and I quickly changed into black pants, a white button up shirt, and a sage green sweater. I decided I didn't have enough time to brush my hair, so quickly combed through it with my fingers and wore my white and black converse. I grabbed the Locket and rushed out the door, locking it. I thought I saw someone out of the corner of my eyes, but shook it off. And completely forgetting about anything else, rushed to the woods.

I went to the portal, and quickly went crawled through it. It took me seven seconds, must be a record.

I went to the treehouse where we usually meet. 

I climbed up the ladder to find that no one was there.

I sat down on the rocking chair to catch my breath a little. "Where could he be?" I thought aloud "We always meet here, where else would he want me to meet him? The castle gates?"

But before I could be sure, I saw a white note on the table, next to a compass.

"Go back to the portal. Travel west, for about five minutes, and you'll find a house. You'll find me there," I read it aloud.

I hummed, slightly annoyed. What was he playing at? Is this all a game or something? He called me this urgently to leave a note telling me where to meet him instead of just meeting him. And the compass. So convenient.

I sighed, and got up. Might as well see what he's up to.

I went all the way back to the portal, and looked at the compass. I turned around a little until I was facing the west direction.

"Well," I sighed "here it goes."

I checked my watch. I had been walking for four minutes, forty seconds. I walked for about ten more seconds and pushed away some leaves and bushes, and there it was. A house. This was where he lived? In the middle of nowhere? That's kinda depressing. I went to the doorway.

I knocked, but no one opened. I knocked once again, but there was no response.

"I swear, if this is a prank," I huffed and opened the door.

"Hello?" I said, and my voice echoed across the house.

I looked into the rooms downstairs.

I hesitated, but went upstairs. 

There were two rooms here. I looked through the first room.

Nope.

I looked through the second and last room, and saw Nathan sitting on the bed, reading a book. Always the last room.

"Nathan?" I said gently.

He looked up from his book at me, and beamed. 

"Hey, Alexa!" he said happily, patting the spot next to him on the bed "You found me!"

"Sure did." I smiled, despite my slight annoyance. I sat down next to him.

I looked at him properly. He looked...fine. He looked much better than when I last saw him. He was still slightly pale, but looked cheery. And somehow, it didn't feel- it didn't feel exactly like him. Somehow artificial.

"I'm sorry I couldn't come," he said "I'm just not feeling that well. I left that note there yesterday night, knowing you'd find this place."

"Yeah," I said "your message sounded urgent, so I rushed here. What's happened?"

"Oh, uh," he said, "there's something I wanna show you."

I'm sure I had imagined it, but it looked as if his smile faded away for a split second, but then came back again.

"It's a secret though, so no one should know," he continued "No one except me knows till now."

I decided I'd ask him about Nathan- Nathaniel after he shows me...whatever it is he wants to show me.

"Lead the way," I smiled.

He put his book on a table and led the way.

We were out in the hallway. He led me to the very back. He felt around the wall for a second, and then opened up a door in the next.

"What in the world-" I said.

"This is my, uh secret room. I have some pretty cool stuff here." he said proudly. "Come on, let's go in. You first."

"Okay," I said and crawled through the door. More crawling, don't you just love crawling?

I entered a room with a lot of glass jars. Against one wall, was a table with a large book on it. I read it. "The Enchantment Book"

They should get better at naming things, I thought.

The walls were deep grey, made out of stone. The lighting was an eerie purple. It didn't even feel like this was part of the same house anymore. 

"You do enchantments?" I asked Nathan as he got up and brushed his knees.

"Uh-" he said "I'm, uh, learning." he nodded.

"That's cool!" I said "Can I check out the book?" I went over to the book and was about to open it when Nathan grabbed my arm and stopped me.

"Wait!" he said.

I raised my eyebrows.

"Uh, later." He said.

I saw a glass jar. It has a white light coming from inside it. It felt different from the rest of the room. It felt like...happiness.

 "Wanna sit down?" 

"Sure."

He led me to the other part of the room where there was a [surprisingly] comfy chair. Nathan didn't really sit, he just stood there.

"You gonna sit, or-?" 

"Nah, I'm fine," he shook his head.

"Hey, Nathan?" I asked after a few moments of silence "can I ask you something?"