what goes on in the dark?

chapter 5- empty room

My foot goes through the door and rotten pieces of wood fly up. I shield Emma with my body. With another kick I've broken down enough door that we can both fit inside. We climb through the gap in the door. No sign of my brother. "Is it me or is it getting cold?" Emma asks me. I shake my head "I'm not cold. Do you wanna borrow my jacket? ''I ask her. She nods my head and I slide my hoodie off and help her into it. "Fucking hell alex have you been going to the gym or some shit" she says her eyes are so big they're almost exploding out of my head. Until recently I hadn't ever been the fittest of guys. Daniel got all the good traits. The muscles, the jawline, the body and the strength. I was always the book smart kinda nerdy guy. Till last year. I started going to the gym once a week with my brother. I started to quickly lose weight. I then decided to take up running and cycling. I work in the library most days. It's a quick 10 minute bike ride or 15 minute run. So most days I run there and back. Then in my free time I went to the gym and got bigger and started to diet properly. Now I haven't got the world's largest muscles but they're definitely noticeable if I'm wearing a t-shirt. Today is one of those days. Emma hadn't seen me in a t-shirt normally cus she'd come and see me at the library but I always wore a jumper or a long sleeve shirt. "I mean a little" I say with a slight chuckle.

She looks at me in disbelief "a little, i reckon your arms are bigger than daniels for god sake" she says. I laugh "now you're over exaggerating" I say and take her hand again. "Come on, there's one more room to search, then we can go and get something to eat and find a way to warm you up." We squeeze through the gap in the door and walk towards the last room. I feel it gets colder as we go. I shrug it off and reach the last door. I touch the door knob and the door sort of crumbles. "Well " I mummer and shield Emma as I launch another heavy kick at another door. My foot flys through and splinters fly everywhere. "Fuck" i mutter theres a slight pain in my arm but its probably nothing. "Um Alex," Emma says. I turn to look at her and see her free hand pointing at my arm. There's a trickle of blood slowly going down my arm. "Eh it's just a scratch" I say. But Emma already has a pack of tissues in her hand which she's pulled out of her jean pocket. She pulls the little splinter of wood out of my arm and covers the small hole it's left with a tissue and applies some pressure. "Thank god nurse Emma is here to save me" I say half sarcastically. I feel her slightly pinch my skin "ow ow ow ok ok message received loud and clear" i say i see a small smile cross emma's face for the first time since we got in the building. A couple minutes later the bleeding has all but stopped emma wipes the small bit of blood down my arm and then with a smile says "well that's you all patched up sir but do come back if you have any other issues with your arm or anything else for that matter" she then winks at me. "Welllllllllllllll i'll bear that in mind nurse emma" and we squeeze through the door. Another empty room as we're about to leave we hear a scuttle Emma freaks out and jumps into my arms. I catch her and then we see a rat scuttle across the floor and she breathes out a sigh of relief. I look down at her brown eyes and wait for her to take her eyes off the rat for a solid minute. We just look into each other's eyes almost in a different world. "Hi" i say eventually. I use one of my hands to clear a strand of blonde hair from her forehead. She snaps out of her trance at my touch "hi" she says back we laugh and i put her back down.

I take her hand and we leave the farm house and retrace our steps through the field back to the forest by the time we get back into town it's getting dark. "Alex, I don't trust leaving you alone in the dark" she says. She takes my hand "you're coming home with me and I don't wanna hear you argue with me" I look at her and blink here I am about to be taken home by the girl I've had a crush on since I was 12. We get to her street corner and she pulls me down her drive and into her front garden. She fiddles around in her pocket for a minute and pulls her key out her pocket. She puts it into her door and unlocks it. We walked in and sat down in her living room. "Are your parents not around??" I ask her. She shakes her head "nah there on holiday remember" I nod my head recalling she mentioned they where in France for the week. We sit on the sofa and Emma cuddles up to me. "Someone's cuddly tonight" I remark. In response she tries to press herself closer to me. I laugh and wrap my arms around her. We sit on her sofa for what feels like eternity. At midnight I can hear Emma snoring lightly. I lift her up and carry her upstairs and tuck her into bed. I stand in her room for a sec. "Holy shit" I mummer and softly close the door. I head back downstairs and decide now's a good time to sleep. I find a blanket in her living room and set myself up on her sofa.