Arranged...WHAT?!

Chapter 5-Part 2-Maze of Hallways

Jason’s POV: *Saturday morning*

I roll onto my stomach, to get my eyes to pull away from the sun streaming through the window trying to pull me from my blissful unconsciousness. I hate mornings.

Hey, this isn’t my bed! My bed is comfy, but this is like heaven. Hmm, maybe this is heaven, maybe I died in my sleep last night, and now I’m in heaven. I wonder what it’s like here. Eh, I can find out later, heaven isn’t going anywhere, and I have eternity to explore, right?

But wait how could I be in heaven if I’m not religious? Crap, I guess this isn’t heaven. Well then where am I?

Ugh, this bed is so comfy, like a cloud. Like a pretty, pretty cloud… Am I on crack? I seriously sounded like a chick right there, hmm, maybe I’m a chick now, maybe this is like in those sci-fi stories where people swap brains. That could make sense.

No wait, I can still feel that scar on my gut from skateboarding last year.

Eh, screw this thinking, I’m just going to go back to sleep, on my pretty cloud.

“JaAason? Time to wake up!” Startled by the sudden and slightly familiar voice I jump off the bed and fall on my butt with a loud and rather painful thud.

“What the….?” I look around in this room, that looks like some kind of cloud heaven. “Where am I?” I look up at the glass ceiling that’s letting the light stream freely in, and it all comes rushing back to me. The meeting with the Lockheart’s, their huge house,  me staying here against my will, talking with Cee, watching her dance, the arguing down stairs, then coming up here, and sleeping in the sky room, which is where I’m sitting right now.

Ok, next issue to deal with is that voice. What the heck was that, anyways? It sure wasn’t my head, because I hate when people use the ‘sing-song’ voice when saying my name, it’s just so weird. But where else would it have come from? There’s no one in here, and there wasn’t before. Ugh, I hate mornings.

“Jason? You up yet? Come on down for breakfast, sweety!”

Ohhh, that was Mrs. Lockheart… dang her for baby talkin’ me! I’m not a baby, and haven’t been for 16 years. Well I guess I can forgive her if breakfast is good.

My stomach growls loudly as I picture bacon frying on a pan, fried eggs covered in butter, pancakes extra crunchy with oil, French toast with extra egg and nutmeg, light brown toast with strawberry jelly, hash browns that are crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle, and a little bowl of mixed fruits on the side. That is my perfect breakfast.

My stomach starts groaning at me again so I haul my butt off the floor and over to my bag that’s on the other side of the gigantic bed. I snatch a pair of jeans, a light blue V-neck that has dark blue explosion designs on the front, my socks with the blinking pineapples, and my tennis shoes and change.

I brush my teeth while making sure that my hair has that ‘just got out of bed’ look. I’m not like a chick that’s always checking her hair, but I might as well look good, right?

I walk out of the door to face a major problem- I have no idea how to get to the kitchen. Heck, I don’t even know how to get to the first floor from here. This is a winding hallway that’s covered in crazy splattered paint.

My best bet would be to find that banister in the middle of the house that looks down to the first floor, but there’s any number of twists, turns, and dips along the way, and I wouldn’t put it past these people to have a few dead ends along the way. Also, I have no idea whether I should go left or right to get to the center of the house.

Choosing to go to the right I let myself get lost in unanswered questions, ‘I wonder what all of these doors go to? There’s got to be something interesting in them, or they wouldn’t be here, right? Whoever designed this has got to be insane. Maybe they hired the person BECAUSE they were insane. Are the Lockhearts, themselves, insane? How could I find out? Is there some kind of test you can give someone that tells you if they’re insane or not? Would the internet have it? The internet has everything, right? Does this place have wi-fi?’

My internal banter was cut off by Harold. “There you are Mr. Eagle. Mr. and Mrs. Lockheart send their apologies, but they had to head off to work in a hurry due to an unexpected emergency.”

“Is there any other kind of emergency?” There isn’t is there?

“Well……well, I don’t think so, but I’m fairly positive that Miss Cody would be able to give you a correct answer.”

“Oh yeah, Miss Cody, forgot about her.” Commence planning of annoying Cody….. “So where is she, anyways?”

“Oh she’s disappeared again, but she should be back this evening and tomorrow at the latest.”

We’d been walking this whole time, Harold directing us through the devious maze without even looking where he was going. He’s obviously walked this a billion and ten times.

“She’s gone again? The way Penelope and Philip reacted last night made it seem like she ever left this place.” I look around at the walls, not too interested in the conversation. The walls are really cool, there’s black paint as the bottom coat, but in some places there is so much of the other colored paint that you can hardly see the black.

“Yes, well they don’t know this, but she is constantly leaving. Mr. and Mrs. Lockheart think that she only leaves for school, but Miss Cody has her own escape routes all throughout the estate. She’s a young thing, and needs her freedom, but she’s also very smart. Also, if someone were to try anything, she would- as you kids say- kick their arse.” He got an amused smile.

“So how old is she?”

But he never got to answer my question because just then we came up to the banister that looked over the six floors. Great, great view from up here. I could look at this all day, but I’m way too hungry for that.

“Just take the elevator down to the first floor, walk to the very front of the hallway, and those first double doors on your right will lead you to the family dining room. Your parents informed the cook of your favorite breakfast, and he has prepared it. After breakfast you’ll receive a small explanation of the house, and then you can explore.”

He smiled mischievously, and when I turned around to tell him my thanks just a second later he had already disappeared, but I yelled thank you anyways, and I heard him faintly chuckle and say I was welcome.

I ran to the elevator with the excitement of two separate events pumping adrenaline through my veins. 1) that I was getting my perfect breakfast made by a professional chef, and 2) I was going to get to explore this huge house, without restrictions.

Hey, everybody! Hope this is alright! Haha, are you excited for the exploration in the next chapter????? I know I am! As always the voting, commenting, fanning, and marshmallows are always welcome! J