When Shadows Rise | I

Ch. 46 | A New Light

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Second to last chapter guys! We're finally near the end! WOO-HOO! 😄

Talia waited until the sun dipped into the horizon and faded into the velvety night sky sprinkled with stars. During the walk to her destination, she kept assuring herself that everything would be fine; she got this. All she had to do was keep an eye out on her surroundings and cruise right in.

When she got to Elm St., she crouched down behind a parked car, watching the apartment building across the street. The street light dimmed brightly caused the speckled russet and taupe concrete walls to glow, with a tree planted on the sidewalk, its long, crooked branches almost resembling a witch's bony fingers.

Talia hardly paused to breathe. She had never snuck into a person's home before (perhaps the drug lab could count as her first time, but nobody actually used it for living space, so she thought it didn't count)— especially when she was familiar with the person. Her shoulders were loaded with guilt, but she desperately needed more information.

And maybe she also wanted to hear her mother's friend's side of the story.

Tip-toeing her way across the street, making sure there weren't any neighbors around, she reached the Victorian-style gate and unlocked it— the easy part, to say the least. Now all that was left was for her to find a spare key (she knew Priya long enough to know that she always had to have a spare key, in case she lost her original one).

As briskly and quietly as possible, Talia began checking every possible place where someone would hide their spare key: under the doormat, the frame above the front door, in or around the potted plants, the lanterns, and the list went on. Talia came up empty handed, except for the dust and grime that coated her fingertips.

Talia ran her hand through her curls anxiously. She went ahead and turned on her phone: eight-thirty was what she read off her Home Screen. Priya would be home soon. How was she ever going to find that key?

She racked her brain for ideas, initially thinking in the back of her head how foolish she was to think she could accomplish something like this, when her eyes trailed upward to the plated wind chime fastened above the front door. Maybe it was pointless, but it was the last object Talia had to cover. Perhaps she could strike the pot of gold with this one.

She was a little too short to reach it, so she grabbed a small wooden stool that had been lying to the side. Being as careful as possible, Talia weaved her hand through the metal tubes, glancing over her shoulder every five seconds to make sure nobody was around to call the cops— which might've come true had she not accidentally caused two tubes to clang against each other. She hissed at her carelessness.

At last, she felt it— something metal and oddly shaped bound to the bottom of the wooden plate holding the wind chime together. She pulled it downward gently and held it up in front of her to inspect: a rustic key tied with a string attached to a piece of tape.

Stepping off the wooden stool, Talia looked dead ahead at the door. It was now or never. With a shaky breath, she inserted the key into the lock and twisted it.

***

Beep. Beep. Beep. Front door open.

The automated female voice that regurgitated those words from the alarm system set up on the wall next to the door made Talia recoil. She didn't know why she was so worried about a little white box outfitted with Priya's home security details, but her paranoid-self probably thought the machine was ratting her out to the authorities.