Hush

Chapter Fourteen

The two boys decided they'd explore the kitchen, knowing the dangers of the top floor and figuring that the basement was no better.

Hush shone the beam of light into the kitchen, the inai, who said to call her Khanesi, flinching away from it. Hush kept a tight grip around her wrist, not trusting the girl quite yet.

The light lit up a small portion of an old-looking marble counter top and the side of a sink. They had tried turning it on, and, not surprisingly, nothing came out but a quiet clanking sound. The handle and tap themselves were rusty, and an odd odor came from the drain.

They had tried opening the window in there too, but to no avail. Before coming into the kitchen, they had tried to go out through the side door, despite the inai's snarky comments, calling them idiots for even trying.

As they thought, the door wouldn't open, seemingly locked from the outside. Even if there was a lock on the inside they doubted it would make a difference as neither of them knew how to pick a lock, and Hush knew that the house would bounce any magic they used right back at them.

They couldn't decide where her the basement was a good idea or a bad one. The inai had attacked Hush, but that was because the house couldn't attack him itself. Hush reasoned that the house could be hiding something, and Rune reasoned that it cups be a trap, again. There were certainly no windows to break out of downstairs.

I don't understand how you did that, Khanesi said to Hush, though it sounded like a whisper in his ears. The windows were unbreakable.

"Magic," Hush said, literally. "Some kind of explosion magic... or something."

You don't know what kind of magic you used? Khanesi asked.

"I was barely awake," Hush stated.

"Hush?" Rune questioned, patting Hush's shoulder, "Are you talking to yourself?"

Hush shook his head no. "I'm talking to Khanesi."

Rune tilted his head. "Can't she talk out loud?"

"Yes," she snapped, her voice shrill and unforgiving, laced with a kind of cold time that Hush never knew a voice could carry. "I do not like speaking."

Khanesi seemed to have trouble pronouncing her words, speaking slowly and with care. Hush figured it was because she didn't have anyone else to talk to; out loud, at least.

"We were talking about what kind of magic I used to get out the first time," Hush explained. "Come on."

Hush led them down the hall, ignoring Khanesi as she pestered him to let go of her wrist.

It's not like I'm going to run away, Khanesi reasoned.

"I don't know that for sure," Hush said flatly. "I don't trust you."

Obviously, she huffed.

They got to the stairs leading up, which was separated from the stairs leading down by a wall. Neither set looked particularly inviting to the two Magi.

"Up or down?" Hush asked.

"I'd pick up... at least that way there might be a chance that there's a window we can break," Rune replied, starting up the stairs as Hush nodded.

I doubt you can do it again, Khanesi grumbled, following Hush up. Hush ignored her. He doubted it too, but he wouldn't admit that. It seemed to be a spur of the moment action. He almost felt bad for the girl again, being locked in darkness for the entirety of her existence, practically. Did she even know what real light was like?

Could she ever know what real light was like?

The questions weren't that important, not right now, but Hush still wondered. It was the matter that he had been inhabited by one of her kind at a point. But how did it find him before it burned up in the light of the fires? It struck him as odd. Could there possibly be different kinds? Stronger ones, resistant to light?

Hush shook his head as they got to the landing. The two Magi expected the stairway to be gone when they turned around, but, to their surprise, it was still there.

They turned their attention to the doors in front of them. The one with the light coming from it was on their right now, whereas it had been on the left before. There were now two doors in front of them; one to the right and four to the left. The house had shifted on the inside but managed to keep its appearance on the outside.

The inai shied away from the one that light seemed to be leaking out of, reasonably. Just had already decided that there was no point going in there, having done so before. Rune's heaavhe had subsided, so he was a bit more willing to go into another room.

The first two doors they tried were locked, though there was no evidence of keyholes in the doors themselves. Possibly... locked from the inside?

The next door, however, was unlocked and was ajar. It was as if it had been pushed open by the wind or some kind of animal.

Hush pushed it open using his body weight at first, and then Rune's too. The door was surprisingly heavy and was cold against their skin. Hush figured it was made from a metal of some sort.

Once the door was open, Hush stepped inside... and almost fell. Rune pulled him back just in time, holding Hush against his chest. Both boys looked down. It was an abyss, or it seemed to be. The darkness there seemed to be swirling, rising and falling.

Breathing, Hush realized. The darkness looked like it was breathing.

Could it be the house's core? No, no, it was too easy. Right there, vulnerable to magic and their flashlights. It couldn't possibly be-

Just then, something cold seized hold of Hush's ankle. It squeezed tight and he yelled as he was pulled forwards.

Out of Rune's grip.

Out of the safety of people.

And into the darkness.