The Key to Everything

Chapter 33

I hope you enjoy

***

"Well that was fun." Gizem chirped as she made her way towards the washroom to clean herself up. I followed her but stopped before the door of the second washroom, and turned on the shower as I let the warm water slide down my body. I thought about how I had just overcome the biggest fear of my life; I walked out feeling happier than I did before entering.

"How did it feel?" Eros said, as I looked up.

"What?" I asked.

"You know, being thousands of feet up in the air without a railing on either side of the road. How did it feel?" He asked, smiling.

"Good, better actually. I was terrified to be on top there but now that it's done it feels better." I explained as he listened.

"That's nice. Well, I'll freshen up." He said as he walked towards the bathroom. I sat in front of the burning fireplace, trying to warm myself up. I wore my normal clothes instead of the suit, they were more comfortable and the cabin was warm anyway so I always wore my normal clothes inside, as did others.

Diana was inside the bathroom now that Gizem was out trying to dry her hair with a towel.

"Should I help?" I offered.

"Yes, please." She replied, her voice calm and innocent.

"Alright, come here." I told her as she waddled her way near the fireplace. I took the towel from her hands and started by squeezing the water out of her hair at the ends, as I made my way up. Gizem had beautiful wavy brown hair just like her older sister. When most of the water from her was gone, I wrapped her hair into the towel.

"Done." I said, resting my hands on her shoulder.

"Thank you." She smiled.

"No problem." I said as I got up and beelined my way towards the cabin, I saw a small packet of chips and that was perfect for me.

"Gizem, you want something?" I asked her.

"No, not really." She said, I walked back towards the couch and sat down on the couch once again humming.

Eros came out and walked straight into the kitchen, he got himself a glass of water and chugged the whole thing down.

"Dude, are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, well no. The soap went inside my mouth, and god did it taste awful." He said, letting out a nervous laugh.

"You idiot." Gizem said, "You are supposed to wash yourself with it instead of eating it."

I let out a laugh.

The swish sound which indicated the food was ready echoed in the cabin. Carl, who had freshened up a long time ago and was resting in his room came out and so did Diana. We all sat down and ate dinner in peace, and we all fell asleep in peace. It was a normal and a good night, exactly how I liked it.

The first thing I remembered after getting up was hearing Gizem and Diana argue about which pillow each one wanted for the next night. Diana got what she wanted and Gizem was sulking with a bowl of cereal in front of her, she was adorable. I finally got out of bed and headed towards the washroom. I heard Eros and Carl talking about something in the living room but I wasn't sure what. Plus the delicious scent of cookies filled the room so it was really hard to focus on what they were saying over the scent. I freshened up and came out, on the kitchen counter was a tray full of fresh stemming cookies. My legs quickly made their way towards the tray, but when I tried to take a cookie for myself Eros slapped my hand away.

"What?" I whined.

"Not yet, sweetheart. Let the others come out." He said.

"Not fair, and since when did you learn how to bake?" I asked.

"I always knew how to cook and bake, whenever I visited Carl his parents would make me sit with them and bake and stuff. Carl used to think they were embarrassing him, but I used to have a lot of fun. They are like my second parents." He explained, his face changing into something softer.

"That must have been nice, but you know what would be nicer? Me having one of your cookies." I said.

"Fine." He chuckled.

I took one and bit into it, savouring the scent and flavour of it. It had chocolate chips added into them. A beautiful amalgam of caramelised butter and sugar. It was just amazing, I looked up from the cookie in my hand and glanced at Eros. I found him smirking,

"What?" I asked him again, afraid of some idiotic comment that might come out of his mouth.

"How is it? The cookie." He said pointing at the single bitten cookie in my hand.

"Mhm, it's good, you know. Not too bad, great work Eros." I said as I watched amusement dance around in his eyes and corners of his lips tug upwards.

"Good to know, sweetheart." He said, lazily.

Diana and Carl soon came out, Gizem followed with the finished cereal bowl. When Carl spotted the tray of cookies, he rushed and picked one up and took a bite.

"Damn bro, these are better than mom's. I'm gonna take a few." Carl said, and as soon as those words escaped his mouth Eros smirked at me. I could feel my cheeks heating up and his smirk growing wider. I walked right out of there and prepared a coffee for myself, trying to ignore the fact that Eros's eyes were burning in my back.

While the water was boiling I decided to make some butter and bread. I could hear Gizem eating the cookies and praising Eros to "Create such bliss for this tiring journey." Her word not mine. I took my bread and coffee and half eaten cookie and sat down on the dinner table. Eros soon followed and was sitting opposite of me, he took the half eaten cookie from my plate and ate it all in one bite. I opened my mouth to say something but decided against it.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did you want this not so bad cookie? Should I get another one for you?" He asked, amusement dancing in his eyes again.

"No it's okay, Eros. Thank you for your kindest offer." I said, offering him a sickeningly sweet smile as I sipped my coffee. He chuckled, the pleasant noise filled the room, it was enough to bring a smile to my face as well. The rest of the morning went by in the most normal way possible, Eros and I talking and cooking together; Diana and Carl talking about something on the porch and Gizem burying her nose in a book.

We were back to walking on the snow to a portal which could end us all, I didn't care though. It was my life, I was going to live it or lose it and I preferred the first. The icy air filling my lungs, as I exhaled my breath fogged up my view. I enjoyed this process, inhaling and exhaling. Again and again and again, until the moment I die. It calmed me as it proved that I was still alive, still breathing, still inhaling and exhaling, no matter what lays in front of you. We are in front of another portal, the purple and deep blue swirls moving in sync, creating a trap. A trap that attracted you into entering it without thinking first about what layed beyond it. We walked into it.

Thick scent of concrete filled my lungs, my vision returning to me. The dim room with three massive statues stood in front of us, when one of them shifted in their seat I immediately turned around to look at the post-it note. There was none. I looked back in front of me and the three statues were already standing. The middle one looked like a king and the other two on their sides looked like knights.

"Hey, yeah. So... there isn't a post-it note behind us anywhere." I whispered towards my friends and their heads spun behind them, fear formed way up on their faces. Everyone except Eros.

***

I hope you enjoyed and if you did, please vote

<3