Arranged...WHAT?!

Chapter 7- Brother From Another Mother

Chapter 7

Cody’s POV: *directly following*

No, I can’t think like that, I have to do everything in my power to……to……………to stay alive. Wow, this high altitude must be getting to my head. I can’t get a thought through my mind, and this cold and wind is going to freeze me to the mountain. I only have on those light weight pants, t-shirt, and wind breaker that I put on this morning.

I wasn’t supposed to be out here this long, but then again nothing that’s happened was supposed to happen. A freak storm wasn’t supposed to blow in. My ankle wasn’t supposed to twist because of a thin ledge. My pick ax wasn’t supposed to be blown out of my tired grasp, and into my arm, leaving a wide gash. The wind wasn’t supposed to get so strong that it blew my phone out of my hand while I was trying to call for help.

What’s that? There’s a small black hole in the side of the mountain a few feet away.

Ignoring the sharp pain in my ankle I made my painstakingly slow way over to what I’m hoping is- And yes! It’s a cave. It’s not too big, about five feet by five feet, but only about two feet tall. I squeeze in and curl up in a ball with my back towards the mouth of the cave, my eyes instantly slamming shut. My last conscious thought being-

I don’t even know what elephants look like when jumping up and down, covered in whip cream.

-(*@*)-

Jason’s POV:

I’m on the sixth floor of the house, just walking around aimlessly, and waiting for a room to ‘call’ to me.

After an hour of talking about Cody, Harold was called away by one of the maids that needed his help with something, and he told me to come up here, and wait for a room to lead me to it. Just wait for one to catch my interest, but so far, everything just looks like chaos, and a very random assortment of doors.

They all have the strangest designs on them. One was looked like a sealed a vault, one was of pillowcases pushed between two plates of glass and a gold doorknob, one was all clouds which was the sky room, the one opposite that had beach things super glued all across it such as bottles of sunscreen, zories (flip-flops, thongs), sunglasses, even sand, I kept walking down the hall, but these rooms are really far apart.

Oh, there’s a new one to my right. It……. Well it’s a giant painted art canvas. In the painting is a white room with a paint canvas, with a painting of a white paint canvass, and it keeps continuing until the canvass’ are miniature.

It’s cool, but doesn’t spark too much of an interest. I keep walking, letting my mind drift back to my earlier conversation with Harold. He was really vague with everything, but since I wasn’t supposed to know any of this anyways I guess I shouldn’t be complaining.

From everything he said I gather that she’s nice, talented, generous, creative, intelligent, possibly insane, beautiful, hilarious, impulsive, athletic, risk-lover, caring, logical, and was in her own world a lot of the time, even though she loved other people. She loved pets, just not when she owned them, and her parents were allergic, so they didn’t have any. They all loved food and maintained constant workouts. She was an active doer of most sports, including the less common ones, such as sky-diving, race car driving (they even have their own course on the property), rock climbing, MMA fighting, and she could pass for either a navy seal covert mission agent, or a ninja. She designed and sole operated the house’s security system. She actually designed the whole house, starting when she was eight, and is constantly adding new features as the times change.

But even if she is all of these amazing things, and would probably be the perfect girl for me, she will always be weird emo-goth girl. That’s what she’s always been, and I can’t see her as anything else. I’ll be civil with her, and maybe we could have a conversation or two at the house, but other than that she better stay out of my business. I didn’t ask to stay here, and I don’t want to stay here.

Hey, what’s this? This room’s door is made completely of…… I don’t actually know what that is. I reach my hand out and touch it, surprised to find a rough surface. It’s rock. There’s actually a door made completely of rock, that’s cool, but so….. I guess I’ll call it different.

Opening the door up, I stand in the doorway too stunned to speak. The door opens up to a small black ledge, but when it opens up- well the only thought I can form is WOW. It’s a two story room, and I’m on the second story. It’s completely open, and all of the walls are made of rock climbing equipment. The whole thing is a giant indoor rock climbing wall. There are upside down ledges, rope bridges leading to the circular pillars of rock in the middle. The ledge I’m standing on is only two feet wide and a foot deep, then there’s nothing but floor about twenty feet below.

It’s spectacular, but since there’s nowhere that I can go from here, I back out and close the door behind me.

These rooms must all hold something unique, but what could they possibly all have. They can’t all be as amazing and different. What could be next?

Running up the hallways I go around a curve, and come to a door that’s lime green, and in bright orange it says ‘Ollyollyoxenfree’ like what people say when someone is hiding, and they want them to come out. It’s that persons way of showing they surrender, and give up to their superior hiding skills. This should be interesting.

I enter, and am surprised once again. everything is colored black. I can’t see a thing. Hoping there’s a light switch somewhere. I move my hands along the wall and thank the high heavens when I feel one. I flick it, but all that turns on are dim lights on the ceiling that are circling the room. They don’t shed light on anything that’s not directly beneath them, and I doubt if you really could find anyone in such a room.

I leave that room, but instead of going on down and looking for more interesting rooms, I lean against the wall and slide down it. “This place is insane. These people are insane. I can’t stay here. It just can’t happen, I simply don’t belong here. This place will be the end of me, I just know it.”

A light, humorous chuckle comes from my left, down the corridor I came from. Leaning against the wall there is my best bud Rick, “Man you’re losing it.”

Jumping up I walk over and do the man hug thing that no has come up with a better name for. “Hey, it's my brother from another mother! What’s up? What’re you doing here, man?!”

“I’m here to see you dude! And dang! What’s with this place? I’ve never seen a place so sick before, and what’s with all the weird doors? And that butler, is weird, but really nice. Oh, and would you please explain to me, why you’re parents asked my parents if I could come here and live with you and these people for the next six months? I mean this place is cool, but again- it’s weird.”

“Dude you are my best friend, but you TALK way too much! Ok, well my parents want me to stay here with their friends the Lockheart’s while they’re doing business, and you’ll NEVER guess who their daughter is!”

“Who? I thought the Lockheart’s didn’t have a kid, and I don’t talk too much.”

“First, yes, yes, you do. Second, it’s emo-goth girl from school!”

He stared at me, completely gob smacked. “You’ve got to be kidding me. The Lockheart’s don’t even have kids, dude! What are you trying to pull?”

“I’m not pulling anything! I swear it. I didn’t even know they had a kid till a few hours ago, and they’re my ‘rent’s best friends.”

“D*mn, I can’t believe we have to share a house with that freak. At least this place is so huge that we’ll probably never see her. So again, what’s with all these doors? They’re as weird as her.” He spun around getting a view of everything.

“They’re so weird. Every room is unique, and the doors reflects what’s inside.”

“Well let’s check ‘em out, bro! Maybe we’ll find some blackmail or something on, Freak.”

“Good idea, and her names Cody, by the way. We probably shouldn’t call her ‘freak’ in front of her parents.

“Oh yeah, that might be bad. Hm, well let’s go.”