Downtown London

"Max, we ought not to be doing this. Someone may see us and contact the police." Nora said, growing concerned.

"Who is going to see us Nor? Look no-one is around. This place has been deserted for weeks now." Max said trying to open the window. We've been standing here in the brisk London weather for five minutes while Max tries to open the window to some old abandoned hotel. London is usually cold, but as the sun goes down and the moon comes up, the chill seeks through to the bones.

"What do you expect to find in here then?"

"Who knows? There my be riches with our names on it Norrie, just waiting to be collected," He turns so they face each other "I'm also extremely curious and to why they'd up and leave." He grins handsomely.

"Or maybe monsters" Nora mutters to herself. Max is devilishly handsome. His brown hair that always curls at the ends because of the mist and his eye's as blue as grey works so well in his favour. He also tends to workout a lot which just adds to the score. Unfortunately he isn't the smartest of people.

"Don't start with that, they have not been proven to be real. We've had this conbersation plenty of times at home.' Max said, still jiggling the window about.

"They also have not proven them not to be real, so you don't give me that."

Nora and Max we're step-siblings. Max's father married Nora's mother. They've been best friends ever since that happened when she was twelve and he thirteen. They're now sixteen and seventeen and still getting into mischief together.

"Ah-ha!," Max yells "I knew I could do it." Anyone that over heard Max's display of emotion could tell he was proud. The window was small but with Nora's petite frame she'd fit through not a problem. But Max is a lot bigger than Nora. "Max, how on earth are you going to fit through?"

"Don't worry, I'll fit." He grins. If Nora was any other girl, she'd melt.on the spot. But she knew him too well, and just ignored the comment.

Max went through first, diagonally, tilting his hips slightly forward.He could not fit his bottom through if he went through flat. On the inside, Nora was trying to think of a sadistic comment. As soon as she thought she had a good one, he was through. Nora went next, she slid easily through. One of the advantages for being small. Max helped her down and set her on her feet.

Nora dusted off her dress, and set the skirt back into order. She checked her hair, it was still pinned up nicely, she felt. She hated to look like a mess.

The room was dark but the evening light from the now broken window gave some light, but not quite enough. The room was full of buckets and towels, even some bedding and linen, stocked on the many shevles around the room.There was a row of sinks just to the left of them, stretching down the length of the room. If you walked through the sinks, it led you to a flight of stairs and at the end of the stairs, a dark brown wooden door. "Now what do we do Max?" Nora asked, annoyed.

They weren't doing anything at home, but Nora still did not want to.come here. Max begged and pleaded - he even agreed to do her chores for a week- so she finaly agreed. They had told their parents that they were going for a walk before the night time swept over.

"We'll go up the stairs and see where that leads." Max informed her. "Okay boss." Nora added sarcsdtically.  With that, they walked over to the stairs.

Max was in front with Nora trailing behind. She heard a loud noise then a cry of pain, then saw Max grab his right knee. "Ouch! Damn that sink, it attacked my knee!" 

Yes, blame the sink Max.

Nora thought Max was going to have an argument with the sink. Like she said before, he isn't the smartest person.

The stairs were wooden and rotten. Some evev had chunks missing.from them. There was no hand rail to balance on either.  Nora was hesitant to go up them. She thought they'd break under her weight. Just as moved toward the stairs, Max grabbe arm, "pI'll go first. Wait until i'm not standing on the stairs before you come up okay?" Nora nodded, she understood. She was saying Please don't break, Please don't break over and over in her head. She hoped if she said it enough, it won't happen.

They did however, make a noise everytime he put pressure on a step. Max went slow at first but hen he got halfway, he basically ran up. Once he was up, he motioned for Nora to come up. She did what he said immediately. "This better not be locked." She heard him say when she was three steps away from the top.

To his and Nora's luck, it was unlocked. It opened without a single complaint. Out of the corner of Nora's eye, she saw him smile. His eyes were shinning so bright, they have the sun a challenge. Oh Lord, What have I gotten myself into? She thought.

They stand before a room, that looks as if it were a Lobby back in its day. The roof had intricate patterns and designs of gold, red, green and blue lines and swirls. There were also browns and beiges and creams too. No white at all. The walls were marble, as were the pillars thoughout the room holding the roof up. The pillars had the same artwork on them as the roof. The style felt very ethnic, not like the normal designs of London. This place must be really old. Even though the owners closed it down about three months ago, it was still in good condtition. Dust was starting the gather on the groud, but that's all. It was very spacious too. In fact, this room could be as large as a small factory! Maybe not that big Nora thought.

"Are you going to stand there marvelling all night or come along?" Max asks. "I was not marvelling. I was just in awe of the observations I was making." Nora said then walked fast to catch up with her brother.

Imagine living in a house like this, Nora thought, it sure would be living in luxury. They approached another wooden door on the other side of the room and Max swung it open. As soon as they walked through Nora staggered back and grabbed ahold of Max's forearm. He looked at her, she was a pale as a ghost and looked as if she'd seen one. Her grip was getting tighter and tighter and was starting to hurt Max.

"Nora?" Max asked, concerned.

"Did you see that?" She said.

"No. What did you see?"

"It was as if something ran, ran past us," She points obwere she saw it run past. "It was a complete blur though." The colour in her face flushed back in. She looked more amazed than terrified now, as if what happened these past seconds never happened. "Do you want to go back?"

"No. I'm not that easily scared Max. It was probably just a hallucination."

They continue to walk down the hallway,not knowing were they're going. Max couldn't help but be concerned for Nora. She's right though, it takes alot for something to scare her. Although, she looked truly terrified and was even paralyzed for a spilt second. He shook it off, if Nora needed help, she'd ask. He had no doubts about that.

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A/N: So how was that guys? First chapter! I've gone through and hopefully fixed it up. I tried to make it a bit longer and more desciptive. Tell me if you thought Nora did imagine what she saw or not?

-B x