Don't Blink | ✓

021

In minutes they were in an apparent neighborhood. There wasn't a single person on the street, but the dozens of lights that illuminated the windows above them told Justin the homes were anything but vacant.

The street was lined by dully colored row homes on either side. The lawns were browning and a bit over grown, but very lively and as the two approached a reddish colored home, labelled '1408', a feeling in his gut told him he was in for a rude awakening.

Reaching the porch of the narrow home, the chipping black paint of the front door became evident and the flickering light near the top of the front door, showed the dozens of moths fluttering back and forth unable to help their attraction.

"Put your bag down by the door before we go in" her voice was lower now as she also removed her bag and threw it to the floor beside the door where a week old newspaper sat collecting dirt. "...And don't talk unless you have to"

Rubbing her shaky hands together a few times, she breathed in a huge breath of the city's polluted air before she grabbed the knob and twisted it. Stepping through the door and over the threshold, Justin felt as if he had been sucker punched. Right where it hurt, too.

The inside resembled nothing of the exterior— not at all. The immediate hallway that led them further into the house was coved on either side by chestnut colored wine racks. In the diamond shaped racks, nearly fifty bottles of aging wine sat firmly in place while the teens walked past it, Justin's eyes widening at the evident money put into the wine collection.

The house was no doubt, a fixer upper, meant to fool the oblivious individuals on the outside for a reason Justin didn't quite understand. The dark wooden floors lead them like a red carpet out of the wine-cellar-hallway and into a circular foyer decorated by art of an unknown artist, but expensive nonetheless.

Straying to the left, opposite of the right which seemed to host a dining room, the two began towards the living room. Blink seemed hesitant now, her steps slowing as she approached the white lush carpet of the living space. Her left hand picked at a spot on her black jeans, her body stopping completely now just outside of the room. 

Justin who was still taking in as much of the lavish place as he could, didn't notice the lack of Blink's movement and him bumping into the back of her was all it took for her presence to be known in the house.

A short, false chuckle was heard as Justin stepped into the living room too, the white plastic bag from the convenience store still swinging effortlessly from his hands. He heard soft music playing in the background somewhere, no doubt in another extravagant room in the seemly endless house.

"You're here" A woman with a build similar to Blink's stood from the couch, making sure to pull down her black pencil skirt before she reached out to pull Blink into something that should have resembled a hug. Instead, the woman's arms lazily reached around the girl, hanging there for barely a second before she pulled away and moved to stand a few feet back. Her top lip was raised a bit in obvious disgust and her eyes squinted in fake happiness when Blink responded.