Dream Come True

5

I stood on the door step of Drey's massive house. Even just standing there felt wrong. An autumn afternoon wind blew passed me, making me jump forward, closer to the door. I sighed.

Just do it. Get it over and done with.

I raised my arm and knocked on the solid, thick door. I stood there, feeling stupid until the heavy door was opened with by a kind looking butler. I took an immediate liking to him.

His hair was cut short and he had a big build, strong looking arms. He smiled at me and I took no hesitation with smiling back.
"Hello Miss. Master Drefan told me we were expecting a classmate over." I beamed at him. He offered to take my coat and beanie and when I gave it to him, hung them on the coat rack near the door. I heard thudding coming from above me as if someone was walking across the room. The thumps continued down the stairs until I saw Drey in front of me.
"Hey Pippa. Eli, I got it from here." He said dismissing the butler. "Come on, I'll show you around."
"Actually, I'd sort of like to just get started... Don't you think?" I said, avoiding eye contact by suddenly finding the opposite wall quite interesting.
He raised an eyebrow and slowly nodded, smirking at me.
"Sure. Who should we do?" We thought for a moment and ended up deciding to do the assignment on his grandfather, a man that was famous in the military for being so fearless.
"We should look in the attic. Maybe there are some old clippings or something up there." He said, shrugging his shoulders.

The attic was dusty and every step you took blew up a big cloud of grime everywhere. I sniffled and scrunched my nose trying not to sneeze. I bent down and searched through the books and boxes, sifting through the curling papers and fading penmanship.

We looked through the entire attic, picking through the different items. Half an hour later Drey got up and dusted himself off.
"Well, I think we have enough old stuff for this paper, don't you?" he said, holding out a hand to help me up. I took it and staggered to my feet as I saw Eli come to the attic and knock.
"Sorry master Drefan, but there is a phone call for you."

Drey nodded and walked out, heading for the phone downstairs. Eli turned to me.
"Come miss. Let's get you out of this dirty mess." He said in his deep, warm voice. I grabbed the sheets and clippings and left the old room. Eli closed the attic and went down the staircase to fulfill other duties.

I stood there awkwardly alone. I looked around myself looking for something to keep me busy while I waited. I looked at the photos on the walls. There was photographs of a little boy, I'm assuming was Drey, dull pictures of a stern man dressed in a military uniform and a beautiful woman with glowing black hair like Drey's. I knew this woman. I'd seen her in before. I thought back as I tried to remember.
Wait a second...
I'd seen her in my mum's photos, the ones she always flicked though from her youth. In my mum's stack were pictures of her family and some of her favourite memories. Mum had always been happy around this lady with black hair. I set a mental note to ask her about it later.

I spotted a bookshelf across the hallway and made my way to it, running my index finger along their stiff spines. Glossy, coloured mirror images of me rebounded off the books. I saw a door behind me in the reflection, slightly ajar. I tip-toed to it and pushed the door open, looking over my shoulder as I stepped into the room. Stepping inside I saw a double bed covered in a simple checked pattern with stripes of apple green and white over the sky blue back ground. The windows were covered by brown, wooded blinds. This must be Drey's bedroom.

I shouldn't be in here. I turned to leave and bumped into the closet door with my hip. I heard a small thud in the cupboard like something falling. I slowly made my way, rubbing my hip and opened to cupboard, only to find a box had fallen off the shelf. I muttered under my breath as I went to pick up the box. Shock shot through me.

Holy crap.

Inside the box were numerous items. One that terrified me the most was a sharp dagger with an old rusty colour stained onto the tip of the blade.

It couldn't be. Could it? Was that blood?

Papers underneath the knife looked like they were scrappily cut out of newspapers and diary entries. The words on the sheets screamed the name of Mirabella Cross at me. Pictures of the beautiful woman with the black hair from the photographs on the wall and in my mum's photo album were printed on them.

"What do you think you are doing?" I turned around hastily to see Drey's eyes narrowed at me. His mouth had lost its usual charming smile and had been replaced by a tight line, his dark eyebrows low.
"I was just.. I was um... I'm sorry I didn't mean to... I just-" I began to ramble. Drey's hands were in fists clenching by his side, his jaw flexing, crushing the teeth inside. Drey just looked at me angrily.
"I thought I said we had enough information. I'll write it out. I think we're done now." He said stiffly and firmly led me out of the room and out of the house.

I walked all the way home numbly. When I was safely in my bedroom I brought my hands in front of me and uncurled them. Inside my fist were the papers from the box, crinkled in my hand. I opened my bedside draw and stuffed them hastily under some school books and shut the draw firmly. They'll be a good read when I'm ready. I got ready for bed and buried deep beneath my quilts, falling into a deep fitful sleep.