The Five Rooms

Chapter 8

We've been traveling all of five minutes before we stop to talk again, briefly. Before then we had cleared three different hallways and four rooms. This house was huge. Whatever Paige's parents did for a living, they were clearly rich. It was also clear that Paige wasn't an only child. It looks like there are about four kids' rooms. Three pre-teen or teen rooms, and one younger child's room. She had siblings, ones that would probably never know what actually happened to her. Thing is, that could be all of us. What if all of our parents thought we ran away. Or think we're already dead. A deep shiver runs through me as I come to this conclusion. I felt bad, but not for me exactly, for everyone. The ones who could actually remember their parents and not have her stupid, foggy memory loss.

My mind comes back to the present moment where Alec and I were stopped in the hallway. He was looking at me like he expected an answer, so I stupidly say, "What?"

"I said, do you have any idea where your key could be? A place we could look for it?" He repeats himself, me actually hearing him this time.

Yes. I did have a very good idea, but in order for my plan to work, I had to play dumb.

"No, I don't. This house is huge. Who knows where that muggy old door is." I reply, putting on a surprisingly good show of pretending not to know.

"Well, the only place I can suggest would be the first floor or the basement, but my bet is on the basement. We should head there now. Okay?" He explains to me, and then asks, his face not looking like it was up for debating.

I nod slightly, but I knew I would be slipping away once we reach the first floor, as part of the plan I had put together.

Maybe, if I was lucky, he would find my key and I would find his. Then we can leave together. But I seriously doubted that would be the case.

I wait a moment for him to turn and keep walking away down the hallway, but his eyes linger on me for an extra few seconds. His expression was unreadable, and I did my best to make mine that way too. Though I really didn't understand why he was looking at me. After a few more seconds I decide to start walking down the hallway myself. So I push past him lightly, and left him standing in the hallway behind me.

~||~

After finding the long staircase to get down to the first floor we had starting walking back towards the right of the house. Alec was back in the lead, and god was I thankful for that. Him being in the lead meant an easy slip away for me. I just needed to find the right spot to do it.

I constantly look around for the spot, but it refuses to come which makes me a little nervous. But I try to keep my positive thoughts in my head, and push out the negative ones.

When I look back in front of me to Alec, I could slightly see his shoulders tense up, almost as if something scared him, or made him nervous. With that I quietly ran up to him and tapped him on the shoulder lightly.

He jumps quiet obviously, and turns around to look at me, his eyes wide for a second before realizing it was just me.

"What's wrong?" I whisper to him, knowing for sure that something was up just by the way he looks right now.

His eyes leave my face slightly, and look away from me. Confused, I shift back in front of him so he could look at me. I can see him tense even more when his gaze ever so slightly comes in contact with mine. Whatever it is that he's afraid of, he's either really bad at hiding things like this, or it's just too scary for him to try.

"Nothing. Everything's fine. I'm just... kinda jumpy." He replies to me, his face slightly returning back to normal and he looks back at me like he had before, but I knew he was lying to me.