Oh, How I Love You

Chapter 4

We walked into the door, the hardwood floor underneath our feet. The cold metal of the guns in our hands, held at the ready as we continue into the house. 

It's dark and you can barely see the outlines of even the doorways. It feels closed off as though it hasn't seen the world in years and yet the hardwood floor underneath our feet contradicts that.

I reach up and find the light switch struggling for a second because the house is so new to us. The light slowly fills the kitchen, which I had expected to very tacky and older. Instead what we find is a fully renovated kitchen. 

It throws us off a little bit, because the outside had looked like it had came from a time portal itself. Looking over to Annette, the light of the kitchen reflecting off of her long dark hair.

"You take this side of the house and I'll that that side of the house." I gesture, whispering, in reference to the staircase to the left of us.

She nodded her head before we both went to check out of sides of the house. Walking to the right, walking into the what I presumed to be the living room, in the dim light that reflected through it from the kitchen. Walking cautiously through the new surroundings, they were more room that were attached from the living room. Turning on the flashlight in my other hand so that I could see my surroundings. Upon turning on the flashlight, the dim stream of light casting shadows around the room. Moving the light of the flashlight across the room.

Taking in my surroundings, what I saw unnerved me. It was freshly renovated, which was easy to tell as the smell of fresh paint still hung in the air. Bookshelves lining the walls jam packed with books. An exact replica of what my own apartment looked like, down to the books on the shelf. 

I slowly put the flashlight away after finding a lightswitch which was in the same place as in my own apartment. Both hands gripping the gun tightly as I look around the room one last time, a shiver running down my spine. Before exiting the room, walking into another connected to the living room. Before hearing a noise that sent me jumping about three foot in the air, bumping my head off of the ceiling.

It took a minute to recognize the source of the sound, but as soon as I heard it I yelled out "Anette."

It was the slamming of a door coming from the upstairs, when I got no response I ran up the stairs, nearly tripping on them in my haste. When I reached the top of the stairs I took everything in, all I could see for what looked like miles were opened doors. What I couldn't see however was a closed door or a end of the hallway. I started running down the and turning my head as I ran. Searching for the door that was closed. Until I heard a sound that stopped me dead in my tracks a muffled scream that echoed through the hallway. I ran faster at the noise, even knowing that it could all be a ploy, because in that moment I no longer cared. Until I got to the very end of the long and winding hallway, finally finding the closed door. Holding up my gun in one hand and ripping open the door with the other. It all happened so fast, before I could even move an inch, he yanked Annette up by the collar of her shirt. In one swift motion rest the barrel of the gun against her temple. I still felt a spark of panic and my hand shook ever so slightly. Gun gripped in both hands, standing my ground keeping the barrel of the gun pointed to the man. In the dim light of the room I couldn't see the man, the only thing my eyes could focus on was the tiny bit of reflection on the gun. The panic, I could see the panic too, the panic in Annette's eyes even though she had tried to mask it.

"I don't want to hurt anyone now. But if you fail to cooperate the consequences will be deadly and not just for her." Then the man spoke his voice slightly deeper than the normal person's voice.

My shaky hands almost lowered the gun at the sound of his voice, until I saw the masked panic in Annette's blue eyes and kept my gun up. The voice belonged to my cousin Danny.