Thanatophobia (fear of dying)

That awkward moment when...

Uh oh, I looked at the TV, my eyes growing wide. I bit my lip as I pressed another button. Nothing. It was all static.

Oh God, if I broke his TV…

Actually, he probably wouldn’t be that mad. But, still, it was a stupid thing to do. I frowned, and sheepishly set the remote down on the couch after pressing the power button.

I went to Elliot’s office first, but found the door open so I turned on my heel, and headed upstairs. But when I saw the door to his room also ajar, I sighed. Where could he be?

I only knew a few select rooms in the expanse of the house: My room, Elliot’s room, the bathrooms (one upstairs, one downstairs), Elliot’s office, the TV room, and the kitchen. Other than that I was certifiably clueless.

I sighed. Maybe it was well past time to do some exploring. One thing was for sure though; I knew he had to be here…somewhere.

Elliot had made sure to notify me every time he left the house. I guess so that I wouldn’t freak out or something? Either way, it was our routine. Though, I admit sometimes I had trouble understanding his reasoning for it. I mean, what if I decided to try and run away while he was gone? Although he probably knew I valued my life too much to attempt that.

I sighed as I entered the foreign sections of the house, half-wishing that I had some sort of weapon on hand that I could use to fight any monsters that might be hiding in the depths of the mansion.

My hand itched to hold a knife, but I knew that would never happen. Especially after that incident the other night.

I blanched. What was I even thinking? Did I secretly have some sort of a death wish? I pursed my lips at the thought and focused my attention on the task at hand.

As I traveled down the hall, I thought I picked up the sound of a machine running and a rhythmic slapping sound.

What the?

I inched forward until I stood in front of the door where the noise was coming from. I hesitated, thinking about knocking, but decided to just open it. It wasn’t like there could be anything forbidden or highly dangerous in there. I mean this place was not like Hogwarts where anything could be lurking behind a simple door.

Light flooded the hallway as I opened the door to reveal an extremely well-lit and airy room.

Countless pieces of exercise equipment hit my eyes. A gym. Huh.

I heard the rhythmic thumping sound slow before coming to a stop, and the room became silent except for a bit of heavy breathing.

“Oh sorry if I interrupted,” I bit my lip as I looked over to see Elliot stepping off of a treadmill.

He was dressed in only running shoes and black basketball shorts and I averted my eyes so that he didn’t catch my gaze lingering on his apparently well-defined abs.

“Not at all,” He flashed a dazzlingly white smile at me as he grabbed a small white towel and began dabbing at some of the sweat dripping down his face.

My throat swelled up and I gulped as I watched him.

“Jezebel?”

“Huh?” I shook my head trying to snap out of it. What was wrong with me?”

“Did you need something?” He raised an eyebrow as he smirked.

“Oh…umm….” I wracked my brains to no avail. What did I come here for again? I let my eyes drift around the room, examining anything and everything but Elliot, until my gaze rested on a large flat screen in the corner. TV. That’s it.