Life Catcher

Chapter Twenty-Three: Chocolate

23.

My eyes open slowly to see a towel over my face. My hands remove it to see that the closet I am in is open. My breathing gets harder but I see that my whole body is in a pile of towels.

When I blacked-out I must have knocked down all the towels, which barried me in a pile of softness. I wonder how I didn't suffocate.

I get up and almost loose balance from my dizziness. The now-covered-in-dirt towels fall onto the ground and I cautiously but clumsily walk out the closet and into the bathroom. I look into a mirror with fog on the edges and see my very dirty clothes and face.

Not so beautiful now, huh?

I poke my head out into the hall and look left and right. No signs of life. Thank goodness.

At least I'm not dead. That's when I realize Winter and Kai must be wondering where I am. Okay, maybe I am that stupid. That's when I see that I'm dirtying up the hard bathroom floor and I immediately take my shoes off. I close the bathroom door and strip down. I hop in the shower and my skin tingles from the warm water. When I'm all clean I blowdry my hair with a dryer I found in some cabinets and put on my tank top. I manage to find a mini skirt in a laundry bin that fit me just right.

Besides the shower, this has been the worst morning of my life. I'd rather spend the whole day on a Nome killing spree.

I toss my dirty clothes in the laundry bin and tiptoe down the barren hall. It's a pretty wide hall. Sam says his life sucks but I'd kill for my hut to be this big. And whoever designed this place has some talent. Each room has different colors but each room compliments the other. It's kind of like walking into different worlds with the same type of people.

I turn down a hall and find a set of stairs leading down, down, nowhere but down. I walk down it boldly. Curiosity could kill the stupid-demonic-winged girl.

The stairs lead to a room that must be like a game room. It looks like the arcade I saw in a secluded room at that cinema I went to not too long ago. Brings back lots of memories.

I trace my fingers over a game machine called "Pin-Ball". I read words written under it titled "Directions" and get caught up in a game of Pin-Ball. It's rather fun actually. I don't like the noises it makes but I have wicked reflexes. After a few times of keeping the ball from going down the shoot the screen at the top of it flash "HIGH SCORE!". The score I've beaten was 200,006,608. I got 289,006,878. Pretty wiked if I were to say so myself. I push the play button again and-

"Who. . .are you?" Asks a surprised voice from behind me.

I spin around and am face to face with the same man who was shredding his lawn. He looks down at me with dark brown eyes and his face begins to resemble Sam's.

"You're Sam's dad," I mummble and slap both of my hands over my mouth.

He scratches his brow and I back up, bumping into the game machine.

"I won't hurt you. I just want to know why you're here," he says calmly.

"Please don't tell anyone I'm here. I'm so sorry for disturbing you, and dirtying up your house, and-and wearing your daughters clothes. I just-I just. I'm really, really-"

"Calm down. Calm down. It's okay. No need to worry. Just tell me your name and I can help with whatever-"

"You won't tell?" I ask relaxing a little.

"I swear on my mothers grave," he says, his right hand on his chest.

I follow him into a room with a desk cluttered with papers, books, and trinkets. Books on shelves line all of the walls and I see a huge picture of a family on the floor leaning against the shelf of books to the right of me. In it is a younger version of Sam's dad, Jane, and Josh. Sam is sitting in His dads lap occupied with a red ball and a little baby is in the arms of Jane. They all look so happy.