The Untold Truth

Chapter 14

The next week was completely uneventful. Neither Bradan nor I brought up the incident in the kitchen, although there was always tension when we were in the same room. I knew Bradan felt it as well, since his muscles would always tense whenever I walked into a room. Every morning that Bradan would join us for breakfast, Benjamin would make up most of the conversation in the room, occasionally smiling between both of us, as if he knew something that we did not.

Bradan was gone most of the week, always muttering something about "someone new" as an excuse to me when I would ask him anything about how his night of saving went. To say I was becoming bored was an understatement. I was driving myself insane most of the time just thinking about the kitchen incident, and wondering what Bradan's answer was. Of course I had been too chicken to bring it up to him and demand for him to finish his sentence, so I was left wondering if he was ever going to finish his thought. Bradan always needed Benjamin with him, so my last week had been made up of watching movies or reading books alone. I sighed heavily as I threw down my book in frustration. I had been reading the same paragraph for the last couple of minutes. My book bounced off of the top of my bed and flopped down on the ground.

I sighed even heavier this time and slowly got up, picking the book up in the process. I put it back on my nightstand and walked out of my room. I wandered around the halls of the house, not really knowing where I was headed. I walked into the kitchen and absentmindedly looked through the pantry and fridge, but not really finding any food to eat. I closed the fridge and walked out of the kitchen. My mind started to wander as I looked around the halls of the house. Random artifacts were hung on the walls, not really seeming to have a pattern or connection to each other.

I stopped walking as soon as I saw a staircase that led to the "forbidden area" that Bradan always took Benjamin when he had to go to work. I looked around myself, but I didn't see anyone else. I slowly inched closer to the staircase, afraid that if I got too close some sort of alarm would go off. When I stepped on the first step and nothing happened, I gained some confidence and walked all the way up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, I hesitated and looked back down at the bottom of the stairs. I shouldn't be here. I should turn around.

The alluring idea of finally seeing what was up here and why Bradan didn't want me to see it was too tempting for me though. I needed to know, or at least the bored part of my mind convinced the rest of me that I needed to know what was on this side of the house. The hallway split into two ways, one going right and the other going left. I chose to go right and looked closer to everything, wondering why Bradan would never let me go to this part of the house. Nothing had jumped out at me or seemed dangerous yet, so the further I walked, the more relaxed I became.

I walked by a room that had a door open and as I walked, I almost stopped to see what was in it. I saw that it was a room that had an entire wall covered in different computer screens. The designs on the screens were all different. Some screens were news channels, others had intersecting lines over the entire screen with different names over each line. I was tempted to go in further to that room to see the purpose of news channels and lines, but I willed myself to walk away from the room and continue down the hallway. The sound of grunting and sounds of something being hit suddenly broke the silence, which almost made me turn back and run to my room. When I realized that the sounds weren't coming toward me, I slowly inched closer to the noises.

I stopped in front of the room that the noises were coming out of and my hand hesitated as I reached for the doorknob. I lightly touched the cold metal doorknob, wondering if I should turn back or not. I sighed heavily through my nose as my hand dropped from the doorknob. I should go back and listen to Bradan. He has given me food, clothes, a place to stay, and saved my life. The least I can do for him is to listen. Guilt plagued my mind as I realized I had already broken that rule by walking up the stairs and through the hallway. All my thoughts were broken as I realized the doorknob had moved on its own and the door swung open.

I backed away quickly and let out a little noise as I started to trip over my own feet. I started to fall down toward the floor, but a strong arm wrapped around my waist before I could make contact with the ground. I reached up and grabbed his arms, trying to help hold myself up. I squeezed my eyes shut, not wanting to see his face.

Bradan asked quietly, "Aleksandria? What are you doing up here?"

I could almost hear the hurt in his voice. I took in a shaky breath and looked up at him. His eyes were full of confusion and he was waiting for me to answer.

I said quietly, "I'm sorry Bradan."

Before I could finish my full apology, he helped me right myself to a standing position and I backed away from him a little. I faintly realized that he wasn't wearing a shirt, and he had a heavy sheen of sweat on him. I quickly refocused on forming the right words for an apology.

I finished, "I know I shouldn't have come up here, and I swear I was about to go back down before you bumped into me. I'm really sorry."

He crossed his arms over his chest, making his strained muscles even more prominent. I realized he must have been doing a training of some sort that would have put him in this state. He wore a hard stare, almost as if he wasn't believing what I was telling him. I wrung my hands behind my back nervously, almost afraid of what he was going to say? Was he going to make me leave? Where would I go? Was he going to yell at me? He had never yelled at me in anger before, but I imagined it wouldn't be a fun time. He sighed heavily and dropped his arms.

He jerked his head towards the room he had just left and said, "Come on."