It's A Twin Thing | j. clarke [1]

three

-:- House of Locks / House of Eyes -:-

Nina and I looked at each other, fear radiating between us. Victor was on the other side of the door, and in a matter of seconds, he was going to open the door and find us. I grabbed Nina's hand before she could protest, and we ran up the stairs together. Nina and I split up once we entered the doorway but the attic was crowded, and in the small space we quickly ran into each other—literally. We collided and fell into the wall behind me. As soon as my back hit the wall, it rotated and left us on the other side, in a small dark room, hidden away from the rest of the attic.

Nina and I stood quietly, listening to Victor walk around the small attic. I tilted my head against the wall, trying to listen for Victor's footsteps when I made eye contact with a girl across the room. My heart jumped, but I took a breath when I realized it was just an old painting of a young girl. Regardless, I looked away from it, trying to ignore the chill that went through my body when I glanced at it. When I finally heard Victor's footsteps indicate his exit, Nina and I both took a relieved breath. I put my hand to the wall, looking for an exit before realizing that we were trapped in this room.

"We're trapped," Nina said to me.

When I looked over at her, her necklace was glowing a bright red, as was a small indent on the wall.

"Nina," she looked at me when I spoke. "Your necklace, it's glowing."

She looked down at her necklace, then her gaze shifted to the indent on the wall. She held her necklace to the indent and placed the locket inside, opening the stone door to the room they were in. Once we were out, I looked around for two things that we could bring back with us and spied a stack of books in the corner of the room. When I walked over and took two of them, I heard a shriek come from Nina.

"You okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah," she panted. "I opened the room again, to see if I could, and when I did, the eyes on the painting were glowing red."

I paused. "It probably has something to do with the necklace."

"Probably," Nina nodded. "Can we get out of here, this place is giving me the creeps."

"Agreed."

I grabbed two books off the stack before we rushed down the staircase and arrived back at the door to the attic. I tried the doorknob one more time, thinking maybe Victor had left it unlocked, but that wasn't the case.

"I have an idea," Nina said to me, reaching into her hair and taking out one of her hairpins.

"There's no way that'll—" I was cut off when Nina swung the door wide open, revealing a startled looking Amber and Fabian in the hallway. "Nevermind."

"Hi," Nina said softly. "What's the matter?"

"You guys look like you've seen a ghost," I commented as I came up beside Nina.