Dear Adventures and the Mystery Beneath Dimashistan

2nd Installment Chapter 4

By the time the girls reached back, Lindsay and Sammy had already gone inside. They had prepared Dimash Tea for everyone, the steaming cups on the coffee table, in the lounge were a welcome sight. Logic would argue that the girls should be tired but there was zero hint of sleep in their eyes. They quickly grabbed their cups and sat wherever they could. Sammy and Lindsay were already sitting on the floor cushions. Daniella sat on the armchair, while Eileen, Elinor and Earthee sat on the sofa. (Good thing I am not a character, there are too many names beginning with E here). These were becoming their usual places.

"So, Earthee, is there something you want to say?" asked Lindsay with a serious look on her face. Earthee looked up from her tea still dazed. "Yes Earthee, I think some explanations are in order," demanded Eileen after exchanging a look with Lindsay. Elinor sat on the sofa with her legs crossed, laid back and looking towards the ceiling, she understood what was happening. Sammy nervously looked from one face to another, "Oh, it's not like she planned it," she said in a small voice, trying to balance out the numbers. Elinor sat straight, a little smile on her face and gave Sammy a look. She understood now, this wasn't what she perceived. It was joint leg pulling session. "I just went for a walk and sat on the bench; I don't remember anything after that," replied Earthee. There was something about her tone that made the girls drop their initial plan as the mischievous look in their eyes got replaced with a concerned one.

"I feel fine now," Earthee said as she realized everyone was worried about her. The room got quiet before Shelly broke it by saying, "We still have to figure out the television." Earthee's back straightened, "What about it? Is it broken?" "Something like that," replied Elinor. No one wanted to say it out loud, because it didn't make sense at all. "You know what? Tonight, was weird but we had a great day," said Daniella. "Do you know we almost met Dimash," added Lindsay with excitement. "We were so close, but we missed it," Daniella added with her shoulders hunched. "I bet we can meet him at least once if not more times, if we stay on top on the schedule," said Elinor confidently. "We will see him at the concert eventually," replied Sammy grinning from ear to ear.

"Weren't we supposed to not sleep and prepare for the concert during this week?" asked Eileen. "I still haven't learned the lyrics of Know," Shelly declared. "Well, no one looks sleepy and the way you guys were sleeping on the bus, you have no right to be. Luckily this house has a karaoke machine, let's just do what we came here to do" said Daniella, putting everything into perspective. What happened today didn't matter, this may be the only time that they get to watch Dimash perform live, together. They had to make the most it.

Suddenly Eileen stood on the sofa her arm reaching for the sky, finger pointing upwards, legs apart and she shouted at the top of her voice in the most dramatic fashion, "To the game room!" the girls didn't even wait for her to get back down as the raced towards the kitchen into the soundproof chamber. They spent the rest of the night singing along the melodies of the songs they had never heard together. The fact that they knew where to add adlibs was incredible. Instead of saying encore they shouted, "Part B one more time," and kept repeating the same playlist until they couldn't jump around anymore.

It was probably 4 a.m. when Sammy woke up. She really needed to go to the bathroom. Well, what did you expect? With all that tea and the cold weather, this was bound to happen. She looked around the dark room. Someone had taken the liberty to turn out the light after everyone had fallen asleep. Sammy could not even make out the silhouettes of her friend in this light. All she could see were these mounds, that seemed like a small army of short fat people staring at her in the dark. The mounds were probably made of a Dear curled on a bean bag, she told herself as she slowly stood up. Keeping an eye on everything, just in case something came her way, not that she would be able to notice it in this light, but she made it a point to not turn around and walk backwards to the door. She did not even turn around to turn the knob. With her right hand on her back she fumbled for the handle, turned it and slipped outside as fast as she could.

She quietly closed the door behind her and leant against the door for a moment and noticed that the kitchen was not so dark. The windows were not covered, and a beam of moonlight was falling in the kitchen. Suddenly she felt at peace. Even though the game room was much warmer, but the slightly cooler temperature of this room did not faze her. She walked towards the beam and looked outside the window. She could see the forest and the full moon shinning on top of it. It was beautiful. The moonlight fell on her like a spotlight and in that moment, she did not see strange creatures in the shadows or feel her ever-present sense of being watched, she was just present.

Sadly, the serene view was not doing much for her need to go to the ladies room. So, walked towards the door that lead into the lounge. As she made her way towards the door, she felt a little shiver run down her spine. The door was slightly ajar, and she could see a faint light emanating from the lounge. Her stomach dropped as she realized that it was the same color from the broken TV before. She wanted to go back to the game room and close her eyes until it was daytime, but the thought of the short fat creatures killed that idea before she even turned around.

It was probably one of silly mind scares that she creates for herself, or so she kept telling herself. She decided to slowly walk towards the door and take a tiny peek. She lightly pushed the door and the door creaked. The noise was faint, but it was enough for Sammy to curl her fist into a ball and jam it in her face to stop herself from screaming.

She didn't even know how she got on the floor, with in seconds there were beads of sweat on her face. She was about to stand up, but her eyes went towards the door. It was completely open. Her entire body froze as she saw a pair of legs come towards her. Strong hand grabbed her, and she had to look up. It was Earthee, she was smiling. "How did you get down there?" she asked, "Are you okay?" Sammy looked up but she could not see her eyes. She got up with Earthee's help. Looked at the floor and then at Earthee, she still could not make out her features. "I t-tripped," she stammered. "What are you doing up so late?" Earthee inquired. "Bathroom," a single word answer was all she could muster. But her curiosity must have been greater than her shock because she asked, "What about you?" "Me? Oh, I couldn't sleep at all, maybe because I wasted the entire day sleeping yesterday so I thought maybe I could grab something to read and then you showed up."

With the shock dissipating and realization hitting her that she had once again succeeded in scaring herself, she was ashamed of herself but most of all Sammy was beyond relieved to hear a friendly voice and to know it was Earthee who walked towards her. She looked towards the doorway and did not see any blue light; it must have been the moonlight playing tricks on her eyes.

Another serious matter grabbed her attention again, as she quickly made her way towards the lounge, "I really need to go, if you don't mind can you stay in the bedroom while I'm in there?" Earthee laughed. "Don't worry Elinor and Lindsay are already in there, I think they went to their beds sometime after you all dozed off." This felt much safer to her and thankfully the bathroom lights were always on at night, so she would not have to worry about how she was going to sneak her hand in to turn them on. She sprinted across the lounge and towards their bedroom door. She looked at Earthee before opening it she was standing next to the sofa looking in her direction, but that's not what she noticed, Sammy was looking past her. The sight was enough to drain all of her recently found relief, stiff with fear, she looked ahead of her, opened the door and slowly walked in.

She quickly went to the, jumped on to her bed as fast as she could and the drew the curtains around her. It was completely dark inside the little cave, but she knew that on two of her sides were just walls. She pulled the covers over her head and waited silently for a noise, any noise. When nothing happened, she slipped a hand beneath her pillow and looked for the tiny box. She had put it there on her first day. She had gotten it out of her suitcase even before her clothes and placed it there. After doing that, she had hurriedly changed her clothes and pushed her suitcase underneath the bed to unpack things later.

She held the box in her had. It had a transparent lid and a wooden bottom. She opened the lid and clicked the little switch to turn on the tiny singular fairy light. It was a device of her own making, one that she always kept underneath her pillow, for nights just like this one. As always, she did not know when but somewhere between sheer fear and closely listening to every sound her ears were capable of hearing, Sammy fell asleep.