Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
Arborview - October 4, 1:15 p.m.
The heat from the sunlight overwhelmed me and I sweated. Beads of sweat lined my forehead and rolled down my face. I realized that I hadn't changed clothes since yesterday. This wasn't rare, I would keep in the same clothes for days. No one would see me anyway.
I changed into baggy, comfortable clothes and tied my hair back. Much better.
I wasn't sure of how to handle the situation, my father had obviously not told me the truth about last night and my mother was in on it. I felt odd, strange - my parents had never left me home alone, my mother had to be around somewhere, may be she called my father from outside. I had questions I wanted - no, needed answered.
They wouldn't leave me home alone, they always made certain not to. I felt nervous, my routine was fading away. What would my parents have to hide from me? Such simple people and suddenly they became complex.
I unlocked the front door and walked down the steps. The sunlight stung and my eyes burned, I hadn't been outdoors in...too long. I lived life outside through the scenes I spotted from my bedroom window.
May be she was gardening, that was one of her favorite past times. I searched through the bushes, hoping that she was beneath a tree, trimming the shrubs nearby. But she wasn't. I continued to search the garden.
"Mother?" I only heard the buzzing of bugs in the distance.
Frowning, I looked at the shed. That blue and white shed. I'd never actually been in there before but it was a last resort. My mind was filled with anxiety and I had to ease it by confronting my mother.
The shed door wasn't locked, but I wasn't sure if it ever was. It took a bit of effort to open anyway. It was filled with odds and ends - a refrigerator, some gardening supplies, and plants that had been forgotten during the winter and died. Weird. A key glistened on top of a table.
Something about this place seemed...off. I felt lightheaded, my fingertips tingled.
The single lightbulb hung above my head, it glowed faintly. I realized that it was already on before I entered the shed. Was I alone?
I wanted to get out quickly. Something about this place wasn't right and I felt weak.
Beneath my foot, I felt something round and rolled my shoe over it a few times. It was under the mat. Much like my curiosity for the rest of the world through online articles, I lifted part of the mat and looked around. There was a knob. A door knob.
It was a tiny door and it nearly matched the shed floor, it blended in flawlessly as though it wasn't supposed to be discovered. I reached down to open it, only to realize that it was locked. The key.
The key worked and I placed it near the door. I twisted the knob and glanced down at a ladder and a brick hallway. My knees felt weak but it was too late to stop and turn back. I had to go down the stairs. I was curious.
Something was wrong, terribly wrong.
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