Chapter 5
All Homes Have Secrets
The next day the group met about a mile and a half from Ryan's house. Seeing Amori and Cody as they exited his car Alexis smiled, whispering to Anise, “I'm telling you the two of them belong together.” Anise nodded her agreement, “I think your right, though that depends on if she likes Ryan.”
“What does that mean?”
Anise was about to reply, but went quiet when Amori and Cody walked up.
“You've gotten taller.” Alexis said, “It's been awhile Cody, it’s good to see you again.” Cody nodded, “Yeah it’s been awhile, you both are looking good.”
“Why thank you.” Anise and Alexis said in unison.
Rolling her eyes at their antics Amori pulled everyone back to the reason why they had come.
“I think that one of us should knock on the door, to see if anyone is home.” She looked between the others, “So, who's going to be the one.”
Ryan stood in front of the guest room door, banging he yelled, “How long should it take for someone to put on some clothes?” As he said it the door opened, Chay stood there looking much different, in a good way, in the new clothes.
“Forgive me for taking so long, I was trying to figure out how to put the clothes on.” She said smoothing a hand down the front of her pant leg.
Ryan laughed, he hadn't thought of that, “I figured you could come with me to the bank, I have a few matters I need to take care of.”
Chay felt weird in the new clothes, yet somehow more comfortable, “I'll come, is there anything else that we were going to be doing?” Though she still would not look at him when she asked a question, Ryan was pleased that she felt comfortable enough to speak with him. Thinking for a moment he then said, “The banks are my top priority at the moment.” He walked down the hallway, taking the flight of stairs. As he made it to the bottom step he heard his doorbell ring. Walking over, he opened it, expecting one of his friends to be at the door.
Amori turned upon hearing the door being opened. She smiled up at Ryan, “Hi there.”
“Amori, hi, I wasn't expecting anyone.” He said confused as to why she was there.
“Well, after what had happened in the forest, and you going after that other guy, I decided to see if you were still, well, here.” Ryan seemed very confused or irritated. Amori planted a hand on her hip, “It was good to see you too.” Spinning around on her heel she started off.
He didn't have time for this, “Amori wait.” Ryan walked out of his house, leaving the door wide open, “Amori.” She continued on, not even glimpsing back. Having longer legs than she, Ryan caught up to her easily. Grabbing her arm he turned her around.
“Look Amori, thank you for checking up on me,” he released her arm, “but I think that it would be best if we tried to avoid meeting up with each other on a regular basis.” Amori looked at him exasperated, “Can you at least tell me why?”
“It's not that I don't want us to be well, friends, it's would simply be safer for you,” he said emphasizing the word, “If we keep our contact on minimum.”
Taking a step back ready to go back into his house, Ryan noticed that Amori's gaze was locked on something behind him. He turned to see Chay standing at the open doorway. When he looked once again to Amori he saw anger hiding hurt, “I think your right it would be best if we stayed away from each other.” With that she turned, getting into Cody's car and left.
Ryan stood there watching as the dust settled; though this had helped accomplish what he had wanted, it was not the way he had wanted it to be accomplished.
His neck muscles were so tense it hurt, he groaned, “Who knows what she thinks of me now.” Walking into the house he closed the door behind himself. Before him Chay stood, she was forcing herself not to cross her arms, composing herself she asked, “Is she the real reason why you decided to come back to Loam?”
“No, she is just a human, what would make you think something like that?”
“You care about her.” Chay said stating the obvious.
Though he knew he had no need to explain anything to her he did, somewhat, “I know what it is you are thinking and believe me, it's not true. She and I have hardly even known each other.”
Chay said nothing, so shrugging it off, Ryan walked past her, heading for the garage.
“Anna.” He called out.
Chay followed him; having no clue what he was talking about, “Huh?”
“Your name it is Anna.” The two got into Ryan's Tahoe in silence.
Once she knew that she was out of sight, Amori took a detour. Pulling the car up next to Alexis' car she parked, hopping out.
“Ryan looked like he was about to head out, so if we hear the sound of either his car or motorcycle, then we'll know he's left and we can continue on with the plan.”
Shoving his hands in his pocket Cody asked, “What exactly is it that we're looking for? We can't break into someone's house, and not even know what it is that we are there to find.” Amori agreed with Cody, “Your right, what we're trying to do is find out more about Ryan. I mean other than the past five years; there are no records of him. I couldn't even find out anything about his parents.” She paused, “Come to think of it I've never seen his parents, and in this town that's unusual.”
“That's for sure.” Anise said in agreement, “You know I don't remember seeing any family photos in his house when we were there.”
Cody looked at the three of them, “Wait you mean to tell me you've been inside his house?” He focused his gaze on Amori; she seemed to have left out some important information.
“Yeah he had invited us to his grad party; all the graduating seniors were invited.”
Cody nodded his understanding letting the matter slide, “Maybe he's from another country.”
“Maybe.” Amori replied, “But if he was then I would have been able to get something on him, he should have a passport or a record showing that he had crossed over the boarders to get here. It just doesn't add up, the school records didn't really help either.”
Anise rested her chin on her hand, something she did when she was thinking. The others were also immersed in their own thoughts.
It was strange to think about for Amori, her journalism skills, and being a part of the school paper, gave her access to information that the others would not have a chance of having. Yet still all she was able to pull up was the things that everyone already knew. Save the fact that Ryan did not for all practical purposes exist till the recent five years.
Suddenly Cody angled his head to the direction of the road, facing the others he said, “We should hurry, we don’t know what time he'll be getting back.” Amori and the others nodded though they didn't hear any car or motorcycle pass by.
Driving up to the house, they parked. Getting out of her car Alexis went to the front door, “Hmm,” she said looking around the front of the house, “it doesn't seem like he has an alarm system in his house.” Confusion laced her words, “That doesn't make much sense, having no alarms when he has such a big home.”
“Maybe it's cause we're in a small town.” Anise commented with a shrug.
“I doubt that, his doors are locked.” Removing her set of keys she bent down at the knees; the others watching her, “Um, Alexis, how are you going to open the door with the wrong key? Doesn't each door have its own specific key?”
Alexis smiled, as she looked through the key slot, “Actually this is a specific type of door knob, have the right key for the certain knob,” she briefly glanced at the others, “when the lock or door knob is massed produced, and you can get in with no problem.” She held out her keys in the afternoon sunlight, flipping through each one till she came to the specific one that she wanted. “You see this lock and knob is a Schlage brand, and by the way the key slot looks it seems to need a 98HJ23H model. Which I just so happen to have.” Inserting the key inside the knob, Alexis twisted it in the lock. With a soft click the door was unlocked; twisting the knob she opened the door. She gestured for the others to stay outside for a minute. Wanting to make sure that there was no security system. Stepping over the thresh hold she walked into Ryan's house, looking around Alexis made sure that there were no alarms or cameras. Retracing her steps she went back to where the others were waiting, “Ok, come on in, but we really need to hurry since we don't know when he'll-”
Amori interrupted, “When they'll.”
“Uh ok, when they'll be getting back. What do you mean by them?”
“Some lady I saw standing at the front door.”
Anise and Alexis looked at each other, and then glanced back at Amori, noticing something that they had never seen before or so they thought, though just as quickly as it was there it was gone. Cody turned walking backwards, as he headed for the stairs, “Instead of standing there talking, you ladies should start looking around.”
Splitting up Amori headed to cover the back, Anise the front, Alexis the middle and Cody upstairs.
Deciding to start with the indoor pool area, Amori walked that way. Opening one of the doors she went inside. The place seemed less inviting than it had that night. Making her way to the room she had changed in, she started her search. Looking under and around the bench, when that proved unfruitful she made her way over to the lockers. Going through the inside of it and its contents she found nothing. Exiting the room Amori started looked around the pool area.
Cody searched room by room, 'The dude sure had a lot of them.' So far he had not found anything worthwhile. Continuing on he came to a room that was on the left at the far end of the hallway, walking in through the opened door, he knew that he had hit the jackpot. If they were going to be able to find anything on this Ryan guy it would most definitely be inside his room. He looked at the contents of the room, to the far right was a work out area, a king sized bed dominating the other end of the room. On the wall in front of him was a large built in bookshelf that took up most of the back wall, to either side of it was a floor to roof window, which allowed into the room a sufficient amount of light. On the wall opposite to it was a uniquely made wooden desk. Staring at the bookshelf once again he decided that he might find something out if he looked through it, but without the others he knew that it would take too long. Pulling out his cell phone Cody shot off a text to the others, telling them to come up and help him. It didn't take long for them to find the room.
While the others pulled out book after book, Amori looked around the rest of the room deciding to start with the desk. Going drawer by drawer, she searched through each, trying not to put anything out of place, so as to make sure that it was not obvious that someone had been inside the room. Not finding anything that could really help them Amori made her way to the bedside table. Opening the single drawer, she looked at what little was in it. Seeing nothing of importance she was about to close the dresser when something caught her eye. Pulling out the drawer Amori dumped the contents on the floor, moving her hand over the flat surface till the tip of her finger moved over a slight bump at the front edge bottom of the drawer. Working her finger nail into the side, she moved the covering, seeing a lock Amori groaned. She had to find the key.
Moving back to the desk she started her search, looking through the desk drawers she moved what was inside with less care than before. Her only focus finding the key.
Though mere minutes passed it felt like hours before Amori found the key. She found what she was looking for placed between two boxes that also required a key to open. Taking it out she walked back to where she had placed the drawer. Inserting the key the lock clicked, as the false bottom popped up. Removing the flat piece of wood, she came to stare at a book that was different from anything she had ever seen. Taking it out of the slot in which it had been set into; she placed the drawer down on the floor, sliding the false bottom back in place. Sitting down she leaned against the bed studying it, words written in a color she had never seen before appeared, but she could not understand them for they were written in another dialect.
Amori called the others to herself.
As they all stared at the book none of them was able to understand the writing that was inscrolled on the front. Cody, though he did not say how, said the meaning of the first symbol or letter, “The only letter, or rather symbol that I can understand is the first one,” he pointed to it, “It stands for Alpha or beginning.” “Wait but that's the last letter, shouldn't it read from left to right, not right to left.” Alexis asked.
“Depends, I don't know the meaning of most of it, but I do know that this dialect reads from right to left.” Amori turned the book around in her hand before saying, “Maybe he has something that can help us translate this writing.”
The others agreed with her, finally, they now had something specific that they were looking for.
Neither spoke. All of them focused on the task before them, till Alexis noticed something, “Hey guys,” they all turned to her, “have you noticed that all of these books either talk about magic, inter world stuff, fairytales, or myths, and some of them not the better ones?” She read the cover of the book that she was holding in her hands, “‘Written in Red’, I have a cousin who has this, he said that only six copies were made.” She handed it to Cody when he reached out his hand, “he also said that no one knows where the first copy is, and that it was the only one based completely on the original draft.”
Cody opened it, “Yep, this is definitely the first copy, says so on the second page. It also even has the author’s signature.” Anise and Amori read over his shoulder.
The longer they search the more they came to realize that Alexis had been right. In a way it was sort of weird. Amori checked the time. Seeing that they had been there for over an hour and a half, she was about to tell the others that they should leave. When, she didn't know what, something like a light shove made her look up. Reaching up, Amori grabbed the book that her gaze landed on. Looking at both the front and back of the book she saw that it was completely blank. No writings, drawing or anything, not even the publishers’ name. Upon her opening the book her thought blurred, her mind seeming to be just as blank as the book and its pages. Then it felt like something or someone else had entered her head as well. It seemed to be searching for something, or so it felt like. Still just as quickly as it had started it stopped. Amori closed the book placing it back where she had removed it from, “Hey, I think we should leave now, we can come back tomorrow.” She said.
Walking out of the room she left, not waiting for the others to follow. Stepping out of the house, she walked to where their cars were parked. Getting inside she waited for Cody.
Ryan had just finished his bank transaction, when suddenly he felt someone else in his mind. Trying to shake the feeling he glanced around, thinking he saw a shadow in the corner to the right of the entrance he tried focusing on it, but the moment he blinked it was gone. Rubbing the back of his neck he walked out of the bank. Getting into the car he sighed, “Do you want to go home or would you like me to show you around.” He lifted the brake, “Since you’re going to be here for a month.”
Her gaze briefly locked with his, “When you put it like that... you can show me around.”
Ryan nodded. Pulling out of the banks parking lot he turned the corner, making a left heading for the mall.
“Since we're in Griffin, I'll take you to the mall; it’s pretty much our main hangout spot when we get the chance to come here.”
While Amori waited in the car she noticed the object that was in her hand. It was the book with the symbols. She had forgotten that she had even picked it up. Opening the passenger door she got out of the car heading back to the front door. As she did so she heard someone whisper in her ear,
“Keep it my little flower, and let none take it from you.”
Amori felt herself turn around, as though she was not even in control of her own body. It all felt like an odd dream.
Walking back to the car she got in. Sitting down, she shut the door. She placed the book inside of her sack pack.
When she had snapped out of the trance, Amori looked down at her sweaty palms then at the house. That stood tall, the center of the trees surrounding it. She did not ever want to come back; all she wanted to do was get home and take a long shower.
As they drove off Amori heard the voice once more, but it seemed to fade the farther away they drove.
“You shall return to me, for you are mine, and none shall keep you from me.
I have searched for you, and now I have found you, you are mine.”
The last words faded out of her mind, as if they had never been said. All that remained was a light humming sound, but that too was gone by the time they made it to the main road it all seeming to be a dream.