Epiphany

Chapter 21 Part 1~Fetch it

It took me a whole second to recognize the girl standing in front of me.

Her short caramel hair was filthy and greasy all the way to its roots. A mixture of the colors blue and purple were decorating her neck in the shape of fingerprints. Her skin’s color was paler than usual, but not as pale as I thought it would’ve been. And a hue of red smeared under her nose further added to her disturbed state.

I watched the reflection cringe as I touched the side of my head. There was a slight bump on my head and wondered if there was dried up blood in between the thousands of strands of hair or not. I couldn’t see properly even if I parted my hair but I did feel a small clump of something.

My fingers flicked the faucet lever upwards and the sound of the water splashing relaxed my aching muscles a bit.

I carefully unwrapped my hands and threw the broken splint away, then proceeded to cleanse my face and arms with cold water, gently did the same thing with my neck, and grimaced from the stinging sensation all the way through.

I needed to figure out who the doctor was and make him get me another splint for my fingers. I had the feeling that the same person who treated my hands tended Julia’s stomach.

It took another minute for me to gather some strength within me to be able to open the door and set my plan in motion.

I need two essential things right now. Both felt impossible to fetch. But I knew where one of them was and the other one I had a slight idea of where it might be.

The first key to the basement was in Ryder's grip. How would I retrieve it? one might ask. I had no idea.

The second key I must have with me was the key to my room. I needed it so I could exit my room and put my escape plan on execution when they were all asleep.

Where was it? I guessed it was either in Chase's pocket—which I hoped not—or hidden in his room.

I’m about to figure it out soon though.

I keeked through the bathroom door and into the hallway. The coast was clear. I padded down the corridor and stopped in front of the door that stood on the opposite side of Gunther’s room. I thought I saw Chase enter this room before so it must be his.

I breathed out to try to release the stress inside of me.

It worked just a little.

All it took for the door to crack open was a touch from my finger. I didn’t even push it. I then rested my palm against the wooden door to peek inside—just to be sure whether he was inside or not.

He wasn't.

Good.

Now push the door open and let us hope it wouldn’t shriek loudly for an intruder.

I was about to straighten my arm to gape the door open but something seized my arm just before it could do that.

A yelp escaped my lips and I turned my head to catch the guy who caught my arm.

Under his thick fringe, his eyebrows were squished together in an accusatory frown; and his colorful eyes intensely locked gazes with mine in what seemed to be a one-sided heated eye contest.

“What are you doing?” I asked out of surprise.

His eyebrows squashed together even more as the scowling look turned to a perplexed one. “Aren't I the one who should be asking you this?”

I took a step back to put a safe distance between us, not caring about my extended arm that was still stuck in his grasp.

I widened my eyes on purpose and took a glance at the room, feigning confusion. “I th-thought this was my room.”

When he put on an unimpressed look, I gulped. “The stutter says otherwise, Alyssa.”

“I forgot, okay?” I tried to pull my arm away from him but he refused to let go. “I thought this was mine for a second.”

God, I hoped I was believable.

His face expression didn’t change until a half eye roll exchanged his face to a more serious one.

“You should know something around here,” he began, eyes losing its shimmer for a second.

“Ever heard of privacy?” I wasn’t sure if he awaited an answer or not because he paused but before I could respond, he said, “Yeah, we cherish it.”

“The guys here would go nuts if someone entered their room like you almost did to mine. They could even go to the extent of beating you up for that simple reason. So don’t do that again. Especially their rooms. Okay?”

Instead of giving him an ‘okay', I mentally snorted. And it seemed that I released a snort out of my mouth too, because he gave me an annoyed look before shaking his head. “You don’t believe me? Okay then.”

He released my arm and signaled me to follow. “Come on.”

At first, I almost leaked some water. I thought he would have showed me someone getting beaten up for that stupid reason or he would force me to enter Gunther's room and show me what would that cause.

But when he passed the door to Gunther's, I sighed.

He was just escorting me to my room.

It was bedtime.

I entered the moist room and saw how messy it was. The duvet was rumpled and a big section of it was straggling on the floor. The pillow was on the ground and had a hole in the middle of it.

The worst part was the dampness in the room. I needed to allow some fresh air inside.

“Wait,” I uttered suddenly, halting him in place. “You’ll lock the door?”

He turned on his heels to let me have a good look on his face. “Don’t worry, I will.” He gave me a reassuring nod.

This was not what I meant.

I didn’t want him to lock the door. Not now! Not when Julia was sleeping on the dirty ground of the basement, waiting for someone to save her, or the opposite, waiting for misery to gobble her up.

He had the keys in his pockets, and the issue is that I was not gifted with a stealthy hand to take it away from him without noticing.

This only meant that I needed to convince him to not lock the door. Or at least try, because he probably wouldn’t listen to me—No, he would surely not listen to me.

“But what if I want to go to the bathroom?” I said the first thing that came to my mind.

“Weren’t you just in the bathroom a second ago?” He arched his eyebrow.

“I was. I mean what if I woke up in the middle of the night and wanted to use it?” I stated the obvious, which for some reason he couldn’t understand. “I drank a lot of water, so it’s better if you didn’t lock the door today.”

He chuckled, his shoulders moving up and down as he did so, before sending me a serious look. “No.” He turned around and dragged the handle of the door behind him.

“But—” The door closed shut. And I didn’t miss the click when the key twisted.

I groaned loudly in frustration, not caring if he heard me or not.

Couldn’t I be more convincing?!

But even if I were, he would never leave the door unlocked.