HIRAETH [1] || Grayson Hawthorne

Chapter 48- Turkish Delight

"Where were you?" -Lorelai Grambs

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After Grayson left that afternoon, Avery surprised me with a wheelchair. It wasn't that I couldn't walk or that it hurt me so much to do so, she did it to have some sense of control. Pushing me around on a wheelchair meant she could bring me anywhere she wanted to.

We both entered the Hallway of Eyes silently, I was about to protest and ask her to turn back but she headed towards the center with determination. "Avery.." I began but she shushed me. I frowned and crossed my arms, "You said we were going to Libby." I reminded her of the purpose of our small trip, she hummed as some form of a reply and slowed down. Her arms weren't straining and the pace she walked in was normal so it definitely wasn't because of my weight, she slowed down for a different reason.

Avery came to a full stop in front of the painting of the four brothers. I had it memorized by now. From the amount of times I've passed by it or examined it, how couldn't I? Sometimes, I swear I even see their faces in my sleep. "What are we doing here?" I turned my head around to face my twin but she was focused on the painting. "Libby told me she saw you and Grayson looking at this." Avery explained, I sighed, "Libby told you?" It was becoming less surprising for me to hear that sentence.

Avery nodded, tracing the corner of the canvas, "I guess your letter led you to this painting." I noticed that she wasn't looking at the braille that Grayson had found the night he told me he knew how to read using only the dots. "What about it?" I asked.

"Look." she pulled my wheelchair back a little bit so I came face to face with the corner she was staring at.

Tobias Hawthorne X. X. VIII

In the place an artist would sign, lay Tobias Hawthorne's name. He painted this, it would explain how the braille got on it in the first place. But the roman numerals were an odd addition. I didn't even notice it when Grayson and I were looking for clues.

X X VIII translated to ten, ten, eight. And if you put the last two together, it would become ten and eighteen. A chill ran down my spine, I suddenly felt like I was being watched, as I always did in this Hall, but even more so now.

I faced my twin and saw that she was staring at me, knowing that I had figured it out. "So my clues led me to the painting and told me to follow you?" I asked just to see if we were both thinking the same thing, "Exactly, and my clues revealed the numbers." she answered before letting go of the handles on my wheelchair.

She reached forward to pull the painting by the frame, lifting it off the wall just a bit. I was about to ask what she was doing but the painting started opening like a door, Avery pulled me away before it could hit my leg. "There was a button on the back." she explained but I had already guessed so.

The painting fully open, revealed a number keypad on the wall. Avery and I glanced at each other, the combination was so painfully obvious but we wouldn't know it would work for sure unless we tried. I reached forward before Avery could and entered our birthday.