The Second In Command (a book on Brandon Block)

Memory 005: Arriving

All we could see was fog and the outline of buildings.

"Are you sure this is the place?" Alexia called to Brandon.

Brandon looked around at the misty outlines. He dug into his memory and recalled the memory-dream he had a few nights before.

"This is definitely the place," he responded.

Erico landed on the ground and we climbed off his back. Cora, in her dragon form, also landed, letting the others get off. Shanon grumbled about the cold and Erin gave her his jacket, earning a thank you and a glare from Barry in Shanon's direction. Seriously, what's up with that bat-boy?

Inama was just looking around and so was I. The place was eerily quiet, and it sent chills down Brandon's spine.

Suddenly, Brandon could feel a tug on his mind going in a certain direction. Looking in that direction, he walked, following the tugging in his head. The rest of us looked to see him walking in a seemingly random direction, but we followed him anyways, trusting his judgement.

After what seemed like an hour of walking, Brandon stopped, making us all bump into the person in front of us.

He stood in front of a building. The paint was white and peeling, but it was still a building nonetheless. And it seemed to be a house.

Brandon, slightly dazed and seemingly in a trance, walked to the front door, opening it and finding that the door was unlocked.

"Brandon?..." Alexia questioned out loud.

She hesitated at first, but then decided to follow her second-in-command into the house. The rest of us stayed outside.

Brandon walked along the wooden floor, his shoes tapping and the floorboards squeaking under the pressure created from a no-longer-familiar weight.

He again stopped. It was a wonder that the wood didn't give in yet.

He looked to his left to see an open doorway. Next to that, a small, round lamp table stood with a pot of flowers on it. However, the flowers were still spookily fresh.

A little beyond that, there was another open doorway. The rest was obstructed by the object in front of the boy: a wooden staircase.

To his right was a large arch. Behind it was revealed to be a round dining table set for four people as well as a countertop and a sink.

Brandon then snapped his attention back to the staircase. He started walking again, creaking his way up the seemingly dangerous staircase. Alexia followed a bit behind.

When Brandon reached the top of the staircase, he was met with a wall and two hallways going horizontally right and left, as well as a staircase continuing to the third floor on his left. He travelled to his left, into the hallway. There were two doors to his right and in between them, on the left, was another door. He kept walking and came to the farthest door: the second door on the right.

He opened the door and stepped into the room.

The walls were an off-white color, and the ground was wooden, like the rest of the house. There was no furniture, but there was a window that led to seeing the outside.

Brandon walked over to that window and looked outside.

The view showed the intersection of a street in an "x" shape. The house was on the bottom of the x, a tree on the top part of the x on the left next to the street, and another house was there as well. Just like in his dream.

Suddenly, Brandon could hear screaming. He rushed back, Alexia following close behind, and came outside the front door to see that their friends were all knocked out, save me, who was being held back by a knife to the throat and an arm making sure I can't move. Men wearing black clothes and black masquerade masks (what for? To look fancy?) surrounded my friends. Okay, why am I the only one still conscious here? Where did the logic of this world go?

... Never mind! That's not important!

Brandon and Alexia rushed at the men, attempting to get them away from their friends, and the majority of them left without a fight. However, a couple of them first grabbed Inama and Talia, then sped away. The man who was holding me walked back a few steps slowly, me struggling to get out of his grip, then he rushed off, leaving me behind on the ground, coughing from the effort of not getting myself cut by the knife.

"Talia! *cough* Inama! *cough* They were just-" I got into a coughing fit. Okay, I really need to work on getting myself to NOT cough for some stupid reason.

Alexia patted me on the back, saying, "We got it! We got it! We'll help you get your friends back!"

Brandon suddenly felt another tug, this time going in an unfamiliar direction. He walked towards the direction of the tugging.

"Wait!" I called. "We can't just leave them like this!"

"Sherylyn, just look after them!" he called back. "Alexia can come with me! You look after the others!"

Me, being me, just went with the flow.

"Fine, but if you guys happen to need my help and these guys are awake again, just call me on my braces!"

I tapped the metallic stumps on my teeth.

I guess I forgot to mention that I had braces. Well, yes, I have braces. From this random braces company that I don't even remember the name of.

Alexia rushed after Brandon, and they disappeared.

I took out my little precious journal that wasn't even mine.

"Time to see what HE is up to..."

-----------------------------------------------------------
Author's Note:

Hello!😁 Hope you liked this!😊

So, I decided to add more details in my story, and so this came to me. The reason why I tried to be descriptive with this one was because the house came from something that keeps appearing in my imagination, and I wanted you guys to be able to see what I was seeing.

Hope you enjoyed!
-Vanguard16😋