Every night, when I closed my eyes, his image would be branded to the backs of my eyelids. That same smile, so gorgeous yet so deadly. Those deep blue eyes, like the treacherous oceans you find, the ones which sometimes have those desolate lighthous...
"What's behind the door?" Lorelei asked, looking at it with distaste.
"I don't know... I tried it but it wouldn't open," Xander replied, shrugging.
"Did you try kicking it?" Grace asked.
"No —" Xander started, but Simon interrupted.
"Let the strong one do the honours," Simon said, winking. Xander raised an eyebrow, amused; he seemed to know exactly how this would go down.
Simon prepared himself. Standing a few metres from the door, he shook his limbs around to warm them up. Then he ran up to the door, raising a leg and kicking it at the last second —
"ARGH!" Simon yelled.
Xander immediately burst out laughing. As the others giggled, Lorelei stifled her own; she felt sorry for Simon's ego. It must have been suffering tremendous amounts.
Holding his leg, Simon rolled on the floor.
"Shut up, Xander!" he yelled, trying not to laugh himself. He blinked rapidly; the pain must have brought tears to his eyes.
Lorelei couldn't help herself.
"Awww, is wittle Simon cwying?"
Simon spun immediately as the others guffawed again, and the glare he gave her — let's just say, if looks could kill, she would be ash.
"I'm — not — crying," Simon breathed, just as a tear rolled down his cheek.
The wheezes and cackles heard from around the room were too contagious not to catch on to Simon. He was vexed, but he was also trying to suppress his own laughter.
Little did they know that their laughter wouldn't live for long.
***
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Lorelei heard something.
Her eyes flew open to darkness. She could feel her hand in someone else's — by the softness, she could tell it belonged to Corina.
Lorelei, Corina, Grace, Xander and Simon had all fallen asleep on the sofa, sitting up but heads lolling backwards, after hours of pacing around the room, trying to open the two locked doors, and just plotting and scheming in general. All of those had resulted in nothing, however, so their sheer exhaustion from pointlessness had taken over.
Lorelei didn't know when the lights had switched off, but she was wide awake now, her breathing shallow but quiet. Slowly untwining her fingers from Corina's, resulting in Corina emitting a soft sigh and adjusting her position subconsciously, Lorelei sat straight, rolling her shoulders and clicking her neck.
Straining her ears, she heard only her friends breathing calmly, slowly. She squinted in the dark, seeing if she could make out anything, but it was useless.
