Perks of having an Alter-ego. [POHAA]

Chapter -9b 'Drama queens.'

Kneeling at the edge of the gaping hole on the floor, I peeked​ inside to get a glimpse of the basement I never knew existed in my very house. "What the...?"

"Uh-uh," Neon tapped on my shoulder, "don't breathe the stale air. Termites, too much Naphthalene." His gloved finger pointed at the nibbled wooden flooring.

"Okay!" I suddenly pinched my nose, and stepped away. How did he know about such a trivial fact? Before I could fathom any more of it, he handed me a hand-kerchief to cover my face. "Thank you." My voice was animatedly nasal.

"No problem." Saying that he jumped into the basement, "c'mon pumpkin, you don't want to stay there alone."

"Don't you dare call me silly names again," I breathlessly warned him, figuring out a way to properly get down into the pit. Left leg first or the right? By that time he yanked my leg down and caught me by my waist.

"You need a lot of practice!"

"Yeah, I do." I don't know why did I even agree with him.

He turned around chuckling and grinning his teeth off, "at least you agree with one thing. Now, search. Keep your eyes open, it could be anything, it could be anywhere."

"Mm-hmm," I nodded and started going through stuffs. On a dusty table in the corner lay our family picture, I still remembered the way I goofily photo-bombed my parents' anniversary photoshoot. Mom's smile...I rubbed away the dust with my thumb, without my knowledge a solitary tear drop splattered on the glass case of the picture.

"You have her eyes," Neon glanced over his shoulder, "ugh! such a staring look."

"Staring?" I scoffed.

"I mean, your eyes always look this wide and scary, they almost appear as if they're​ about to pop out of your face." He looped his fingers around his eyes, bobbing his head goofily.

"Are you for real?"

"Alright, I'm sorry. Your face resembles your mom's. Is that okay?"

"Thank you." I put back the photo frame on the table angrily. Then I went over to the work desk and ran through all the files and journals, but none of them was what we were looking for. The same disappointment was with Neon. "Maybe​ we are searching the wrong way. How about the computer files?"

"Do you think your dad would leave something so precious openly accessible like that? Anybody could've hacked it by now." Neon pouted his lips and crossed his arms.

"At least we should try."

"Okay," he nodded and went over to our old computer system that my dad always said he donated it to the needy ones. "Password?"

"Let it start first," I leaned beside him tapping my foot impatiently.
An outdated windows-8™ mark slowly took shape on the screen and then the dreaded hourglass appeared, now we both knew it was going to take an eternity to start.

Well, it did take a good amount of time if not eternity. "Password?"

I was trying to remember the old password I had memorised when I was in fifth grade, but I couldn't remember it at that particular moment. "Gimme a sec. Try 'weheartlee." I wasn't​ being silly, it's how my parents always made sure I knew that they cared for me.

"Seriously?" He raised an eyebrow.

"C'mon try it. It's​ midnight, my aunt will kill me if she finds out I am roaming around with a guy in green spandex. Type H-e-a-r-t."

"Okay." He clicked some buttons on the keyboard and voila! The computer restarted.
"Lots of unnamed files," he scrolled the mouse and tens of yellow coloured files ran up in line.