Aquamber ^^Currently being edited^^

Chapter Three

   "Well you see... I let everyone think I was crazy because I did not want to be royalty, I did not want anything to do with fancy dinners, servants and the endless riches. If you ask me, I think I am totally sane. I wanted to get kicked out for a reason you'll find out soon enough." Aunt Mary explained to me once I settled down, her gray tabby fast asleep on her sofa in my lap.  I didn't understand why she didn't want to be royal, it was amazing! I wanted to ask about the house and her odd "accessories", but I kept it to myself.

"What do you mean by I'll find out soon enough?" Nervousness and curiosity crept up in my voice like the spreading and growing cobwebs around her house. She did not answer, she only shook her head and glided to her room. Like that was her cue, the kit that napped in my lap sat up drowsily, pouncing off the couch into the guest room,

"Aunt Mary?" I yelled at the empty and dark hallway my aunt's bedroom was in. No answer, but she peeked her head out her door to me, giving a questioning glance. "May I clean your house for you?" I asked politely, not wanting to get on her bad side if she even had a bad side. She softly nodded and went back into her room, only to spring her head back at me before I even took a breath. "Don't use a washcloth deary, just get the hose and spray the whole house. Speak normally will you, too? You don't need to talk fancy-like!" Her eyes looked at me sternly but in a friendly way, until I nodded to her. Aunt Mary's head shot out of the hallway again.

  I shut the door behind me and I let the sun's rays soak into my pale skin that, for the first time, was not covered by my heavy, formal, spearmint green dress. Not knowing where to go first, I was dumbstruck and considered going back inside to ask where the hose even was. Banishing the thought that would possibly make me quite idiotic to Aunt Mary, I searched around the house, finding nothing but a pile of gardening tools and still, more thick cobwebs. The bottoms of my white slippers were not very supportable against the spiky, yellow grass, making me lift my legs past the other leg's knee.

    A skinny but long, green coiled rope-like object was attached to the house that had a knob and another end to the hose had drops of water softly falling to the dead grass. The hose faced behind me, making me look over my shoulder every few minutes. I twisted the rusty knob connected to the house and the hose, making a whooshing noise in the hose. My reflexes urged my body to jump away, instead I ended up half jumping, half crashing to the yellowing grass. The hose went completely crazy like an attacking snake, going to the right with a snap and then a left, went up, and the water hit my feet. The fast-acting hose zig-zagged and grazed my arm with water, making my arm cold and wet.

The hose stopped squirming, my own hands over the green hose, pinning it to the ground. I twisted the knob the opposite way I had twisted it before and the hose didn't react as if it was a snake, but it still threw water out of the nozzle with strength. I grabbed the hose and put my thumb halfway over the nozzle, making it spray faster and hit the house, making small drops get collected by the cobwebs. I put my thumb up, making the water even stronger and finally remove a large patch of cobwebs, revealing bright, spotless pink paint.

  ^###^

  The box was small, but weighed about as much as my phone. The lazily "tied" ribbon had glided to the floor when my grandmother handed the box to me, not caring to even pick it up. Since she didn't wrap it, I lifted the top of the box and gasped softly. A beautiful amulet was facing me, with amber, to be exact, and had a woollen string on it enabling me to wear it. I gently put the amulet in front of me, the string laid over my fingers and my palm, the amber facing me. Light behind the gem made the polished amber gleamed in front of me. I nearly forgot that my grandmother was still beside me, awkwardly waiting for me to say anything. "Put it on." She ordered, the sternness in her voice made me jump and I fumbled with the string, trying to knot it around my neck, but failed. She looked at me and went behind me, double knotting the amulet but keeping it so it was not too long or too short. I gulped, how would I take the amulet off? I couldn't pull it over my head, and the back didn't feel knotted anymore, it was totally smooth.

"Now you must obey these rules that I will tell you, okay?" She barked, "One: Do not, I repeat, do not take this amulet off."

"Bu-"

"Don't interrupt me!" She, again, persuaded, "Two: You cannot let friends see this or family members, no one but the one you trust the most. It starts with a J. Three: Do not let any living or non-living thing touch that amulet. Got it?" Her orders made me jump every time she raised her voice. It did not surprise me very much by the way she talked, she used to work in the military. "Now you can ask questions."

   I nodded and opened my mouth slightly. "A question to everything you just said.. Why? Why can't I do any of those things? Why the person I trust the most?" I knew the answer to who I trusted the most, it was Jack.

  "You will find out yourself. Now, they will be coming out soon, probably. So I'll say this quickly, no matter what..Do not take this off, if you have that feeling you must take it off, ignore it. If someone asks you to take it off, disobey. If you get these bad feelings, which you will, no matter what. Do. Not. Take. It. Off." I jump and nod violently, not in the mood for being yelled at more by her. I ran my finger down the amber gemstone, my birthstone, the front was completely rounded and the other side was level because of the plate that kept it flat on the back-side of the gem. The sound of a door opening made me panic and slip the amulet under my shirt, zipping up my hoodie as high as it could go, hiding the string by moving my hood over it. The two boys sat on the couch and turned on the television to some weird cartoon, while grandmother and I stood in the dining area acting like nothing happened.

^###^

More than half of the pink house was clean and was warming up by the sun's hot rays. Because of the hot sun, the water in the hose turned luke warm, feeling nice on my hands. Having the home cobweb-free, I go back inside to Aunt Mary holding a tray of saltine crackers and two mugs of tea, the tags on the side of the mugs. One black and one green. "Black tea for me," She said, staring down at the mugs, "Green tea for you." The mug with the green tag was handed to me. Nodding in thanks, we settle down on the love-seats and silently watch a show about survival Aunt Mary seems to enjoy. The tea was perfect, not too sweet, not too plain, the spoon in the mug was even glazed with honey.

 "And this experience will never be forgotten by me, since I nearly died, same with my family-" 

  "Where are we going to sleep?" Her eyes went wide, remembering she forgot to tell us that, and beckons me as she walks to the hallway. Pointing to the door in front of her, "This is your room, Anne." She simply left me, so I entered the room, leaving the door wide open and flipped the light switch on to reveal a small room with white walls and blue carpeting. A closet on the left with a dusty mirror as one of the closet doors awaited to be opened. A large, dark oak desk beside the closet, a computer on the desktop and a matching chair with a deep red cushion over the seat. The full-sized bed made the room seem even smaller, with its bright white comforter, sheets and pillows. By the way it seemed, it looked like a futon, where it could become a couch. A huge window brightened the room more since the white curtains were pulled back. I sat down on the edge of the bed, feeling homesick already, I started to bawl.I hid my face in the bright pillows.