Aurum
Sam and I wait until we hear a portal open and close before we leave from where we’re hiding. We creep along the side of the large, black house and stop at an ordinary looking mulberry colored wooden front door. Sam raises his fist to knock on the door but I stop him.
“Don’t”, I mouth. I slowly place my hand on the cold doorknob and turn it. Surprisingly, the door is unlocked and opens silently. I tip-toe inside and Sam follows my lead. He closes the door softly behind him and we look around us. There’s a stairway that leads to another floor on the right, a hallway that leads into a living room ahead of up, and a starry night sky painted room that has a lot of boxes in it. Everything seems to be painted in a dark fashion. We, then, hear a noise coming from upstairs so I grab Sam’s hand nervously and we begin to climb the stairs as silently as possible. The stairs creak a little but it doesn’t seem to bother whoever’s in the room because the noise continues.
As we get closer, the noise turns out to be the sound of whirring and occasional footsteps. I look around to make sure no one else is here before putting my hand on the knob. It feels warm as I turn it and it opens silently.
Inside is a messy room that has a black wooden desk with a mulberry colored chair pulled up to it. Next to the chair is a small set of stairs and beside the desk is a bed with dark blue sheets. There are machine parts scattered all over the dark hardwood floor. In the middle of the room is a small black-haired child sitting with his legs crossed. He seems to be assembling a little robotic toy.
My eyes widen as my jaw drops. I glance at Sam and he seems to be the same way.
After about a minute of silence, the child looks up at Sam and me. His purple and red eyes widen in what seems to be a mixture of fear and curiosity. He stands and backs a couple of steps away from us. I can now see everything that he’s wearing. He has on a dark purple shirt with a large golden crescent design in the center, dark blue jeans, thick grey socks, and black fingerless gloves. What really catches my attention is what’s hanging on a thick golden string around his neck: a golden crescent charm. It looks just like the one around Ethan’s neck.
I look over at Sam and he mouths, “Who is this kid?”
I shrug my shoulders and mouth back, “I don’t know but let’s get him out of here in case Ethan had kidnapped him.”
Sam opens his mouth to say something back but closes it quickly when the child begins to speak.
“Please don’t take me away from here. I really like it here.”
Sam and I snap our heads towards the child as he walks towards us. He stops about a foot away from us and holds out is hand as he says intrepidly, “greeting. My name is Tanner.”
I kneel and Sam follows. I shake Tanner’s hand for a couple of seconds before letting go. He smiles.
“So,” I drawl, “how old are you Tanner?”
He frowns and says, “Please don’t do that. I’m not stupid.”
“Oh,” I say normally, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” he replies.
Sam speaks up and repeats my question. “So how old are you Tanner?”
Tanner looks at Sam and holds out his left hand. “I’m five.”
He, then, grabs one of my and Sam’s hands and tries to pull us to the middle of the room. After a couple of seconds, he gives up and walks to where he was sitting earlier. He sits back down and motions for Sam and me to sit in the space in front of him. Sam and I sit down and watch as he continues assembling the robotic toy. Not even pausing to look up, or pause at all, he asks, “So who are you? Why are you here? Why do you think that I was kidnapped?”
Surprised by the amount of questions he asked, I decide to answer his questions by counting them off.
“One,” I began, “this is Sam,” I point to Sam, “and I’m Aurum. Two, let’s just say that that’s a secret for now. Three, we came here through a portal and four, because Ethan is a bad guy.”
Tanner tilts his head the side, a look of confusion on his face. “Why is Ethan a bad guy?”
“He’s done terrible things,” Sam says.
“Like what,” Tanner asks.
“He’s hurt people in many ways,” Sam tells him.
“I don’t believe you.” Tanner crosses his arms. “Ethan is the best person ever. He would never hurt someone.”
“Why do you say that?” Sam and I ask at the same time, curiosity creeping into our voices.
“Because he’s my dad,” Tanner says simply, “and I want to be just like him when I grow up.”
There’s a period of silence where Sam and I are left speechless. It all made sense now. It all fit into place for why Tanner lives with Ethan and has his own room. It makes sense for why they’re wearing matching charms around their necks, but that also means that Tanner is Ethan’s kid. I turn to Sam and see that he’s reached the same insane conclusion as I did: Ethan is a dad!
“Umm… s-so where’s y-your m-mom T-Tanner?” I stammer, turning to him.
“I don’t have one,” he says, placing the finishing touches on his robotic toy.
Sam and I say nothing as we watch him complete his toy. He tests it us and it seems to work perfectly. He looks up and smiles widely. Holding up his finished project, he says proudly, “Ethan! Ethan! Look at what I did while you were away!”
Sam and I look around but see no one. We turn back to Tanner and Sam asks with fear present in his voice, “why do you think he’s here?”
Tanner points to the space between Sam and me and says, “He’s right there.”
We look to where he’s pointing and still see nothing. “Where,” Sam asks.
We, then, feel a cold hand on our shoulders as a familiar voice says, “Right here.”
We jump to our feet in fear as we hear footsteps walking to the doorway. Ethan appears in the doorway, arms crossed with five black tentacles swaying behind him. He glares at Sam and me for a few seconds and, if looks could kill, Sam and I would’ve dropped dead instantly. He, then, turns to Tanner and smiles brighter than I ever thought possible. He squats down on the floor and Tanner runs up and gives him a big hug. Ethan hugs back but glares at Sam and me. He mouths, “downstairs. In the kitchen. Now!”
He lets go of Tanner, smiles, and asks him, “can you make me something else while I talk to your new friends?”
Tanner nods as he runs to his desk and digs into a drawer. Ethan scowls at us as he walks out. I consider, for a moment, staying in here but quickly realize that that’s not an option when I see two black tentacles shoot out of the doorway. One wraps around my neck and Sam’s. It pulls us forward and we walk fast to keep up. When Sam and I reach the kitchen, the tentacle around our necks retract and go back to swaying casually behind his back. Sitting down in the nearest chair, he leans forward and says through clenched teeth, voice seething with rage, “Can either of you tell me how you came to be in my house?!”
I gulp and am unable to utter a sound and Sam seems the be the same way.
“Ahh. Quiet are we? Well I can fix that.” He launches two tentacles at Sam and holds him in the air with what appears to be a rather tight grip. His eyes glow as a drawer full of knives open and the knives begin to glow as well. He uses two more tentacles to hold me in place as the knives surround my head and neck. He laughs a little as he says amused, “So who will talk first.” Silence. “Okay then. Let’s do things the hard way.” The last tentacle that’s swaying casually behind him launches at Sam, covering his mouth as he squeezes him to death. Sam starts to scream but his screams are muffled and are hard to hear. He wills for one unusually large knife to press into the middle of my neck. The tip keeps going further and further into my skin and I then hear Sam go silent. Deciding that I couldn’t take anymore and that I want Sam to be fine, I say, “Okay! I’ll tell you! Just please let us go!”
He smiles triumphantly as the knives go back into the drawer and his eyes return to normal. He drops Sam on the ground behind me and lets go of me as well. I sit on the ground next to him and shake him until he wakes up coughing. I hug him and begin to cry a little.
“I’m waiting,” Ethan says impatiently.
I help Sam stand and he pulls out a stool and sits on it. He puts his hands on the countertop and lays his head on top of them. I sit on the stool next to him. Looking Ethan in the eyes while rubbing Sam’s back with one hand and my neck with the other, I say, “Kiersten helped us get here.”
His expression goes from impatience to fury as he slams his hands on the countertop, all tentacles pointed at Sam, their tips like spears. “Either you,” he glares at me, “tell me everything you know about that little devil or you’ll see your pathetic boyfriend suffer as he slowly dies. Your choice.”
I sigh as I begin, knowing that he’ll do what he says. “She came to me and Sam after….”