Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
The screen up high on the wall outside the drapes came to life and Zane’s face was on screen. He was in a white lab coat, concern on his face.
The ding-dong-ding noise sounded again. And red symbols scrolled across the bottom of the screen Zane’s face was on.
“Zane?” I asked.
He looked at me for a beat and then blinked, giving his head a shake. “Tanya! I’m on my way to you. There’s a security breach, and I’ll be there as quick as possible. I’ll stay on with you while I travel there so you’re not alone.”
“What?” I asked, panic spiking because he looked concerned.
Ding-Dong-Ding
I could see he was on the move, making his way through a long corridor of metallic walls.
“I’m on the way, I’m only about ten or ---"
The screen went black, cutting him off, and there was the hum of electronics powering down all around me.
The house was silent. Too silent.
I heard noise from outside. People talking, sort of, and multiple voices at once. My ear thing went high-pitched, halting me and making me cover my ears due to the sharp pain that felt like a triple strength earache. The gemstones in my hands all fell to the floor.
When the screeching ceased, I rushed to the screen and got on my tiptoes to reach the blue button to call Zane. A blue bubble formed on the screen and white symbols scrolled across. And then the screen went black. Did it turn off? I pushed the blue symbol again. Nothing. And then the blue icon vanished. The Ding Dong Ding hadn’t happened again.
A security breach? What did he mean?
My eyes moved to the big window. Nothing was out of sorts in the yard, not from what I could see, though there was very little pink left in the sky as it was obviously passing dusk into evening. I decided to go to a room I saw on the opposite end of the hall to get a different perspective of outside. When I got in there, I knew it was Ollie’s room because it was a similar layout to the other room, only without a playhouse in a corner. Instead there was his treehouse: a two-storey jungle gym style apparatus in the corner of the room with a platform up top. There was also a slide and a tire swing, though it wasn’t exactly a tire, more like a glowing inner tube hanging from rose gold chains with lights inside. All of this was built to be part of a tree replica in pink, purple, yellow, lime green, and midnight blue leaves with a dark blue trunk that had footholds leading up.
I saw a wall of books and I peered out the large window, getting a view of the front entrance where four men stood. They were dressed similarly in grey suits resembling mechanic coveralls, with utility belts at their waists filled with tools and walkie-talkie devices at their shoulders. They wore grey helmets with chin straps and visors. I saw two of those sky cars parked outside, one blue like Zane’s, one orange.
They were uniformed, so police, maybe?
Ollie’s window was opened a little, so I heard them speak as a spotlight shone directly at me.
“Up there. That’s his house,” one shouted and pointed and four sets of eyes were on me. They saw me. One of the men reached for a device clipped to his shoulder. “Middle floor. Burnished crest leaf hair. Sapphire blue bedazzled clothing. It’s spooked.”
Oh shit. It’s spooked? Understatement. These were not good guys.
There was screeching again in my ears so I held them as I backed away. I was quickly in the hallway outside Ollie’s room, but in my haste and in the dimness as well, I tripped on the impossibly tall shoes I had on, my ankle going sideways. Ow. Shit. My freaking ankle was not supposed to bend that way and it let me know it, too!
I heard a ping sound. Oh God. The elevator? Elevators here sounded just like at home. Why was there power in the elevator?
From my sprawled position on the plush rug I crawled and scampered into a bit of a run, despite the throbbing, pulling pain in my ankle and I ran-limped into the little girl’s room and climbed into the playhouse and shut the door.
My heart hammered against my chest wall. Who were those men?
I heard a stampede-like sound. Multiple sets of feet were getting closer. I heard shouts. “Where? I’ll check this floor, you take the bottom floor, you check and then patrol the roof. Stay there until JZ gets there and---" screeeeeeech.
It wasn’t easy to crab-crawl backwards with a sore ankle and my ears blaring with that painful screeching, but I got myself into the lab area of the darkened playhouse and climbed into a thankfully empty cabinet on the wall under the television wall. I squished myself inside and shut the door. There was just barely enough room for me to fit. The door didn’t close tight but I held it as closed as I could with my fingertips at the bottom.