- Mona! What's wrong with you?!" I whispered loudly, feeling a wave of a cold sweat all over my body.
"What?!"
"Why would you bring it here?"
"I don't know, ok? I panicked! I found it under a pillow on the bed and that's when Audrey told me to run, so I just took it with me... We didn't actually settle what to do if I really find something..."
I caught my head with both my hands.
"Surely not to bring it to my room!" I moaned. "What am I going to do with it now?"
All three of us stood in silence for a moment, because none of us knew the answer. I looked at the gun. It was small and black but different from the one in Tony's car. And it belonged to Dylan. Another gun, another brother.
"Dylan'll quickly find out it's missing." I said, a bit to myself.
"Maybe not..." started Mona, but my look made her close her mouth.
"I hide under my pillow stuff like books or fluffy socks and always remember about them. I don't believe that Dylan can forget about having a freaking gun there!" I snapped.
"So let's put it back." offered Audrey.
"Please, don't make me go through this again!" cried Mona.
"Besides if Eugenie sees me projecting again next to the stairs, she may get suspicious." I added.
"She's just a housekeeper, you think she cares about what you do?"
"A housekeeper that works for my brothers."
Again, we were staring at each other for a moment, not saying a word.
"Maybe we just throw it away." mumbled Mona.
"Into the garbage?!"
"If someone from outside finds it, there'll be trouble. We don't know to whom it is registered on." remarked Audrey. I reminded myself when Tony told me he had his friend's gun. Maybe that one's also a friend's? Maybe Dylan has a friend, who lends him guns as well?
I couldn't lie to myself like that, even if I really wanted to.
"Just leave it somewhere in the hous e. In some drawer for example..." said Audrey.
"They'll know it was me anyway. My brothers work together, no one in this house, besides me, would do something like that. Whatever I'll do, I am screwed." I stated and with every next word, my voice was breaking more and more because I was getting aware of the troubles I got myself into...
Another brief while of hush.
"Take it with you." I blurted, looking directly at Mona, who got even paler.
"What?"
"Take it with you. Hide it in your house." I repeated.
"Hailie, no. Absolutely not. Are you joking?"
"It's your fault it's here." I pointed out, feeling a bit of remorse, but not strong enough to stop pressuring her.
"That's not a book or remote control, Hailie! That's a gun! I can't pop into my bag a flipping gun! I can't hide it in my room! That's a weapon, it's illegal, you can hurt someone with that badly!" Mona was whispering frantically.
Deep inside I knew she was right, so I took a deep breath and tried to calm down.
"I know, I am sorry. It's not your fault. I'm just scared."
One more moment of silence.
"I'll go back to Dylan's room. If he catches me, I'll tell him I got lost and that's it. He won't kill me now, will he?" Mona giggled nervously. I didn't share her sense of humor.
Well, our mission ended up as a fiasco because when we came out of my bedroom, we bumped into Dylan himself. He just gave us a once-over and disappeared into his room. His darkened face expressed his bad mood. He didn't even mock us.
Ultimately, the gun landed up in my drawer where I kept my underwear, what was rather a bad hiding place, but I struggled to be creative when stress took control over me.
Mona and Audrey soon were picked up by their parents and just farewelled me with uplifting looks. For the whole evening, I was on pins and needles, ready for angry Dylan's entrance. But it didn't happen. I ate dinner alone and when I was falling asleep, I could hear some muffled voices talking and a little hustle somewhere in the house, but that's all. Nothing unusual.
I met Dylan in the morning, but he behaved normally. It means he mainly ignored me, only peeking at me from time to time.
"Maybe he didn't see it's gone. Maybe he's got guns hidden everywhere and he just didn't notice that one of them disappeared." suggested Mona. I met with the girls before classes to tell them about the current situation.
"It seems so, I don't know..." I sighed.
I didn't know if I preferred Dylan to catch me or him to turn out to be some freaking hitman. I needed a moment to understand that the second version is actually quite possible. I didn't feel relief, that I got away with something. I had to come up with some idea about what to do with this gun in my bedroom. Besides, my desire to find out the truth about my brothers was even bigger now. I mean, there was something clearly wrong with them.
Soon, I got interested in the forbidden corridor, which was another terrible idea.
For my whole, a few months stay at my brothers', I avoided this place, wanting to be a good and obedient sister, just as they've expected it. Even if I've seen many times how my brothers disappeared in this undiscovered, for me, part of the house.
"Nose about there. You may find something interesting. If you had dirt on them, we'd be able to date openly." Jason encouraged me, kissing my neck. We kept seeing each other in the toilet. I haven't told him about the gun because I was afraid he'd repeat it to his friends and my brothers will find out again. Just like it happened before. But I let him into the forbidden corridor problem when he insisted on me to confess why I was so worried.
"Jason, I think my brothers aren't the type of people who you can have dirt on." I sighed, slightly irritated that he misunderstands everything. He was interested only in kissing.
I'd been hesitating for a long time before I decided to step into the forbidden territory. I was even scared of putting the gun back to Dylan's room, what obviously went through my mind, but I let this idea go very fast because I never knew when he was inside. And if I was caught red-handed holding the gun, I'd die right away.
But the corridor was a different thing, going there I could pretend that I needed something. I was changing. I was getting more imaginative and forward in my movements. I had a feeling it was a bit thanks to my friends, who constantly were pushing me to break the rules. And well, all those secrets my brothers had weren't helping the situation.
I turned off my phone to excuse myself with a dead battery in case someone catches me and asks why I didn't call or text instead of disobeying them. I looked into a mirror and messed my hair a little. And rubbed my eyes. To look bad. I wanted to pretend I was feeling ill. That was going to be my excuse. A very poor one, I know, but lately I was plotting too much and now I was running out of ideas.
Passing the stairs, I looked down, but I didn't hear anyone. No sounds of tv nor playing. It's good, I guess. I could always say, that no one was around to help me.
I felt a thrill when I passed a threshold of the mysterious corridor. It was long and turning right. I will disappear around the corner in a moment. There'll be no way back. You can still change your mind, Hailie. But I kept moving forward, slowly, step by step. Step by step. I stopped before the turn and leaned forward slightly to take a look. Another long corridor.
That one I crossed faster. It turned left. There was another one and then finally I could see some doors. The corridor got wider there and changed into kind of a small room. There were three leather sofas facing each other. And a lot of different doors. And the corridor was even longer... It was a bit dark here. No daylight, just lamps. That itself was weird. I stood like that for a moment and I looked around, not knowing what to do.
Out of nowhere a handle of big, massive doors a few meters away from me moved and I jumped. Nothing happened, but I listened carefully and distinguished some muffled sounds. A conversation. Suddenly, I felt I shouldn't have come here. Really, if someone sees me here now, I'll be in even bigger trouble than I imagined...
Following this thought, without further analysis, I moved quickly behind one of the sofas. None of them was touching walls, so there was enough space for a petite girl like me.
I hid right on time because the handle moved again and this time the door opened. I didn't see everything, but I recognized Vince coming out of the room together with some strange man, much older than him.
"Thank you, a hundred times thank you, sir!" said the man. His voice was weirdly hoarse and unpleasant.
Vince just nodded.
"Just remember about the deal." he answered coldly, as always. This time, however, there was something more in his voice, something that made me cower. Like some kind of ruthlessness...
"Of course, of course. I'm at your service, whenever you need me." promised Vince's guest. Then he did something, that surprised me a lot. He kissed Vince's hand or rather his signet that's been intriguing me since the beginning. I raised my eyebrows at this sight. Who does that?
My brother didn't look surprised, annoyed nor embarrassed. He was glaring the man blankly. He waved at someone, who was out of my sight and then another man showed up. He looked expectantly at the guest and they both left the corridor, leaving Vince alone. He took a step to come back to his room when his phone rang.
He stopped what made me worried because I wanted to get out of here as fast as I could. I cursed my genius plan of coming here. Vince wasn't saying anything, just listening, what the other side had to communicate. I was looking just at his back now and somehow he still managed to scare the shit out of me.
"I understand. Keep updating me." he said calmly. Then he put the phone back to his pocket and went to the room, closing the door behind him, not turning around at all.
I hid my face in my hands, trying to calm down. It wasn't easy. After more or less one minute nothing more happened, so the quietest and deftest I could, I came out from behind of the couch and run through the corridor leading to the living part of the house. I was moving on my tiptoes but as fast as I was able to to get out of there quickly.
Idiot, idiot, idiot.
Why would you go there?!
Luckily enough, I didn't bump into anybody on my way. I popped into my room, breathing fastly. I threw myself onto the bed and prevent from punching in the face. What the hell is wrong with me?! What am I looking for? What did I expect to find? If Vince caught me there, then...
Huh. Then what? What would he do? Do I really want to know?
I have to stop. Stop being so nosy. In the forbidden corridor, Vince's just working. Yep, that's it. He really has some clients visiting him there. I saw it with my own eyes. And he's quite busy. One of the guests left and someone called him right away with another business. He's working hard and thanks to that he can afford so many stuff like hip cars, huge house or to adopt his younger sister.
I am ungrateful.
I changed into my pajamas and started to prepare clothes for tomorrow's day. I stopped in front of my underwear drawer. Lately, I was just grabbing whatever I needed in a hurry to close it back and forget but this time I felt the need to check out my cursed treasure. I reached further in search of it.
Further and further and nothing.
I froze.
Completely panicked, I started to flip my underwear so frantically, that most of it was now on the floor.
And the gun was gone.