Once Reni had left, Jazmin walked towards her safe haven, the attic botanical room. Walking into the room, she automatically felt the ease and comfort that only that room can bring. Walking past the flower bed, lining the walls around the door, she goes straight for the loveseat canopy facing the high windows. She falls back on the couch, her head resting on the arm rest, she looked up at the skylight above her and sighed.
"What did Iris get herself into?"
A sense of peace flowed into her, calmness and ease overtook her overworked body. With a sigh she closed her eyes and let her mind wander as the quietness of the whole room filled her senses, allowing herself to be more aware than she ever thought possible. Feeling her mind reeling with thoughts, she found herself thinking about Iris again. The dream that she had, the feeling of importance never leaving her thoughts. An image of Iris standing in a clearing with a beautiful lake and trees surrounding it with a single look back, Iris smiled and walked into a glowing door that appeared out of the nowhere, disappearing along with it.
The ring from the doorbell distracted her thoughts, changing her focus to the person on the other side of the door. Standing up from the canopy, she made her way downstairs towards the door, stepping up to the peephole only for it to be vacant. An eerie sense of being watched filled her senses, as she backed away from the door and towards the living room. The phone rang breaking the silence of the house causing Jazmin to jolt in place with surprise.
Picking up her phone, she answered and a familiar voice flowed through. "Hey, are you home?" Sighing in relief, Jazmin ran a hand through her hair. With a dry chuckle she fights her sarcastic remarks from breaking out. "Kodi, perfect timing. To what do I owe this pleasure?" Kodi's laughter flowed through the phone, which made Jazmin relax, and walk into the living room. Sitting down, there's suddenly a shadow standing behind Jazmin and suddenly grabbed her shoulders. With a scream, Jazmin bolted up and glared at her, who was full of laughter on the floor.
"The hell Kodi, you really want death don't you." Kodi grinned at Jazmin, "Jaz, please. You love me to much. It'll hurt you more than it'll hurt me." with a small smirk Jazmin rolled her eyes as she shifted to the side allowing Kodi some space. "So," Jazmin began as she got comfortable, she glanced towards Kodi "To what do I owe such presence?" Kodi laughed
"What do you mean? You always see me, quit being so dramatic."
"Well, how bout this, what do you want at 7 o'clock in the evening?" Kodi smiled and nodded "That's much better, now to appease your curious mind, I came to give you some news. This time about Iris." Jazmin's eyes grew wide and if there was ever a doubt of her being focused throughout their conversation, it was all in the past. "What?! How?! When?! What happened?! Tell me Kodi!" sighing Kodi raised her hand in front of her. "First, chill. I'll tell you exactly how it happened. Let me just get a word in damn it." biting her tongue Jazmin sat there as still as she could muster without making a sound.
"Thank you, well for starters let me explain how it came to be. I was doing what I do, obviously. I had gone into that spiritual store down on 14th street when I was walking passed it, I had seen a couple of girls walking into the store talking about how they haven't seen Iris in a long time and hoping that they see her. Now at first I thought, hey what are the coincidences that they were talking about our Iris. Well, you know curiosity killed the cat, so I walked into the store following behind them as close as possible. They described her to a T. At first I thought that it was impossible but the more they talked the more I realized that they were talking about Iris. Now the weird thing is that there was this nice looking lady there and those girls went up to her to ask where Iris was. She smiled and told them that she had gone on a trip to deal with some family issues. Long story short, the lady knew that Iris had disappeared. To where? I don't know but what I do know is that the lady knows your sister and if we play our cards right we can even use her to help us find her."
There was a silence in the air as Jazmin processed the news she had just received. Having gotten up in mid story Kodi walked back into the living room with a bowl of grapes and a plate of cheese crackers. She takes her seat one more time and waits for Jazmin to get out of her head.
Jazmin sighed, "Things don't seem right to me" ' Things are starting to get bad.'
Looking back at Kodi, she opened her mouth to speak but was cut short by a ring from her doorbell. Kodi looked at Jazmin surprised "Who could that be?" Jazmin sighed almost hitting her forehead, "I forgot, Tristan is supposed to be coming over to go to the movies together. I completely spaced." Kodi stared at her in disbelief, "You're kidding, right? That's a joke, There's no way that you and Tristan are going to hang out at the movies." she spat as Jazmin just stared at her, debating whether or no to go open the door. She starts to walk towards the door, "I know how this looks but he's the only one that can help me get my head on straight." with a sigh she opens the door and smiles. "Hey, I thought we weren't hanging out anymore." Tristan smiled walking inside the house, allowing Jazmin to close the door behind him. "Finished work a lot later than I thought, sorry." noticing that Kodi was in the living room he stopped in surprise "Oh, look there's a squatter in here, Jaz." Kodi glared at him, "Go rot in the trash, Tristan." she stood up and walked into the kitchen leaving Tristan and Jazmin behind in the living room.
"Well, since you're here let me go upstairs and change real quick and I'll be back down in a bit." Jazmin turns to run upstairs towards her room as Tristan stayed behind sitting on the living room couch. His mind traveled to what he had heard only a few hours ago. ' The door huh, well I guess I'll need her more than before.' his cell phone rang breaking his train of thought. "Hey babe, I can't talk right now. I'm meeting with Jazmin right now. I'll call you back later." A nasally voice flowed through the phone, as Kodi stood in the entrance of the living room hearing the conversation. Tristan placed the phone back in his pocket and laid his head back on the couch. "Nice to know you care for Jazmin." Tristan opened his eyes getting a good view of Kodi behind him with her arms crossed across herself.
With a smirk he responded "Of course, she has what I want and I won't stop till I get it." a look of disgust pressed on Kodi's features struggling hard against herself to punch him in the face. "Listen, we both know that we can't stand each other for our own good reason, but one thing that I won't let pass is if you have the balls to hurt Jaz. If you do, you'll wish that I never got ahold of you. Take this as a warning." turning, she walked towards the door not giving him a second glance closing the door behind her.
"What happened? Where'd Kodi go?"
Jazmin walked into the living room holding a jacket and her wristlet. Walking up to Tristan, standing by the door way. Shrugging he opened the door for her. "She said she was going to leave and that she would text you later." nodding Jazmin turned around and locked the front door walking behind Tristan as they both walked to his car. Settling inside, a whiff of his cologne filled her senses calming her nerves as they drove out of her driveway. The silence filled the air, leaving them comfortably in their own minds. "A door, what comes to mind when you think about it?" Jazmin looked at him curiously trying to think about the question "A door? I guess just any random door that we see everywhere. Why? Is there something else that should come to mind for a door?" Tristan smiled with a small shake of his head "No, haha don't worry. It was just one of those ice breaker questions." Jazmin laughed a bit with him still curious as to why he had asked that.
As they went through the lines to order food Jazmin's mind kept repeating the question that Tristan had asked not too long ago. 'What did he mean by a door?' an unsettling feeling sank in the pit of her stomach. A feeling of danger ran through her body giving her chills as she looked at Tristan again for what seemed like the tenth time frowning. Overtaking her body she wrapped her arms around herself, zoning in on her movements Tristan side glances at her placing his arms around her, surprising her. She looked at him as he stood beside her buying the tickets. 'Something doesn't feel right.' feeling her stare, Tristan turned to look at her, "Hey, why're you spacing?" Startled Jazmin laughed nervously, "I'm not spacing, I'm just people watching." with a small chuckle she turned her head slightly, ignoring his stare. With a laugh he turned around again and focused in front of him. 'God, why am I such an idiot?! I should have played it off better.' within a second she felt a shiver run up her spine.
'What was that?!' she looked around her, the feeling of being watched grew more and more by the minute. Distracted, she fell towards Tristan's back and moved forward a bit. Tristan turned back quickly with a curious look. "What happened?" Jazmin glanced back at him "Uhm, nothing. I tripped and fell forward. That's for breaking my almost fall." Tristand smiled. "No worries Jaz, I'll always catch you." Jazmin looked around her again then back at Tristan. "Thanks, for now let's just watch the movie." She gave a small laugh as they both walked into the movie theater.
"Hey, I found her."
"Good, now to let everything fall into place."