I woke up and returned to the real world. I remembered I had a collection of glass marbles when I was young and mom should have kept it along with all the toys I own. I head towards the basement, I know that mom kept all kinds of things in there if they are not needed immediately.
I arrived in front of the door to the basement. It was painted black with no ornaments on it. The strange thing about our basement door is that it had no handle, no knob, only a flat black door with a noticeable Y shape keyhole on the center of it. I didn't know why mom and dad opt for this design, it may be they don't want anything stolen inside the basement since burglars will have a hard time noticing it when the lights are off, and if they do it would take a long time to open it. Whatever the case may be, I don't know why they designed it like so.
Thankfully every member of the family, my grandfather included, was given a spare key to open the basement. It was an old large key made from tool steel, and instead of being a two-dimensional key with only a set of teeth on one of its sides, this key had 3 sets of teeth forming a Y shape when viewed on the front. Furthermore, opening the door was rather complicated as well. A specified set of turns and listening for clicks is needed to successfully open the basement door.
It took me about 5 minutes before I opened the door to the basement. I took the key out of the keyhole directly and in doing so locks the door in an open position, this was a safety feature father added after being trapped inside the basement when it suddenly closed on him in the past. I walked down on a set of stairs and arrived at the bottom where a metal door was padlocked close. The keys were left hanging on the side and I easily opened them. Father explained that the door was there if ever there was a case of heavy flooding coming from the basement and is used to stop the water from getting in or out from the basement. Although I find it weird why such the case but I just grew to deal with it.
Opening the metal door, the basement room was rather dusty. Mother would have cleaned it every other week since her asthma would flare up if the dust builds up in the air but ever since her job in New York there was no one to clean the place up, I once offered her that I would clean the place, but she was adamant and warned me not to stay on the basement for a long amount of time and that she was enough to clean the whole place by herself.
Turning the power on, the inside of the basement was filled with items stored in boxes, they were then covered in white sheets so that they will not be overwhelmed by dust and dirt. The creepiest thing inside the basement though was my father's mannequins that he had brought home after some of his cases from the past, they were covered in a white sheet as well and I could not help but shiver on the thought of them running towards me. I stared at the mannequins as I pass them, afraid that they would move when my back is towards them, thankfully they were covered in sheets and I could not see their faces or it would be even more creepy when their eyes started to follow my movements and stare back at me.
I hurriedly looked for the box that contained my stuff, I don't want to be here in the basement any longer, it did not help that it was almost midnight as well.
It might be just my imagination but I felt that the temperature inside the basement was getting colder the more time I spent inside. My breathing became erratic as I hurriedly searched for my stuff, the atmosphere was getting heavier like it was preparing for something. I was about just to ditch it and buy a new set of marbles the next day since the basement was really creepy for my liking when finally I found the box I was looking for. It was in the corner of the basement and I knew it was mine since there was a label on it, thankfully mom likes to organize things and put a label on boxes that explain what it contains inside.
I carried the box with me and did not directly open it in the basement just to take out the marbles since I had a bad feeling that something would happen if I stay inside the basement any longer. I passed the mannequins when I suddenly heard a tapping. I ran from fright and did not dare to investigate what was making that tapping sound, and the further away I am from the mannequin the softer I could hear the tapping sound. I arrived in front of the metal door and glanced at the basement one last time, everything was where it was supposed to be even the mannequins were in their place, I pulled the heavy metal door and was about to padlock it when I remembered that I had not turned the light off from the basement. I groaned since I did not want to return to the basement just to turn the lights off, but I knew mother would scold me since it was wasting power. With a grunt I opened the metal door again, my eyes went wide when I noticed the light was turned off. I was confused since I was sure that I did not turn the light off, well maybe I did but just forgot about it? I shrug my shoulders and close the metal door again, unable to notice the mannequin in the dark with its back towards me trying to return to where it was standing before.
I closed the basement door using the key, by simply turning the key in the reverse order from opening it the door will automatically close. I don't know how my father did such a mechanism but I would like to have these kinds of doors when I grew up and have them installed in the place where I store my treasures.
Bringing the box containing my stuff back to my room, I excitedly opened it ready to gloss over things that I had used when I was younger. Inside was the collection of marbles I had grandfather buy for me during the cities trade bazaar when I was young. The marbles were mainly totally black and totally white, while my favorite of the bunch was a marble that was mixed black and white forming a Yin and Yang pattern which I kept on my nightstand, which blew itself in order to save me from the nightmare origin inside Annie's nightmare.
I sighed as I remembered where the marble had come from, memories from the past rushed over me. I remembered being carried by my grandfather on his back as I pointed towards the things I wanted him to buy for me and in the end, he bought me these glass marbles.
The box did not just contain the marbles but other toys as well. Toy soldiers, I used to play with, cars that I slammed with each other even an old rubber band gun that my father had made for me when I cried over wanting to play with my mother's handgun when I saw it when I was little.
I laughed a little and suddenly missed my parents, I decided to call them the next day and ask how they are doing, but I had an important thing to do for now.
I counted the marbles one by one and set them aside, I then took the drawstring bag containing the toy soldiers and emptied it inside the box, I then proceeded to fill the bag with the marbles and tied it up tightly, I closed the box and set it aside to arrange it some other time and I proceeded to lay down on my bed with the drawstring bag in my hand as I prepared my self to dive inside my dream.
I opened my eyes and arrived inside my domain, the drawstring bag was in my hand but I was not sure if the marbles had come with it. Remembering the time with the notebook, I carefully opened the drawstring bag afraid that the marbles were clump with each other or worse, not there.
I sighed in relief as I looked inside the bag and saw the marbles were inside and were intact, I even counted them and noticed that nothing was missing, all 25 of them were present inside the bag.
I then asked En how to transfer my energy inside the marbles as I head towards Annie's house.