For the next few weeks, life was a mixture of solitude and loneliness no one at the cabin spoke to Tora much. And when they did speak, it was to make fun of her or to mock her. Not even her cousin paid her much attention and she's the one that dragged her there.
The forest didn't help her to feel at home either. During the day, it looked creepy, or dare say, menacing. And at night, it seemed as if it had taken on a life of it's own. It had always left an impression on her. And not the kind you get from celeb singers whose voices and character were so well in tuned and brought out the entirety of a song, that you felt moved; or that of a highschool boy who could gather enough courage to ask a popular girl out without getting kicked in the balls. Of course he'd get shot down, but still, he left without dick pain.
The impression it left on her was like that of a horror movie where cute innocent girls go into the woods and are never heard of again. The thought of it sent a shudder down her spine. And not the he's-touching-my-ass kind.
Today was a day just like all the rest since she's arrived. She was sitting in the couch minding her own business (as usual), trying to finish her book with all the noise around her. Then, out of nowhere, Jim sat down beside her.
Pretending not to notice, she continued reading her book. Then he spoke.
"So... Whatchya reading exactly?
She didn't answer. She kept on reading her book.
He said, with a little anger in his tone, " Its not that hard of a question is it?"
She held up the book for him to see. He read aloud 'With this ring'. "I see. Sounds interesting"
"Yep", she responded irritated. All the way from across the room she could feel her cousins eyes on her and she thought that if she should look in that direction, she would meet a death glare so vicious, that it would make an already dead man want to kill himself.
" So what's it about?" he asked.
She mustered up all the goodwill she could find in her heart to look Jim straight in the eyes without throwing up. "Listen Jim", she said staring in his eyes with disgust. "What do you want? I know you didn't come here to hold a long conversation, and if your here because you want to annoy or insult me, then shove it! I'm not in the mood to put up with your crap!". She was about to stand up and leave when he said:
"Hey, you don't have to get all bitchy with me. Its not my fault you don't have a love life so you get it from a book", he responded with a smirk.
Snickers could be heard across the room.
Her face reddened. It wasn't because she was embarrassed, good heavens no! But she was angry. No. More than angry, she was pissed. There she was, just sitting there minding her own business, reading her romance novel, when this asshole just had to come and get her fired up. But she knew he was only trying to get under her skin. And hell would have to freeze over first before she let him!
She took a deep breath calming herself. Then in a subtle tone responded, "Well then Jim, not because you have a little dick it means you have to be a bigger one".
Everyone bursted out laughing. Even Venice. She tried to hide her face but it was obvious. Jim's face on the other hand screamed "That little whore!", but he didn't respond. He just sat there staring at her blankly. And she knew she'd won.
No one had ever said something like that to Jim before, and the shock seemed to had left him speechless. But after a couple seconds, he seemed to had recovered. Before he could say anything Venice spoke up quickly, cutting him off.
"Okay okay. You've had your fun. Tora, we were wandering if you'd like to go down to the lake with us?"
Now it was her turn to be shocked. "Why?", she asked.
" Well, we were all gonna go down there but I thought it rude to go there without you. I mean, we are family after all. So what do say?"
Tora shook her head disbelievingly. She thought of giving her cousin a close-up with the book in her hand and her over make-up face, but instead shook her head with a vigorous 'No'.
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Silence filled the cabin as the engines of the cars had left the compound. Tora breathed a sigh of relief, but felt guilty at the thought of what she had wanted to do to her cousin.
It's not her fault why she's attracted to Jim and feels compelled to satisfy his every need. She thought pessimistically. Plus, she did step in to save me. Even if it was at the last minute.
Feeling kinda bored and not in the reading mood, she began her mission of searching the rooms. She didn't know why, or what she was hoping to find. But she thought this was a better way to kill her boredom and explore the cabin. Killing two birds with one stone.
She knew that the first rooms, the right and left, facing the passageway from the stairs is Venice and Daola(left); Jim, Danny and Steven(right). And the second room to the left was hers. Which left three other rooms. One on the left and two on the right.
She headed for the room opposite her.
Let's start a little closer to home. Most unlikely to find any creepie crawlies, she thought.
Boy! Was she wrong!
She found that this door (unlike the others), had to be picked to open.
Inside the room was stifling and smelled like a morgue. The windows had been nailed shut and white sheet flung over everything. She saw cobwebs so thick they looked camouflaged amongst the sheets and spiders, lizards, centipedes, rats and worst of all, cockroaches, infested the room.
She shivered at the sight of them but still advanced further in the room. She felt comforted at the fact that she had on knee high boots and Long sleeve blouse. But cursed when she remembered the short loose skirt she was in.
She build up the courage to investigate the room and thirty minutes later, uncovered all the sheets and discovered a dresser, a bed, four chairs and a sofa and a second much smaller dresser and a bedside desk.
She had already looked through the two dressers, under and inside the bed, and wasn't going to even bother with searching the desk when her eye caught something.
It shone faintly and as she opened the desk drawer she saw what it was. A locket.
She took it out quickly holding it to the light. It was dirty and had a brownish color instead of gold. But she was gonna fix that. She placed the locket in her skirt pocket so that she wouldn't lose it and searched through the drawer some more.
She saw a black book and thought nothing of it until she saw the word 'Diary' printed in small golden letters at bottom left of the cover. She found some other stuff like old papers, some pictures, and pens. She gather them, went outside the room and locked the door. She went into her room and was about to open the locket when she heard a thud downstairs.
She stopped moving and listened. But thought maybe everyone must have come back while she was in the room. But then remember something. She didn't hear the sound of car engines driving towards the cabin.
Stomp stomp. Crash!
What the hell was that? She thought. She figured maybe Jim was trying to frighten her because of what she had said earlier.
With a sinister grin on her face she walked back over to her bed, took up the the things she'd found, pressed a button at the back of her bedside desk, and a secret compartment pushed open (she had found this a few days ago which made her want to go on a mystery search of the cabin). She dropped them inside, pushed it shut, and strode downstairs in the quickest and quietest way she knew how.
She jumped hard down the last flight of stairs knowing this would alert Jim, but also startle him.
She froze.
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Nuttyweird says until next time🙌. 'The value of a treasure depends on the emphasis you place on it' -nuttyweird505