Curious Minds
Wednesday, July 3
What’s that? Vitahlomae wondered, bringing the cold, hard, metal object towards the flickering candlelight inside the small room beyond a door in her house she’d just discovered. She knelt towards the light to examine the flat, inch long object.
“Vitahlomae, diner time!” It was Livaenne! Vitahlomae glanced back down the tunnel, but the light was in front of her, and she couldn’t see. I left the door open! She realized in a panic. Livaenne sounded so close, she was probably in the tunnel already! She smacked the light out and scooted into a corner, the object clattering to the floor. She heard her sister enter the small room, and continue crawling. The tunnel only came up to about her upper right arm, where her three and a half inch long scar was. She doesn’t realize it’s a room, Vitahlomae realized, as her sister continued crawling slowly forward, she thinks she’s still in the tunnel.
Vitahlomae heard a small crash as the little table holding the candle fell to the floor, “Ow,” she heard Livaenne say, “What…”. Vitahlomae heard her moving around the table, trying to figure out what it was in the dark. After a minute there was a small scraping sound, “what’s this?” Vitahlomae’s breath caught, her sister had found the object she’d been holding before she smacked out the light!
“Livy!” their mother called. Vitahlomae breathed out a sigh of relief as Livaenne left, and waited a little while before crawling out of the tunnel. She took it, I know she took it. Vitahlomae thought, I have to get it back! She shut the door, curiosity burning inside her as she followed Livaenne to dinner.
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Everyone was sleeping, Vitahlomae sat on her bed; I’m getting it back, she thought. She tiptoed to Livaenne’s bedroom door and quietly slipped in. Livaenne was sleeping; Vitahlomae slowly made her way through the dark room to the dresser, where Livaenne kept her stuff.
Suddenly, she heard footsteps in the hall, somebody was coming! Vitahlomae froze; her whole body was tense, making it hard to move, but she ducked behind the dresser, hoping she hadn’t made much noise. As the footsteps got closer, she identified them as Thelquunne’s.
“Livy?” he said quietly, and Vitahlomae heard her brother open the door a little more. I must have left the door partially open, and now he thinks Liv is awake. Several long seconds later, she heard him backing out of the room.
That was close, Vitahlomae thought; quickly, she peeked into her sister’s top drawer, but surprisingly, nothing was in there. She knew her brother was awake, so decided to wake up early the next morning - before anyone else woke up - since it would be lighter; so she went back to her room and set a soft alarm.
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I hope Thelquunne doesn’t decide to peek in again. Vitahlomae thought, slipping into her sister’s room early the next morning. She glanced around the room and realized she didn’t know exactly what she was looking for. Her eyes fell on Livaenne’s desk, there it was: a silver key. She took it back to her room, wondering what lock the key was for; but she had woken up early, and - holding the key - she fell asleep…and later rolled on top of it.
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Thursday, July 4
“Tahl!” her father’s frantic shouts woke her, “Vitahlomae!” Was something wrong? Why did everything look so strange? She sat up, there seemed to be something going on in another part of the house, and everybody was calling her name. She stood up, and then remembered the key; where was it? She glanced over the bed and smoothed the blanket to look for it. Suddenly, she froze, and her eyes traveled up where her arm… was supposed to be, to about the place her scar should have been. Her scar felt warm, and like the inside of it was tingling a little. She touched her scar, and felt something: it was warm, hard and flat. She pulled at it… and she was holding her key, her whole body visible. She opened the window and looked out; then slowly stuck the key back into her scar; it tingled for a second, and then the world changed again: the colors - of everything - were… dimmed; and her whole body had disappeared. She took the key out again: the colors came back, she could see herself again, and her parents rushed into the room.
“Vitahlomae! Where have you been!” her father exclaimed, “We’ve been looking for you everywhere!”
“I - I’m sorry,” she faltered,
Thelquunne and Livaenne ran in, “Tahl?” they chorused.
“I didn’t mean to worry you, I… just wanted to take a walk this morning, before anyone woke up.”
The family went out to the kitchen to have a peaceful breakfast, before Vitahlomae decided to take a walk for real this time.
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“Please, don’t hurt me!” the young girl cried, cowering away from the three slightly older boys who stood over her. She saw someone peering around the corner at her, but she disappeared as quickly as she came. One of the boys stepped forward - and was promptly jerked back.
“Hey, what was that for!” he snarled at the other two.
“Wasn’t me!” they both cried.
Suddenly, the boy in the lead fell to the ground, groaning, like he’d been punched in the gut. Startled, the other two backed up, glancing at the girl. One of the other boys bounced harshly against the wall, “Ahhh!! There’s an invisible force!” he shrieked, clutching his head and falling to his knees.
“Don’t be stupid, it has to be something else.” said the other one rather uncertainly, backing up.
The boy in the lead stood up, and was immediately knocked back down. “Run!” he yelled, fear evident in his voice; taking his own advice he quickly got up and sprinted toward the corner, following his buddies.
The girl stood up and glanced around, wondering if the ‘invisible force’ would come after her next, when suddenly, right before her eyes, a teenage girl that must be twice her age materialized out of the air holding a key. “Hello,” the strange girl smiled warmly, “are you okay?”
“Yes…. Who are you?”
“My name is Vitahlomae, I hope they didn’t hurt you.”
“No, I’m good, my name is Isoderaine; but how on earth did you ever do that!?”
“I’ll tell you, we can keep anybody from hurting you again; you see, this key is magical….”