I gasped, so loudly and so fully that my lungs swelled with air and I let out a dry cough. Without looking back, I started running away. The lantern was still lit, and I could feel the stare of the woman's eyes boring into my back. I ran far and fast, my heart pounding, until I found myself by a gate of a house. I fumbled with my shaking, cold fingers to open the metal latch and imagined that the woman was right behind me. I finally got the gate open and hurried through it, not stopping to think about the house and who was inside. I ran up to the front door, and felt with my fingers for a peephole. There wasn't one. But I felt something else, something hard and cold. Metal. A door knocker. This took me by surprise. No one could afford a doorknob in Slendor, let alone a knocker. "This person has to be rich," I thought. "Surely they can help me." Before I knew it, I curled my fingers around the knocker and rapped it on the door, one, two, three times. As I waited for the owner to open the door, I stole a glance behind me to ensure that woman wasn't following me. How did she get right behind me? And how did the lantern get all the way there? No one had answered the door yet, so I did the one thing that I haven't done during this whole "adventure". I cried. Not just small, sniffly sobs. Not great, heaving sobs, even though my chest was heaving from all the running and my heart was beating like crazy. Somewhere in the middle, I'd say, but I still tried to muffle the sounds so 1. the creepy woman wouldn't hear me and find me and 2. whoever was in the house didn't hear me if they happened to go outside. I cried for everything, for my conscience that got me out of my warm, cozy bed in the first place. I cried out of fright and dropped on my knees, weak from the crying and the escapades of tonight. Before I could start another fit of crying, I heard shuffling footsteps. I jerked my head up and checked behind me. No one. Then I raised my head slowly to peer at the front door, barely visible in the darkness. The footsteps seemed to be getting closer and closer until they stopped, and I heard the front door creak open. I looked up, helpless, and stared into a dark, black hallway. "Well, girl, you coming in or not?" rasped a voice. I shrieked, imagining the old woman. The voice came from the doorway, and soon I made out the shape of a figure in it. They came forward, and I whimpered in fear. They bent down, grabbed me, curled up in a ball and all, and took me inside. Their grip and strength was surprising since I wasn't exactly what you would call on the skinny side. But they held me like I weighed no more than a feather. They set me down on something hard and soft at the same time, like a hard mattress. They sat down next to me on the bed, since I felt the mattress cave near my feet. Suddenly, the place filled with light. I squinted, not used to the light since I was outside in the dark for so long. I turned to look at the figure, and managed a shaky sentence: "Who are you?" The figure was dressed in all black and I couldn't see their face. They removed a mask and I could make out their mouth. Crossing the room and resting in a chair facing a window, the figure smiled. "Some call me the Secret Keeper."
you MIGHT want to read / reread chap. 2
