Kiss of A Titan
Chapter 5

As we approached the first room, we met an antique statue covered by a piece of white cloth like the rest of the furniture in the sitting room downstairs and curious Tom took off the cloth even before I could barely stop him from touching things. The antique turned out to be an exquisite crafted little angelic statue of a baby cupid with a little bow and an arrow held by his baby fingers but the dirt on it was much and had almost corroded its beauty as well as the carvings on the stony material on which was shaped with a chisel.

"Whoa! A cupid statue! I guess it's my lucky day. Nora would freak out if she sees this ", Tom exclaimed with delight when he saw the statue.

"Tom, cover it back with the cloth otherwise we'll go back right this instant", I threatened frowning at him. He reluctantly obeyed and did as he was told. He feigned a look of sadness across his face and kept quiet nursing his anger that had turned up after I intently cut his brief surprise short. His sudden countenance reminded me of what had happened late winter the previous year back home when we were still living in Georgia during the festive Christmas season. Aunt had prepared presents for everyone including himself and some other friendly neighbors living nearby who weren't too privileged to celebrate with their loved ones. Unknown to her, Tom had great expectations of what he had wished Santa would give to him, a video-game player, as a gift for Christmas only for him to unraveled an action figure and chessboard game instead, from the beautifully wrapped box that was kept under the Christmas tree we had erected during the season while Nora and I got the usual stuffs we wanted and we were satisfied even though we had high hopes of getting something more attractive but Tom wasn't the following year.

After he had covered the antique, a brownish lookalike of the original model, we entered the first room and it was quite smaller but had enough straight space for easy movement. It was pretty much very empty with all the posters on the wall removed except for a bed that was covered including a little drawer beside it near the window. The other rooms after the first one were all the same and nothing different from what we saw at the first room but we eventually came to a dead end with no steps leading to the attic. It was then that we both realized that the other hallway by the right would most likely lead us to the attic.

Then we hurriedly went back the way had come till we arrived at the same point we had stood wondering which way to take.

"So the attic is that way", "Eventually and there's no doubt we'll find it once we get there", "Phew, I feel tired climbing this stairs maybe you'll have to go without me", "Thanks for the heads-up but I'm not leaving you here", "Suit yourself, he answered as soon as we were about to make for the other corridor but I suddenly recalled something and grasped him by the hand from going any further.

"Hold on, I need to see if aunt is still outside, just to be on a safer side", Tom nodded at the good idea and waited behind me to head downstairs. I went down and found two of the six luggages missing from the six luggages in all which Tom and I took from the car. No one had to tell me that aunt was already inside the house and evidently, Nora was missing from the couch where we had left her to scour around the house.

I headed back with one of the heavy luggage and returned to find Tom still in his waiting position like I had left him briefly.

"What's with that look on your face?", "Shh... Keep your voice down. Aunt is in house and you don't want her to hear you", I shushed him with one of my fingers crossed my lips and walked up to him rolling the bags behind me. Fear gripped him profoundly and he was dumbstruck and didn't know what to say either but I wasn't going to let his fears ruin our little search around the house.

"Don't be afraid, Tom. Since aunt is inside the house and Nora missing from the couch, I guess she must be in one of the rooms", "So what if she is in there? She'll hear us the moment we start walking on the hallway", "I know that but we'll have to tread cautiously", "You mean like a ninja?", "Sort of you have to make sure that you don't make any noise henceforward", "I promise not to", "That's good", "Sneaking around isn't my favorite thing to do", "It isn't mine, either", "You said aunt is probably in one of the rooms, right?", "Yes, I did", "Which one?", "I'm not sure but we just have to get past the rooms to the end of the hallway", "And then what?"

"Then we'll get to know if the attic is there or not", I responded.

Tom sighed. "This plan is surely not going to end well but I have no choice other than to obey at this point. I hope our desire to see the attic is really worth our efforts in sneaking around looking for something that isn't there", "It's too soon to jump into conclusion and we truly aren't sure yet if the house has attic or not", "Well...there's only one way to find out. I'll go first", he said and climbed the stairs up to the right corridors leaving me behind to watch the performance of his stealth approach as he tiptoed to the door of the first room which he found shut tightly. He ventured forward and found the same thing as the first door closed as flat wood without any sign of a forceful entry.