21: Keep out

Today would surely be a really long day for me.

Right after reading her message, I finally decided to go start looking for that door with a sign board that was said in the yellow paper. Maybe that door led to the place where that girl was. Well, she must be.

For all I know mansions were so huge and had a lot of rooms and sometimes even secret passages, and I didn't want to roam around this mansion all day just looking for that stupid door. I saw a grandfather clock along the way, it was standing at the end of the hallway I was currently at. It was already 7:27 a.m. and the last time I checked this morning inside my room, it was 7 a.m. Almost half an hour had already passed.

I came by another door once again, but there was no sign board on it. I already passed a lot of doors but every one of them were just the same just like mine. There was no different one, or should I say unique one. I grunted, a frown forming on my face. I looked back to the hallway that I passed by for the third time. Hell yeah, this was the third hallway and I still hadn't seen that unique door that little girl wanted me to find.

Though I could really just ask somebody to help me find that door, if there even was. Well, I was certain that there must be other people staying in here. It wasn't just me, Leonora, Chaos, and Theresa in this really huge mansion, right? Of course, I was just an outsider, so it just leaves the three of them. Three people in one big mansion? For me, not possible.

I was still walking around the hallway until I have reached the end of it. I looked to my right to see a staircase leading up and down. It didn't take me a lot of time to decide because I just heard voices coming from downstairs. 

I grinned, I knew there were other people. And i was pretty sure those voices didn't belong to the three I know of.

I slowly walked down the stairs and went behind a wall, hiding from whoever those people were. I tried my best to stay unseen as I tried to listen to the voices I was hearing. They weren't so far from where I was, so I could really hear their voices. Besides, they were yelling at each other.

"Shut up! I was the first one to use the television!"

"I don't care! I'm the younger one here, you should spoil me, you know that."

"You know I hate spoiled kids, right? Just like you?"

"I'm your younger brother. You love me."

"Still. Now give me that remote-- Damn it! Come back here, you coward!"

Loud and quick footsteps sounded through the hallway, they were running. Then I heard a door slam. They must have gone back inside their rooms, I could barely hear their quarrel from here. Their loud voices were already muffled. I stopped from hiding myself behind a wall, and as soon as I did, something struck me. Why was I even hiding? I was supposed to ask them where that unique door was. I rolled my eyes at the stupidity that I did.

And because of that I couldn't ask somebody anymore where this door was. Well, honestly, I could just knock on some room's door and hope someone will open it, then I could just ask that person. But that would just be embarrassing, knocking on some stranger's door and ask him or her something like you were close friends?

Forgetting about what I had just done, my eyes began wandering the hallway that was almost the same as the hallway upstairs if it weren't for the plain stone walls. The area was completely enclosed by walls, there were no windows. If it weren't for the candles hanging against the stone walls, it should really be dark down here. This must be built underground.

I ran my fingers across the walls as I walked further, and paused when I saw something and narrowed my eyes at it. Well, there were only three doors that I had seen. Two were completely the same as the others, but this one I was staring at was... kind of different. It had the same quality of the other doors, what made it seem different was because of the stickers of many boy bands on it.

And when I say many, I really meant it. The whole front side of the door was literally covered by stickers, well, some were posters. To be honest, I even noticed some posters of K-Pop boy bands. My lips parted in disbelief, a die-hard fan girl must had done something like this.

But other than the hella amount of stickers and posters completely covering the door, there was this thing that was hanging against it.

Keep Out.

A sign board. A sigh of relief slipped out of my mouth because I could finally rest, maybe Leonora was hiding here and I could finally find her.

I wasted no second of lingering in the hallways and walked over to that door fast. But as closer as I got, the more I could hear the quarrel of the two I heard just awhile ago. This was their room, I thought.

I stopped on my tracks, right in front of the door. I was thinking, a part of me hesitated to knock on that door, but this was the door that I was looking for since then. I groaned inwardly, I really shouldn't had agreed to that little girl. But I didn't have a choice anyway.

I heaved a sigh before I reached my arm out to the knob, but to my surprise, the door suddenly opened.

I was totally frozen at the moment and didn't know what to do as I found myself facing a girl who was almost the same height as me. She was wearing black leggings, a band t-shirt and a pair of striped socks. She had red hair just passing her shoulders with bangs that were clipped to the side of her hair.

My mouth was hanging open, as well as hers. I was also staring into her widened eyes, and so was she. But my eyes weren't widened because I was surprised by her suddenly opening the door, it was because of her bright violet orbs.

I blinked out of my trance as I quickly made up something that I could say to her. "Uhm. Hi." I awkwardly blurted out, I tried my best to act casually.

"Hello..." She replied back, eyes narrowing at me as if she was trying to remember something as she leaned on the door, slightly tilting her head to the side.

Now what was I supposed to do again? I was lost of words at the moment. I thought there was going to be an awkward silence between us, but then another person came into my sight.

A boy with silver colored hair and violet eyes almost pushed the girl forward but paused when his eyes landed on me. There was a slight amusement by the way he looked at me. He quickly regained his composure and cleared his throat, "And who's this angel I see in front of my-- Ouch!" The girl elbowed his sides hard before he could even finish, making me wince at sight. That was when I noticed their undeniably similar features, they must be siblings.

"Akyra, shut your damn mouth even just for a second." She hissed at the guy, eyeing him sideways before giving me back her attention. The guy just rolled his eyes before he backed away and muttered, "Fine, I'll take a shower first."

Mine and the girl's eyes followed him until he was already out of our sight. It took a moment before the silence was broken. "You're eyes... You don't belong here." She eyed me suspiciously. Well, there was nothing wrong with my eyes, it was theirs. It was weird for people to have bright violet eyes. But I ignored that and pushed it aside.

I gave her a slight nod, agreeing to what she just said. "Well... someone brought me here." I mumbled, but it was just enough for her to hear.

"Is it someone with same eye color as mine?" Well, it was Chaos and he certainly had those piercing violet eyes. I nodded again as my response.

From that suspicious look she had, it turned to something of relief and comfort. In a matter of seconds, she already had that wide smile across her face. "Well, I guess there's no problem with you at all." she grinned. "Sorry if I scared you."

I felt my cheeks go warmer at that, "You didn't scare me, I'm fine." I quickly denied, though it was actually the truth. But hey, she only scared me a bit! I felt like a thief being caught by the owner of a house I barged into.

But then she patted my shoulder and pursed her lips, narrowing her eyes at me jokingly. "Nah, you're tensed," she grinned again before letting out a laugh. Really? I felt my shoulders relax, knowing that what the girl was saying was true. God, I really felt like an idiot!

"I don't know why, but I feel like we've met before." She bit her lip, eyeing me from toe to head and I felt a little embarrassed. "Anyway, call me Amyra. What's yours?"

"Mori." I responded, I threw her a closed-mouth smile. Before the conversation got any longer, I already spoke out what I really intended in the first place. I almost forgot. "Can I ask you something?" I suddenly uttered out.

She gave me a frown, "You already are." I forced myself not to raise an eyebrow and ignored her reply.

"Have you seen a little girl..." I tried to picture how Leonora looked like in my head, "wearing a white dress today? She had... uhm, curly pigtails and always had that cheeky grin... on.. on her face?" I told her, hesitation obvious on my face.

I looked at her, hoping that she understood what I was trying to say. Well, she better did. I did tried my best to describe her though it wasn't really a good explanation. I certainly wouldn't like to repeat it again.

"A girl with curly pigtails and always had that grin," She repeated mumbling, looking down the floor as she tried to remember something. After a few seconds her face suddenly lit up, "Leonora?" she blurted out with an expression like she just guessed a lucky number that would be the cause of her success, and she even pointed a finger at me.

She knew her, I thought.

Well, of course she did! They were living in the same mansion.

I almost wanted to slap myself for that, but I just gave her a sly smile as I nodded in agreement.

She clapped her hands three times like a chef telling her co-workers to work faster as she threw me a grin that almost reached her ears.

The next thing I knew, I was dragged by her inside their really big room that almost resembled a hotel suite. Oh screw that almost. It really did.

Everything inside was a whole different thing. I must be exaggerating it, but the room was enclosed by walls painted white and everything just seemed to wink at me as the pearly white granite floor tiles reflected the lights attached to the ceiling. I could feel my eyes widening in my sockets as I stared at everything in awe. Not even my room could look like this.

I was pulled out of my moment of amazement when the door slammed closed behind me. I jolted at the loud thud, and at the sudden loud music blaring from a stereo placed on top of a coffee table in the center of the living room. It was turned on by the guy I saw awhile ago.

He was only in his boxers when my eyes landed on him. For the billionth time in my whole life, my eyes widened once again. I was sure he just felt my presence then and our eyes met and I saw a glint of amusement in his violet eyes. That was when he suddenly screamed, not the normal one. It was a high-pitched one, like a girl's. "Rapist! Rapist, go away! Amyra, save yourself! Run, sis!" I furrowed my eyes at him in confusion and surprise, lips parting away. He even acted like a naked girl covering her b***s as he covered his.

Okay, that didn't sound right. Let me rephrase that.... as he covered his man b***s.

Not knowing what to do at the way he acted, my mouth opened and then closed again repeatedly just like a fish. "W-what?" I breathed out, I didn't even know why he was acting like that. Then he was screaming again, but to my surprise, he took a sudden blow behind him. I almost jumped at the sight of him falling right on top of the stereo on top of the coffee table, making the blaring loud music fall into a cracking noise until it finally fell into complete silence. The guy let out a moan of pain, "I think you destroyed the stereo." I heard him mutter.

Right after he fell, I saw Amyra standing right on the spot where the kick came from. She was the one who kicked the guy from behind. "You're crazy, " she spat at the guy.

"All the best people are." He shot back at her with a grin that only lasted for a second as he winced, trying to stand back up. The girl must have kicked him too hard. I bit my lip, he deserved pity at the way he seemed now.

Amyra looked back to me, "Mori, this is my younger brother, Akyra. He's really playful so just... bear with him." She threw me a forced smile, she looked completely pissed by her brother.

"Hey! You make it sound like I'm a burden!"

"Shut up." She snapped at him as she began walking away.

The guy just smirked at her and laughed, shaking his head. 

I tilted my head as I narrowed my eyes at the guy, and then at the girl again. My eyes kept on shifting from one person to another. "Twins?" The word just slipped out of my mouth just when I noticed it. Well, almost all of their features where similar. Not to mention that it was like each of them was a different gender version of the other. Besides, their names were for twins, too. Amyra and Akyra.

Before Amyra was even out of my sight, she paused, "Yep, We are." Then she walked until she passed by a wall where I couldn't see her anymore.

My eyes shifted back to the guy and he startled me by the way he stared at me. His back was still laying on top of the coffee table, but well, his torso might be a little too big because he was a guy so his head couldn't fit in. Instead, it was left off the table as he stared at me upside down. Which actually startled me because it was way too creepy.

As soon as he realized I was already looking at him, a grin etched its way to his face. "I know you!" He chuckled, "that was why you look so familiar to me!" I only raised an eyebrow at his sudden outburst. Well, a part of me thought that the two were familiar too. But I had no memory of seeing those faces before.

My expression must had already given him my thoughts that I didn't know him nor her. All of a sudden, he rocked his legs back and forward. A squeal was already at the tip of my tongue when he did a back flip from that coffee table and landed so easily on his feet. Just almost a meter away from me.

He let out a moan again as he stretched here and there, hearing some bones cracking as he did.

He did not just do that! My mouth hung open at what he just did while he had a pleased grin on his face when he noticed the expression I had. The guy then ran towards the dining table at the other side of the room, I even saw wraps of potato chips that they didn't even bother to clean up. He ran there, and quickly rummaged through the pile of trash on top of it. He was looking for something.

When he stopped, I suppose he already found that thing he was looking for. His manly laugh made its way out of his throat, that confirmed the thought I had in my mind.

He pulled that thing out from under the pile of trash and eyed me excitedly. I only furrowed my eyebrows at him until he completely showed me that thing he had in his hand. And then he pressed a button that made it burst open.

It took me a moment before it hit me.

That was my foldable umbrella that I gave to the teenagers on the way to the central park! I was looking for Chase that time but... something throbbed in my head and it made my eyes flinch. I couldn't remember.

I just shook my thoughts away as my mind went back on the umbrella the guy was holding. He began walking back over to me as he played with the umbrella, amusement clear in his eyes. "You were the couple I met that day! I gave you my umbrella because it was raining!"

He tilted his head to the side, smirking at me. " Exactly. But we told you we're not a couple. Twins," he corrected.

I tried to picture the image of the guy and girl. The girl was definitely Amyra, but the guy just wasn't. His hair was of mahogany color with red highlights and not this super silvery color that Akyra had. I was staring straight at his hair, and maybe he noticed that. "I know what you're thinking. I dyed my hair last night."

Shock was still evident on my face as my head snapped to my right when someone said my name. "Mori! Catch!" And on my reflex, I surprisingly did. Amyra was way across the room when she threw me this carton of chocolate drink that was now in my grasp.

I turned my face up to look at her, she was now walking closer to me while she waved something at me. I was just about to say thank you, but stopped when I realized what she was holding.

Another yellow paper. I narrowed my eyes at it.

From my left, Akyra threw his free arm at her sister and feigned joy, "Ah, my sister! We finally meet once again!" Akyra was truly one of the playful type by the way he kept on acting.

"Shut up." She snapped again at her brother.

This time he feigned hurt, a fake frown plastered all over his face, as he pulled his free hand to his chest. "You ruin my fun."

Amyra just hissed at her brother, but then his brother spoke again. "But hey! She was the one we met on the road that stormy day!" Akyra childishly exclaimed, completely amused.

Right when Amyra heard that, her head snapped to me. Eyeing me again from head to toe, I felt my ears warm up again. Just like me, it took her a moment before it hit her.

Her eyes widened, putting a hand on her mouth. "Oh! You're that woman!" I noticed Akyra sneaking to her sister's back, my blue umbrella still in his hand. At Amyra's back, Akyra stood there, mimicking every move her sister did, and mouthed every word she said. Naughty little brother. I wanted to laugh at what he was doing, but I forced myself not to and and just focused on Amyra.

Now, she was biting her nails. "That was why you look so familiar to me!" she squealed, and then let out a laugh. I just chuckled at her reaction, but then I found myself being crushed in Amyra's arms. Before us was Akyra who was also a surprised by what her sister did and seemed like he didn't know if he mimic it, too. But then he whispered something, winking right after. "I actually know why she's doing this, but I might as well do it too."

Then I found myself being crushed by the arms of two teenagers. Literally.

As soon as Amyra felt the arms of her twin, she finally let go and shot him a glare. He also let go of me from hugging me from behind. I just puffed my cheeks and gave them two a sly smile. I just find it awkward to be hugged by some people all of a sudden.

"Sorry," Amyra mumbled, "I just can't say the words out so that's my way of telling it to people."

I only looked at her questioningly. "Uhm. What?"

"She can't say the words thank you. So she hugs people when she wants to say thanks to them." Akyra casually explained to me.

"Oh," was the only thing I managed to say.

My attention went back to the girl before me, eyes landing on that piece of yellow paper she was holding. It was said in the paper I got earlier that there would be seven yellow papers that would guide me to where Leonora was. And so there were still six yellow papers remaining to find, minus one if I got the yellow paper Amyra had.

As if knowing what I was thinking, Amyra suddenly turned her face up to look at me. "Ah, yeah. This yellow paper, Leonora told me to give this to you." she said, holding it out for me.

"She told you? When?" I pulled the paper out of her hand and read what was written there.

paper towns :)

Paper towns? Isn't that the book that John Green had written?

"Just minutes ago before I saw you in front our door." she answered back, sipping from her drink with a straw as her eyes landed on the paper in my hand.

I knew she was going to ask me what was written because of the curiosity I saw in her eyes, but before she could even do, Akyra butted in as he asked the exact question I thought her sister was going to say. Not to mention the same hint of curiosity playing in his violet eyes. They really were twins.

"What's written there?" He eyed the paper, "can I see it?"

I nodded in response and gave it to him. I already read what was written there anyway. When he took the paper and read the message, his eyes went back up to me. "What's up with this?" he frowned.

Amyra's curiosity must had taken over her and suddenly snatched the paper from his brother and read it out loud, "Paper towns. That's all it says. What's even the purpose of this?"

I felt a little conscious. Well, if there were two pairs of bright violet eyes staring straight at you, wouldn't you be?

I heaved a small sigh before explaining to them what Leonora had wanted me to do. I even showed them the first yellow paper I saw in front of my door earlier. They told me that I could just ignore it, but I showed that message where she said she wouldn't leave the place she was at until she sees me. 

They fell silent.

"You got no other choice, then." Amyra said.

Akyra chuckled and shrugged, "If paper towns was the next clue, maybe she wanted you to find that book titled Paper Towns and look through the pages. Maybe she slid the yellow paper inside."

"That's what I was thinking," I muttered, nodding. "But where could I even find that book?"

"In the library, of course. We have tons of books there."

I was just about to ask something again, but Amyra spoke. "Or maybe she could have meant the actual paper towns encased in glass, right?"

I raised an eyebrow at her, "Actual paper towns, you say?"

"Yeah," her younger brother answered for her as he pursed his lips. "That might be the one she was referring to, but we still don't know."

Without thinking, I groaned inwardly. Now I was going to find that library to see the book, but if it wasn't there, I'd look for the actual paper towns? Ugh. What the hell was I even supposed to do?

I threw them the best thanking smile I could ever muster before a big sigh left my mouth. I turned around and began walking for the door, "Thank you for the info, but I guess I should go now."

I was already close to the door when I heard voices shout from behind me. They were from the twins, of course. "Wait!" They both shouted at the same time, which made me look at them questioningly.

Both of them looked at each others eyes, and I was sure they pretty conversed with each other through their eyes. Like the one you'd do with your best friend. "You think what I'm thinking?" Amyra asked her brother.

Akyra grinned, "Hell yeah."

I just titled my head at them, they were seriously leaving me and were making a world of their own as they kept on staring at each other. "Guys. I'm still here." I blankly blurted out which luckily got both their attention. But I regretted doing that because of the grins etched on their faces, they were both grinning at me and I was somehow being creeped out.

"We're coming with you, Mori." Amyra excitedly said, it made my eyes widen for a second, a smile making its way to my lips. "Really?" And she nodded.

Akyra was next to speak, "I know Leonora. That little one is very tricky, you know. So I guess we'll have to help you out."

Because of that, I felt relief totally washing over me. I rubbed my palms to my face, "I'll definitely accept your help." I mumbled.

"But give us a few minutes to get changed. You better wait here, Mori." Amyra told me as she finally sipped her drink, emptying it completely. "Especially you, Akyra. You better get dressed already."

That was when all our eyes landed on the only piece of cloth covering his body.

All this time, he was only in his Spongebob boxers. And I can't believe I wasn't bothered by Spongebob's annoying smiling face printed on his boxers at all.