Chapter 4

As soon as Ann catches up, she began talking.

"When are we gonna goooo? I'm sleeeepy" she says tiredly. Ann's medication had started to kick in.

"We'll go home when we've explored the whole house," replied Josh. "We're just going to walk up these stairs and look through the rooms." Ann wasn't pleased with the answer she was given, but complies anyways.

The stairs were old and rickety. They looked like they were on the verge of rotting. Ann was apprehensive at first, but after seeing Jason walk up the steps, that quickly changed. She was still cautious when she walked up the steps, but she made it to the second floor without breaking anything in the house or on her person. As soon as she had made it up the steps, she noticed something odd about the second floor:

The floor was covered in some sort of blue powder. For Ann, this fact set off more red flags than it did for her brother.

"Josh, this is really weird. We should leave-" Josh cut her off.

"It's fiiiiine! If you're really that scared, let Jason carry you." he said, almost angrily. Jason nodded his head in agreement. He lowered himself to pick Ann up. She put her arms around his neck and braced herself. Jason scooped her up like a princess and walked back toward the other two boys, who were already halfway across the second floor. Jason tried to reassure Ann.

"Ann, I promise you, your brother and I will protect you. If you feel unsafe, just tell me and I'll try to fix whatever makes you feel that way." Jason had always felt like an older brother to Ann, and sometimes, she thought that he was more of her brother than Josh was. Now was one of those times.