Curious

My aunt was the only person in my family that actually understood how my brain worked. I loved activities that were difficult to pass, from obstacle courses to matric math sums once I was older.

She lived in a grey mansionon the corner of Thurid road. Her house was situated in front of Highgate forest that was filled with many foxes and different types of birds. I loved visiting her during the holidays, because other than my aunt making the best morning breakfast cookies, we would also go for a hike through the forest and rest at the waterfall of Whispers and Wishes to have lunch. Lunch was often little triangle shaped sandwiches with tomato, cheese and my favorite spices.

Around the age of 9, I began to notice that there was an unknown side to my aunt. She had a wooden shoe box, filled to the brim with millions of sticky notes that contained notes on them. She also had a forbidden room that I was never allowed to enter.

I had a nightmare one night and woke up to the pitch black that filled my room. I sat up straight and checked the time on my alarm clock that rested upon my bedside table.

"00:17"

I decided to go and fetch a glass of warm milk, as that usually puts me right back to sleep. I flung my legs out of bed slowly; got up; shuffled to my door and opened it slowly, as to not make a sound and tip-toed down the passageway. It's as I was heading for the stairway to go back upstairs with my glass of milk that I noticed that my aunts bedroom door was standing wide open. I walk over and find that her bed is vacant and neatly made.

"Aunt Linda!"

I called out to her twice more before I finally could assume... I was completely alone.

A large grin formed on my face. This was my opportunity to find out more about her. I walked into her room and flicked up the light switch and made my way to the wooden box of sticky notes first and found it sitting upon her chest of draws in front of the mirror. I took a seat on the small pedestal, placed my glass of milk on the table and opened the box. I scanned through each note with vigor -each one being more or less the same- but there were three words that stood out:

Monster

Weapons

Protector

Once all of the notes were spread out across my aunts pearl white desk, a silver object caught my attention at the bottom of the now-empty box.

It was a key.

I picked up the key and instantly knew which room it belonged to. I ran up the stairs, turned a few corners and arrived at the resin painted wooden door that was engraved with beautiful sparrows. The door of the forbidden room. I slotted the key into the slot and turned it sharply which was followed by a soft 'click'. I turned the doorknob with a quivering hand and pushed the door open slowly which caused it to creak.

The room before me consisted of baby blue walls with few windows and a single bulb that clung to the roof on nothing but a thick black wire. I walked further into the forbidden room and was shocked to see rows of shelves that held weapons that lined the right and left side of the room. Upon those shelves were various different types of bullets, bombs, arrows and glass bottles filled with multicolored chemicals that sent cold shivers down my spine. Each weapon was carved with foreign symbols that you may find in fairytale novels. I realised that there were symbols carved into the back of the door -three of them situated vertically beneath each other- I ran my hand over the one in the middle and took a large step back as the symbol started to flicker to life with a light blue glow. I close the door properly so that the projection would shine on the vacant wall across from the doorway. It was projecting a map of some kind. I stood before the map for possibly the rest of the night, playing around and discovering secret tunnels and different passageways. The detailing on the map was unbelievable. In order to make a piece of technology this advanced, you'd need equipment that hasn't even been invented yet and dont forget about the amount of skill needed to construct such complex symbols. The light flicked out of existence and I turned to meet my Aunts icy glare as she closed her arms over her chest with her dark brown hair pushed back off of her face. I didnt move an inch.

"What are you doing in here? I told you never to come in here, Calrik. Why do you always make solid decisions to disobey me?" Her cold tone of voice always makes me question my decisions.

"You don't have to keep secrets from me anymore, Lin. Especially something this cool." I said.

"How much do you know?" She asked me with such a calm tone that it was frightening.

"Hardly anything." I responded

"Really, because the key for this door was at the bottom of a wooden shoe box filled to the brim with those little notes which I've assumed you've read. Am I correct in assuming this?"She asked with a stern voice and cold eyes.

I exhaled sharply and slumped in defeat, "Okay, yes, but I was curious. Can you blame me?" I asked rhetorically.

She walked towards me from her position in the doorway and she kneeled before me, placing her hands on my shoulders.

"How much do you know?" She asked once more.

"Everything." I replied and took her hands off my shoulders.

"Well, it was only a matter of time before you found out." She smiled faintly and placed her hand in the small of my back and lead me out the not-so-forbidden room.

"I think it's time we had a chat."