Soul of the Phoenix

Chapter 8

After Sadie walked away with Sakiya in tow, Sylis peeked out of the closet to see if the coast was clear. He quietly moved out of the skinny and small closet, sliding the door back in its place. He tip toed out the door, giving Sadie time to get ahead of him before he followed her. He knew his sister didn't like Sakiya, but he didn't know if her intentions were more than that, and now its confirmed for him that she had more than just a grudge against Sakiya. Especially if she felt the need to take her as she did.

He walked slowly down the hall and watched as Sadie dragged Sakiya around the corner and down the staircase. He had to watch his back to make sure none of the staff around his parents dwelling, or his parents for that matter, were in the vicinity. He didn't want them to know anything about this quite yet, and he wanted to find out more information on his own before his parents figured out what he, or his sister, was doing. He kept a healthy distance behind the duo, hearing Sakiya hiss as Sadie dug her nails into Sakiya's arm. He furrowed his brows and tensed, he didn't realize his sister could be so horrid to someone else. Making fun of someone? Sure. Teasing? Yes. Physically hurting someone? No, that was left to his parents to decide punishments of anyone in this mansion. It was different now.

He lurked behind a dark wood-grained grandfather's clock perfectly sat against the wall in this corridor, watching as his sister moved a picture frame on the wall to reveal a door. he muttered 'what the f**k' under his breath. His sister had a freaking secret passage. How did he never know of this or notice it before?

He watched as Sadie pushed Sakiya in the room, shutting the door behind her, the picture frame sliding back to it's original place on it's own. He was flabbergasted at what he just witnessed. He walked up to the picture frame, putting his ear up against it to see if he could hear anything. His hearing was better than most, so he breathed in silence as he waited to hear any words.

'Mr. Black will give into my wishes of wanting him if he really does wish to have you.' rang through his ears. 'I knew it!' he muttered to himself. Sadie had been acting off since Mr. Black had been introduced into the picture, and at the breakfast meeting they had together. Sadie seemed to want to be a little too close. Although, Sylis didn't know what that entailed, However, he made it his mission to find out. He heard footsteps coming towards the frame on the other side, so he hurriedly ran back to his spot to hide next to the grandfather clock. He heard the frame move against the wall, Sadie coming out and entering a code to close it back. She lightly chuckled before saying "I will have my way, and I'll make sure of that. Talk to you soon, Mr. Black." She laughed to herself, walking back the way she came. He had to pull himself as close to the wall as he could, to make sure Sadie didn't see him. The grandfather clock was quite big and took up almost the whole width of the wall, and it stuck out. If he didn't make a move or any noise, Sadie should just glide right past him without noticing he was there. He felt his nerves suddenly rise as Sadie walked right past him. Once she was not in his sights anymore, he let out the breath he didn't realize he was holding. 'That was close' he muttered, wiping the small drip of sweat dripping down his temple. Once he could no longer hear Sadie's footsteps, he moved towards the frame on the wall. He looked at the painting of Mona Lisa before trying to push it upwards. It didn't budge. He then tried to slide it over to see what happened, and to his surprise, it started moving sideways on the wall, revealing the door behind it. He pumped his fist next to his side to show his excitement, but that quickly dwindled as he realized there was a code on the door. He thought for a moment, wondering what code Sadie could have used. He tried their birthdate, the screen lighting up red on the pad to show his access was denied. He scrathced his head, trying to think of what else it could be. He went through a few numbers to no avail. He quickly figured that he needed to try another way. He left the corridor and moved in secret until he was away from the hall with the frame, walking in confidence to the dining room. There he found his mom and dad talking to the staff about preparing dinner, well, more like demanding. He hated the way his family talked to the people who served them daily, sacrificing their own lives to make them happy. 's**t, It's that late already?' he thought, not realizing how much time he actually spent trying to figure out his sister's password. "Hey son, what's up?" His dad, David, spoke when he realized Sylis was in the room. "Oh nothing, just heading up to my room. I have a few things to work on for a class project in school." He replied. His dad nodded and waved him off, his mother not even noticing he was there as she was too busy yelling at the poor maids for what she considered a poor job of vacuuming the floor. She found a speck of dust, Sylis rolling his eyes at the notion.

He headed back towards the staircase, walking to the right of the hall which was the opposite hallway that lead to Sakiya's room. His and Sadie's room were adjascent to one another, so he first wanted to check and see if he heard her there. It was silent, so that meant she wasn't here. She had gone somewhere, most likely to her stuck up friend's house. He walked in his room and shut the door, mustering up the courage to go into Sadie's room to see what he could find without anyone knowing. He was nervous of course, but he needed to figure out that code. He had to get Sakiya out of here, and tonight. He needed to make sure she could meet with Maranda so they could make a plan to escape from here. Her death was awaiting, and he couldn't let that happen.

After pacing around his room for a few moments and clearing the doubt from his head, he proceeded to make his way to Sadie's room. He opened her door as subtly as he could. He walked into the pink childish room, his sister still a teenager after all with all the posters scattered around her wall of her favorite singers and actors. She had a humongous california king sized bed, with sheer ombre pink curtains hanging down the window beside it, lights streaming down the length of them. He gently closed her door and turned around, rubbing his chin and trying to decide where to start. He looked at her beautiful white dresser with diamond knobs and thought that was the first place he should look. She did keep her notebooks and such in the cabinet part of it, as it was split between a door that opened on it and her drawers. He grabbed the stack of notebooks and starting flipping through them. He saw journal entries, but they were only about her experience in school and her friends. None of the pages of any of the notebooks had any pertinent information that he was looking for. He placed the notebooks back into the cabinet the way he found them and shut it back. He then proceeded to open the top drawer, revealing her bras and such. He closed that drawer back just as fast as he opened it, definitely not something he wanted to see. He moved around the room looking through her things which ultimately revealed nothing of value. 'This is going nowhere.' he told himself, feeling a little defeated and irritated at himself. Of course she wouldn't keep something so private where someone could come across it, they did have aids that laundered their clothes and put them away so they didn't have to. He looked over to the adjoining wall opposite the dresser, staring at the doors to her walk in closet. He decided to go inside there next, wanting to hurry as he had already been there longer than he wanted to. He walked inside the closet, looking around to see if anything stuck out to him. As he scanned the room, he didn't see anything of importance. That is, until he noticed a small black box hidden next to a set of storage boxes on the shelf above where her designer clothes were hanging. As he walked over to take a closer look, he suddenly heard a voice behind him that made him jump. "Sylis, what the f**k are you doing in my room?"