Chapter 3
Hiroshi walked downstairs and got to the corridor on his left. He noticed that the door where he saw the giant shadow pass was opened. He carefully stepped inside and took a look around the room. It was a small bathroom with a sink and a basket next to it. On another section of that room was a bath filled with dark blue water. He was about to exit the room but he saw something in the bath reflect the light for a brief moment. He sticked his hand in the water but got it out immediately. The water was freezing; he could already feel a burning sensation on his hand. He took a deep breath and put his hand back in to take the object that lay in the bath. He took out a screwdriver. It was a bit rusty but it could still be useful. Maybe he could open the entrance door with that! The teen got out of the room and headed for the entrance door. He walked there to face... A plain wall. The door wasn't there. How? Doors don't disappear just like that! Hiroshi took out the plate shard and stabbed the wall, hoping the door was just covered by the wallpaper. The only thing he met was the thick wall. He looked around, he was surely at the wrong place but he realized he actually was in the main hall, the same place where he entered with his friends. He sighed in annoyance. What the hell was happening here? First of all, the mansion was way too clean to be abandoned, Takeshi was crying and shivering for no reason, he was hearing and seeing things and now, the door was disappearing!
He shook his head. It was probably a dream, a really bad dream. He decided to continue his dream instead of trying to wake up since it was starting to get interesting. As he was about to get upstairs, he realized there was two doors he didn't verify on this floor. The one at the end of the left corridor and the one next to the staircase he was standing in. He decided to go at the end of the left corridor and opened the unlocked door. He found himself in another small bathroom with a toilet at the very end of it. Hiroshi barely looked at it as he was searching in the cupboard under the sink. Since it was unnaturally empty, he opened the cupboard next to the sink and his eyes met with a couple of bottles of all sizes. He took the first one that his hand met and opened it. Since he couldn't see well inside, he poured the liquid on his hand. At his huge relief, it actually was some soap. He closed the bottle and put it in his coat's pocket. He looked at the other bottles. There was so much of them, was it all liquid soap? He took another one. Who knows? It could be useful. As he was about to try getting it in his pocket, it slipped out of his hand. The cap fell on the ground, opening the bottle and spilling all of its content on Hiroshi before landing on the floor. The liquid getting out of it was red. The teen just stared in awe at the blood getting out of the bottle for a moment, taking the shock of the sight of blood.
He ran out of the room and sat in the stairs. It was all a dream; he had to calm down, to breathe a bit. He then realized it. He never had to calm down in any dreams, even in his nightmares. His feet were never making sound on the floor when he walked in dreams, he never felt pain in his dreams but the plate shard was slowly cutting his hand palm and it was hurting. It wasn't a dream. They really were in the mansion, there really was blood in that bottle, the door really disappeared and he did almost die in the library. He put aside the plate shard and put his hands on his head, trying to realize it. He stayed in the stairs for a while, forcing his heartbeat to slow down. That blood on the piano, maybe it was from one of the bottles. He didn't know but he wasn't sure if he wanted to. He slowly got up, taking the plate shard with him. He walked up the stairs and tried to open the door next to the one where he found Takeshi out of curiosity but obviously, it didn't open. He got back to the white room and walked to the piano. He got out the soap and took away the piece of fabric from his wrist to pour some soap on it. He wiped the piano with the piece of fabric. It took time but he managed to remove all the blood on the piano. The only thing that stayed on the keys was some numbers.
972
Knowing he wouldn't remember it for a long time, Hiroshi got out of the room, repeating the numbers in his mind. There was surely a code somewhere around here where he could use these numbers. He got back in the room where he found Takeshi first but there wasn't anything that looked like a place to put a code in. He exited the room and stopped in front of the door. Maybe the code was near the piano, he didn't take the time to look around. He got back to the white room and looked around. He approached the piano again and looked under it, hoping to find something. Unfortunately, it was a normal piano with some numbers on it. He approached the bookshelves and looked at the books on them. He took a red one and opened at a random page. There was a drawing on it. He looked at the other pages to see it was other drawings that were similar, almost identical. The teen raised an eyebrow. Could it be a flip-book? Sure, it was badly drawn but who cares if it leads to something? He quickly flipped the pages and saw the picture move a bookshelf to the left. Hiroshi stopped at half of the book. He knew what to do. He dropped the book and pulled the bookshelf to the left. It was really heavy but the teen didn't care right now as long as there was something behind. He found a blank pad with some screws on it. He took the screwdriver and unscrewed them. As they fell on the floor, he dropped the panel next to the bookshelf to look at a pad with numbers on it and four weird forms on top of it. He didn't pay attention to those and entered the numbers he found earlier. It was a four number code but he found only three. He guessed there was a zero somewhere.
9720
It didn't work; he changed a bit the code.
0972
Nothing happened. He changed again, getting annoyed.
9702
He groaned as he tried one last code.
9072
He crossed his arms and grunted before looking at the forms. He decided to let the code on the piano behind for now. He looked at the forms. The first one could be 1 since it was the only number that could fit. The second one made him think of an 8, the third one could be 6 but the last one could be three numbers: 4, 9 or 7. He decided to try the three combinations.
1864
Nothing happened...
1869
It didn't open; he tried the last one, praying to any who could hear him that it would work.
1867
It didn't move. Hiroshi kicked the bookshelf on his left in anger and took a deep breath. There was a logic explanation here, he knew it. He walked back to the piano and looked at it for a moment. His eyes gazed at the forms then back at the piano. He gasped in realization. He turned his head from left to right, looking at the numbers from different angles and he darted to the code pad. He was sure of himself now!
2796
A clicking noise was heard and the container opened. Hiroshi took out a key where he could read "kids bedroom" on the handle. He sighed in satisfaction, knowing he finally got that damn code right! He exited the room for what he hoped was the last time and looked around the floor, trying to guess where the key would go in the mansion. The teen then realized that he didn't even go to the door at the opposite side of the entrance! Maybe there was something useful there. Hiroshi walked downstairs and got to the door next to the staircase. He opened the unlocked door and entered a small hallway. There was a door a little farther. The teen turned the handle but it refused to open. He walked to his right but stopped as his heart skipped a beat. He felt weird, he felt like he was drowning.
Something was wrong with this place.
There you go, the third chapter! Sorry if it's boring, the action starts on next chapter. Now, question:
1. What do you think happened to the others while Hiroshi was solving the piano puzzle?
Please, leave an honest review and see you in next chapter! (It will be up soon, I have a lot of inspiration for that story right now)
