CHAPTER 2: THE PENT

The sun sunk its way as the moon with its daughters has their usual ascendancy that begins the start of the night. Eventually, they finally reached the place where they should be practicing.

It's not that much for a place, maybe because they're still outside and waiting for Bryan to let them in. Definitely, everybody has mixed expressions or whatsoever regarding of what the house looked. The gate was colored black with some orange stains on it. The hose was sprawled and water coming from it splashed the backyard nastily, leaving the plants and some vines hanging drenched. Whoever has the fear of messy places will surely freak out in no time.

"Um, Kuznetsov… When are you planning to let us in anyway?"

The owner doesn't seem to bother, though. It's like that someone shouted with all his might and the call was ignored. What the heck is that bastard doing anyway? The hell in coming to his place. Luckily, for the others, and finally, Bryan got out from his oh-so-good-looking-house and shut the crowd by opening the gate and letting them in.

"Finally, you got out of your world."

Ryanne was the first to enter then followed by the others. Unfortunately, Mariah slipped and landed on the wet part of the backyard since it was so stupid of her to step on the water hose.

"Clumsy me... Sorry!" she apologized.

"Don't bother. You broke my water hose," was all Bryan could tolerate.

And then, a feeling was aroused the moment they saw the inside part.

The inside part, well, was amazingly different from the outside. The floor was clean and hasn't got any stains, unlike those of the gate. The carpet was evenly spread out onto the shining, white marble floor. The furniture was well-arranged: the couches, the sofa, and even the bean bag were all artistically renovated. And the stairs, leading to the next floor were decorated with some unusual looking paintings. Even though they were all unusual, those who saw it still admired Bryan, for he's the one who made it. The pictures were abstract.

"Hey, Bryan, great place!" commented by Mariah, looking awestruck.

"Small, but cozy," Oliver pointed out.

Ryanne restrained her eyes from the paintings. "Well, were not here as interior decorators, you know," she said while walking to the group. "Were here for practice, as all of you requested, to achieve PERFECTION the more like," she added while glancing at the place where Oliver was standing.

"Hey, I know a place here in this house where to practice. I know it'll be perfect," Rei suggested just ending the early argument which will be settling if Ryanne continued to point out some things unnecessary. And fortunate enough Rei saw it through.

"And where is this place, Rei?"

Rei suddenly flashed a wide grin across his face. "It's my favorite part of the house,"

"What- the kitchen? In what way it'll be perfect?"

"Not the kitchen, silly! Do you have any intelligent bone in your body, Riah?"

"Sorry, I was just suggesting," she apologized. "Damn suggestions... It's freaking me out," muttered Tyson, who was just scratching his head with disbelief. "If you could just shut up for one moment then I'm done with," he continued.

"Enough with this nonsense, guys, anyway, that place I'm referring is..," he stopped but they are all eager so… "It's the azotea."

The Azotea it is.

They reached the place and began rehearsing the whole sequence of it. It almost took 4 hours to finish 3 scenes they were practicing. It was still unfinished, if not for Robert, who was fetched. They continued, now only with 2 scenes left, in which the most part of it goes for Robert and Rei.

The practice lasted 5 whole hours, and since they started at 6 p.m., they ended at 11 p.m. A perfect excuse now for them to sleepover at Bryan's place and then go home the next day. Well, they'll just go home early to fix themselves and go to school. Anyway, school starts at 8 in the morning, so they'll have enough time to prepare.

As they were preparing for bed (all of them have their own rooms, and also the bed! Very luxurious, and to think it's only a penthouse.), Ryanne reminded them of some tips and points regarding their performance and finally, she praised them ("Finally you saw what we're made of!" Mariah blurted out) ("That almost took forever, you know," she added).

Now, they had gone to bed and were all fast asleep.

But there is someone who's not in bed yet.

And because that someone is not yet asleep, Ryanne rose up, and as she was about to go out, someone (again) called her name in the midst of silence.

"Hey... Where are you going? Ryanne?" Mariah said groggily.

Ryanne stopped dead in her tracks and faced the sleepyhead. "It's none of your concern. Go ahead and sleep," she answered back and got out of the room as quiet as she can.

"Bitch." groaned Mariah as she continued her peaceful doings and snored loudly.

"Oh for God's sake, Riah shut the hell up!"

"We're trying to sleep here!"

Silence still reined the house with only some rustling of leaves made by the whisper of the wind. Since Ryanne found no means of entertainment or anything that will make her sleepy, she decided to go back to their room and she'll just review the play's script instead. As she was heading back to the room, she noticed something unusual. A door, somehow a great one, because the size is twice the ordinary doors that the house has. And what makes it unusual, is that the door is magnificently carved and painted with again, unusual ones. The figures somehow resemble Old Russian witchcraft, filled with weird looking letters that seemed like an Old Russian chant. Ryanne obviously stopped to take a good look, and as she was going to peek at the peephole, bizarre scenes and blurred thoughts and faces came across her mind, or rather vision. It took a while before the whole crap stopped and she found herself at the floor, with her hands on her head and but she stood up and gathered all the courage she could muster, and peeked again.

She held back.