“A fashion studio.” I said to myself aloud. I haven’t been able to for a while, but I used to make my own clothes, and make adjustments to whatever I bought from the store. School got in the way of that though, and it hasn’t been on my mind. Now that it’s summer time I can get back into it. Smiling, I got to work. Starting with the armor, then working on the floor. I did a once over with the broom, and the dust came off of the rug surprisingly easy, the problem is there was so much of it that I’d have to sweep a few more times to get rid of it all. I was doing my second pass over when I stumbled over the corner of the rug and almost fell. I managed to catch myself at the last second, but the broom handle extended out in my panic. I heard a loud clang as I landed, it made me flinch and my heart thud, I had to take a deep breath before I turned around. On the floor behind me was the helmet from the suit of armor. With a grimace, I carefully inspected it for damage, then placed it back on the armor. Still a tad shaken, I looked over the suit a few more times, and noticed something off with his foot. The left metal boot wasn’t flat like the other one. Thinking nothing of it, I kneeled down, and tried to gently press it against the platform. It moved easily at first then seemed to get caught on itself or something, so I pressed harder. It came down onto the platform solidly, and made a clanging noise. I quickly let it go, fearing I broke something, but the foot just popped back up like a spring. Confused, I leaned down with my head near the dusty floor to see if something was stuck beneath the foot before a startling grinding noise sounded out and I jumped. About a foot and a half to the left of the armor, the wall was separating to reveal a hidden room behind it. I fell back and stared, silently gaping even after it finished opening. Unsure if this was even real, I pushed myself forward and waved my hand in the space where the wall used to be. This had to be what that thing was trying to show me last night. I stood on shaky legs, and walked inside. It wasn’t too dark, on account of the old hopper windows with privacy glass; so I could see inside rather well. It was a library, to my amazement. Shelves stacked with books that reach the ceiling, a desk and chair in the corner, and there was a loveseat next to the windows too. There wasn’t as much dust in here as the other room, since the area was sealed well. I walked in further, and observed everything around me carefully. I saw a switch on this side of the room on the floor and felt tempted to test it out. I was worried that I’d get stuck though, so I opened my phone to see if I somehow had service. To my luck and surprise, I did! So I stepped on the button, like how the suit of armor would’ve, and watched as the wall began to close. Once it did, I clicked the button one more time and the wall once again slid open. I felt like I was in shock, this is the kind of thing that only happened in books and cartoons. I was about to start looking over everything else in the room, but I heard a singing voice coming from the hallway. Suddenly panicking, I stepped on the button one more time and ran through the gap in the wall as it shut, I didn’t stop once I was on the other side though, I kept running until I got to the still open door, thankful that no one was in this hallway yet and quietly closed it as I waited for the wall to finish shutting and making noise. I saw marks in the floor where the dust was disturbed, and ran to the broom to start sweeping everything in that area away as fast as I could before I heard a knock at the door.

“C-Come in.” I stuttered, and took a deep breath as the door opened to calm myself. Paisley was on the other side.

“Hey.” She said casually, oblivious to my inner turmoil. She looked around. “Cool room Owen. I totally thought you were kidding about the statue.”

“It’s not a statue, but thanks.” I eased up a bit, and kept cleaning. “Thought you were helping Sophie?” I wondered aloud.

“I was, but she told me I was doing it wrong so I left her to do her own thing for a while.” She answered.

“Ah, somehow that doesn’t surprise me.” Sophie was just as stubborn as dad and I, if not worse. She was Six after all, she will probably grow out of it at least a little bit. The two of us continued messing with the broom for a little while longer until we got hungry and we went upstairs for lunch. The string was getting annoying at this point, so I drew a small map on the back of my hand after we ate, then I cleaned up the string and went into the garden with the dog and my sisters. It was nice to get my mind off of things for a little while, first a dust ball in the middle of the night, then a suit of armor, then a hidden room behind it? It was kind of a lot for one day. I threw the tennis ball I had in my hand for the umpteenth time for Alice to chase, but she stopped just before she picked it up, and stared at something intently off to the side. I walked closer to see what she was looking at, but the movement startled the creature. Next thing I knew Alice was sprinting after a small white rabbit around the garden. I tried distracting Alice to no avail. The rabbit saved itself by hiding in a large rose bush, more toward the back of the garden. I watched as Alice shoved her head into the shrubbery and flinched, hoping she didn’t catch any thorns. I jogged over to her to try and get her to come out, but she pulled back on her own right as I got there. She looked at me, tail wagging, and right there, between her big brown eyes was a little blue caterpillar. I laughed at her and plucked the tiny creature off of her nose, and placed it on one of the roses before I tugged on Alice’s collar to bring her back inside.

Later that evening, I was reading in the living-room while mom, Sophie, and Paisley made dinner. I’d help, but I wasn’t much use in the kitchen, and Sophie was already taking care of that, so I was content to just stay out of the way. The story I was reading was set in victorian times, and the main character was a strong young woman who wanted to make a name for herself outside of just being a nobleman’s beautiful daughter. The story was great so far, and had potential to be one of my favorite books if finished correctly. It was around then that I heard what sounded like a car door closing, and I was greeted by the sound of my father walking through the front door. I closed my book and quietly walked into the entryway. My dad had his back turned as he hung his coat on a hook and slipped off his shoes. He turned back around and flinched upon seeing me.

“Good lord, kid. You gotta stop sneaking up on me like that.” He sounded exasperated. My lips twitched, I took a secret joy out of startling him like that.

“How was work?” I asked, straight to the point.

“Oh it was good actually, everyone was very respectful.” He sounded happy to talk about it.

“Big surprise there, you being at the top of the food chain and all.” I lifted an eyebrow at him as I spoke.

“I may be up there but I’m not at the tippy top just yet, I still have to answer to people too.” He explained.

“You have like one boss, the two of you are the ‘people’ you just mentioned. Who is he anyway? He sounded cool when you talked to him through email.” I followed him as he started walking through the house.

“Yeah he’s alright. We didn’t get to talk much today, we were both pretty busy.” He suddenly stopped walking. “Where is everyone?”

“Kitchen, making dinner.”

“Ah.” and he continued walking again, now in the direction of the kitchen. I yawned, tired after a long day, and kept up with him.

Dinner was like usual, except I wasn’t very hungry. I felt like I was lying to everyone by not telling them about what I saw and what I found but I couldn’t bring myself to speak up about it.

“Owen honey, you doing okay?” I heard my mom ask, after I yawned for what must’ve been the millionth time.

“Oh, yeah. I’m just tired, I didn’t sleep well last night.” My parents exchanged looks.

“Maybe you should turn in early tonight. You look like you need rest.” She urged, my dad nodding in agreement.

“Uh, yea, okay. I’ll go do that now. I’m not very hungry anyway.” I got up from my seat, and backed away until Sophie grabbed my arm. I leaned down and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

“G’night Sophie-Rose. Night guys.” I turned and left, after receiving goodnight wishes from everyone else. I briefly considered going to my room in the basement, but then quickly changed my mind. I had enough excitement for one day. I got ready for bed, slipped under the covers, took off my glasses, and immediately fell asleep. I had a dream that I was a wealthy young individual from the Victorian era, struggling to break away from someone else’s shadow.