Summer House

“How many rooms are in here?” Cook asked.

“I don’t know,” Phoenix said. She turned her head to see him wandering the hall. The house has gotten crowded lately. More and more of them found it. They didn’t know why.

Phoenix sat up on the floor. She had most of the house figured out. Phones don’t work here. They were cut off from the world. She couldn’t figure out how.

“Phoenix? Phoenix? Phoenix!”

The girl looked up. Ayame stood in the doorway. The younger girl tilted her head.

“Yeah?” Phoenix asked. The smaller girl shifted on her feet for a moment.

“When do we go home?” she asked. Phoenix shook her head.

“I don’t know,” she said. “The doors are weird here.” That was another thing. The doors led to weird places. Sometimes, they went to the garden. Don’t be surprised to end up in another room. This house was weird.

Phoenix stood up. “Care to take a walk with me?”

“Sure,” Ayame said with a shrug. The girls took a walk around the house.

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Not much happens here. Why would it? This was their safe place. Nothing could touch them here.

Omi frowned at his computer. There was no point to use it. But still, it was here. The boy shook his head.

“What’s the matter?” a voice asked. Omi turned his head. Tommy stood in the doorway. Omi pushed down his disappointment.

“Nothing,” he said. The other boy walked over to the computer.

“Still can’t get on?” he asked.

“No,” Omi said.

“Oh,” Tommy said. “What now?” The hacker shrugged and shook his head.

There are so many rooms in the house. They will at most run into one person. Other than that, they would mostly be alone. Whether that was a good thing or not, that depended on them. Phoenix glanced behind her. No one else was around but she knew they weren’t alone.

“Something wrong?” Ayame asked. Phoenix shook her head.

“No,” she said. They continued down the hall. Not much is going on today. For now at least. We’ll leave them be for now.

Back in the real world…