When I woke the next morning, Aunt Claire and Uncle Jim still weren't home! That was odd because they should have been home late last night! I crept down the creaking stairs to the living room. James was up, eating breakfast. The phone rang, and he jumped up to answer it. I fixed myself a bowl of cereal and ate while waiting for James to get off the phone.
When he hung up, his face looked very grim! "What was that all about?" I asked him with my mouth half full of cereal. "I-It was m-my mom!" James said stunned. "She said that they had a car accident coming back from Lentburg! No one was seriously injured, b-but Dad is in a comma from the shock!" My mouth dropped open on hearing this!
Suddenly, all my hate for James melted away. Standing before me was not my ignorant cousin, but a helpless boy who just heard horrible news. "The doctor said he should wake up in about a week or something so we are going to b-be alone for a while" he concluded, sounding as helpless as an infant. I walked up to him and gave him a big, long hug and he cried his eyes out.
For some reason, I felt the urge to show James the key. I repeated Mr. Craw's words in my mind, "Someone you shall meet is not what they appear to be." I thought about it for what seemed like hours, although only minutes passed by. Mr. Craw clearly stated that it was someone that I will soon meet, who is not to be trusted. I decided to trust James with this, but I would have to make sure he wouldn't tell a soul.
I walked up to James room and knocked on the door. I could hear him sobbing, but somehow he was able to mutter "Come i-in." As I walked into his bedroom, I could smell a strong scent of unwashed socks. Well it was still James all right, even though it didn't seem like it at that moment. "What do you want?" he muttered. "James, what I am about to show you, you can't tell a soul. If anyone finds out about this, we can both kiss our lives goodbye." James bolted up in his bed and stared at me with his big brown eyes.
I pulled out the key, from where it was kept safe in my pocket. "Remember yesterday when I went for the walk? Well I was wading through the water, and found this key! After I pulled it out from the water, Mr. Craw snuck up behind me, with his eyes glazed over and told me I can unlock secrets with this key, but I have to be careful of who I trust and that someone we will meet can't be trusted!" James was gawking at the key! "You mean the CRAZY told you that?!" He asked baffled. "Yeah! But it almost looked like he was possessed or something!" James was looking at me shocked.
There was a long silence that came after that. Both of our eyes were fixed upon the key. James was the first to break the silence. "I t-think I've seen something like this before. An old skeletal key . . . hmm let me think . . . Yes I'm sure I have! Stay here! I'll be right back!" James said as he hurried up the stairs to the attic. When he returned, he was carrying an old tattered book. "What's that?" I asked, James replied, "It's our great grandma's diary! She recorded everything in it! If I remember correctly, there was something about a key with a blueish glow. She even had a drawing of it!"
"Here it is!" cried James! I looked at the print but the writing was all blurred, the only words you could make out were key, glow, and door. "It must be talking about the key and how it glowed, and then with the part about the door, that must mean that it opens some sort of door!" He said.
As we looked at the picture, we figured that we had to find out what to do with the key.
