Visions: The Mystical Encounter Series (The Mystical Encounter Series Book 1) by Kimberly Readnour Page B

thought brought shivers that forced me to take a deep breath. Upon opening my eyes, I stared straight ahead. The amount of light filtering in through the curtains had lessened, alerting us that nighttime was fast approaching. Then it hit me. There should be two windows in here. I’d been coming home enough times to know there were four of them along the west side‌—‌three long and one short. The front bedroom had one, and the smaller window was in the kitchen. Where’s the fourth?
    When I stood back up, another thing occurred to me, the room wasn’t proportionate. The wall with the closet seemed too close. I jolted up and dashed toward the hallway. Barry, a little stunned, asked, “What’s the matter?”
    “Something’s off with this room. The size is wrong, it’s too small.”
    Following me out still confused, he asked, “Like what?”
    “Look at the south side wall in proximity to the inner kitchen wall. Besides, we seem to be missing a window in here. The room is supposed to have two.”
    “You’re right. They don’t,” he exclaimed. “Here’s where the wall is and it’s clearly not lined up with the kitchen.” He ran down the hallway, pointing out where it should’ve been. From the kitchen wall, they were a good five feet apart.
    Our eyes met as I whispered, “A secret room. But where’s the entrance?”
    We both hurried toward the kitchen. His hands moved quick, working them along the wall. “Nothing here. It has to be in the bedroom,” he murmured.
    With that we scurried back to the bedroom, anxiously wanting to find that opening. Once we stepped through the door, we glanced at the south wall. Together we said, “The closet.”
    He wasted no time in pounding along the inside walls of the closet. After hitting the side facing west, it vibrated. Excitement began racing through me as I watched him study the wall. After a few seconds, he muttered, “Ah.”
    With his hand placed on a concealed block of wood, the wall swung open after he gave it a tight pull. Intrigued, we walked through it carefully, trying not to knock over anything. We were close to finding out his secrets which made it hard not to rush. The one thing rushing, though, was my heart. It raced from anticipation, I was so excited.
    As we entered, I quickly scanned the entire area. Small sized, painted in a boring off–white color, the walls were bare except for the missing, large window. If it wasn’t for the tiny wooden desk and two–drawer matching file cabinet, the room would be empty. On top of the desk sat a lamp and a pad of paper with a pen adjacent to it. Such order .
    Giving Barry a peek, he wore an expression I couldn’t quite interpret, but made me sad. I couldn’t imagine what went through his mind. Betrayal, perhaps, that dated back ten years. With the heartbreaking glance, he nodded as if in agreement with my thoughts. I replied with a tight smile before we began searching through Mr. Barton’s belongings. Barry started with the file cabinet while I tackled the desk. Pressed for time, we worked quickly. The search shouldn’t take long, since there was only two pieces of furniture, but we were close to getting the truth. But not knowing quite what to expect, I knew something had to be there.
    We continued searching, hoping to find anything that would connect everything together. Our tension escalated at the absence of anything incriminating. I honestly thought with that room being secret, we would have found something by now, but most of the drawers were empty. That didn’t make any sense to me. Barry wasn’t having any luck either and had actually finished. He came over to stand by me while I had one last drawer to snoop through.
    “Well, this is it,” I said, taking in a deep breath as I opened the last drawer. Disappointment loomed over me again as the drawer revealed nothing but emptiness. Anger mounted quickly, at the thought of wasting a big portion of our time for nothing. In my frustration, I let out