Nikki looked at the alarm clock and saw it was 4 o'clock in the morning. A slow, wild smile bloomed on his little face as he got up from his bed. His black hair was wild and untamed, from sleep and because it always looked like a mess. Nikki looked over at Nicole's bed, seeing his sleeping baby brother.
"Perfect." He whispered his green eyes twinkling in the dark bedroom.
Slowly he moved to the door and opened it, going out into the corridor. There were three doors in the passage and one at the far end, after passing the living room. Nikki had to only had to make through the corridor, into the living room , to the front door and he was home free.
He tip toed on the carpet floor, it's musky plush heft gentle on his feet. The six year old strained his ears, listening to the sounds coming from every room, his heart beating violently. But instead of being anxious, Nikki wore an euphoric smile, enjoying the risks and danger. He loved feeling nervous and doing things like this.
Life was experiences. Doing what made you feel...alive was living. But then again all he was doing was sneaking out of his house, he thought as he reached the living room. His smile dropped and he looked numb and thoughtful, his expression unreadable. But just as quickly, his smile returned as he walked into the kitchen and climbed up to the top cupboard. He stood on one foot on the handle of the lower cupboards, his position was very precarious and one mistep and he'd fall and land painfully on his body.
Nikki didn't even think about it, opening the cupboard and taking out something his mother told him to never play with. He oftened listened to her, after he did something she apparently didn't want. Nikki gripped the object and leaned backwards, dropping like a rock and landing on his feet with a smile.
"Ugh, I need some water."
Huh?
Nikki froze for a moment and moved, opening a cupboard, hiding inside it. Heavy steps sounded as someone entered the kitchen, a woman wearing a maroon coloured night gown and with a black hair net. Vivian gave a tired yawn as she moved to get herself a cup of water, feeling partly awake and mostly drowsy.
Nikki waited, listening to his mother as she moved through the kitchen. His breathing was low, his body curled in tightly and his eyes shut. He didn't even open his eyes when his mother opened the cupboard he was in, took out a cup and shut the cupboard again.
"Hmmm." Vivian drank the cup of water and left it in the dishwasher, and went back to her room.
Nikki waited two minutes, got out of the cupboard and headed towards the front door. He'd already taken the keys for the door after everyone went to bed, so it was with a small CLICK that he opened the door. As soon as he was out the door, a small shadow rose from behind the sofa in the living room.
Nicholas gave a sigh as he looked at the front door, his brother going out for what was the fifth night this week. At first he had thought nothing of it, since Nikki seemed to return home after thirty minutes. What Nikki did was definitely a secret and by his nature, Nicholas would not have interfered in whatever it was. Yes, Nicholas had been thinking about informing Vivian but his mother was still not as she used to be, so that idea was out.
So he'd decided he'd wait to see if Nikki would tell him what he was doing but, apparently his little brother was not going to tell any of them. Nicholas was sure no one but him knew about this and so it was left to him to act. He decided he'd wait, hide and when his brother left, he'd follow him. Today was that day and so, he'd pretended to go to bed, only to come back out and laying in wait behind the sofa.
Vivian showing up had made him slightly apprehensive that Nikki would be caught before he found out what his little brother was up to. Luckily that didn't happen and Nikki had gone out.
But what was it that he took earlier? Nicholas wondered, as he walked to the kitchen and with a jump and a flick of his hand, he opened the cupboard too high for his brother to reach by himself. The kitchen was dark, with no lights on, but Nicholas got a somewhat good view into the contents in the cupboard.
Two grater, spatulas, spices, saltshakers, and then the kni-
"He didn't." Nicholas whispered softly as he turned around and quickly, but softly opened the front door so he could find his brother. Because the thing his brother had taken, was something their mother told them all not to play with, after Nikolai had an incident with it.
It was a knife.