Lucy eyes squeezed shut as he brain worked overtime to focus on her favorite colour, the long, endless hallway loomed around them as Julia's voice murured. "|Keep thinking" She thought harder and harder until finally the snapping around focused the hallway and brought the six young children back into the real hallway, which was only a little bit less creepy. None of them hesitated and soon they found themselves bounding through the halls, the pitter patter of their feet resounding through the empty house, fear churning in their stomachs. Lucy held tight to her older brother, letting him guide her through the halls as she kept her eyes shut tightly.
"Loo! What are you doing?" Gavin's voice was sharp as her mumbled to his youngest sister. "Keep your eyes open, watch where you're going, I don't want you to get hurt." Gav watched his sister's blonde head bob slightly as she widened her brilliant blue eyes and stared right ahead. It took them longer then they would have liked to weave through the maze-like hallways and finally burst into the backyard. The shock of their surroundings was immediate, coming from the dismal, damp house. Outside the sun shone brightly, causing Gavin to squint at it's glare. The air was warm, the grass sot underneath their feet as they continued to scamper closer and closer to the tree house.
It took them only several short seconds to clamber up the creaking old "stairs" that were mainly just boards nailed to the base of the tree. They creaked slightly but didn't give out as all of the kids made it safely into the homemade tree house, clamping the trapdoor unnecessarily behind them. "There." Gene's breathless voice said, looking her friends in the eyes as she went to sit in the center of what was just a small room. There were two windows, a small table that held an assortment of odds and ends that mostly took shape in the form of toys. The place was cluttered and small yet homey still the same. And it was safe... always safe.
"That was awful." Gene shook her head, her curls shifting slightly as she did so. "I don't think I ever want to come down from here." Her defiant voice muttered this as thin arms crossed over her chest. "It's too scary down there." The real world was a frightening place and the tragedy was that these children were learning this lesson, although not conventionally, very early. Too early, really. They should still hold high hopes for the safety of their lives and the world surrounding those lives. They should still hold on to that liveliness that all children had, a special kind of light that sparkled in their eyes and only died when your belief in goodness was tarnished.
"W-what now?" Gavin's stuttering voice piped up suddenly ater several minutes of contemplative silence.