Searching For Treasure - By L.C. Davenport Page 0,12

was the first to pull away. She rested her face on his chest and mumbled into his shirt. "What's happening here?"

"Don't you know?"

Fear of putting a name to it, fear of what it meant to their friendship and to the bond they'd shared for so long, kept her silent. She simply shook her head. Jack knew not to rush things with her. She was far too special to him to ruin it all with rash actions.

"Well, when you figure it out let me know, okay? Come on, let's go back inside."

Silently they walked back towards the castle, lost in their own jumbled thoughts. On the way they passed an ancient oak, stretching its branches like arms across the night sky above them. Jack stopped and cocked his head as if listening. "Do you hear that?"

Dana did.

There was a whispering in the slight breeze, soft feathers of sound that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. The words were unintelligible, but the tone was passionate. It seemed to be that of a man and a woman somewhere in the garden.

Dana strained to listen but just as she thought she could almost understand the words, the whispering stopped. She felt chill bumps chasing goose bumps down her back. With unspoken agreement, they hurried back into the castle, locking the door behind them.

Chapter 4

Dana slept fitfully that night, troubled by strange dreams. In one, she was a dog chasing her own tail. In another, she was back at her old high school running down the corridors looking for Jack who she could hear calling her name. But each time she turned a corner, he seemed to be further away than before. In the last one, she thought she heard Freddy Krueger bellowing at the top of his lungs and tap dancing on some stairs. Oddly, when she awoke, she could still hear it.

"Oh, what a beautiful morning!" Tap, tap, tap.

Dana stared blearily at her watch. 6 a.m.! The morning outside her window was barely there, the Sun still struggling to rise, and someone was singing and dancing outside of her room.

"Oh, what a beautiful day!" Tap, tap, tap.

In almost synchronous accord, bedroom doors were flung open and disgruntled sleepers staggered out to glare down the stairs at whoever was so offensively happy that early in the morning. The mystery was soon solved when Rose leaned over the railing and did a little bellowing herself. "Grace!"

Grace was dressed in white leggings and a black t-shirt that read, ‘My mind is like lightening, one brilliant flash and it's gone’. She turned and waved cheerfully up at them from the landing below. "Good morning everyone! Isn't it a glorious day? I've got a beautiful feeling!" Tap, tap, tap.

Then to everyone's further shock she jumped onto the banister sidesaddle and attempted to slide down. Amazingly she almost made it, only to teeter and fall backwards out of sight when she reached the bottom. With a collective gasp, several members of the group rush to the top of the stairs, stopping when Grace bounded back into view. "Everything's going my way!" Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. She wound up her dance routine with a wobbly pirouette and took a little bow.

Rose looked around at all of the faces staring back at her, some thunderstruck, others glowering. "What can I say?" she said with a shrug. "She's a morning person."

With the early morning excitement over for the moment, Dana turned to go back to her room. She caught sight of Jack leaning against the door of his room as if that was the only thing holding him up. His dark hair was tousled, his eyes were heavy and he smiled at her sleepily. Dana felt her ears burn and her toes curl. Things had really changed, she realized. Somehow since yesterday, the two of them had changed.

No matter what did or did not happen between them in the future, they were now aware of each other as a man and as a woman instead of just friends.

She returned his smile with an uncertain one of her own and hurried back into her room, afraid she would embarrass herself by doing something uncharacteristic, like falling to the floor and kissing his feet.

Sometime later after showering and dressing, and semi-confident she had herself back under control, Dana headed down downstairs to breakfast. Halfway down she found Austin playing doctor with the banister, sporting a stethoscope and wielding a tiny hammer that looked as if he expected to check the reflexes