𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒 [𝐣𝐢𝐦 𝐥𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐱 𝐨𝐜]

Chapter 6 | Destiny Awaits

Liz Walker POV

Several hours later at her shared apartment unit, Liz examines herself in the mirror. Wavy golden brown hair flowed over her shoulders, covered in a light blue sweater with a loose turtleneck, tucked into high-waisted dark-grey jeans. Covering her feet are white sneaker shoes. Grabbing her brown cross bag and her keys, she walks out of the room, only to bump into Douxie. "Whoa there, love. Where are you going, all dolled up?"

Liz rolled her eyes at Douxie's cheeky remark. "I have dinner with a friend."

Douxie gasps in fake hurt, his hand on his chest. "A date! Are you cheating on me, love? I'm hurt."

Laughing, Liz crosses her arms. "Why on earth would I cheat on you? We're not even in a relationship, Doux."

Hands grasping the bedroom door frame, Douxie traps Liz against the doorway, his hazel eyes gazing down into her turquoise ones. "I can make that happen, love. Just say the magic words and I'm all yours."

Her cheeks warming at the notion, Liz ducks beneath his arm and head straight towards the main door. Before exiting, she looks at Douxie behind her. "Don't make jokes like that."

Placing his hands in his pockets, he looks back at her. "Who said I was joking, love?"

Shaking her head, Liz leaves the apartment, her hair swishing behind her flushing face. Outside the building, she got on her blue motorbike and drove off as hazel eyes followed her through their apartment window.

***

Minutes later, she arrives in front of the single-family house. Parking in the front, she turns off the ignition and walks to the porch, clicking on the doorbell and knocking on the door. She waits, but hears multiple voices, panicked whispers, and shushes from inside. Before she could think more of it, the sound of a car honking grabbed her attention. A blue car pulled up in the driveway, parking in front of the garage. Out came Barbara Lake in scrubs and a white coat, waving to her. Liz waves back as Barbara walk to her, greeting her. "Good evening Liz, glad you came."

"Evening, Barbara. Thank you for having me over. I thought you were heading to work?"

"Silly me, I forgot to grab my phone when I left so I had to come back," Barbara replies as she fishes out her keys. While doing so, Liz thought she heard AAARRRGGHH before hearing clambering of multiple and heavy footsteps behind the door, before ascending into a staircase. Keys in hand, Barbara moves beside Liz and opens the door, letting them in.

Inside, the house was empty, but Liz knew that something was amiss. Suspecting nothing, Barbara places her keys on top of a side drawer. Suddenly, a loud thud shakes the house. Both of them look up as Barbara calls for her son. "Jim? It's me."

Jim does not reply. Barbara glances at the kitchen, seeing that it was unoccupied, and approaches the foot of the stairway, muttering to herself. "That's weird. He's supposed to be preparing dinner."

Liz pretends not to have heard her as Barbara turns to her house guest. "Why don't you wait in the living room, Liz. I'll check on Jim and see what's up."

"No problem, take your time." Liz complies and heads into the living room, sitting on the couch. While Barbara was upstairs, Liz approached the banister at the bottom of the stairway, noticing it was slightly crooked. Then, she heads to the back of the house and checks the back door seeing that it was unlocked. She frowns at that. They should remember to lock their doors at night.

Above her to her left, she can hear loud hushed voices, coming from upstairs above the landing where the door of the basement stood. She hears four distinctive voices, two loud ones to which she immediately recognizes to be Blinky and AAARRRGGHH, and two others that she couldn't decipher. Her best guess was that it was Jim and his friend, Toby. Great, now another human knows the existence of trolls. Just brilliant.