Chapter 3: Frozen in Place
I stood rooted in front of the door, my fist still raised.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Nothing.
I knocked again, a little harder this time. The silence of the porch answered with the distant song of some bird. I frowned and moved closer to the side window. I shaded my eyes with my hand to peek inside, but the thick curtains didn't let a single ray of light through.
'Is no one home?'
I glanced toward the empty street. The midday sun beat down mercilessly and the heat was starting to stick to the back of my neck.
'Should I wait out here?'
I hesitated for a second. Then, almost without thinking, I reached out and turned the knob. The door opened with a soft click, as if it had been waiting for me all this time.
I smiled without meaning to.
'They still never lock the door…'
Mom always used to say the same thing: "It's a small town, Ethan. Things like that don't happen here." Technically she was right, but now that I thought about it calmly, it worried me. Three women living alone in a house that they didn't even bother to lock. Anyone could walk in.
'I should talk to her about that later.'
From the threshold I could see the main hallway. The same light wood as always, the same clean vanilla scent I remembered. I took a deep breath.
'Should I go in?'
My heart was pounding hard. I looked toward the street one more time. No one in sight. I pushed the door just enough to enter and closed it slowly behind me. The click of the latch sounded too loud in the silence.
'Better if the neighbors don't see me yet. After eleven years, they probably wouldn't even recognize me.'
I walked slowly down the hallway.
"Hello?" I called in a low voice. "Is anyone here?"
Only the echo of my own footsteps answered.
The place was still the same, but more lived-in. The walls had new photos: Lila smiling at some party, Sophia in her school uniform, Ava hugging a giant stuffed animal. On the back wall I saw the old height chart Mom used to make for us every summer. Three lines with our names and dates. Mine was the lowest. I smiled with nostalgia and ran my fingers over the wood.
I kept moving forward, lost in my thoughts. The living room was to the right, the kitchen at the far end. Everything smelled like home. Like family. Like something I had missed more than I wanted to admit.
Then I heard it.
The sound of a door opening at the end of the hallway.
I froze.
She came out of the bathroom.
Lila.
My older sister.
Completely naked.
Shower water was still running down her skin in bright droplets. I started looking at her from the bottom up, almost without meaning to. First I saw her bare feet on the wooden floor, small and perfect, with toenails painted a soft pink. Then up her slender ankles, her firm and smooth calves, until I reached her thick, soft thighs that glistened with moisture.
And then my eyes got there.
Between her legs I saw her perfect flower.
The soft pink lips, slightly parted from the heat of the shower, glistened wetly. Above them, a patch of lilac pubic hair—exactly the same violet color as her hair—crowned her mound, soft and thick, perfectly trimmed.
I had never seen a vagina in person.
Never.
The air caught in my lungs. My mind went blank. I could only stare, paralyzed, while a wave of heat rose up my neck and my chest burned as if someone had set me on fire from the inside.
Lila still hadn't seen me.
End of Chapter 3