day 9-the house

I stood at the end of the street looking down at the broken asphalt. I walked past empty houses, covered with faded paint and boarded up windows. All them broken and leaning towards one way or the other. I looked up as thunder roared up above from the charcoal colored sky. I continued walking towards the house at the end of the block. It used to be yellow at one point but now most of the paint had worn off showing the grey aged and cracked wood beneath. The house was two stories with a balcony on the second floor that over looked the front door. All the windows were boarded up just like all the houses surrounding it. I double checked the address that was spray painted on the curb. This was the place. I made my way up the cracked and weed strewn walkway. The steps creaked and groaned as I made my way up onto the porch. The door was huge and made out of solid wood, the door matched the rest of the house faded with most of the paint missing altogether. I knocked three times just like the note said, half expecting no response. There was a creak and the door was opened on the other side stood an old man. His featured weathered and beaten by the passing of time. He was mostly bald except for two small patches of grey above each ear. He had a long grey beard, and a pair of wiry glasses that sat on the edge of his rather large nose. He said nothing, he just looked at me and steeped aside gesturing me to enter his house. I was hesitant at first the note said nothing about another party and I was starting to have my doubts of the genuine nature of such a note. I entered the house and was surprised to find that the inside was a total opposite of the outside. The entry way was well lit and very clean, you could tell that the inside of the house had been taken very good care of. The old man lead me down the hallways past pictures of some woman, I guessed most likely his wife but in reality it could have been anyone. The end of the hall opened up into a rather large sitting room. He asked me to take a seat and I did in a large red armchair that faced another chair directly across from it. The man took the other chair and sat down.He handed me an old wooden box it was rather small. I could almost sense the amount of power that was contained inside. I reached for the clasp and slowly opened the lid on the box inside was the key. The key that I had consumed over 34 years of my life it was mine now. All that was left was to use the key on the artifact and the old ones would give me my reward. I stood up from chair and walked out the door never to see that house again.