Chereads / The Painted / Chapter 29 - The Hidden Safe

Chapter 29 - The Hidden Safe

I paced around for hours, it felt like days, going over and over every detail in my head.

I was starting to get dizzy at this point and there seemed to be no point anyways because last night's memories were already hazy, felt like a phantom, nothing concrete in reality.

Taking a deep sigh I placed the cup on the ground as I looked out the window at the setting sun.

it was getting late.

'Argh I don't even have the energy to get up!' I exclaimed,

as I rolled around on the hard floor, kicking my feet in frustration.

"Ow!" wincing I grabbed my toe that was just stabbed by something sharp and sat up in hurry to examine the bleeding wound.

"Seriously!? Why does everything bad seem to happen to me?" I pressed on the wound as I picked under the bed.

I had a bad habit of laying on the bare floor with my feet under the bed,

it made me feel grounded and safe, didn't matter how weird I looked to others.

It was too dark for my eyes to decipher anything so I did the next best thing that I could think of,

move the bed and all the furniture in the way rather than do what a normal human with a functioning brain would do, grab a flashlight.

"I'm going to break my back one of these days" I groaned as I lifted the bed and pushed it to the side.

"Finally!" I was huffing at this point and my voice sounded pained.

Frowning I scooted closer to get a better look.

Hidden between the wooden mahogany floorboard seemed to be a small latch,

too small to notice if you didn't know what you were looking for.

My inner adventurer was squealing at this point, was I going to find money,

treasure map or old antique jewelry?

As I my fingers were hovering on top of the latch,

I thought over some of the endless possibilities with excitement until the rational part of my brain butted in and reminded me of some darker possibilities.

What if I find murder weapons or evidence or even worse, human remains?

I slowly retreated backwards until my back hit the wall as I contemplated on what to do next.

'I mean I could just not touch anything even if I did find something unpleasant?'

in my head that was a very reasonable approach,

it wasn't like I would lose anything and anyone else in my place would the same thing,

out of pure curiosity if nothing else, forgetting that 'curiosity probably did kill the cat'.

I hastily moved forward and placed my finger in the hook, pulling the latch carefully.

The latch connected to a square wooden board and what lay behind it was a just a big disappointment.

'Seriously? What is this?'

it resembled a safe with a locking mechanism of some sort.

I had no idea what I was looking at and frankly couldn't even begin to imagine how it could be unlocked.

I felt annoyed at my own high expectations but upon the realization that people usually hid high value objects in a safe I was excited again.

"You know what now that I took a closer look it doesn't really seem that complicated" I tried to reassure myself, key word, tried.

So for the next few hours or maybe even days I don't know, I lost track of time,

I used every object that I could think of to open that cursed thing with no luck.

My eyes were burning at this point and I was seeing stars in daytime,

I had no energy to continue so finally giving up, I dragged my feet downstairs and back into bed.

The moment my head hit the pillow everything went dark and the next day or year that I woke up again,

I was awakened by the sound of banging on the doors and a rather angry yelling could also be heard in the background.