'I think my hands will fall off any moment now' I huffed quietly holding onto heavy bags of groceries as we roamed around,
feeling them get heavier by the second.
I had been walking for hours now at this point, bearing the pain silently.
"I told you to leave those in the car"
I looked up at Julia as she eyed the bags in my hands sympathetically
"I think you could use some help" she stepped forward extending her arm.
"No, its fine" I tried to smile which felt more like a grimace.
Looking up at the slowly setting sun while trying to distract myself my mind couldn't help but wander back to the safe and the unknown objects inside it.
It looked large and heavy; therefore, the objects inside must be extremely important or expensive right?
But why would the owners forget to take it with them when they evacuated?
No matter how much I thought about it, it still didn't make sense.
Why didn't they come back to get it?
Unless it didn't belong to the previous owners or the ones before.
It must've died with someone, forgotten with them.
''Hey Julia, can you please look at something for me" I hurriedly placed the bags on the ground as I pulled my phone out of my pocket.
"Yeah, sure what is it" she turned her attention to me as her eyebrows pulled together in a deep frown.
"Do you know what this is"
I pulled up a semi unclear photo of the safe that I had taken in a hurry to show her as I handed her my phone.
"Um, I'm not sure why"
she seemed deep in thought as she looked at the picture from all angles.
"Is it like a safe or something?
One of my friends actually sent me the picture, she was trying to find out how to open it,
she bought it at a flea market"
I rubbed at my arms nervously as I silently prayed that she believed my lie.
"Looks pretty old"
she glanced at me.
"How old would you say?"
I questioned, biting my lip in anticipation.
"Around 200 years maybe"
she shrugged before she went back to examining "I think that's a vault door darling" she nodded to herself handing me back my phone.
"How do you know" I looked at her in an accusing manner already suspicious that she knew the truth.
"I don't really know much but my cousin has an antique shop and she kind of forced me into learning a thing or two" she answered absentmindedly as she stopped at a shop and turned back to me "I need a few things; would you mind waiting outside for a few minutes".
Without waiting for my answer, she hurried inside and I waited outside the door, my mind racing.
'So it's just an old hiding spot" I felt very disappointed suddenly,
I had wasted days for nothing.
I strong wind blew in my direction "that's cold!"
I shivered as I rubbed at the goosebumps on my arms, the sky had completely turned dark now,
and the shops were closing for the night, the streets were getting darker.
Looking up at the sky I could see tiny white particles slowly falling, turning the pavement white little by little, it was snowing.
"Sorry if that took long" the bell above the door jingled as she exited the shop.
"I think we should go now" Julia whispered watching the snow as she walked in front of me, almost in a hurry "its getting late".
I nodded as I was striding to keep up with her fast pace, holding onto the bags more tightly, ignoring the way the plastic dug into my skin painfully.
We were finally at the car and I eagerly dumped everything into the trunk and hurried inside the car, trying to escape from the cold quickly.
She turned the radio as soon as she got in, and I was grateful to avoid the awkward silence and soon we were on our way.
I relaxed my head back on the headrest and closed my eyes while stifling a yawn,
listening to the white noise in the background as I fell asleep.