Scales [ON HOLD]

Chapter Six: The Letters

   I didn't talk to her for the rest of the day. Closed in my bedroom, I reached up onto the top of my wardrobe and pulled down a gleaming chest. Despite the fact that you could fit it into your hand, it was adorned with a series of intricate designs, each one being completely unique. They were all vantablack, a newly discovered colour. The box itself was marbled in colour with different shades of indigo, varying from a dark blue to a deep purple with the occasional hint of black.

   Lightly gripping the box in one hand, I slowly opened it. There, wrapped in a small white cloth, was a rusty key.

   "I haven't used you in a while have I?" I said, flipping the key over in my hand. Tilting my head slightly to look at the lid of the chest, I saw three arrows, two pointing to the right, and one pointing to the left. That was a combination. Placing the box back on top of my wardrobe, I stared at the key. Along the decaying handle, it had the faded letters, 'REUM'. There were more letters, but they had either worn away or been scratched off. Why? Old age I suppose! 

   With the key in hand, I pulled my king sized bed away from the wall. Behind where the metal headrest had been, was a small rectangle, no taller than 30 inches.

   "There you are," I sighed. I hadn't been here in ages, I thought, firmly gripping the key. "Ow!" I exclaimed, dropping the key. Clasping my hand in pain, I looked down and saw a slow stream of thick dark red blood flowing down the palm of my hand and onto the floor.

   "Great." I whispered. Putting my hand up to my face I watched at the sanguine fluid trickled down my wrist. Before it touched my sleeve, I lapped it up with my tongue. Despite the fact that I felt like a Vampire, I carried on and sorta... liked it. After I licked up the last of the blood, I bent down to pick up the key. What had stuck in me? I thought. Flipping it about in my non-cut palm, I noticed that there were two slits in the key- and they looked painful as hell- as though something was supposed to fit on it. 

   Crouching down to the height of the rectangle, I picked off some plaster to reveal a keyhole. I slid the key in and turned it two times to the right, and once to the left. With three heavy clicks, which shook the whole room, the door unlocked. 

   "Octavia! What are you doing?" My mother yelled up the stairs. Running up them two steps at a time, she opened the door, catching me when I was about to open it. Taking two large steps, she leaped in my direction and slammed the door closed, and with three clicks it was locked. "Where did you get that?" She asked, obviously annoyed.

   "You gave it to me, remember?" I retorted. Trying not to scream in her face, I stood up and clenched the key, completely forgetting about the slits in the key. "Ow!" I screamed, while dropping the key.

   My mother bent down as fast as she could and grabbed the key. Smiling to herself, she turned and left.

   "I didn't give it to you, I know very well that it wasn't me." She called out with her back facing me.

   Well, no. She didn't. My father did. She's just trying to 'punish' me. I usually go in the little room all the time, it used to be where my father left loads of books and games for me. I hadn't been in there for ages because I either hadn't had time or I had forgotten. She had obviously tried to stop me going in there because she had plastered it up.

   All of the books were great novels, all the Harry Potter books, Hunger Games, The Lightning Thief, Divergent and many many more books. In each one there was a note, telling me one of his secrets or a joke. I had only read three of them, but I had found out quite a lot about him.

   He met my mother at the beach.

   They married underwater.

   They were both scientists.

   My mother was at the beach on holiday, and my father was studying something in the water. My mother was curious as to what he was doing, and so she went to go talk to him. They made friends, and then they fell in love. A year later, they got married. Nine months later, I arrived.

   I slammed my foot down on the floor, shaking the whole room. Why wouldn't she let me go in? It's not like I had been naughty! I just asked about Robin, and then she got annoyed at me.

   Pushing my bed back to its original position, I slumped onto it and lay down. My head was spinning. I wanted to scream and cry (for no apparent reason) and I had a bad headache. The back of my head was throbbing with pain. I couldn't ignore it, and yet there was nothing I could do about it.

   I stroked my hand, feeling for the cut. It still hurt as well. That got me thinking, what where the slits for? Maybe it was to hang it up on a wall? No, that would be stupid. Maybe something else was supposed to go there. Yes! That seemed more like it.

   I sat up in sudden realisation, desperately trying to hold back the pain. What were the letters? I had never thought about that. Reaching underneath my bed, I pulled out my laptop. A PC of course. Macs are lame (both her opinion and mine). I opened the lid, turned it on and opened Chrome.

   "Google translate..." I whispered. Typing it in in the search bar, I pressed enter and clicked the tab. "What did it say again...?" I muttered, searching in the back of my mind for an answer. Then I remembered, 'REUM'.

   In the box, I wrote the word and set it to 'Detect the language -> English'.

   I was surprised with what I saw, but then what does it mean?

   'Guilty'