Into Aurora

Chapter 8

His hand was limp in mine, cold and lifeless, like an expired piece of steak, left in the fridge for too long.

His arms weren't supposed to bend this way, it was unnatural. But it was the only way I could get him to slide across his polished wooden floor.

My hands clammy as I grabbed onto his wrist, lifting him up. His skin, a thin sheet of putty stretched across flesh. He was a dead weight.

I couldn't see it, but I knew it was there. I ran my hand across the wall, trying to find an irregularity.

I pressed my fingertips into the wall and waited. I don't know what I was waiting for but I knew there was something. I lifted the lifeless hand by my side, sandwiching it between my hand and the wall.

Click.

A part of the wall retracted into itself.

Please enter passcode.

He kept tapping. Always on the table, on his lap, on anything that had a flat surface he could put his hand on.

Now his hand was still, no longer the temptation to drum away now when I needed him to.

The index finger first, twice for that. Once for the ring finger, once for the pinky. Back to the index finger, this time only once. Now two taps using the middle finger.

I pressed his thumb firmly against the screen, entering the last of an 8 code password.

The compartment popped open with a wheeze, and inside hidden behind a film of dust, it glowed.

The gleaming yellow surface of the golden ticket stared back at me.