What If Three Days Meant Forever?

The Black Box

Will POV

Once I got back to my cabin, I got a towel from the linen trunk and immediately headed toward the showers.

The goo didn't exactly smell like anything in particular, but I wasn't about to wait around for it to start smelling like rotten eggs or something even more humiliating.

After getting dressed and towel drying my hair, I went back to my cabin and thought about Nico.

Or more specifically, what I found in his cabin.

When I first walked in, there was his bed, pushed against the left hand corner. On the diagonal corner to my right was what I assumed to be Hazel's bed. Both were shaped like coffins which struck me as a weird interior design choice.

Even for Nico.

By the foot of Nico's bed was a big black shelf filled with books, jars, and many other little knick knacks. On the second shelf down were some pictures of Nico with his older sister Bianca. She was wearing a floppy green hat and the two of them seemed to be sitting on bleachers. Next to that picture was a black and white photo with a woman holding a little boy of about two and a younger looking Bianca clutching the woman's leg.

The shelf right below it held a single picture of Nico and Hazel. Hazel had the biggest smile on her face and seemed to be poking Nico in his side to make him laugh or smile. He seemed to be in mid swing of hitting her hand away and was maybe laughing with his eyebrows furrowed at his sister's antics.

The shelf below that had a picture of Hazel and her mother in black and white. Her mother was smiling sweetly yet held a tired glint to her eye and Hazel was shyly holding onto her hand and seemed almost agitated.

I walked over to Nico's black bedside table that had nothing atop it. It had two drawers and a smaller one at the top. I decided to start from the bottom and work my way up.

The bottom drawer had a couple of notebooks. Some looked like scholastics ones with lined paper and the other were just blank pages. I flipped through a couple of them only to find beautiful drawings. Who knew the son of Hades was such an artist?

At the middle drawer, I slightly recoiled. There were five sandwich bags, quarter-way filled with pomegranate seeds. I almost gagged just looking at them. There's nothing wrong with pomegranate seeds, but just imagine how sick he could get from saving and eating them. The thought made my stomach churn.

The small drawer on top had no handle so I gripped the sides and tugged. Nothing. I tugged again, harder that time. Still nothing. I finally took notice of the keyhole right in the middle. I quickly searched my khaki shorts for hair pins.

Yes, I know for a guy it's considered weird for me to have hairpins in my pockets but I have sisters so it's obviously an essential.

Not to mention, gender is a social construct.

I found a total of three and got to work. I jammed the first one in, moving it around, desperately straining my ears to hear the click. It didn't come. I jammed in the second one, trying out my luck.

I'd remembered Beckendorf teaching me about this a few years back. There's some sort of science to how you turn the pins and what angles to use. It seems I got there by sheer luck because suddenly I heard the clear click of victory.

I quickly pulled open the drawer, wanting to see what was so important Nico had to lock it away. What could it be? Maybe a life time supply of Drachmas? Denarii? Both? Flowers? Something sentimental? But it doesn't seem to be any of those things.

I looked down inside the drawer only to find a small, black, box. It probably couldn't hold very much, based on the size. I picked it up, looking at it in all different angles, trying to guess what might be inside.

Finally, I gained the courage to open the box. I felt my fingers brush against the edge of the cover. I slightly lifted it, seeing a glisten of light bouncing off of metal, when-

Knock knock knock knock

I panicked, fumbling with the box, shoving it back in the drawer and rushing to open the door. Monique was there, told me to go to the woods, and so on.

So now I lay here, at twelve in the morning, wishing I'd opened that box.