Beware [COMPLETED]

9. The lost paper

"What the heck?"

Adam suddenly stood up and walked over to the trap door. He got on his tip toes and pulled down the handle of the door, which resulted in a built in ladder coming down abruptly. Both, Autumn and Adam jumped out of the way just in time before it could hit them. A cloud of dust gathered around them, causing them to cough.

Silence pervaded the whole library. Slowly, Adam looked at his friend and gave her a small, nervous smile. His hand went behind his neck as he scratched it before saying, "Ladies first?"

Autumn scowled at him, but complied. She clenched her fists to stop the shakiness in her hands before placing them on the ladder. With some hesitance, she climbed up until her head disappeared completely in the darkness above- away from the light provided by the torch in Adam’s hand. She ducked down and looked at Adam.

"Hand me the torch."

Adam picked up Autumn’s torch from the table. He handed it over to her and then started climbing the ladder with the other in hand.

The sharp rays of light emitting from the torches illuminated the attic. The wooden floor creaked under the companions' weight as they found their way around the cardboard boxes. A blanket of coolness surrounded them, causing a shiver to run down their spines.

"What is all of this?" Adam's voice echoed.

The only answer Autumn gave was complete and utter silence. She stopped in front of one of the boxes and crouched. She took out a pocket knife from her jeans pocket and tore away the tape that had the box sealed. After handing her torch over to her friend, she opened the box and splayed its content on the floor.

There were some old broken toys in it, so she moved onto the next box which contained some souvenirs. Box after box, the mass on the floor increased until Autumn got her hands on a small box. She opened its seal to reveal some old pictures.

Autumn picked one of them and noticed a young, happy couple smiling. The girl had a slightly protruding stomach and the boy's arm was wrapped around her waist. Autumn concluded them to be John and Grace during her pregnancy. She picked up the next picture of the couple and then the next that had more people in it. One by one, she handed the pictures to Adam as well. She looked up at Adam with dubiety.

"Does anyone look familiar to you?" she questioned him.

Adam nodded slowly with a puzzled expression. "Slightly, but I can't remember from where."

“When we first got here, I noticed the same faces in the pictures in the living room. They felt familiar to me even then.”

“Maybe a newspaper or something?”

Autumn shrugged. She then moved over to the next box and emptied it on the floor. A small clinking sound caught her attention. Taking the torch from her friend, Autumn looked down and picked up the big golden and rusted key that was buried in the pile. The key glistened in her hand under the light.

"Is that...?"

Autumn stood up. "Let's find out."

Both companions exited the attic and then the library before making their way down to the ground floor.

“Autie? I don’t think we should do this right now. It’s dark outside and could start raining any minute because of the unpredictable weather.”

Autumn- who was opening the front door- stopped. “Shouldn’t we do it now? The longer we take to figure things out, the longer everyone will be gone for and we will stay here.”

“How can you be so sure we will find them?” Adam questioned.

There was no response from Autumn as she looked down at her feet. Looking up, she answered, “I’m not.”