Awoken

Chapter 5

“Try 1991,” I suggested as John fiddled with the dial on the heavy metal door.

“Nope, do you know what your mum’s birth year was?”

“Um, somewhere between 1960 to 65 I think.”

He tried all of them with no luck.

“Do you think the documents you need are in the safe?”

“Well, they aren’t in any of the boxes or in the desk, if they exist at all,” I said, sounding more snarky than I meant it.

“I’m out of ideas. Do you think it would be weird if I used your dad’s toilet?” he asked, his cheeks flushing ever so slightly.

“Well, he’s not going to need it anymore.”

John dashed from the room.

I abandoned the box I had been searching through and hopped over a pile of books and paper we had emptied onto the floor.

Closing my eyes I tried desperately to think of what the combination could be. All the obvious answers had failed. But there must be something.

We hadn’t tried the year my parents had gotten married. Although I didn’t actually know the exact date I guessed there was a ten year window in which they would have tied the knot.

As my fingers brushed the cold metal a shockwave ran up my arm and through my body making me snatch my hand back and cry out in surprise.

A clank sounded from within the safe and the thick door slid open.

“Huh,” I exclaimed in amazement.

“You managed to get it open,” John said from behind me.

“The number you put in last must have been the right combination, all I did was touch it and it opened,” I explained as I turned to face him.

“Crap, Ana, your nose is bleeding,” he said, his face contorting with disgust, “Hang on, I’ll go get some tissue.”

I wiped the little bit of blood on my sleeve before returning my attention to the safe.

It was bigger than its door suggested, stretching a metre deep and about the same wide. Several document folders and wallets lay neatly inside along with a small jewellery box and a pile of photographs and newspaper clippings.

I emptied the contents onto the desk ready for my inspection.

“I am starving. I think I seen a little shop about a mile up the road. I could go get us some food while you sort through that, unless you want some help,” John said after he had thrown me a roll of tissue for my nose, which had already stopped bleeding.

“Sounds good,” I said absentmindedly.

Opening the first wallet I found a bunch of newspaper clippings dating back to the turn of the 19th century. Some were flimsy and yellowing and others were from foreign countries and I recognised some of the more recent articles. The only thing they had in common though was the grisly murders and unexplained deaths they all reported.

Flipping the folder shut, I placed it in the pile of things that had piqued my interest.

The photographs turned out to be my yearly school portraits and I felt a flash of anger towards my dad for not proudly displaying them like normal parents would. The jewellery box contained a thick, silver band encrusted with three roughly shaped rubies, the counterpart to my ruby necklace. The box closed with a snap and I stored it in my rucksack.

I was growing a little impatient when I opened the fourth folder, not knowing that the contents would change my life forever…

My dad’s birth certificate was the first document in the file; I breathed a sigh of triumph at finally finding one of the items I needed but whilst removing it from its polythene wallet my eye caught an odd detail.