How Zantheus Fell into the Sky

12. The Chest and the Lock (Tromo's Dream)

Tromo looked up at the bearded man who had lifted the lid of the chest. He looked surprised, shocked even. After a moment he disappeared from view.

Tromo stood up. The man had sunk to the floor, sitting with his back to the wall, a look of shock and confusion still gripping his face.

And there was his sister in the corner, blood leaking from a wound in her neck. She thrashed around violently for a few moments, trying to breathe, trying to cry out, then went terribly, terribly still.

Tromo fell back down into the chest in shock. After a time, he couldn't tell how long, the lid was slammed back down again, and darkness swallowed him. He heard the key turn in the lock, the sound amplified inside the chest so that it resonated inside his head, inside his mouth, inside his lungs. He wanted to cry out, but he found that he could not. His voice would not obey him. He bashed his little hands against the inside of the chest in terror, making a dull thumping sound. He heard a muffled voice say something from outside.

"Quiet, boy! Listen to me, if you want to stay alive then just stay quiet! Don't say anything or make any noise!"

It belonged to the man who had just killed his sister, only it sounded odd, slightly cracked, almost frail. Tromo stopped hitting the sides of the chest. He tried to lie still, huddled in the dark, and stay quiet. The words "If you want to stay alive then just stay quiet!" now resounded in his mind. Despite his best efforts to stay still, however, he found that he had started to tremble with fear. To his relief his trembling didn't make any noise, but he shook violently there in the darkness inside the chest, invisible to the outside world, unable to cry or call out. He lay there for what seemed like an age, trapped in blackness, the images of the bearded man gazing down at him and of his sister choking on her own blood in the corner stained on his mind. Once or twice he thought he heard more shouting, and maybe a conversation, but he could not be certain.

Then, all of a sudden and without warning, the chest moved –it felt as though someone had picked it up– and he was thrown into one side of it, banging his head in the process. It lurched around in different directions, so Tromo put out his hands to protect himself from being thrown about still more, though this was hard to do as he was still shaking. He heard the clear sound of footsteps on wood outside the chest, first slow and tentative, then very fast all at once, and with these he was thrown about still more. He clutched his head between his hands to try and shield it from more bruises. Unable to bear any more of this being knocked around closed up in pitch darkness he decided he wanted to be out of the chest, and started slamming his palms into the ceiling above him, disregarding the man's warning, so desperate was he to be released.

"Quiet!" came the instant response from outside, possibly through gritted teeth though just loud enough to be heard. "I told you to be quiet! Stay quiet or you'll get us both killed! Shut up or I'll throw you into the sea!"

Tromo stopped immediately, but started to shake even more. He didn't want to be thrown into the sea, to sink down into the deep darkness forever, he didn't want to die trapped inside this box. He began to shake so much that he lost control of his body, and was no longer able to shield himself when the motion flung him around into the sides of the chest.

Then, again without warning, the motion stopped, just as quickly as it started. Everything went still once more. There was a bump as he felt the chest being placed on the ground.

He caught a few snatches of talk, "...small room....shekels...just one or two nights..." The bearded man's voice. The clink of coins being exchanged. Then once more Tromo felt himself being hoisted into the air and they were on the move again, though this time much more slowly, for the motion was now not nearly so violent. The man climbing some stairs. The creak of a door followed, and then he was being set down again.