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The Painted

Ever since I remember I have always been intrigued by antiquated places. The kind of places that are abandoned with no trace of the human touch yet are crowded by the shadows of the past. The ancientness, the haunting yet captivating stillness that is shrouded in mystery has always called to me. The distant voice that sounds deceptively familiar echoes in the hallways travelling room to room with every intention of being heard and so I followed the echo taking me home. To a place that I have spent decades living in and yet don’t know how to find. It belongs to the deepest and darkest corner of my mind. To a place that is secluded from everyone like a hidden treasure in the heart of a majestic mountain or a lost shrine of an ancient and forgotten God, a place that I cannot enter yet know of its existence or at least I thought I could not until that morning…

The_Last_Phantom · ファンタジー
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36 Chs

The Hidden Safe

I paced around for hours, it felt like days, going over and over every detail in my head.

I was starting to get dizzy at this point and there seemed to be no point anyways because last night's memories were already hazy, felt like a phantom, nothing concrete in reality.

Taking a deep sigh I placed the cup on the ground as I looked out the window at the setting sun.

it was getting late.

'Argh I don't even have the energy to get up!' I exclaimed,

as I rolled around on the hard floor, kicking my feet in frustration.

"Ow!" wincing I grabbed my toe that was just stabbed by something sharp and sat up in hurry to examine the bleeding wound.

"Seriously!? Why does everything bad seem to happen to me?" I pressed on the wound as I picked under the bed.

I had a bad habit of laying on the bare floor with my feet under the bed,

it made me feel grounded and safe, didn't matter how weird I looked to others.

It was too dark for my eyes to decipher anything so I did the next best thing that I could think of,

move the bed and all the furniture in the way rather than do what a normal human with a functioning brain would do, grab a flashlight.

"I'm going to break my back one of these days" I groaned as I lifted the bed and pushed it to the side.

"Finally!" I was huffing at this point and my voice sounded pained.

Frowning I scooted closer to get a better look.

Hidden between the wooden mahogany floorboard seemed to be a small latch,

too small to notice if you didn't know what you were looking for.

My inner adventurer was squealing at this point, was I going to find money,

treasure map or old antique jewelry?

As I my fingers were hovering on top of the latch,

I thought over some of the endless possibilities with excitement until the rational part of my brain butted in and reminded me of some darker possibilities.

What if I find murder weapons or evidence or even worse, human remains?

I slowly retreated backwards until my back hit the wall as I contemplated on what to do next.

'I mean I could just not touch anything even if I did find something unpleasant?'

in my head that was a very reasonable approach,

it wasn't like I would lose anything and anyone else in my place would the same thing,

out of pure curiosity if nothing else, forgetting that 'curiosity probably did kill the cat'.

I hastily moved forward and placed my finger in the hook, pulling the latch carefully.

The latch connected to a square wooden board and what lay behind it was a just a big disappointment.

'Seriously? What is this?'

it resembled a safe with a locking mechanism of some sort.

I had no idea what I was looking at and frankly couldn't even begin to imagine how it could be unlocked.

I felt annoyed at my own high expectations but upon the realization that people usually hid high value objects in a safe I was excited again.

"You know what now that I took a closer look it doesn't really seem that complicated" I tried to reassure myself, key word, tried.

So for the next few hours or maybe even days I don't know, I lost track of time,

I used every object that I could think of to open that cursed thing with no luck.

My eyes were burning at this point and I was seeing stars in daytime,

I had no energy to continue so finally giving up, I dragged my feet downstairs and back into bed.

The moment my head hit the pillow everything went dark and the next day or year that I woke up again,

I was awakened by the sound of banging on the doors and a rather angry yelling could also be heard in the background.