by Elin Peer
Jonah came with us as well, and when I asked why, Mila gave me no other reason than his being a good friend who enjoyed the sense of adventure.
It was like my murder mystery had been overtaken by the four people walking down the long corridor in front of me. With his long steps, Magni led the way and spoke in his deep voice “Don’t be disappointed when we don’t find anything. I remember searching this room when I was a kid and there was nothing.”
Jonah gave me and Mila a wide smile. “I’m excited. This feels like going treasure hunting.”
“Hmm, more like trash hunting.” Magni walked another ten steps before he stopped in front of an old wooden door that screeched on its hinges when he pushed it open. “Prepare for half a century of unwanted things.”
Once the light flickered on, my eyes took in a room much larger than I had expected. This wasn’t some small storage room, this was the size of the upstairs library and then some.
Khan stepped into the room and groaned. “Holy crap, I had no idea we had this much shit down here.”
“It’s not all rubbish, look at this.” Mila stood next to a painting of wild horses on a beach.
Khan didn’t look impressed but let his gaze wander over the stacks of boxes, piles of books, picture frames, rolled-up rugs, and furniture of different kinds.
Jonah craned his head to get an overview. “Do you remember anything specific from Dina’s room that we can look for? If we can find one thing, we might be lucky in that the rest of her stuff is next to it.”
“Good thinking.” Magni turned to Khan. “You were thirteen, so maybe you remember her room better than me.”
Khan drew his eyebrows close together and ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, she had an… ehm… bed that was purple, I think. Or maybe it was blue.”
We were all looking at him waiting for more details, but he threw up his hands. “I don’t know, I can’t even remember how my own room looked back then.”
Magni was looking around the storage room. “It was a wooden bed, and it had a heart engraved in the headboard. I remember because I would let my fingers run across it when Dina let me sleep in her bed.”
“All right.” Mila walked into the room. “We’ll look for a purple or blue bed with a heart engraved.”
Khan pointed to his right. “I’m searching over here. The rest of you spread out.”
I went to the back where the clutter was worst. A large shelf stood against the wall full of boxes. Some of them had writing on them indicating that it was Christmas decorations or cutlery.
We searched around for ten minutes and I repeatedly heard Mila make comments like, “Oh, look at this,” and “Why would anyone not want to keep this?”
Magni laughed. “What are you doing, Mila honey?”
“I’m making a pile of things that I want to bring to my room.”
“Nobody tell Pearl about this room, I don’t want my suite filled up with old crap.”
“You’ve got a point, brother.” Magni chuckled and called out to me. “Hey, Raven, can you imagine your mom in this place? Christina would be like a kid in a candy store. She loves everything old, doesn’t she?”
“She’s an archeologist. I’m sure she would love to go through this room to see if there might be something ancient down here.”
“Like this one?” Jonah held up a book that was coming apart.
I nodded. “Yes. Old books are precious. None of them should be hidden away in a storage room.”
“That’s right. Did you hear that, Jonah?” Khan stood with a metal device in his hands but was looking over at Jonah. “Remember what Pearl and I told you about the forbidden books in the Motherlands? You people need to stop treating your people like children. If someone wants to read a scary book or a bunch of steamy novels it should be their choice. You call me a tyrant when you council members are the ones suppressing your people’s freedom.”
“I know you see it that way, but the council members think of themselves as responsible protectors of their people. That’s why it’s so hard for them to agree with me on higher speed limits, and why Jenna McFulham called me a danger to society when I suggested making it legal to consume alcohol.”
Magni opened a box and roamed through it. “They are a bunch of worried mother hens is what they are. You know, Jonah, it’s a wonder how you turned out so sensible despite growing up surrounded by Momsies. But at least when you come and visit us, you can drink some beer and fly as fast as you want to.”
“I appreciate that.”
Turning back to my searching, I picked out a box that said, Costume Party 2418. It was a bunch of garments and I put it back. A few other boxes had glasses and cups in them and when I took out the fourth box, I spotted a picture frame in the back of the shelf.
I couldn’t help laughing when I saw the two boys in the picture. “Mila, come see this. You’re going to want to add this to your pile.”
“What is it?”
When she got close enough, I handed the picture frame to her. “Recognize these two gangsters?”
Mila’s eyes widened, and her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh, Raven, this is precious. Thank you.”
“What’s precious?” Jonah came over to see while I leaned back and called out to Khan and Magni.
“We found a picture of you men from when you were children.”
“Huh. Let me see.” Khan came over with Magni following him. “Jonah, give me that picture.”
Amusement was written on Jonah’s face when he handed the frame over. “I think you look very nice, both of you.”
They both groaned. “Why the fuck are we naked?”
Magni shook his head. “How would I know? I can’t be more than two in that picture.”
“Looks like it was taken in the park. Maybe you were going swimming in the lake.” Mila reached for the picture. “Can I have it?”
“No!” Magni took it from Khan. “I know you’ll just put it in a prominent place in your room and display our dicks to the world.”
“It’s hardly the whole world if I keep it in my room, is it?” Mila tried taking it. “It’s such a sweet picture. I want to show it to Mom.”
“No. Why would Laura want to see Khan naked?”
“Come on, Dad, you were just children.”
“Where did you find this anyway?” Magni asked me and I told him how it had been hidden behind a box.
“That sounds like the right spot for it.” Leaning forward Magni reached in and placed the picture frame as far back as he could, but it only made the picture fall down behind the shelf.
“Look what you did.” Mila gave a displeased sound and got down to the floor.
“No, honey, leave it there.”
Magni’s words were pointless because we all knew how persistent Mila could be, she already had one arm and half her head under the shelf trying to reach for it.
“Jonah, I can’t see. Would you shine some light, please?”
I hated that she asked for his help instead of mine, so I got down on my knees and used my wristband. “I’ve got it.”
“Good, I see it.” While Mila reached for the frame, my eyes focused in on something much more interesting.
“I think there’s a door.”
“What do you mean?”
“I see a doorstep and the outline of a door.”
Jonah offered Mila a hand to get up and Magni reached out for me, but I was back on my feet in no time, reaching for the first box. “Let’s clear the shelf and you’ll see for yourself.
Everyone helped and sure enough, there was a hidden door.
“That’s weird. Why the fuck would anyone block a door?” Khan muttered.
Mila moved behind Jonah. “I’m scared now. What if there’s something awful in there, like a body or something? Some of the people who lived here in the past were not very nice.”
“It could be that they were trying to trap something immortal in there,” I teased Mila. “Maybe we’re about to release some kind of monster into t
he world.”
Jonah played along. “Like a vampire or a werewolf. If that’s the case you’d better stay behind me, Mila, because it’s gonna be hungry if it was trapped in there for so long.”
Magni snorted. “Ha, and what were you going to do about it? It’s not like you’re a fierce warrior with fight training.”
Jonah shrugged. “That’s true, but I figure that if it eats me first, Mila has time to run away.”
Khan and Magni exchanged a look and shook their heads. “That’s some weird-ass altruistic Momsi shit to say.”
“Be nice, Dad. I think it was a sweet thing to say.”
“How about you all just move back and let me and Khan handle this?” Magni gestured for us to move back, and the two brothers huffed and puffed to move the massive metal shelf that was more than five doors wide and went all the way to the ceiling.
“Let us help.” I stepped forward and Jonah and Mila followed. With the combined strength of the five of us, we moved the shelf enough that we could open the door enough to get in.
“I’ll go first.” Magni drew in a deep breath before he opened the door and used his wristband to shine a light inside the room. We were all silent until he spoke again, “What the…”
“What do you see?” I asked with eagerness, my blood pumping faster and my sense of adventure making me stand on my tiptoes trying to get a peek.
“A coffin with scratch marks.”
Mila gasped but then Magni’s deep rumble of laughter made us all relax again.
“Hang on, let me find some light.”
A few seconds later light came on and I was able to see a bit around Magni’s large body. It looked like more of the same. Furniture, boxes, and books.
Magni backed out and turned to Khan. “You take a look and tell me if you see what I see.”
The two men changed position in the narrow space and Khan moved just inside the door. “So, the bed wasn’t purple. It was crimson.”
“You found Dina’s bed?” My voice was much too loud, but I was already pumped and the excitement that we’d found some of Dina’s things made me want to cheer.
Turned out that the small room was full of Dina’s stuff and slowly, as we began pulling them out, Khan and Magni unpacked boxes and picked up small items with their eyes glassy. No doubt they were taken back to memories of their lost sister.
In the end, it was only larger items like her bed, a small desk, a tall dresser, and some rolled-up rugs that were left in the room.
“I love this one.” Mila was letting her hands slide over a keepsake box. “Look at how pretty it is. I think little Dina would love to have this in her room.”
“Does your sister know that she’s named after a relative?”
“We told her, but she’s four. I doubt she understands what it means.”
Mila opened the box and Jonah, and I both leaned in to see what was in it. A bracelet made of braided leather straps, hairbands, and a few drawings from Magni were among the things Mila picked up.
“Dad, look at this drone you painted when you were five.”
Magni lifted his head from the box he was going through. “Hmmm.”
“It’s cute how you turned the G in Magni the wrong way.”
Magni gave a small smile and returned to his box. “I think I might have found something.” Lifting a stack of five leather-covered books, he showed them to us. “These are diaries.”
“Can I see?”
Magni handed me one and I opened it fast. “This one starts in March 2411 when Dina was eleven.”
“What does it say?” Mila came to stand next to me as I read aloud.
“Dear diary, I don’t like red roses as much as white roses. Today, we had some vile stew for dinner and if they ever serve it again, I’d rather go hungry and not eat at all.”
Khan had picked up a diary as well. “This one is from 2414, so she was fourteen then.” Khan was skimming through the pages. “Looks like it’s mostly about clothes, Magni, and complaints about our father being a strict disciplinarian.”
“Is that the last one?” I nodded at the book in Khan’s hands.
He flipped to the last page. “This one ends a few months before the tournament.”
“Let’s see if she continued in a different book after that.”
We searched through the seven books, but the one Khan had was the latest.
I wanted so badly to ask if I could read through them, because going through the diaries of a possibly murdered woman would feel like true police work.
Mila looked over and saw me biting my lip and like the best friend she was, she was quick to say. “Can I add the diaries to my pile? I would love to learn about life at the manor when you were children.”
At first Khan hesitated but when Magni shrugged and handed over the stack of books he was holding, Khan flicked through a few more pages and handed his over as well. “I don’t have time to read through them right now, so you can have a go at it. Just let us know if you find anything interesting, okay?”
“I will.”
“Even if you don’t, I’d like a chance to read them when you’re done.”
“Of course, I’ll make sure you and my dad get them as soon as I’m done.”
Looking at his wristband Khan frowned. “It’s late. We should get back. Mila, pack your pile in a few boxes and we can help you carry it to your room.”
“It’s okay, I’m sure Jonah and Raven won’t mind helping.”
“All right.” Khan scratched his shoulder. “Magni, one of these days we should have this room cleaned out. It’s like a hoarder lived here or something.”
“Yeah, one of these days.” Magni picked up a few pictures he had found in one of the boxes. It was of him, Khan, and Dina “You think Mom would like this?”
“I don’t think so. Mom doesn’t like to be reminded.”
“Then I’ll keep it for me.”
Khan patted his younger brother on the shoulder. “You do that.”
“And you, Khan? Anything you want to keep?” Magni looked around. “Maybe something that reminds you of Dina.”
“I haven’t forgotten her in the thirty-three years that she’s been dead. I don’t need some object to remember her by now.”
“I know, but these are her things.”
With a sigh, Khan bent down and picked a small statue of a bear. “I’ll take this one. It’s glued together from the time she threw it at me and it hit the wall.”
We heard the two men continue talking as they walked through the large storage room to the exit. “Remember what a temper Dina had? But how could she not, I mean being in our family and all.”
“What did you do to make her so mad that she threw things at you?”
“I can’t remember. I just know our dad glued the bear back together.” Their voices became low as they left the room.
“Hey, Raven.” Mila was packing a box and smiling at me. “Let’s carry this stuff upstairs. I assume that you want to read through the diaries?”
“Yes, of course. I’m all giddy inside with the prospect of doing some real detective work.”
“This was so exciting. We should do it again.” Jonah looked around. “I’ll bet there’s a lot of interesting things down here.”
“Yes, and now that we know you’re willing to sacrifice yourself if something jumps at us, we’ll need to bring you every time.”
I picked up the box with Dina’s diaries and some of the other questionable things that Mila had stuffed in there and I began walking. “Nothing is going to jump out at us down here, unless you count a rat or a ghost.”
“There’s no rats.”
“But there’s ghosts. You told me so yourself, Mila.” I laughed. “And ghosts don’t eat people, so Jonah isn’t going to be very helpful, is he?”
“Ghosts are just residual energy, they’re not going to hurt us.” Mila sounded like she was trying to convince herself.
Jonah frowned and balanced another box. “Who told you that?”
“Laura did.”
“Do people here believe in ghosts?”
“Of course. There’s more to the world than we can see.”
“I know, but surely ghosts aren’t real.”
Mila stuck her tongue out a little in concentration when she balanced the box she was holding on her thigh while trying to turn off the light. “Then how do you explain that we found one little picture among the thousands of things in here? Do you think it was a coincidence or could it be Dina’s spirit who was leading us to that hidden room?”
“I don’t know, Mila, I’m not a superstitious person.”
The two of them chatted about it while I put down my box and closed the door. I didn’t know if ghosts were real, but I sure hoped that the girl who had once lived in this manor had written some clue in her diary that would lead me to her possible murderer.
CHAPTER 8
Dina’s Diaries
Raven
There were seven of Dina’s diaries in total. The first began on the evening of her tenth birthday, and the last one ended when she was fourteen, only three months before her death. As I was looking for any sort of clues to who might have killed Dina, it was a no-brainer to begin with the last diary. For the most part, it was small talk about her life at the manor, but on page fifty-three a detail caught my interest.
December 13, 2414
The manor looks so pretty with all the decorations, and I begged Mom to let me add another Christmas tree to the house. She said we already had four, but I argued that the library would look so pretty with a tree. Mostly because I was bored, and decorating trees is so much fun. The best part was that she said that I could ask one of the guards to help me chop it down and bring it inside. I asked old Kevin and he assigned the job to a new guard whom I hadn’t seen before.
The guard was young and much better-looking than any of the old guards. We walked side by side to find the right tree and it might have taken me a little longer than necessary, but I swear it wasn’t because I was trying to be mean. It was just that I was hoping that maybe he would speak to me. I hate the rule about guards not being allowed to speak unless spoken to because with me being too shy to say anything, it was awkward. If I had been braver, I would have asked him his name but the only thing I said was. “I like that tree.” He must think that I don’t care about anyone but myself and that’s not true at all.