by Jen Guberman
Lamb shrugged and went back to her place, but I knelt down, thumbing through the papers. Some of them were illegible cursive, with ink blotches smeared across multiple words. I pulled the papers out one by one as I looked at them, setting them on the ground next to the box. Zane stood behind me, peering down over my shoulder curiously at the box’s contents. When the box was empty, I spotted a tiny golden knob along the edge of the bottom of the box. Picking at it, I noticed the bottom of the box lifted slightly. I pulled on the little knob until I managed to lift the entire bottom out of the wooden box, revealing a couple additional papers. I picked up the first paper, a small photograph in faded colors. The picture showed some type of silver device with blue, green, and purple stained glass decorating the handle. I picked up the paper beneath it with my other hand and read the words “Skeleton Key” scribbled in messy print, with a page of similar writing beneath it. I pocketed the picture and the papers quickly, figuring maybe I could read through them later at night.
“Hey, what did the paper say?” Zane asked inquisitively upon noticing me shoving the papers in my pocket.
“Nothing much—just some historical looking documents. Figured I could read them before bed tonight, since I don’t have a book or anything,” I said innocently.
Apparently satisfied, Zane left, going back to his digging. I replaced the removable bottom of the box and stuffed the rest of the papers back on top of it, closing and latching the lid. I decided to bury the box in the pile I had been digging in, for safekeeping. Maybe I could read those other documents sometime.
The sun was beginning to set when everybody began to bring their searches to a close. Just before dark, we all made our way back to our building, chatting excitedly about some of our finds—my mirrored box, a torn poster of an old band none of us had heard of that Lamb dug up, and some other random trinkets.
“What happened to your shirt?” I asked Zane, noticing a grubby black stain on his white t-shirt.
He looked down at the stain, brushing at it with a hand.
“Nothing, just some dirt.”
We walked through the doorway to our building, and I said goodnight to my new friends. I unlocked my door and was about to walk back into my room when Zane came running up the stairs, calling after me.
“Yeah?” I asked inquisitively, seeing the look of urgency on his face.
“I wanted to give you something,” he said reaching into his jean pockets.
He pulled out a small copper bracelet, with a couple shiny ornaments dangling from it.
“I found it today, I figured it might match that ring of yours, after I cleaned this up a little,” he said, dangling the bracelet.
“Is that why your shirt is stained so bad?” I asked. “You used it to clean the bracelet?”
“Yeah, it isn’t a big deal though—just some dirt.” He reached for my hand and placed the bracelet in it. “Goodnight, E.”
Zane wore a half smile on his lips as he turned and retreated down the stairs. I turned back to my door, stopping for a moment to smile to myself before closing the door behind me. I took the mirrored box out of my jacket pocket and placed it on the floor beside my mattress just as I heard a knock at the door.
“Eos!” Lamb called out from behind the door. “I forgot I was supposed to give you something!”
“Come in!” I called back.
She opened the door and came in, a small pile of clothes and a towel in her hands.
“I know it isn’t much, but Jackson told me to give these to you,” she placed the clothes and towel in my arms and dug a bar of soap out of her pocket. “Make it last, we don’t get much to spare. The bathroom is downstairs and to your far left.”
I riffled through the clothes—a couple old t-shirts with small stains or tears, a pair of ripped black jeans, some lighter jeans with what looked like a coffee stain on the thigh, a pair of ratty pajamas, and some undergarments.
“I know it isn’t much, but we only get what the cities throw out,” she said apologetically.
“No, Leanne, it’s fine. These will work.”
“You can call me Lamb, ya’ know,” she reminded me.
I smiled sleepily and nodded. “Thanks again.”
She said goodnight and closed the door behind her.
I set the clothes on the floor against the wall furthest from my mattress, picked out the pajamas and towel, and undressed, wrapping the towel around myself before heading downstairs to shower.
The bathroom was a little nicer than the rest of the building, with a clean-ish white tile floor, chipping robin’s egg blue paint on the walls, and four curtained-off showers. Unfortunately, the bathroom was unisex, but everything in there had some degree of privacy.
I set my towel and new clothes on a bench right outside of the shower, within reach from behind the curtain. When I reached to turn the shower on, I almost stuck my hand on a fuzzy brown spider sitting on the faucet.
“Eughh…” I cringed. I reached for my towel, wrapped myself back up, and migrated myself and my stuff to the next shower over.
After my shower, I shut off the faucet. Wiping the water from my eyes, I reached around the shower curtain for my towel, but my hand was met with an empty bench. I flopped my hand around on the bench, unable to find my towel or my clothes.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
I stood there for a few minutes, weighing my options. Considering I didn’t really have any, I began to call out for Lamb, hoping she was still downstairs and able to hear me. After a few minutes of futile calling, I sucked in a breath, threw the curtain open, and sprinted full speed for my room.
When I ran past the common area, I heard collective laughter coming from the couches as Lamb and Luka rolled with tears streaming down their faces. I didn’t stop to confront them, for obvious reasons, so I continued to bolt up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, I all but ran directly into Zane.
“Oh my God,” I said, throwing my hands over myself as coverage.
“What are you doing?” Zane asked, a mixture of confusion and amusement on his face.
“Ask the jerks downstairs!” I hissed, blinking back hot tears as I shoved my way past him.
“Full moon tonight!” he hollered after me, his laugh joining the echoing uproar from the two downstairs.
I slammed the door behind me and clicked the lock shut. I slumped over on my knees, sitting on the cold concrete floor, giving in to the tears. After catching my breath and collecting myself, I picked up one of my t-shirts to dry my hair and put on some of my clothes as makeshift pajamas. My bag was still on my bed next to the blanket, so I moved it, along with my dirty clothes, to the corner of the room after digging out the photo of my dad and I. I placed the photo on the mirrored box and lay down on the stained mattress. I had barely become a part of Avid and I already wanted to go home. Wrapping myself up in the blanket to keep warm, I laid there looking at the photo until I fell asleep.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The next morning, I didn’t want to get out of bed, and I definitely didn’t want to see my “friends”. I decided to read through the papers from the wooden box before getting up, so I reached to the side for my coat and pulled them out of the pocket.
I read the words scribbled at the top of the page, reading “Skeleton Key.” Squinting at the messy print, I made out some notes about Avid, Bellicose, Clamorite, Delaisse, and Equivox. I think it said something about locks and keys? And a key that could unlock anything? There was a side note about boxes, with a sketch on the back of the paper that closely resembled the box Luka had found. On the sketch, there was an arrow pointing to the back of it, below where the hinges would be. At the other end of the arrow was a drawing of a key. Weird. I thought as I threw the papers to the side, knowing I had more important things to do before I could sit and read for the rest of the day.
I sat up slowly, running my hands through my knotted hair. My room is a mess. I’m a mess, I thought. I figured the easier of the two to fix would be my disastrous
room. Granted, I didn’t have many things to use as storage, but I did my best. I organized my clothes against the wall, spread my blanket on my bed, and dumped out the contents of my bag to figure out where to put them. My photo was still on the mirror box beside my bed, the picture of the Key folded inside the mirrored box, the money I decided to hide under my mattress, the papers from the wooden box were under the mirrored box, and the ring was back in my bag. I guess I should go water the carrots now.
I moseyed to the gardens, knowing that was the only thing I had to do all day. When I stepped into the ring of tall trees, I grabbed one of the buckets at the entrance. Water sloshed as I made my way to the row of carrots. Starting at one end, I made my way down the row, slowly pouring water from the bucket into the dirt, some of it spattering at my feet. Bored, I sat down next to the rows of crops, drumming idly on the metal pail with my fingers. I sighed. There’s got to be something to do around here.
I knew one thing for sure—I didn’t want to deal with the three from my building, especially not Zane. I carried the empty bucket back with me, dropping it on the ground at the well on my way to my room. In my room, I sat on my bed, pulling out the documents again, thumbing through them. I picked out a paper for a closer read, squinting at the cursive.
After focusing for a while, I was able to gather the gist of the paper I had picked up. According to the writer, there was a key out there somewhere that he or she referred to as the “Skeleton Key.” I confirmed what I thought I had read previously, understanding that this key supposedly was able to unlock anything. Skeptical, I read on, uncovering details about five other keys—one in each exile town, all of which had to be used to open the box containing the Skeleton Key. If these keys are real, that means that one of them is here in Avid, I thought to myself. Why would anyone even create this key?
There was a knock at my door. When I opened it, Lamb was standing there, looking up at me, her hands clasped together in front of her chest.
“Eos, I am so sorry for what we did last night! We were just trying to have some fun!” she apologized.
“Whatever,” I said, staring back at her.
“Look, how about you join us for lunch? We were just about to head that way, and I’m sure the boys would love if you joined us—I know I would!”
“No.”
“E, please? I really am sorry. Just… give us another chance. All I’m asking is that you join us for lunch,” she pouted.
“Fine,” I grumbled.
I’d rather be with poor company than no company.
Once in the cafeteria, I was reminded again of how hungry I was since I got here. I haven’t eaten in over a day, and I felt like I could eat the entire storage room of food. The dining hall was fairly crowded, and it was the first time I saw a majority of the members of Avid. There was a table of older men and women, many with greying hair—a man with a hunched back sitting next to a man with visibly white nose hair, a short old woman with sunken eyes, and a few others. Next to their table was a large group of about a dozen more people that looked older than me, but likely younger than my parents. I spotted the food along the far left wall—a long table with trays of fresh vegetables, bread rolls, some kind of brown and chunky soup, and a couple small pies—upon closer look, apple or blueberry seemed to be my choices.
Luka and Zane approached Lamb and me. Luka’s eyes scanned me as he chuckled.
“Pig,” I growled under my breath.
“Calm down, it was funny and you know it,” Zane retorted with a grin, backing Luka up. I rolled my eyes.
Lamb and Luka got in line, with Zane between them and me. I reached toward the dinner rolls, putting one on my tray.
“Just one?” Zane asked. “When was the last time you ate? I remember when I was exiled, I was starved the first day.”
I hesitated, not wanting to seem too greedy, but the temptation overcame me, and I shoved a handful of dinner rolls on my plate, followed by a bowl of soup. I followed my lunch party to an empty table, taking my seat next to Lamb and across from Luka, wanting to be as far from Zane as possible.
I caught a whiff of the broth and I pulled my bowl toward me. Ripping off a hunk of the bread, I plunged it into my soup until the bread had soaked up some of the hot liquid. Just as I was about to take a bite, one of the girls from the bigger group looked over and shouted at me.
“Look at the greedy pig!” she squealed, pointing a finger at me. “She took all the rolls!”
I looked down at my plate, trying to ignore the rude comment.
“Hey pig,” one of the guys, a tall man with a black soul patch and overly gelled hair crowed. “Save some rolls for the rest of us. You’re not supposed to take more than two.”
“Oh,” I said with a full mouth and muffled voice. “No one told me.”
“Well, now you know,” he said snippily, walking over and taking two rolls from my tray, tossing one to the woman who pointed at me, a tall, thin woman with frizzy red hair and skin full of freckles. “Next time, don’t be so greedy.” The group took their trays to a bin and left the dining hall laughing lightheartedly in conversation.
My head sunk, as if I could become invisible to those around me. Zane snorted like a pig, and Luka snickered. I picked up my tray to leave.
“No! E, come on! Please stay!” Lamb pleaded.
“I don’t have to put up with this!” I yelled, slamming my tray back on the table as I glared at each of them. Leaving the tray behind, I stormed out of the cafeteria to my room.
I stayed in my room, holed up with the papers, reading strange, incomprehensive riddles about the locations of the five exile keys, imagining what it would be like to unlock anything I wanted with a single key. By the time the sun was down, there was another knock at my door.
“Go away,” I called from my mattress.
Another knock.
“I said go away!”
“Open the door, Eos,” I heard Jackson say, irritated.
I scrambled from my bed to open the door.
“Oh my gosh, Jackson, I am so, so sorry!”
“I heard you caused a disturbance in the cafeteria today, and that you took more than your share of food, is this true?”
“Yes, but—” I opened.
“There are no excuses. I’ll let you off the hook because this was your first offence, but from now on, please just read the sign at the front of the line that tells your food allotment for that meal. It was clearly posted at the start of the food table, stating ‘one bowl of soup, two dinner rolls, one scoop of veggies, one slice of pie.’ We don’t have many rules around here, but the few we do have are very important, and very easy to follow.”
I grumbled. “Sorry.”
“Yes, well, do better to see it doesn’t happen again,” the scars on Jackson’s face pulled as he furrowed his brow. “There are consequences for those who don’t follow the rules, and frankly you are drawing a lot of attention to yourself.”
Suddenly, I realized the center of Jackson’s attention was a very bad place to be.
“It won’t happen again,” I promised.
“Hello, Jackson!” chirped Lamb as she walked over from the stairs.
“How are you, Leanne?” smiled a sharp-toothed Jackson.
“I’m lovely, thank you! I just came by to invite Eos to join Zane, Luka, and me for a game tonight!”
“Have fun!” Jackson said cheerily, making his way back downstairs.
“No,” I said, frowning at Lamb.
“Oh, come on!” she insisted. “You can’t stay in your room forever! You’ll die of boredom!”
“I’d rather stare at the wall forever than put up with Zane and Luka again. You haven’t been exactly pleasant either,” I warned, raising my voice slightly.
“I know,” she sighed. “And I’m super sorry! Please, just come play a game with us! It’ll be fun!”
“I’m not playing some stupid game with you guys. Knowing all of you, the game is going to involve humiliating me for your amusement, and
with that in mind, I’m going to have to pass.”
“We aren’t going to embarrass you or hurt you, Eos! We just want to include you because we know how much this place sucks when you’re alone. I was alone when I was first exiled, and I don’t want you to be lonely like I was. Come play a game with us later tonight and you’ll see!”
“What kind of game?” I questioned.
“Meet me downstairs in about an hour and I’ll explain it,” she said, skipping to the staircase.
When she left, I contemplated for a moment what to do for the next hour. I could explore a little, I thought. Now is as good a time as any to check out some of the other buildings in Avid.
I made my way outside. The air was warm, aside from a cooling gentle breeze. The sky was dark but speckled with infinite tiny stars. It would make the most sense to go in the third building first, I thought, realizing the first building is just the cafeteria, and the second is my building. I made my way casually to the door, noticing it was left cracked open. Pushing it open just a bit, I awkwardly poked my head through the space. Before my brain could register which building I was at, I heard an unfortunately familiar voice greet me.
“Hey, it’s Pig!” The dark-haired man with a soul patch snorted at me.
I pulled my head out of the doorway as quick as I could, speed walking to the next door in hopes he would just leave me alone.
He didn’t.
“Where are you going, Pig?” the man called after me as he stepped out from his building.
“I’m just looking around,” I said innocently, not making eye contact.
“You searching for scraps, Pig?” He laughed.
I chose not to acknowledge his comment, which provoked him to pick further.
He flicked a pebble and it tapped against my shoulder. Unamused, I glared at him.
“Whatchu’ up to, Pig?” He smiled.
“I’m just looking around.”
“For what?”
“I’m just looking around,” I repeated.
“Are you looking for anything?” he asked, the smile lingered, and I was hesitant but slightly convinced that it actually looked genuine.