The Keeper: Alexa LeGardien (3 page)

“S 33, S 34, S 35, S 36 ...” Matt rambled in order. Until... “S 38.”

“What do you mean by
S 38
? Where’s S 37?” Alexa asked a little too impatiently.

“It’s not here. It’s S 36 then S 38.”

Alexa glanced around at the other boxes they hadn’t checked. There was no way they could find the box in a day. It was going to take, at least, two whole days. She sat on the floor exhausted from all the digging around. “So much for a happy birthday.”

Matt kept on checking the serials on other boxes. “I’m beginning to think that this is some kind of stupid prank.”

“
Beginning to
?”

“Yeah, you know, I think we should have just ignored—” Matt’s voice faded off in the distance as Alexa’s eyes caught something in the far corner.

In the distance, she thought she saw something glimmer. From where she was, it looked similar to a hole edged in the corner.

There was a small space between two rows of boxes, and when Alexa squinted, she could have sworn there was
something
there. She stood up and approached the wall, not really sure what the
something
was, but still willing to find out. The space was left completely blank everywhere but in its centre. It had the serial, ‘S-37’, indented into its centre. The figures were much smaller than the sizes on the boxes. And right below it was what appeared to be a key hole, but that didn’t seem possible. It was a flat wall with no visible separations.

An inserted key wouldn’t have any wiggle room,
she thought.

“Hey! Did you see something?” Matt broke her trance.

“I’m not . . . sure.” She pulled the safety deposit box key from her pocket and took one more look at it before inserting it into the key hole. It fit perfectly and that peaked her curiosity.

“No way, Matt commented with disbelief, practically voicing Alexa’s own thoughts about the situation out loud.

“My thoughts exactly,” Alexa muttered. She turned the key clockwise, expecting nothing, because the wall still seemed literally impenetrable and immovable.

A
LEXA
slightly hesitated turning the key any more than she already had. It seemed next to impossible that the lock would have any sort of reaction whatsoever. But the exact opposite occurred. The key moved, and as soon as it did, Alexa heard a click from within the wall. “Did you hear that?” she asked, her ears searching for any other slight sounds that emerged from the opposite end of the wall.

“Hear what?” As soon as Matt asked that question, a whole lot more clicking occurred, each time louder than the next.

A few minutes later, Alexa and Matt felt the floor below them rumble in accordance with the noise. It seemed like turning the key in the hole had somehow activated a machine-type contraption hidden within the walls ... and the ground, apparently.

“We should find a way out of here.” Matt feared for both their safeties. This was insane. What did the key have to do with anything? And even if it had anything to do with whatever this whole thing was, how was Alexa linked to it? Questions upon questions flooded Matt’s thoughts, making his concern involving the situation climb to greater heights. It was weird how the day had completely changed course. He had planned a simple day for Alexa’s release—they were to take a ride in his new Mustang, which he’d acquired using his pay check from a new job he was yet to tell Alexa about. And then he had planned to take her to see a movie, he already bought the tickets. He laughed internally. What the hell had this day turned into?

“Wait.” Alexa cautioned, her voice quickly snapping Matt out of his hurried thoughts.

The noise emerging from the walls suddenly stopped without warning, including the grumbling of the floors. Everything stilled back into place.

Matt looked at Alexa worriedly. “Why did it stop? Why did it even start?”

“I have no idea.”

The wall slowly split into two and let out trapped air, almost like the room behind it had been sealed tight for a while.

“Pinch me.” For a short moment, none of them moved or spoke. They just stared. “Is that room glowing or is it just me?” Alexa asked worriedly.

“It’s not just you. I think we might have been drugged.”

They both gaped at the room, the glow from within blocked them from really seeing anything else. Matt’s jaw was literally in the dropped position.

“Still think we’re being pranked?”

“I have no idea.” It seemed that was the only complete sentence her brain could think of at the moment.

Matt reached for his pocket and pulled out a box of cigarettes. “Want a smoke?” He stretched on to Alexa.

“Yes, please.”

“There will be no smoking in this vicinity. Have some manners.” A voice they hadn’t heard before emerged from inside the room.

God?
“God?” Alexa asked dumbfounded. Her first day out of the correctional centre and she already had enough of men had in suits.

“No, Miss LeGardien. Guess again.”

The glow of the room died down with time and they could finally see clearly who the voice belonged to. He wasn’t dressed in a suit like the previous men they had encountered. He was dressed much more casually. He wore a sweater and held a smoking pipe in his right hand and couldn’t have been any taller than four and a half feet tall

His entire look reminded her of something from a British type show. “Um . . .
Watson
?” She didn’t know it until then but there was a chance that Alexa might always wanted to be a character in a Sherlock Holmes novel.
Female Sherlock, perhaps.

“Wrong again.” The man looked totally unimpressed by her effort to crack a joke. “You are yet to be aware of this, but you’re here for a reason. And yes, I know exactly who
you
are.”

—             —             —

“I
thought you said we couldn’t smoke in here,” Matt asked when he found himself lost in the conversation.

“Well, I should rephrase that and say
I knew who your mother was
. Your parents, to be exact,” he said, looking directly at Alexa and blatantly ignoring Matt.

The room was now clear enough to be seen from where Alexa and Matt stood.

“There’s no box. The key opens this stupid room? What kind of a sick joke is this?! My mother’s
dead
,” she exclaimed.

“I know that. This is not a sick joke.” He stood up to reveal a box that he’d been in front of.

The box made Alexa curious. She couldn’t care more or less about what the man was saying. She could see his lips move and hear his voice in the distance but the more he spoke, the more her eyes drifted away towards the unopened box. It was like it called out to her. Somehow, it felt like it belonged to her. Like it was hers to open.

The small man snapped his fingers. “Miss LeGardien. Are you still listening?”

Her eyes turned right back to him. “Um . . .”

“You’re not exactly what we expected. You arrived late, you smoke openly, you’ve been arrested, and you’re not
well composed
. We highly doubt your role in this. However, your parents were spectacular, so here’s to hoping it’s genetic.” He held out his pipe like a cheer and popped it back in his mouth.

His statements made no dent on Alexa’s emotional expressions. What he said made no sense to her, and she knew nothing of her mother and remembered nothing of her father. “I thought there was a no smoking policy or something along those lines.”

The man in the sweater cocked a smile to the right of his face. “No smoking for you is what I meant.” He turned to Matt, indicating that he meant no smoking of
both
of them. “The name’s Leeman. Don Leeman.” It was then that Alexa noticed that he’s accent was of an English origin.

“Good to know,” Alexa said absentmindedly. She brushed past him without turning back and headed straight to the box. She picked it up immediately to admire it. It too, had a lock but not for the key she’d gotten from the envelope. Its keyhole was visibly bigger, it seemed to be suited for a regularly sized key. She reached out her thumb to feel the edges around the lock.

Leeman stopped her halfway. He pulled out an ancient looking key from his clock pocket and held it directly in front of her face pointing upwards. This key looked valuable, Alexa thought, it probably was. It was smooth all around and was gold plated. It looked almost brand new which was odd, seeing as it was obviously an old key.

“You must first ask yourself if you’re ready. If this path is for you.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She really didn’t but even more notably, she still thought this was a prank being played by a sick person because they somehow waved her dead parents a lot in conversations. “Don Leeman, is it?”

“That’s right,” he confirmed at the mention of his name.

“Do yourself a favour and give me the freaking key. Let’s get this sick game over with. P.S. That is a terrible British accent.” She quickly grabbed the key from his grasp and held it towards the keyhole.

“I assure you my accent is quite real. Now remember. Ask yourself: are you ready?”

She looked at Matt who looked right back at her with a look that said ‘I don’t know, Alex, maybe we should quit while we’re ahead.’

“Oh, I’m ready,” she said, disregarding Matt’s worrisome expression.

—             —             —

“W
AIT!”
Matt shouted right before she inserted the key. “We don’t know what’s in there. This could be one of those cases where curiosity actually
kills
.”

“Or it could be a pop-up Jack saying ‘Gotcha’.” She turned to Leeman. “Why don’t you just tell us what’s in it?”

“I think you know what’s in it,” he said, conveying a little bit of mystery in his tone.

Alexa kept her eyes locked on the metal box. “Well, I don’t.” She answered truthfully.

“I think we should just go.” Matt spoke slowly to her.

“And who are you?” Leeman asked Matt with a levelled voice.

Matt patted his hands down his jacket before speaking. “The name’s Coleton, Matthew Coleton.” He mimicked the way Leeman had introduced his name. Sufficed to say, Leeman was
not
impressed. Alexa snickered in the background.

“Yes . . . Matthew, whatever the name is, you shouldn’t be in here. As a matter of fact, you weren’t even meant to be here. That was not the plan,” he said, murmuring the last sentence under his breath. “I suggest you leave.”

“Excuse me?” Matt asked in a confused tone.

The two men in suits they’d met earlier approached the door. Neither looked happy, not that they had looked happy the first time Alexa and Matt saw them.

Alexa quickly interjected the hassle. “Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whatever
this
is, it’s him and me.” She waved her hands to Matt and back to herself. “He’s not going anywhere.”

“You can’t trust this...” Leeman looked up and down at Matt’s appearance and was not enthralled. Matt had worn out converses on his feet and a slouchy plaid t shirt that was not trying hard to make him look presentable. “...boy.”

“Well, that
boy
is Matt, and he’s my friend.” she looked over at Matt. “A very good one,” she added, not quite sure why she felt like defending Matt to a bunch of strangers that hadn’t yet given her a reason for her to do so. Alexa saw that his opinion was not wavering anytime soon. “I trust him with my life.” She spoke sternly, not caring what they thought about Matt. He’d been there for her for as long as she could remember. She threw a smile his way. “If there’s anyone I shouldn’t trust, it’s you guys.” She eyed Leeman and the two men in suits. “I have no idea who you guys are. All I know is that whatever this is, this... joke. It’s no longer funny. So when I open this box, I wouldn’t be laughing.”

Leeman waved the two men away. “Fine.” He turned to leave.

“Wait a minute. You can’t lock us in another room. That’s not cool,” Alexa pointed out.

“Relax, the doors have been left unlocked this time.” He closed it and swung it open again to assure her and then he left.

Alexa put down the box carefully in front of her and crouched in from of it. She still wondered if she really wanted to open it. For all she knew, this was probably the case where curiosity actually killed the cat as Matt had said earlier.

It was more than a little strange, but whenever she looked at the box, she could swear it called out to her. Like somehow it was hers to open. She couldn’t even really explain it to herself, no doubt, causing her the slight hesitation she felt from opening it.

“So, are you going to open it anytime soon or . . .?”

“Uh . . . I’m thinking, maybe you were right. We should just go. Leave it and go.”

“We came all the way here and you’ve been looking at that thing like you want to pounce it. So, I vote we open it.”

She took in some deep breaths and played around with the key for a while trying to lower her breathing speed. The more time she wasted, the more nervous she felt about the context of the box.

“I’m going to ask one more time, okay?” Matt said in a soothing voice as he noticed that Alexa looked like she was seconds away from having a panic attack. “Are you going to open it?”

—             —             —

A
LEXA
drove the gold plated key towards the keyhole and was literally micro centimetres from inserting it before she abruptly stopped herself.

“What’s wrong?” Matt asked after seeing her hesitation.

“Today has been weird.
Really
weird. The letter, the key, the envelope without a return address. I know I said it was probably a prank, but I didn’t believe that statement for a second, and I know you didn’t.” She stopped to breathe. “What if this is big? Much bigger than the both of us? I have this strange feeling in the pit of my stomach that we’re in for more than we can handle.”

“More reasons to open the box.”

“Did you just hear what I said?”

“Yes. A bunch of excuses for you to not open it. But I think that you know that you should. I know I said you shouldn’t, but when you saw it, I knew you wanted to. So, do it already.” Matt reached for her back and rubbed his hand around it. “Listen, I’m here, okay?” she responded with a grateful smile. “I’m here,” he repeated.