Page 6 of Enslaved By Magic

Chapter 3

Luke

The door was just where she’d said it would be. It was plain and unassuming in comparison to all the others he’d passed in the hall. The knob didn’t match either, being more modern and of the cheap quality he was used to seeing out in the real world. He realized they’d probably had to break the old one to get into the attic after the owner died. People who locked secrets away didn’t tend to hand out spare keys to their staff.

Whatever the reason, the door opened smoothly, and he felt around for the light switch just inside the door. A weak overhead bulb came on, exposing a steep and narrow set of stairs. It didn’t seem like the path to lost treasures, but he had an itchy feeling saying otherwise. He’d learned to trust that intuition, and now it was telling him something special was waiting for him above.

He followed the call and was almost disappointed to step out into an ordinary attic. Half-finished, the ceiling was enclosed and slanted in places, but there were no walls breaking up the expanse into rooms. He could see that it stretched out the length of the mansion, and it was going to be a lot of work to search through the piles of clutter that had apparently been stored there over the years. Broken furniture, trunks full of old clothes, and several decades worth of bundled newspapers made up the majority of the mess.

It was daunting and he already knew there were more bargains downstairs than his tight wallet could afford, so he hesitated, considering skipping it entirely. But something… something told him not to. He sighed and let instinct guide him. “Twenty minutes up here, and that’s it,” he muttered.

Twenty minutes turned into an hour, but when he threw back the lid of the tenth heavy oak trunk and looked inside, he knew he’d found something. On top of cushioned yards of vintage velvet fabrics sat a large strongbox, old and dark with age, but not rusted. When he picked it up, he was surprised by the weight. It felt like it was made of iron and the lock was sturdy.

He gave it a careful shake, just to make sure it wasn’t empty, and sure enough, he could hear the faintest sounds of something sliding. He could tell it had to be almost the same size as the box because it didn’t shift significantly, but that didn’t narrow the possibilities very much.

“I wonder what you’ve got hidden in there,” he said to himself as he looked around for something to pry the lock open with. It didn’t do any good. No matter how he tried, the lock wasn’t going anywhere, and he finally gave up. The box was like a tiny safe and he didn’t have the key to open it—but he realized that might just play in his favor when it came time to pay.

When he came downstairs with the box tucked under his arm, Cheryl was there waiting. “I was wondering if you’d gotten lost up there. Ugh, you look like you’re wearing about a hundred years of dust!” she exclaimed as she brushed off his shoulder and then coughed as a cloud billowed up.

“The uh, caretaker lady, she told me I should check out the attic,” he explained.

“She did? Huh. She barely talks to me.” Cheryl frowned and then shrugged. “I took a look up there, but all I saw was junk. Did you find something?” she asked. Her tone was polite and without much curiosity until he nodded.

“This,” he said, holding out the box.

“What’s in it?” she asked, leaning in to look at the plain black metal.

“I’m not sure actually. It’s locked. I can hear something in there though. I figured it would be fun to take it home and break it open. I mean it’s probably nothing special but—you know it’s the mystery that’s exciting and I’ve always loved a grab bag,” he explained. It wasn’t true, of course. He knew there was something special in there and he was definitely not one to waste his money on surprises. When he bought something, he wanted to know exactly what he was getting. But just this once he’d make an exception. His gut told him it would be worth it.

“Oh… I mean, sure.” She hesitated. “Does ten dollars seem fair?” she asked with some uncertainty.

“Well, it’s a bit higher than I was hoping, but I guess I can do that,” he said, pretending reluctance while inside he was jumping with glee over getting it so cheap.

She smiled. “Great—oh, that’s not all you’re going to buy, is it?” she asked as the smile wavered a bit. There was such a strong sense of disappointment that he hurried to reassure her.

“Oh no, you’re getting all my money today, Cheryl. I’ve got a whole list if you want to go through it with me and we’ll see how much of it I can actually afford,” he suggested.

When he finished loading up his small car a half-hour later, he was nearly shaking with excitement. Not for the box, he’d put that in the trunk and forgotten about it for the moment. It was because of all the other great deals. He knew for a fact the books she’d charged him five bucks apiece for would go for hundreds, easily, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.

He’d spent every penny in his account, including his rent, but it was worth every cent. It was the deal of a lifetime, and he desperately wished he’d known in advance because he would have begged and borrowed from everyone he knew before making the drive if he had. Still, he’d done well, and he could be happy about that without getting greedy. As he was pulling out of the drive, he saw another car arriving, so Cheryl was probably going to make some more sales that day.

On the way home his car made more worrisome noises. He knew he needed to move fast to recoup some of his expenses, both for the rent and for the car repairs he could foresee coming up. He’d need to devote the rest of the day to doing research on the items he’d purchased so he could get them listed online as quickly as possible. The locked box was the least of his concerns, and it sat in the trunk forgotten while he dealt with the things he was sure he could sell.

Out of sight, out of mind meant he completely forgot there was an unsolved mystery waiting in there until weeks later. He couldn’t believe he’d left it all this time, and the moment it popped into his head, nothing else would do but to immediately go dig it out and see if he could pry it open. He didn’t have much in the way of tools, but he did his best with a screwdriver and hammer—and got exactly nowhere.

Over the next few days, he tried everything he could think of short of dropping it from a second story or bashing it with a tire iron. Neither option was likely to be good for the contents of the box. He finally took it to his uncle’s house for help. His uncle was an amateur carpenter who still did the odd job around the house now and then, so he had an entire workshop full of tools. One of them was bound to work.

“Luke! Come in, your aunt was just putting dinner on the table. I hope you’re hungry,” his uncle said, a broad smile of welcome across his wrinkled face.

Even though he wasn’t there for food, he’d long ago given up on trying to talk his Aunt Sarah out of feeding him. She was sure a man on his own never ate properly and nothing he said would ever convince her otherwise. Besides, her cooking was hard to turn down. It was easier to set the box on the table and explain his problem while he polished off two helpings of delicious homecooked food.

“Is that what you spent your rent money on?” Uncle Esra asked, one eyebrow going up in surprise.

“No.” He laughed. “But thanks for reminding me. That’s the other reason I’m here,” Luke said. Two of the old books had sold almost instantly, as expected, and they alone covered the money he’d spent.

His uncle waved a hand, looking unconcerned. “I knew you were good for it.”

“Anyway, this was just a… calculated risk. I found it in the attic of a creepy old house, and they were willing to part with it for almost nothing, so I figured, why not? I know something is in there. I just don’t know what. I thought maybe with your tools we’d be able to pry it open,” he explained, sounding hopeful.

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