DARKNESS

DARKNESS | Chapter 23

"Patience is a virtue."

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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO

"Mummy, Daddy, I'm bored," I state glumly, standing at the door to their shared office.

"Bored?" Dad says, pushing away from the paperwork on his desk and setting his reading glasses to the side. "Well that's no good now, is it?"

I shake my head in response, giggling like a mad person as Dad picks me up and twirls me around. He sets me down on something large and solid; something made from a distinctly different material to their desk.

"Careful David," Mum cautions, smiling as my giggles subside into a cheeky smile.

"We're careful, Mum," five-year-old me assures her. "Don't worry about us."

"I try not to, my angel," she responds softly, a faraway look in her eyes.

Glancing around the room I'm usually never allowed inside of, my eyes go back and forth between both of my parents. "Do you have to work?" I ask. "Can't you come play with me?"

"What we're doing is important, munchkin," Dad responds, pinching my cheek adoringly.

"It's always important," I point out validly.

Dad slumps back down in his chair, weariness evident in his movements. "Be patient, Harper," he says softly. "One day, we'll have all the time in the world."

I push off of the surface I'm seated on, setting my weight back down on my own two feet. Slowly, I face the object, scanning it quizzically. A knock on the front of it sends pain through my small knuckles, proving the object is solid. It's black with a single keyhole.

"What's this for?" I question, looking at Mum and Dad for guidance.

"It's a safe," Mum says gently.

"What's inside it?" I prod, poking my tiny finger into the keyhole as though a key of it's own.

"That, munchkin, is a mystery," Dad whispers spookily, scooping me up and setting me on his lap.

"Da-ad," I whine. "What's really in it?"

My Dad glances to Mum and the two of them exchange a quick look. "Harps, one day, when the time is right, you'll learn the answer to that," Mum speaks rather cryptically. "For now, it has to remain a secret."

PRESENT TIME

The heavy metal door of the vault is heaved open.

Photographs line the inside of the door, and for a moment, I'm convinced there's nothing else inside. Until my eyes come to rest upon a single white envelope on top of a small stack of papers at the back of the vault.

This can't be all. Surely this isn't everything.

Reaching in, I retrieve the envelope, my eyes threatening to well with tears as I read my father's distinct cursive writing scrawled across the front:

Our Daughter.

I walk to the other side of the room as Kale scans the photos and Blake begins scouring the papers, sliding down against the back of the door. With ferociously shaking hands and a newly-shattering heart, I manage to open the top of the envelope and unfold the two double-sided papers. A necklace drops out of them, the charm of a swirly design with a sapphire in the middle.