Chapter 2 - The Closet of Shadows
They moved into the house on a Tuesday,
while the rain was falling in thin,
gray sheets against the windows.
Nora carried the box herself,
wrapped in a silk scarf,
so that the movers wouldn't see it,
and so Daniel wouldn't ask more questions.
She placed it on the highest shelf of the walk-in closet,
tucked behind a stack of winter sweaters,
where the light rarely reached.
It felt like burying a body,
slowly,
and carefully,
ensuring that no one would stumble upon the grave.
Every time she entered the closet,
she could feel it there,
a pulse of energy coming from the dark wood.
Weeks turned into months,
and the wedding flowers died,
being replaced by the mundane tasks of marriage.
Daniel was a good man,
he was kind,
he was hardworking,
and he loved her with a simple,
uncomplicated devotion.
But sometimes,
late at night,
Nora would lie awake,
listening to his steady breathing,
and her thoughts would drift to the high shelf.
She would imagine the box opening,
the lid creaking on its brass hinges,
revealing the secrets of the woman who birthed him.
Evelyn did not call,
she did not visit,
as if giving the box had been her final act as a mother.
Nora saw her once at a charity gala,
standing across the room,
dripping in diamonds and ice,
and their eyes met for a fraction of a second.
Evelyn didn't nod,
she didn't smile,
she simply looked down at Nora’s hands,
checking to see if the invisible weight was still there.
Nora felt a shiver run down her spine,
a cold finger of dread,
that stayed with her long after the gala ended.
She began to dream of the box,
in her dreams,
it grew larger,
filling the entire room,
until she was trapped against the walls.
In the dreams,
the wood was no longer smooth,
it was covered in thorns,
that bled when she tried to touch them.
She never told Daniel about the dreams,
or about the way she looked at the closet door.
She was becoming a keeper of secrets,
a guardian of the unknown,
just as Evelyn had been.
The house was beautiful,
with high ceilings,
and large windows,
but there was a corner of it that felt heavy.
She tried to fill the space with life,
with plants,
with paintings,
with the sound of music.
But the box remained silent,
a black hole of information,
absorbing the light around it.
One afternoon,
while Daniel was away on a business trip,
Nora found herself standing on a chair.
She reached up,
her fingers trembling,
and touched the cool surface of the wood.
The brass clasp felt warm,
almost as if it had a heartbeat of its own.
She could open it right now,
she could end the mystery,
and she could see the truth.
But the image of Evelyn’s face flashed in her mind,
the stern,
unyielding expression,
and the way she said,
"Promise me."
Nora pulled her hand back,
as if she had been burned.
She climbed down from the chair,
her heart racing,
her breath coming in short gasps.
She was a woman of her word,
even if that word was a prison.
She walked out of the bedroom,
closing the door firmly,
leaving the box to its shadows.
The rain continued to fall outside,
a rhythmic drumming on the roof,
matching the beat of her anxious heart.
She would wait,
she would endure,
May you like
and she would keep the box safe,
until the day the world changed.
