Not sure what this is? Check out this post! And if you’re new to this story, you can read the previous chapters here.
How are you feeling?”
The rest of the hospital is quiet and still, not quite ready to wake yet. But as I sit in a chair beside the bed in Eva’s room, I don’t feel tired at all.
She looks up at me, eyes back to their usual life and brightness. “A lot better. I feel like I could get up and leave right now, but they won’t let me.”
“They know what’s going on better than you do.”
“Maybe.”
I smile. It’s been too long since we’ve had a conversation like this, just messing around, not worried about bills or surgeries. As soon as I find that treasure, we might have them a lot more often.
The treasure. Maybe it’s time to tell her about that. Will she approve of it? I take a deep breath. “I’ve been working on something big while you were napping in here. Something that will fix everything.”
“That’s a big promise. What is it?”
I recount the story of how I started working at the Hawksley Manor, from the advertisement I put out online to the mysterious phone call from the resident of an abandoned mansion. I tell her of Austin and his obsession with conspiracy theories, how he informed me of the Hawksley fortune, and that we’ve been plotting and searching for the treasure. “Just yesterday, we found the blueprints of the building, and we’re going to make a big search of the house soon. As soon as we find the treasure, we can get out of this place and go on an adventure.”
Eva listened quietly the entire time, taking everything in. Her eyebrows come together and she looks down for a moment before looking at me and speaking. “Cannan, I thought we talked about this already. You don’t need any of that. I know God has put us where we are, and you don’t need to try and change that. Besides, isn’t it stealing to take that man’s money?”
“Well…” I don’t have a suitable answer to that.
“When you were here before, I said you don’t have to worry about me anymore. And you don’t. I’m okay right where God put me.”
Now it’s my turn to stare at the ground. How can I respond to that? “I’m going to look with Austin one more time. If we still don’t find it, then God doesn’t want it to happen. But if we do, then maybe it’s His way of providing for us. I have to pay these medical bills somehow.”
“That’s the thing. They’re not your problem; they’re God’s. He gave you this problem, and He wants to take care of it, too.”
I rub my temples. “But how? Other than this treasure, there’s no way I’m getting that money.”
Eva smiles and sits up higher. “That’s what’s so great about this. You get to be surprised.”
“Maybe I’ll be surprised by finding the treasure.”
She sighs. “You’re missing the point. We can talk about this later, though. What else have you been doing ever since you left? How does it feel to be an adult? Are you really busy now that you have two jobs?”
Our previous conversation fades into memory, and all tension vanishes. We talk about the past and great memories we have, about life since I left home, and about the future after she recovers. I lose all sense of time, lost in the conversation until my phone buzzes that it’s time to get ready for work.
Standing from the chair, I disable the alarm by swiping across the screen and pocket the phone. “I need to go now. I should be at work in half an hour. Be back later.”
She nods and leans back into her propped-up pillow. “It was nice talking to you again, though.”
Smiling, I nod back. “It really was. Get some sleep and don’t try running away before they let you go.”
Eva laughs. “I won’t promise anything.” Her expression grows somber. “And please don’t worry about the money for the surgery. If you try to solve it, you’ll just get frustrated.”
I also become serious. “I won’t promise anything, either.”
I sink into a plastic chair, pull a sandwich from my lunch bag, and look expectantly at Austin, who sits across the break room table. “Did you bring them?”
“Well, yeah. Would I really forget something like this?” He holds up the stack of maps and slaps them onto the table. They scatter across the surface, one stopping in front of me.
I glance at it. “Did you figure out these symbols yet?”
“Nope. But when we go again, we’ll check the rooms against the symbols and see what they mean.”
“If the rooms have any distinguishing marks. They’ve all been empty so far.”
Austin shrugs. “I looked at how we could get in.”
“We could cross on the tree again.”
He shakes his head. “No can do, boss. That office didn’t have any other doors in it, we can’t walk in the front door, and the maps don’t show any other doors facing outside.”
I frown. “There has to be something. Some kind of back door for servants, maybe?”
“Maybe there used to be, in the old house, before the new rooms swallowed it up. But here’s the catch.” He uses his fingers to spin the map closest to me until the scribbled numbers marking dimensions are right-side-up. Leaning forward, he points to a spot on the upper left. Two parallel lines run diagonally away from the mansion proper. “I think that’s a tunnel.”
I tilt my head. “Are you sure? It could just be a leftover from the architect’s tools.”
“Pretty sure. It’s faded, but it’s definitely drawn on purpose. We might be able to go through here and walk right into the manor.”
“And then what?”
“Well…then we find the treasure. We can use the symbols to figure out what the rooms are and where the treasure isn’t. Then it’ll be easy to figure out where it is.”
“What if it’s not marked on the map? Why would he draw a picture that would tell people where he plans to keep his fortune?”
“I…uh…” Austin leans back in his chair. “Hey, I don’t know everything either. But I do know that if we can get in through that tunnel, we can have free rein in the house for hours. As long as your sis doesn’t almost die again.”
Worries pop up. Is it wise to enter the mansion without a clear plan? We don’t even know what we’re looking for. The treasure could be a basement full of doubloons, or a priceless art collection, or anything else. Perhaps we should spend more time researching Arthur Hawksley’s interests. Eva’s words come back to memory. Should we even be doing this at all?
Austin gathers the papers back into a stack. “It’s official, then. Meet me at your car fifteen minutes after we get back from work. We get the treasure tonight.”
The deadbolt slides into place as I lock my apartment door. After getting home from work, Austin and I went our separate ways. He retreated into his apartment without a single word to me. As I changed out of my work uniform, I thought through the rest of the day. Is it even smart to hunt for the treasure while the servants are still awake and prowling the halls? How are we going to avoid them, and what happens if we get caught by one?
I take my keys from the door lock and descend the stairs to the parking lot. Austin is, as expected, already leaning against my car, studying the mansion blueprints.
He looks up from the papers. “Oh, good, you’re finally here.” I take the car keys from my pocket to unlock the door, but some markings on the back of the car catch my attention. It appears someone scrawled the word “Treasure or bust” on the back windshield.
I glare at Austin. “Is that why you needed fifteen minutes?”
“That, and I didn’t want to treasure hunt in a polo shirt. But chill, it’s a washable marker.”
“Do you think this will help us hide from Hawksley?”
“He won’t see our car. And if he does, maybe he’ll think it’s a joke. He should laugh once in a while.”
I shake my head, press the button to unlock the car, and slide into the driver’s seat.
Twenty minutes later, I pull off the road and park on the dirt. The Hawksley Manor is visible ahead of us, but hopefully far enough away that anyone inside wouldn’t notice us. The sun slips below the horizon behind me.
Austin leans over with one map—the one showing the supposed tunnel. He points out the window toward a wooded area behind the manor. “We should go over there. The tunnel entrance is probably in the woods.”
I nod. There’s no point in arguing with him. I just have to hope he’s right.
Taking a deep breath, I get out of the car, slam my door closed, and look toward the woods.
This is it. It’s the treasure or bust.
Want to stay in the loop? Sign up for the email list to get emails whenever new chapters come out!
0 Comments