No way out

I stood still, there was no time to hide again and I held my breath once more. The steps became louder and more articulate through the door.

“Please go away.”, I silently prayed in my thoughts.

The steps seemed to walk past the door and then suddenly stopped.

My heart stopped for a second and I felt the adrenaline rushing through my veins. The steps now approached the door and I was already expecting to be caught the moment she would open the door, but then I heard a metallic sound, a rustling, then maybe something scratching at the door.

When the door gave a loud click, I finally understood what had happened. She had locked the door, while I was still inside of this room.

Had she known that I was inside here or did she feel some strange kind of paranoia because of her father laying here in this room?

Anyways what should I do now? I waited for a minute and decided that it should be safe to light a candle now. There were only two matches left but I needed some light if I wanted to evaluate my situation.

“What now, Saburo?” I asked.

“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be here, you know?”, he said with something that sounded like a sympathetic laugh.

“Right….”, I said, realizing my mistake.

The lock seemed like it had been renewed some decades ago, meaning that it surely wasn’t high security but still safe enough to take me several hours of trial and error to unlock it, even if I had the right tools for it.

The room was filled with some boxes and shelves filled with different apparently worthless junk. But maybe I could find something that would help me get out of here. My time was limited by the time it took the two candles I had taken with me to fully burn down. I wouldn’t be able to do a thing in total darkness, especially not picking a lock or something like that.

So I had light for a few hours and the ability to search the room as long as Miwako didn’t decide to return and actually check if I was here. Maybe there was a light switch somewhere. I could save on the candles in this case. Now that the room was filled with the slightly red light of the candle, I could navigate it more freely and saw that there actually was a light switch next to the door. I tried to turn on the light, but nothing happened.

“It’s the light bulb. It blew some years ago and nobody ever changed it.”, explained Saburo.

So if I could find a light bulb I could turn on the light. I put the switch into the direction which I thought was the right one to turn it off and started to look through different boxes and shelves.

After having done that, I felt that my chances of getting out were rather horrible. I had found different boxes with old clothes, mostly old dresses that looked like they had been modern at least one century ago, then in another box different types of cutlery, stuff that had been dear to somebody long gone and that had been pushed aside into the basement until somebody once surely would have sold them. Everything, except for tools to get out or a light bulb to at least switch on the light.

“How likely is it that somebody might open this door within the next days?”, I asked.

“Better don’t hope for it.”

Silence.

“If I were in your place, I would want to spare myself from the agony of starvation.”

I looked at the remains of Saburo.

“Not going to happen.”

“We will talk about this later again.”, he replied in a knowing tone.

So. No chance to open the door, no chance to destroy it or to remove it from its place. The walls were made out of solid stone and even if not, I again couldn’t find any tools inside here that would enable me to get through them.

Unless a wonder happened and Miwako would return for some reason or another, I would soon be lying here next to Saburo. Furthermore I would spend my last hours in total darkness as soon as the candles were burned down. It was almost time for lighting the second candle, when I started to think.

I couldn’t possibly get out of here and even if I could, I would have to deal with Miwako immediately after it. I didn’t like any of these options, not at all. But what could I do now? Even if I made some noise, nobody would hear me, or even if somebody did, chances were that the person, likely Miwako herself, would ignore me.

This wouldn’t work and just take away my forces.

I could burn the dresses and try to burn the door down.

But the gases would kill me before the door would even start to burn completely.

Death. I was about to die in here.

That was when I remembered my encounter with the pirates and also how I suddenly felt so tired back in my world.

This could never be just a dream. But the alternative would mean that I didn’t just die once, but at least twice already. This definitely wasn’t heaven. Had I led such a sinful life, that I eventually ended up in hell? Or was this just how these matchmakers thought I should live for a while? In a mansion with ghosts until I turned into one myself?

I definitely didn’t like this. I needed to talk to somebody in charge if this was what they had meant for me.

“Saburo?”

“Listeining.”

“You were right. Starvation does seem like a bad idea.”

“True words.”

Having said what was needed to be said, I took one of the sharper looking knives from one of the boxes.

I held it in both hands pointed directly at my chest and closed my eyes, trying to control my own fear. This had to work. Otherwise….

“Goodbye, Saburo.”

I pushed the knife inside my chest and immediately felt how the forces started to drain from my body. Soon there was settling in this tiredness I had felt back in my Office and then once again darkness surrounded me.