The Shadows' Empress (Part 10)

Father and son brought the pizza and some soda into the living room, setting everything on the coffee table. Jacob and the twins immediately dug into their food as they watched their movie in the dim room. Roland, however, couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation he knew he’d have with Jacob when the movie was over. He spent so much time bracing himself for what he was going to hear that he barely ate any of his pizza, nor did he pay any attention to the movie.

Eventually, Roland decided he’d just not worry about what his father had to say until it came time for him to say it. Instead, Roland focused his attention on getting the box open. By now, he’d come to the conclusion that he had to find the other rooms in his dreams that were indicated on the map using the red symbols. Roland had been to one of those rooms already experiencing the vision that he figured must have been the “secret” the Empress was talking about.

‘So, if I find all of the secrets, the box will be unlocked?’ Roland asked himself. ‘I’m not sure if I really wanna find them given what was in the first one. But, I don’t think I have a choice.’

It occurred to Roland that he could fact-check his dad. All he had to do was go through all of the visions that were kept in those rooms, and he would see the truth. Something about that idea made Roland nervous. If his dad was willing to lie to him twice about the same situation he wasn’t sure he really wanted to know. For a second, Roland wished he’d never asked. Why would he when he was going to figure it out on his own, anyway?

‘Experiencing the vision in that first room unlocked the first of seven locks, causing the first symbol on the box to disappear…’ Roland reminded himself. ‘So, will it still show up in the picture of the map?’ Pulling his phone out of his back pocket the he opened the gallery app and tapped the “Camera” folder that contained the photo he was looking for. He zoomed in on the picture and counted all of the symbols from the left side to the right.

‘Only six…’ Roland’s hypothesis was correct. The symbols vanished from both the box and the picture of the map. ‘At least that makes things easier.’

“Alright, you guys! Time to clean up!” Jacob announced as the lights as he rolled the dimmer switch to increase the brightness of the lights in the living room. Roland realized he had spent so much time up in his own head that he missed most of the movie and the credits were rolling. On top of that, he’d only eaten one slice of his pizza. Something that didn’t go unnoticed by his father.

‘Oh, well. I’ll finish it later, when I’m actually hungry.’

***

Roland sat at his desk, waiting for his father to finish tucking in Scarlet and Spencer. He really just wanted this conversation to be over. And, knowing the next few secrets that the Empress had left for him to find would probably hurt him emotionally as much as the first did, he couldn’t wait to go to bed so he could find them.

Glancing at the side of his bed, Roland checked to make sure the box was hidden well enough that his father wouldn’t find the decrepit treasure in it’s hiding spot. Who knows how Jacob would react if he noticed the box nestled between a few other small boxes that contained things Roland had collected over the years. The young man chuckled to himself as he realized that he’d hidden one box among boxes of other things he didn’t want anyone to know he had.

‘I’d be screwed on so many levels if anyone looked under my bed…’

There was a knock at his door, causing Roland to jump a bit in his desk chair.

“Mind if I come in, bud?” Jacob’s voice came quietly from beyond the Roland’s bedroom door.

“Yeah…” Roland’s heart began to beat faster. ‘Let’s get this over with.’

Jacob opened the door and closed it behind him before walking over to sit on his oldest son’s bed.

‘Good…’ Roland thought to himself. ‘He can’t see the box if he’s basically sitting on top of it.’

Jacob leaned back a bit, his arms behind him for support. He was quiet for a while, looking around the room. He wasn’t sure what to say. He decided earlier in the evening that he’d cross the bridge when he got to it. And now that he stood at it’s edge, so to speak, he found himself more worried about how Roland had felt about the situation as a whole. His son hadn’t eaten much during dinner, which showed Jacob that the subject of his mother’s death was really bothering him.

“First off, I just want you to understand something,” Jacob began, clearing his throat. He suddenly wished he’d spent some time thinking about what he was going to say. “When your mother died, you were too young to understand the situation, and I figured it would be best to just simplify things until you were ready to hear the full story.”

“When were you thinking I’d be ready to hear it?” Roland asked as he thought about how much parents underestimate their children.

“When you asked me about it. Which obviously is now…” Jacob looked down at the floor wishing Roland had just gone along with his original story.

Jacob stopped talking for a while making the conversation—or lack thereof—uncomfortable for the both of them so Roland tried to take lead of the narrative.

“So…I’m guessing it wasn’t really an accident?”

“It depends on how you look at it,” Jacob said feeling a little sad as he looked into the hazel eyes Roland had inherited from his mother. “I was involved in something… My whole side of the family was. And, I tried to keep it a secret from your mother, but no one could ever accuse her of being dumb. She found out about out it, anyway. She insisted on helping. But, that’s what got her killed…”