we will seek my buried inheritance

[self_composed]

Bella fixes French toast for breakfast to salvage stale bread, and, having seen Charlie off to work, hops in her own car and makes for Alice's house. She arrives at nine-thirty, and goes up to the doorbell and rings it.

Comments

[edgeofyourseat]

"Nope. I think with you it's 'cause I could see you were doing it on purpose."

[self_composed]

"Really? No one else has done it on purpose?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Not like that they haven't, or I'd be in love with them too."

[self_composed]

Bella laughs. "Okay, but what's 'like that'?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Like you knew I wouldn't like it and you wanted to see what I'd do."

[self_composed]

"Hm." Walk, think, walk, think. "Transgressions. Not, like against the law, though."

[edgeofyourseat]

"...Transgressions," he says. "That's a good word. I like that word." He writes it down.

[self_composed]

Bella hums to herself. She figured out a thing!

She checks the time.

"Should be almost there. You look for - whatever, and I'll keep an eye out for neon."

[edgeofyourseat]

"You got it," he says cheerfully.

[self_composed]

Walk, walk, walk. Bella checks the time. "If I'm right about how fast we're going this should be about it." She looks around. "I'm seriously disappointed in the lack of neon signs. Come on, Elias."

[edgeofyourseat]

"What do you wanna bet you'll end up falling down a hole?"

[self_composed]

"No bet," Bella says. She starts to pat things. Trees, that one big rock... She starts up a hill. The hill eats her.

[edgeofyourseat]

"What'd I tell you," Alice says to the hill, and sits down with his back against a tree trunk right next to it.

[self_composed]

Bella does not fall down a hole. The hill is just hollow, and she only stumbles slightly before recovering her footing.

There is an honest to goodness treasure chest in the middle of it.

Okay. That's pretty straightforward. Place is otherwise empty. She picks up the chest, finds it heavy, and drags it instead, back out of the hill.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Welcome back," says Alice. "Did you stop for tea with Bilbo?"

[self_composed]

"Beg pardon?" Bella says. "No, there was no tea, I just grabbed the treasure chest and hauled it out. Let's see what's in here."

[edgeofyourseat]

"...You were gone for like half an hour," he says.

[self_composed]

Bella opens her mouth, then closes it, and then takes out her phone. "Do you have any form of timepiece on you?" she asks.

[edgeofyourseat]

He digs his phone out of his pocket and hands it over.

[self_composed]

Bella compares them, and sure enough, his is 32 minutes ahead of hers.

"Okay, that's interesting," says Bella.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Yeah, I wonder what the fuck it's for," he says.

[self_composed]

"It's for Elias Frobisher being a weirdo," says Bella, and she opens the box.

It has five compartments in it, and there are plenty of triangles, plenty of squares, about fifteen pentagons, and no hexes.

And one star.

[edgeofyourseat]

"...Well, fuck," says Alice.

[self_composed]

"Ah-huh."

[edgeofyourseat]

"...Hey, close that for a sec?"