The Brass Key
364 Words
CHAPTER 4
THE BRASS KEY
The hospital corridors were unusually quiet when Amara returned the following morning. The night had left the city washed clean, but the grey sky above Shanghai still threatened another downpour. She walked toward the staff entrance with her thoughts fixed on one thing: Locker 17.
She had barely slept. Ruth’s warning continued to echo in her mind, along with the words written in her mother’s letter. Find Locker 17. Find Ruth. And whatever happened, do not tell Ethan everything.
But there was one problem.
She had no idea where the locker was.
Amara entered the hospital archive room just after eight. The old records department occupied a narrow section beneath the main building, where files dating back decades were stored in metal cabinets. She approached the elderly records clerk, Mr. Wu, and showed him a small photograph she had found among her mother’s belongings.
“Do you recognize this?” she asked.
Mr. Wu adjusted his glasses and studied the photograph. His expression changed.
“Where did you get this?”
“My mother.”
He looked at her for several seconds before lowering his voice. “You shouldn't be looking for Locker 17.”
“Why?”
“Because it was sealed twenty years ago.”
“Who sealed it?”
Mr. Wu glanced toward the door.
“Your father.”
Amara's heart began to pound.
“Samuel Lin?”
He nodded slowly. “He came here the night before he disappeared. He left instructions that no one was to open it unless his daughter came looking.”
Amara stared at him.
“His daughter?”
“Yes.”
He reached beneath the desk and pulled out a small brass key.
“I've been waiting twenty years to give you this.”
The key was cold against Amara's palm.
On it was a tiny compass.
The same symbol that had appeared on her mother's letter.
Before she could speak, footsteps sounded outside the archive.
Mr. Wu's face went pale.
“Hide,” he whispered.
Amara turned toward the door.
A familiar voice came from the corridor.
“Dr. Lin?”
Ethan Kwon.
And he was looking for her.
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