In a dark room filled with an impregnable–looking darkness, a flash of light cut through it with its blinding light, revealing boxes and crates. Holding the light, was Olive, walking warily while searching for something.
His eyes were obviously looking for something, yet they were visibly dull. Most times when he walked around, he would occasionally stumble on the boxes and crates littered on the ground, and the columns supporting the racks.
It has been minutes since his departure from the exit door in search of the key to exit the storage. And those minutes last like eternity in this cold, dark room. A job that was supposed to last no more than two minutes was now getting longer than he had anticipated.
At this point, he was starting to grow anxious.
'...Where is it? Where is it?'
Eddie said that the key was supposed to be approximately in the area he had cleaned. But where hasn't he cleaned? He had cleaned almost half of the storage! It could be anywhere!
And also...
Why was he searching for the key anyway? Olive could have just waited in front of the door until Eddie came back. Why bother? Well... what could he say? Short–term pain for a long–term gain, right?
'What kind of nonsense am I spouting...? Focus!'
Pushing aside those thoughts, Olive continued his search for the key again.
He looked over the boxes, the racks — even climbed them — and on the ground, hoping to see something... anything! But every time he searched, all of it ended in futility.
Combined with the darkness, blocking most of his vision, the situation was not on his side at all.
'Not here, not there. What about under the racks?'
Kneeling down, he looked under the racks. Maybe the key had fallen and slid down here.
But nothing...
Sighing, Olive lifted his head and looked at the darkness behind him.
The darkness was as thick as ever. Making him blind even though his vision was still intact in his eyes. Shivers ran down his spine with more intensity than before...
...Since he'd been here, there was not a single second when his spine wasn't shivering. As a matter of fact, it intensified instead.
With a moan, Olive stood up and searched again.
Why did Eddie brought the key so far down anyway? If the key was supposed to open the exit door, Olive cannot see why Eddie had to move it in the first place. What was the purpose?
'Ah, what a day.'
Really... first it was the strangers trying to squeeze out Sarah's number from Victor, now, he got locked in a storage filled with darkness searching for the key with no success whatsoever. Could this get any worse?
'God, I hope not.'
Chuckling awkwardly in his mind to hopefully cast aside his nervousness, Olive focused his gaze forward.
'Huh?'
But something wasn't quite right. His flashlight... seemed to be growing dimmer. Rubbing his eyes, he looked at his phone's flashlight. It was true, his flashlight did grow dimmer.
Last time he saw the light grew dim like this, it was suddenly...
Just then, his flashlight suddenly died.
"Eh?"
Stunned and looking dumbstruck, Olive turned his phone to the side — from the back, to his screen — and saw a sign that his cell phone had run out of batteries and needed a charge.
Then, his cell phone died, completely leaving him in the now truly impregnable darkness.
He froze there for a long time. Looking up with closed eyes, he took a really deep breath and opened them reluctantly. A single tear ran down his face.
'I give up...'
There was no light, thus no coordination for him to walk around. Looks like his situation could really get worse. Well, at least it couldn't possibly–
'Wait, wait, wait...! Phew, almost finished the sentence.'
Now... how will he get back to the exit?
Had he given up on searching for the key? Yes. So does that mean Olive will stay here? God, no! Staying here is torture! So by any means necessary, he had to find a way to head back toward the door.
Drawing himself a precise mental map, Olive then started to memorize his distance from the stairs, how many meters deep he was in the rows of racks, and how many steps he should take.
Other than that, he also uses his other senses, such as hearing, touch, and presence. The last one was not classified as a sense — not in one of the five at least — but when he was blinded by the darkness, he could sense the presence around him. So it was still a sense.
Olive froze in the darkness for a long time. Eventually, he braved himself up and took a step, thus walking in the darkness. He steadily walked across the row, carefully not to trip over anything.
This was overwhelming, it was not every day he had to walk without any sort of light. No matter how hard he tried not to trip, his leg would stumble on a crate or a box, causing him to trip from time to time. There was simply no way of avoiding it.
Well... not really. If he slid his feet to feel the ground around him, he could potentially avoid it. However, that would take a long time to reach the exit. And Olive, by any means, doesn't want to stay here any longer than he can.
A few steps later, Olive noticed that he had exited the rack's passage thanks to the presence of the walls in front of him. Turning to the side, he continued his journey toward the exit.
'This is... effective. And easy too.'
No, really, other than him stumbling and tripping once in a while, it was not really a hard thing to do. All he had to do, other than stumble and trip, was to avoid...
Thang!
"Ouch!"
Rubbing his forehead while touching the object in front of him, Olive instantly recognized what he had just ran into. A rack's support.
'Avoid the racks' support beam... Boy, do I really need to stop jinxing himself.'
With that, he took another step toward the exit.
***
It has been several steps now, and Olive knew... he knew that the stairs were just a corner away. But even then, Olive did not give himself the leeway to wander freely — he had learnt a lesson from it.
Considering how many steps forward, right, and left he took, Olive knew that he was in a place near the antiques. Even the scent around him smells like vintage wood. There was also an oddly overwhelming presence. Next to him, he could sense a tall and broad object, perhaps an old shelf or something.... There were other objects too, but Olive didn't bother to distinguish them.
Before turning to the side and walking toward the exit, something weird caught his interest. There, in front of him, no more than a meter and a half away, standing between two antiques, was something he couldn't quite make out.
Judging by the presence, it was the size of an average person.
Olive was still walking, but he slowed down his steps, giving himself more room to focus on the object before him. Olive didn't know why such a thing had piqued his interest. No... maybe he did know why, it was because the presence in front of him felt unusual.
It didn't feel like an object... rather it felt...
Alive...
Like how humans could sense a living presence despite not being able to see it.
Then, the object shifted slightly forward...
Olive's eyes immediately widen. He voluntarily took a few hurried steps back. And before he knew it, he felt his body being pulled by the gravity backward as his foot stumbled upon one of the boxes.
'Damn boxes!'
Thump!
A loud impact echoed through the darkness when Olive's head hit the ground. The fall was heavy, making him pass out instantly with his eyes rolled backward.