Right.
Seymour cleared his throat. “Do you know what it means?”
“No.” Sariel glanced over Seymour’s face, and he smiled shyly. “You have freckles.”
“Yup. Ate up with them.” Seymour laughed, his heart pattering faster as he dared taunt, “Wanna play connect the dots with ’em? It’s pretty fun.”
“Oh!” Sariel blushed. “I do not think…! I mean to say?—”
Something clattered down on the desk in front of them.
Seymour jumped. “Fuck! That scared the shit out of me.”
The item was a small square box with ornate geometric carvings. A closer look revealed the carvings were, in fact, separate pieces that could possibly be moved around.
“How interesting,” Sariel murmured as he peered at the box. “It appears to be a puzzle of some kind.”
“Oh, fuck no. I’ve seen this movie too!” Seymour snapped. “We mess with that, some dude with nails in his head is gonna pop out!”
“That seems unlikely.”
“Says the angel whose demon boss sent me to do the work of fuckin’ faeries.”
“Ah, fair point.” Sariel picked up the box.
“No! What are you doing?” Seymour groaned. “Don’t mess with it! This is how it all starts!”
“How what starts?”
“Chains and screaming. Have you seriously never seenHellraiser?”
“No.” Sariel turned the box around a bit and then slowly set it down. “There. I hope you are happy now.”
Seymour rolled his eyes and glared at the box.
Huh.
Sariel had set it down on a different side, and now Seymour could see there was a keyhole. “What are the chances of that key workin’ twice?”
“Not high, but not impossible.” Sariel shrugged. “Go on.”
Seymour pulled his keys out. “Doesn’t even look like it should do nothin’. I can literally see this is a copy of a damn key made from Lowe’s.”
“Lowe’s?”
“Hardware place. They make copies of keys.”
“How curious.” Sariel hummed. “Leads one to wonder where the original is.”
“Who the fuck knows.” Seymour stuck the key into the puzzle box and turned it, cringing as he waited for whatever the hell was going to happen.
Something horrible probably.
Instead, there was only a soft click and the top of the puzzle box opened. Inside was a mesmerizing bundle of gears and painted porcelain fragments, and the sides of the box buzzed from the grinding machinations within.
Seymour set the box down on the desk. “Fuckin’ thing is vibrating.”
“Oh!” Sariel peeked at it curiously. “How strange.”
