The third box offered more resistance.
tom
They had fallen to my crowbar, but this one, bound in metal, required more subtlety. Silence, shallow breathing, click. The lock turned.
I lifted the hinged lid and propped it with the crowbar, shining a torch inside I illuminated a reassuringly macabre sight. A desiccated body lay within, a skeletal hand clutching a yellowing sheet. The map.
Too far to reach I swung a leg over, then another. Bones cracked as I landed inside.
I grabbed it and unfurled. No map, just words.
"Weep, for you are already dead."
The lid slammed shut and I was consumed by darkness.