The Key to Everything

The Key To Everything

Obsideon woke to the shrill sound of an alarm.

Through bleary eyes he reached out to smack his phone into oblivion. He patted around blindly, finding that his phone was not the nuisance. “waa the hell” Obsideon mumbled, he checked the time and was bewildered when he saw it was 4:36 in the morning, “Fuckin A” he groaned, this better not be some lame-ass prank his housemate Eve, who was prone to delinquent behavior ever since she drank whiskey from her baby bottle-so the story goes, was up to. The alarm was still screaming for justice when he whipped the covers off. “EVE TURN THIS SHIT OFF”. Obsideon listened for a moment to see if his bellow reached Eve’s ears on the top floor of the loft they shared. After a moment or two of no response he decided the only way to end the madness was to stop it at its source. He threw on a pair of shorts and prepared for the invasion when something made him pause, why would Eve be behind this when it would affect her too? That is not how that woman operates, Obsideon thought humorlessly. One way or another he would find who was causing this mayhem, and there would be hell to pay. His fury would only be quelled by compensation of his choosing, preferably in the form of Eve’s coveted Edibles’ or better yet a case of the liquid gold he called Miller Highlife. He practically slipped on his own saliva as he stormed up the stairs. Victory would be his.

Had Obsideon not been slightly delirious or hell-bent on reaping his reward, he would have remembered that earlier that year he had agreed to let Eve install some high-tech noise cancelation device in both their rooms, claiming that neither of them wanted to hear whomever they brought to their rooms doing ‘the dirty’ at any given time, which tossed any argument over home security right out the window. Given that information it would be nearly impossible for him to hear an alarm that did not originate from his room, or for her to hear his displeasure for that matter.

This revelation broke through his reverie moments after he barged into her room devoid of tact or charm.

What he saw stopped him dead. The room was clean, like really clean. Eve was many things but clean did not begin to scratch the surface. Red, yellow, blue all kinds of flags were raised as he scanned the room. Chief among his concerns was the lack of Eve. Her bed was not made which put his mind at ease somewhat, but the woman, that was almost Amazonian in everything but her archery skills, was absent. “Eve?” He called out hesitantly, but his voice was the drowned out by the ever-present blare of the alarm, “Eve!” “Where are you?” He added, as if she would come guiltily crawling out from the five-inch gap under her bed. Obsideon took a deep breath. He needed to focus, which was damn hard with the clamoring in his ear, ok, find the source, then Eve. The good thing was, it seemed the sound was originating from inside the room, from there he began to systematically return the room to its usual state, a mess. After what seemed like good hour of open and closing the same closet and desk drawers he sunk to the floor in frustration “dammit! This is going nowhere”. Alright Obsideon what would Eve do? He thought back to whenever he needed her help to find something, which was often, what could he say? His keys had a mind of their own. “O.B, did you look in the breadbasket?” “Eve, why the hell would my keys be in the breadbasket?” “Expect the unexpected” she always said sagely. Nine times out of ten they would be where she suggested, almost as if she placed them there herself, He thought cynically. Obsideon looked around the room with new eyes. If I were a loud-ass alarm where would I put you? His eyes alighted on the large dragon shaped lamp that took up a large margin of her antique desk, a stark contrast to the modern vibe of her room, “It adds character” she claimed. Obsideon pounced on the lamp in search of the obstructor of peace, but his search was fruitless. As he turned to leave in defeat, he spied the noise cancelation device attached to the wall above the door. Jackpot.

He grabbed a wobbly looking chair, that was clearly on its last legs, using it as a stepstool, careful not to break it, as Eve would have his head if he messed the items of ‘feng shui’ up in her room, and managed to detach it from the wall. He examined the device in his hand, it was a little smaller than his palm and clearly a piece of high-quality gear. He did not see any branding or marking on it anywhere, Turing the device over in his hand he searched for an opening or latch, but it was almost seamless, his nail caught on a barely perceptible slit near the bottom. Trying to pry it open proved useless as the device seemed to be made from a mysterious alloy. “UUGH” I do not have the patience for this. Not only that but, he may have been imagining it, the alarm seemed to be growing in urgency. Obsideon shoved the device in his pocket and carefully returned everything to its place before stomping down to his room, not before grabbing a knife from the kitchen.

Once in his room he sat down at his own desk, one that was very much the modern accompaniment to the rest of his room. He placed the device down and, on a whim, grabbed the one from above his door. He threw himself into his chair and went to work trying to dismantle the two devices.

After trying various methods to open the damned thing, including, and he wasn’t ashamed to admit, blurting out “abracadabra!”, he was running out of ideas, and he hoped his mind was being over-imaginative, time. The alarm was almost ear-splitting. If it were not for the fact that their next-door neighbors were on a sabbatical in Japan, he would have been worried about them being disturbed by the sound as well. Obsideon turned the device over once more and stared at the bottom pieces, upon closer inspection he saw that there were tiny indentations going in concentric circles, they seemed to be separate from the adhesion needed to hold the devices to the wall. He looked at his version and saw that the markings were the same, except that his were slightly smaller. With a burst of inspiration or maybe desperation, he stuck the bottoms together. The devices clicked together with a barely audible hiss, to form what looked to him like a Yo-Yo without its string. Simultaneously, the alarm stopped. Obsideon sighed with relief, the first hurdle had been cleared.

Finally, he could form some coherent thoughts, but now that he was given his brief respite, he had no clue what to do next. He knew that at some point he needed to locate his missing friend but where? They usually did not go somewhere without letting each other know. Snapchat, text, a note, hell even an email would have sufficed. He chided himself on losing his cool when his friend might need his help. Not that he felt he could do much to help, sure he had just achieved some status as a designer, “He’s got a bright future as long as he keeps his head on straight” the critics we’re quick to say, but he wasn’t sure what “innovative textiles” could do to help him now. Sheesh, what did he do as soon as things got dicey, freak out and act as if the world were ending. He imagined Eve smacking him upside the head and telling him to “pull his shit together and flush it”. Obsideon took a deep breath and glanced around the room for his phone. After scrolling through for any sign that Eve had left some sort of message, He slammed it down in frustration, “damn, where the hell did you disappear to Eve?”. Glancing at the custom wall clock Eve had gotten him for his twenty-second birthday, he noticed that the time read 7:30, they would both be heading to work right about now, her to the LoomTech company she worked for, and him to his studio in the heart of Washington DC. He should probably text his team that he would be coming in late today, but that could wait he decided, first he needed to find out where his friend had gone, hopefully her colleagues at LoomTech could shed some light on the issue.

As he picked up his phone to dial, he saw that the tops on either end of the Yo-Yo began to glow with a pulsing red light that illuminated the room. “What NOW?” Obsideon set his phone down on his bed and carefully picked up the device, the red light disappeared and was replaced with a luminescent crescent moon that seared itself into his eyes. “INTIATING CONTACT” a robotic voice suddenly sounded from inside his head “EEUGH” He shivered and flung the yo-yo across the room where it landed with a thud against his dresser. But the device continued to emit the increasingly eerie moon, not only that but the voice inside his head continued to speak, “INTIATING CONTACT… INTICATING CONTACT…WELCOME OBSIDEON” He could not take it anymore, Obsideon turned to run but his foot slipped on something, his head violently kissed the doorknob. The room began to fade, all he could hear was “WELCOME OBSIDEON, THE SEQUENCE WILL BEGIN IN 5, 4, 3…”, As he tried to fight the darkness that was closing in, he saw what he had slipped on. A golden heart shaped locket. Wait, that necklace wasn’t… he passed out.