Ducie by Chris Freeman
Chapter 61. It’s always the quiet ones
As Daniella Diaz’s eyes opened, they were met by rays of the Ducie sun that didn’t offer a soft and welcoming illumination of the day to come like they usually did, but instead attacked her retinas and pierced a cold tunnel of reality into her consciousness. The weight of recent events fell on her from a height, crushing her under a torrent of bad memories. Eduardo, Lionel, Andrea all dead. Lucas missing, maybe even dead himself. She couldn’t allow herself to believe it. She reached under her bed and retrieved the hand made box that Lucas had given to her the night of the beach party. His words from that night replayed vividly in her head like a tape recording:
- If anything happens to me Daniella, anything. If I die, go missing or start acting strange in some way, then you open this box and follow the instructions inside to the letter. Until then, you just put it somewhere safe and don’t say a thing to anyone about it. Promise me Daniella!
His voice had been more serious than she’d ever heard it before. Too clear and particular for him to have been under the influence of a glass of wine too many.
She didn’t know what to expect when she opened the box, but since Lucas had mentioned instructions of some sort, the lone piece of paper she found inside made sense. That was until she unfolded it and began to read:
Daniella,
Since you are reading this, it may mean I am in trouble or that I am dead. Firstly, I need you to put any thoughts of worry or sadness about me to one side. I never got chance to tell you how much you meant to me. I suppose the chances were there, but I was too scared of what you would think if I told you that I loved you. Wherever I am right now, in this life or the next, please know that I am holding you in my heart as much now as I did always. I just wish I’d had the courage to tell you how I felt before.
A tear escaped Daniella’s eye and began a descent down the perfectly smooth gradient of her cheek and rested on her lip. She could see that there was more of the letter to read, so fought back a full release of emotions for fear that she would otherwise not make it to the end of the page.
You know I was always curious about Ducie and I know that you hated that about me; told me just to accept it as paradise and live in the moment. I couldn’t do that Daniella. Not even for you. On the night of the Eduardo’s birthday party on the beach, I slipped away to the Estate and went to look for answers. It’s crazy, I know! But it’s not as crazy as what I found there. Daniella, I chose you to leave this letter to, because I trust you more than anyone on this island. Even more than myself! I need someone to break into the Estate and get every last document out of the top drawer of the grey filing cabinet in the main office. Once the documents have been stolen, they need to be shared with everyone in Ducie. You won’t understand them, nobody will. But the whole island need to go to the Estate as a joint force and demand answers from whomever the leader of the island is. I don’t want you to go yourself Daniella, there are people in that place. People that aren’t part of the Ducie that you and I know. I know it’s crazy, but I wouldn’t lie to you. The reason I gave you the letter is because you are the only person I trusted not to open it until the time was right. I may be wrong about all this, but if something has happened to me, then the chances are I’m right. I trust you also to pick the right person to do the job.
I ask only one more thing of you Daniella and that is that you do not shed a tear for me, no matter what the reason for you deciding to open this letter is.
Strength and love, Lucas x