7

                                    

                                          
My lungs gladly take the air that I'm breathing loudly. 
I'm relieved to see the others doing the same, gasping for some air. I don't know how it happened or if it's linked to the removal of the safe, but the boat had exploded. 
I was afraid that the safe would get lost in the water, but I held it so tightly that the color of my hand switched from pink to red. 
And Aiden sort of saved my life? Maybe he felt obliged to do so since I helped him earlier. 
I could've escaped without his help anyway.
"Pearl," says Adam who has been holding his hand to me this whole time.
I take it and get inside. None of us say a word to each other for a while and when I think we all look a bit better, I hand the safe to Sara. She looks at it for a while and finally says:
"It's locked."
I'm not even surprised but I think I will cry if we're unable to open it after all this.
"Maybe we can open it with a sharp object," she adds.
"I do have a knife in my bag." I say.
I quickly grab it and pull out the long knife of it. I think it's sharp enough. Adam offers to take it and takes both the safe and the knife. 
He enters the knife's tip within the lock and try to twist it, but it doesn't work. He tries it again but with no success.
"It won't work out if you are this eager; take your time," I remind him.
He pauses and does what I've just told him. It doesn't work either. My body is probably too tired to notice it earlier, but Aiden is suddenly standing in front of Adam with an angry look on his face.
"Give me this," he says while grabbing violently the safe and the knife.
Our whole life, we've always been scared to fight back against Imara's citizens because of the consequences. We would get in so much trouble if we even dared to touch them. 
But now that we're so, so far from there, I don't know what's holding Adam back from fighting this brat. 
But I can't even find the strength to argue. He calls out Sara and tells her to take the box of food in the back. She does it and I think I guess what his plan is. Sara guesses it too and he doesn't need to tell her what to do anymore.
"I'll count to three," he says holding the knife in the lock.
At three, Sara starts hitting the knife. Nothing happens. The next times she hits it so hard, I wonder how the lock isn't exploding in pieces. This box won't do it.
"I think you should try with that rock," I tell them pointing the rock beneath their bags. Aiden goes take it and this time, exchanges roles with Sara. 
But it doesn't matter how hard, or how many times he hits the knife with it, the lock does not budge. At some point, he tells Sara to hold it and he hits directly the rock within the lock.
"Stop! What if you destroy it?" I tell him.
That makes him stop and he throws the safe on the ground. The tension is suddenly heavy, all of us nervous and I fear what will happen if we don't manage to open it.
"Maybe the key that opens it is in the sea and we should be looking for it," suggests Adam, breaking the silence.
"No," say all the three of us at the same time.
That makes me smile. I think we're all fed up with water right now and I really don't think there's something left there for us to find.
I get up to reach the box and return to my spot. Maybe there's something we're missing, I think. This is a safe. A safe with a lock. We need a key. That's the logical process. But has something logic happened since we've departed from Isara? 
First, the bizarre distance from the island despite that we're very far from the village. Then, the old boat that explodes after I remove a mysterious safe that doesn't want to open itself. And above all, the color of the sky.
I pull closer the lock to my face and try to look for a clue. I'm aware that I'm not Sara, but I'm pretty good at noticing uncommon things, though the only thing that I'm noticing right now is that the lock is large. 
Randomly, I decide to put my index on it and notice that it fits perfectly. I sense chills flooding through my body when I feel something, like a paper, at the edge of my finger. I suddenly have a stupid idea. This doesn't make any sense. Still, I try it.
I twist my finger, following the shape of the lock. The pain that takes place next is so intense and heavy, I wouldn't realize that I've been screaming if I didn't notice the blood coming down my finger and the others running toward me. Go on. And I do. I try to think about everything or anyone that can possibly holding me from releasing my finger, but I can't think of any right now. Still, I don't pull.
More blood is running down my hand and I hear a very distant voice, I don't know whose, telling me to stop right away and another one telling me not to and to hold on. I can't even tell who's speaking or not. I continue to twist my finger; the pain is still present, but I finally find a reason not to pull off. Manny. That's not fair to her if I don't come back with my promises fulfilled. I have to.
With all the strength left in my body, I completely twist my finger and complete the shape of the lock. Then I don't know what happens next. The pain isn't gone but the screaming has stopped which makes me realize unlike what I first thought, I did not pass away.
A second later, my index is freed from the lock and is given back to me. All the tears that somehow weren't down start running and I am horribly aware of how bad my finger had been cut. My whole hand is covered in blood. 
I don't think I have the strength to scream anymore. I just want the pain to go away. Everything is so distant now, I hear the same voices saying things I cannot decipher, I hear them loud; I hear the water but above all, I distinguish a different sound. I open my eyes and can't believe it. 
The safe, it's open.