The cabin was in the same shape they left it in last Monday, so after a brief tour of their findings for Eliana's sake, they resumed their search for clues to connect the dots to the mystery they'd stumbled upon. It was quite a while later that Eliana broke the studious silence with,
"Guys, guess what I just found?"
Xaiden bolted up and rushed over to her. She was laying on the bottom bunk with books laying around her in piles forming an odd sort of halo. "What is it?" Xaiden asked impatiently.
"There's a book or a box or something in this bed!" Eliana continued, pointing to the bed above her. Jax leaned into the bunk near Eliana's head and tried to angle his head to see what she was seeing.
"Where?" Jax asked excitedly, oblivious to Eliana going stiff and her face coloring.
"U-um, right here," she said nervously as she placed her finger somewhere above her head on the mattress above her.
Standing behind them and out of sight, Xaiden shook his head at them. Jax can be so clueless sometimes, he thought to himself. Or maybe he wasn't, since there was truly no need to try to see things from Eliana's perspective when they needed to move the mattress out of the bunk regardless. Xaiden rolled his eyes and asked, "Ewen, help me grab this mattress, would you?" He moved to grasp the middle of the bed and started to pull it out, leaving the two to continue their needlessly intimate exchange at the head of the bed.
"Wait!" Eliana called loudly, seemingly forgetting how nervous she felt around Jax and deafening him in the process. "Let me move first and grab the books!" She sprung out of the bed quickly and started moving piles of books to the floor. "I don't want to get covered in this disgusting filth any more than I already have to. You have no idea how much laundry I have to do to keep all this from my parents." She muttered testily as she worked.
Xaiden took a deep breath, and forced another smile, "Sorry, I didn't think about that, Eliana."
Jax shot another furtive glance at Xaiden before jumping into action helping Eliana move the piles of books off the mattress. Xaiden pretended not to notice how on edge Jax had been since they got out here. What Jax didn't know was that Xaiden was determined not to let today be ruined by petty fights or needless drama, so there was no need to try to keep the peace today. Still, this wasn't a situation where Xaiden could explain that to him and Eliana was definitely pushing his buttons.
"No worries, I was just venting." Eliana said with a heavy sigh. "It's not your fault or anything, it's just annoying." She smacked the last pile of books down a little harder than necessary with the last word. She stood up, took a deep breath, then smiled as she said, "Thanks for waiting, I can help you move the bed now."
Xaiden's eyebrows flew up instinctively. He was genuinely shocked. This was the first time he'd ever seen Eliana smile at him. Was it really because I was a little more patient with her than usual? Even though Jax had said countless times that she wasn't as stuck up or rude as she sounded, Xaiden never believed it, but now he was starting to think he really had been misunderstanding her.
"Um, thanks." Xaiden said after grabbing the other end of the bed. She just nodded and lifted her side of the mattress out of the frame and upside down on the floor wordlessly.
Grinning stupidly, Jax bumped into Xaiden's shoulder, coughing the words, "Told ya." Xaiden shook his head dismissively, but returned the smile. It was nice to have everyone in a good mood on a day like today.
Ewen and Eliana worked on unzipping the deteriorating plastic bed cover, causing plumes of dust to poof into the air around them. "Should we just cut it open?" Eliana asked nasally, waving a hand in front of her face to clear the air. "I don't think this is great to be inhaling." The squeak in her voice at the end of the sentence confirmed she'd been holding her breath the whole time.
Jax handed her a knife from his pocket, and she flicked it open and started cutting around the rectangular imprint. "Much better," she said cheerfully, then while handing the knife back, "Thanks Jaxon!" He gave her a thumbs up and she grinned.
"Alright, let's see it then!" Xaiden said excitedly as Ewen pulled the crumbling plastic protective cover back to reveal the deteriorated yellow brown filling and the promised rectangular object. It was a vacuum sealed bag that had managed to stand the test of time and remain relatively intact, making the book inside seem all that much more promising.