Thanks so much to My Quiet Riot, BreezyFan, mozzi-girl and Maltara101 for the reviews!
Thanks to everyone for staying with this story :) I won't be able to update as often, since I've been super busy, but I'll try and update every few days.
I decide to take the box home, seeing as there's no reason to take shelter at that bus stop anymore. I don't think I broke it, but I can't really be sure since it looked broken in the first place with all it's little slices of wood.
By the time I get home my mind is buzzing with ideas, but I make sure to check the whole room before I sit down to examine it further, despite the fact the pencil lead is in the same state I left it in.
I sit at the small kitchen table for the longest time, staring at the scratches in silence. There's two, both of them connecting at an angle. One is only slightly longer than the other. Is that the answer? Is the angle of the lines the room number? That seems too easy, but I'm not ruling it out. Maybe it's an 'L'. In that case I have no idea what it could mean, and that also seems too obvious.
After a while I start to hear an annoying beeping sound, and I know it's from the watch I took off last night and left here this morning. I try and ignore it, but it's so annoying! I take a break and look for it, but no matter how long I look I can't seem to find it. Stupid watch! Why can't it just shut up? I'm running out of time!
…Time. That's it. The scratches aren't supposed to be an angle, or even a letter. It's a minute hand and a hour hand. The real question is…what time is it supposed to be? Am I supposed to hold the lid right-side-up? I probably am, but I can't assume anything. After all, assuming anything at this point is a bad idea. Since there's nothing else on the back I flip it over, studying the front. There has to be something on here, some indication of what angle I'm supposed to hold it on.
The same red crane is still depicted on the front, it's neck and back bent gracefully. The same faded trees surround it, faded pink flowers blossoming on the green foliage. That's when it hits me…the trees! I quickly count them; and but there's only two on each side. Next I count the blossoms, and to my surprise there's three flowers on the right, and nine of the left. On what looks like what's supposed to be the ground there's a little painted stone path, and as I count the stones on the ground I come up with six.
I flip the lid back over, comparing the marks to the numbers on the front. That means the top is 12, right is 3, the bottom is 6 and left is 9. I turn it back over, checking how the marks line up before grabbing the key from the bottom and heading out the door.
Three o'clock. Three-hundred. That's the room they want me to go to. I don't call Mal before I leave, since I still don't want to put him at risk, but hopefully this will be settled soon one way or another.