Samantha had rolled into a sitting position on the floor while she cried. Eventually the tears dried up, leaving only dry hiccups. As she fought against the hiccups, she saw a black metal box on the floor. A knob stuck out of the middle of the box with numbers and lines painted on it. A safe, her mind recalled.
Safes were used to protect valuable items or documents from theft or natural disasters. Why would Pryde need a safe? The only other people on Eternity had been the children, Miss Brigham, and Reverend Crane. The latter was the most likely reason for the safe. Despite the terrible things he had done, Reverend Crane did have his own warped sense of morality. Whatever Pryde kept in the safe, it was probably something he didn't want the reverend to find.
Samantha wiped the last tears from her eyes and then crawled over to the safe. She ran her hand along the surface of it until she got to the silver handle along the side. She yanked the handle; it didn't budge. That came as no surprise to her. She had to find some way to get the safe open; Pryde might have kept something about her past in the safe. He might have kept something about all their pasts in the safe, perhaps to use as blackmail against Reverend Crane should he ever need the leverage.
She looked around the room, but didn't see anything that might help her get the safe open. It wasn't like Pryde kept dynamite or C4 down here. Samantha rubbed her head, wondering how she knew about explosives like that. She would have to worry about that later.
In the meantime she had other problems. Samantha closed her eyes to think it over. Her body moved of its own free will, leaning until her head was pressed against the cold metal of the safe. She brushed hair back from her left ear and then rested it against the safe. Her right hand began to fiddle with the knob on the safe.
She still didn't understand what she was doing, but something told her she had the right idea. Her hand moved the knob back and forth slowly while she continued to listen for something. After several minutes of fiddling around with the knob, she finally heard a heavy click.
Samantha opened her eyes, coming out of the trance. This had happened to her before, in particular when she had to fight. It was as if someone else possessed her body, the person she had been resurfacing for just a few moments to take control of her. The moments never lasted long enough for her to remember anything about that past.