For a moment, none of us moved.
The air was still. The walls felt closer. My heart thudded like a war drum.
Then James broke the silence. He nodded once—slow, uncertain, but determined. "Okay," he said. "Where do we start?"
Felix exhaled in relief, like he'd been holding his breath for weeks.
I still didn't fully trust him. But something deep in my chest said: You have to see this through. So I gave a short nod.
"Let's get this over with."
Felix reached into his backpack again and pulled out a folded map—aged, torn at the edges. As he opened it, strange symbols revealed themselves, scattered across the sketch of our neighborhood… and our house.
He pointed to the attic. "The first clue is there. I think your dad left it behind for you. It's hidden in the box with the crest—same as this one." He tapped the pendant around his neck.
James frowned. "We've tried opening that box. It's locked, sealed tight."
Felix smirked—not arrogantly this time, but knowingly. "Not anymore."
He handed me a key. An antique one, old brass with a faint shimmer of silver. "My father gave this to me the night we left. Told me, 'When the time comes, take it to Rosa. She'll know what to do.'"
Chills ran through me.
We climbed the attic stairs. Dust clung to every step. I hadn't been up here in years. At the far end of the room sat that box—wooden, carved, mysterious, and untouched since childhood.
I knelt before it, the key shaking slightly in my hand.
Click.
The lock opened.
Inside, layers of old cloth wrapped around a leather-bound journal, a crystal shard no bigger than a marble, and a torn photo of our three parents standing before a strange metal door. Behind them, symbols glowed faintly.
"What is this?" I whispered.
Felix leaned over my shoulder. "That's the door to the Vault. It's where the weapon is kept. But we'll need all five journal pages to find it. This," he tapped the first page in the book, "is only the beginning."
James pulled out his phone, scanning the journal quickly. "And the rest?"
Felix straightened. "Scattered. Hidden by our parents before the Circle fell apart. One is with someone who betrayed them. Another… is buried beneath an old safehouse in the woods."
"And the others?" I asked.
Felix looked at me, his eyes dark. "We'll have to earn those."
I closed the journal and stood. "Then we move at sunrise."
For the first time in ten years, we weren't enemies.
We were a team.
And the mission had begun.
The room was quiet as we stared at the open box.
James carefully lifted the journal. "There's something written here," he said.
He read the words aloud:
"Where shadows sleep and footsteps fade, a hidden path the brave have made."
Felix stepped closer. "It's a clue. There's a hidden path somewhere in this house."
I looked around the attic. Dusty boxes, old blankets, cracked windows. Nothing looked unusual.
Until I noticed the floor.
One wooden plank near the corner looked different—darker, newer than the others.
"Over there," I said, walking toward it.
James followed and knelt down. He knocked on the wood. "Hollow."
We looked at each other. Felix handed me a small tool from his bag.
Carefully, I pried the plank open.
It made a soft creak, and then—click.
The floor slid open, revealing a narrow set of stairs going down into darkness.
A cold wind blew up from below. The air smelled like earth, metal, and something… old.
"A secret tunnel," James whispered.
Felix smiled faintly. "Looks like your dad left us more than just clues."
I grabbed a flashlight from the wall and stepped onto the first stair. The wood groaned under my foot, but it held.
"Let's go," I said.
We climbed down, one by one. The light bounced off stone walls. Carvings lined the passage—symbols just like the ones in the journal.
The tunnel led to a wooden door, half-covered in cobwebs.
James wiped the dust off a small plaque. It read:
"Only those who carry truth in their hearts may pass."
Felix pulled the journal from his bag and held it close.
"Ready?" he asked.
I nodded.
Together, we pushed open the door.
And the hidden path began.
The wooden door creaked open slowly.
Beyond it, the tunnel continued—but the floor was no longer smooth. It was made of stone tiles, and each one had a strange symbol carved into it.
We stepped carefully inside.
"This doesn't feel right," James whispered. "Why does the ground look like a giant puzzle?"
Felix pointed to the journal. "Wait… there's a page about this."
He flipped through quickly and read out loud:
"Only walk where the sun meets the moon.
A single wrong step will seal your doom."
I looked down again. Some tiles had a sun symbol, some had a moon, and others had strange shapes—eyes, fire, and snakes.
"We have to step only on the sun and moon tiles," I said.
James nodded. "Okay. I'll go first."
He took a deep breath, placed one foot on a moon tile—and nothing happened.
Then a sun tile—still safe.
We followed him, one by one, carefully choosing each step.
But halfway across, Felix's foot slipped onto a fire tile.
CLANK!
Suddenly, arrows shot from the walls.
"Down!" I shouted.
We dropped to the floor just in time. The arrows zoomed over our heads and slammed into the opposite wall.
Felix groaned. "Okay… no fire tiles. Got it."
We stood up slowly and kept going, more careful now.
At the end of the path, another door waited—but this one had no handle. Just a metal panel with five handprints carved into it.
James frowned. "Five prints. But there's only three of us."
Felix looked serious. "Then we need to find the other two people meant to help us… or we'll never get through."
I stared at the handprints, feeling the pressure in my chest grow heavier.
One trap was behind us. More were ahead.
And we were just getting started.
We stood in front of the door with five handprints, confused and tired.
"We need two more people," James said, stepping back. "But how do we even—"
Suddenly, the ground shook beneath us.
A loud crack echoed through the tunnel.
"What was that?" I asked, my voice shaking.
Felix turned around, eyes wide. "That sound didn't come from the door. It came from—behind us."
A loud grinding noise filled the tunnel. The floor tiles we had just walked across began to shift… and sink.
James looked back. "The path! It's closing!"
"No time!" I shouted. "Run!"
We turned and sprinted, but the tiles behind us were disappearing fast—falling into a deep, dark hole below.
The air filled with dust and the sound of stone breaking apart.
"I told you this place was trapped!" Felix yelled, jumping over a sinking tile.
A wall started sliding down from the ceiling, trying to trap us in.
"Move!" I pushed James forward just as a tile under him gave way.
He jumped, landed hard, but kept going.
We reached the beginning of the tunnel—the wooden stairs that led back up to the attic.
But just as I reached the bottom step—
BOOM!
A huge cloud of smoke burst from the tunnel. A piece of the ceiling cracked.
"We won't make it if this whole place falls!" I shouted.
James climbed up first, then Felix. I was last.
My foot slipped—but Felix grabbed my hand.
"I've got you!"
With one final pull, I scrambled up the stairs just as the tunnel behind us collapsed completely, filling with dust and stone.
We slammed the attic floor shut.
Silence.
Heavy, shaking breaths filled the room.
"That was too close," James said, coughing.
I looked at Felix. "So... this mission is going to kill us?"
He gave a weak smile. "Only if we're lucky."
We all laughed—just a little. Not because it was funny.
But because we survived.
We were covered in dust.
My legs were sore, my hands were scraped, and my heart was still pounding like a drum in my chest.
We climbed down from the attic and made our way back to the living room, quiet at first—too tired to speak.
James dropped onto the couch, breathing hard. "Okay. That was insane."
Felix paced the room, running a hand through his hair. "We barely made it. That tunnel wasn't just old—it was rigged to trap us."
I walked to the window and looked outside.
The street was calm. Too calm. People walked by like nothing had happened. But inside our house, the walls were hiding secrets that could change everything.
"I don't get it," I said. "Why build a tunnel that leads to a door you can't open?"
Felix sat on the edge of the coffee table and opened the journal again. "Because we're not meant to do this alone. The five handprints... I think they belonged to the original team—our parents and maybe two others."
James looked up. "So, we find those two people?"
Felix nodded. "Or their children. Someone connected to them. Maybe they left clues. Notes. Anything."
I sat down slowly, my head still spinning. "We need rest. And answers. Fast."
Just then, there was a soft tap on the window.
We all turned.
Standing outside was a girl around our age. A hood covered half her face, but in her hand—she held a pendant.
Just like Felix's.
She raised it slightly, then pointed toward our door.
"Who is that?" James asked.
Felix stood slowly. "Maybe... one of the five."
And the next chapter of the mission was about to begin.