by Sophia Sharp
“No,” Laura replied. “It’s too much of a coincidence for that. We’d better hurry.”
Alexander nodded. “If we split up, we can search the building faster.”
“But if we stay together, we’re stronger,” Logan said. “In case anything happens.”
Alexander frowned. “What do you think, Laura?”
“We stay together,” she said. “I don’t want to take any unnecessary risk.”
“Alright,” Alexander agreed. “Together it is.”
“Let’s start on the lower level and work our way up,” Laura said. “We’ll need to check every room. If the repository is in here it’ll probably be hidden or locked away.”
Laura started down the stairs, but Logan stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
“Let me be the one to go first this time,” he said simply. Laura nodded, and fell in behind him.
They followed the stairs all the way to the bottom level. There, they began their search. The entire building was dirty and old. Rats and other vermin left trails that still showed in the dust on the floor, even though the animals had long since disappeared. Laura knew that since she couldn’t hear any of them in between the walls or under the floors. Usually, her hearing was sharp enough to pick out sounds like that.
They went from room to room methodically, tracing out every square inch so that nothing would be overlooked. Most of the rooms were empty. The ones that weren’t, however, were mostly filled with old, rotting pieces of furniture covered by musty fabric. Laura wondered what purpose this building had served before. There was nothing to suggest that it was ever inhabited as a home. Maybe it had been a storehouse or something of the like.
There was nothing on the first level, or the second, or the third. As they got higher and higher up, the air became thicker, and, for some reason, dustier. The heat from the powerful sun penetrated the walls and warmed the air more and more as they got higher, making Laura less and less comfortable. There was something uncanny about the way the dust irritated her airways. Together with the increasing heat, it made for an uncomfortable search.
Some of the doors they encountered were barred with locks, but, unlike the ones on the outside of the building, these locks had grown frail and brittle with age. It didn’t take much force to open any of them. Each time they found a door like that, Laura’s heart skipped a beat, because a part of her hoped to find the repository on the other side. Each time, however, she was bitterly disappointed.
It was only on the fourth level that they encountered something that didn’t fall into the category of old furniture or discarded rubbish. At the end of a long, narrow room, stood a single wooden chest. The rest of the room was empty, as if to emphasize the chest’s presence.
Laura walked up to it carefully. She was conscious of the age of the building. There had already been a few incidents where the weight of one of her steps caused the wood beneath her feet to groan and nearly give. Alexander and Logan both experienced the same thing.
“Do you think this might be it?” Laura asked as she stood before the chest. “The way Rafael made it sound, I was expecting an entire storeroom full of torrial.”
“It could be,” Logan said, “and it could be not. Let’s be careful opening it either way. We don’t know what any of these devices can do.”
“Alright,” Laura agreed. She bent down to the chest, but, again, Logan stopped her.
“Let me do it,” he said. The conviction he held in his voice told Laura not to argue.
She stepped back, and Logan came up to the chest. He bent down to one knee and began to examine it. From what Laura could see, it was solidly built. It was about the size of an oven, and made of heavy oak. Two iron handles jutted out from either side, and a large iron latch was bolted on the front. There was no lock on it.
Logan lifted the latch, glanced back at her and Alexander, and then opened the top.
Inside was… nothing. Only a black emptiness.
“Dammit,” Logan growled. He stood up. “The thing is empty!”
“We still have—” Laura started, and then stopped short. A dark shadow caught her eye. It was balled up inside the chest, and just then slipped out over the edge. It slid toward a corner and disappeared. The whole sequence happened so quickly that Laura wasn’t sure if she was seeing things. “Did anybody see that?”
“See what?” Logan asked.
“When you stood up, I could have sworn…” she came up to the chest to look inside. The inside was empty. “I thought I saw something inside.”
Logan walked over to her and peered down. “I don’t see anything.”
“It’s gone now, but—”
“I don’t see anything either, Laura,” Alexander said. He frowned at the chest. “Since there was no lock, I doubt there ever was anything inside.”
“Neither of you saw anything?” Laura questioned. “I thought I saw a… shadow… come out of the chest. It was just a spot in my vision, darker than the rest. It slid out over the edge and toward that wall.” Laura pointed where she thought it had gone. “Or did I imagine it?”
“I didn’t see anything, Laura,” Logan repeated.
“Nor I,” Alexander said, but he sounded concerned. “Still, that’s no reason to doubt your—”
“I’m not even sure if I really did see it, though,” Laura admitted.
“Either way. Like I said when we got in: this place makes me uneasy. Let’s finish the search on the upper levels and be gone.”
Laura nodded. “Alright. Let’s hope the repository is up there.”
They left the room, and continued their search along the other parts of the fourth storey. Finding nothing, they made their way up to the fifth. Every single room on that level was littered with junk, to a degree more so than anything they had encountered earlier. Old furniture and china, abandoned clothes and personal belongings, yellowing books and other discarded paraphernalia. One room contained nothing but old grandfather clocks, all ticking but showing different times. The noises they made nearly drove Laura mad. She had to let the others search that room without her.
The finished their scope of the fifth level with the same result as before, and moved on to the sixth. This was the second-to-last storey of the building, and Laura was starting to lose hope. Maybe Logan had been mistaken – maybe the repository wasn’t in this building at all. But then, what was the explanation for all the uncanny happenings that had occurred around here? Logan’s watchers, Alexander’s feeling of disquietude, and her own apparently imagined shadow? She had thought they were all linked, and somehow signaled the presence of the repository. But perhaps that was the wrong conclusion.
The air on the sixth level was absolutely stifling. Every time Laura moved the dust swirled around her like a fog. It wreaked havoc on her senses. Logan and Alexander didn’t share her troubles to the same degree. Or, at least, they were better at covering them up. While they continued the search, methodically moving from room to room, Laura was constantly on the lookout for the dark shadow. She didn’t know if it was just paranoia of being in this place too long, but she wanted to make sure that shadow didn’t return. Or, if it did, that it wouldn’t catch her by surprise.
“Nothing,” Logan exclaimed sourly, breaking her out of her thoughts. “We’ve scavenged the entire floor, and found nothing!”
“We can’t give up hope yet,” Laura said with a confidence she did not feel. “There’s one more level to go.”
“And what if it’s not there?” Logan demanded dejectedly. “What if we’ve been wasting our time this whole expedition?”
“Then we go back and regroup at the tent with Madison and Jacob,” Laura said levelly. “And go from there.” She prayed desperately that that wouldn’t be the case. They had wasted too much time in Egypt searching fruitlessly for the repository, and it would absolutely crush her morale if they didn’t find it now. She shook her head roughly. No use thinking about an uncertain future when the present wasn’t yet defined. “Let’s go up.”
They did, and began looking on the seventh and final storey. Light streamed in through cracks in the ceiling mortar. Thankfully, that alleviated some of the feeling of stuffiness that bothered Laura so much before. They went from room to room slowly, checking the walls for hidden enclaves, knocking on the floorboards for a hint of a storage space, all to no avail. As they entered each new room, Laura’s dread about the expedition grew. Every room they found empty was another failure. It not only reflected on her abilities as a leader, she thought, but also made the entire purpose of her mission to take down the elders seem more and more forlorn.
They opened the door to the final, unsearched room, and immediately Laura’s heart dropped to her knees. The space was empty.
“I’m sorry, Laura,” Logan said gently at her side. “I was so sure…”
“It’s not your fault,” Laura said. She could feel tears swelling up in her eyes, and blinked them away angrily. She had been so foolish to hope! They were never going to find the repository now. The elders would surely discover them soon, and they all would have to face the consequences for what she did. For who she was. She was sure the real reason the elders began the pursuit after her was because they knew the prophecy, and not because Logan showed her the dream realm while she was still human. They lived to annihilate any perceived threat to their power. She was just that, thanks to the prophecy.
But now, she had failed, and everybody who had aided her would suffer! She took a deep breath. The only way of salvaging the situation – if she could call it that – would be to turn herself into the elders. Maybe that way the others wouldn’t be hurt. Maybe if the elders found her alone, Logan and Alexander and Madison and Jacob could still survive. If she was going to found, she couldn’t let those she cared about be hurt alongside her.
“Hold on a second,” Alexander said slowly. He walked into the room, all the way up to the far wall. He turned around, walked back to them, then went to the wall again, counting the steps under his breath.
“What is it?” Laura asked.
“This wall here,” Alexander said. “I don’t think it ends where the one in the neighboring room begins.”
“A hidden space?” Laura asked. Energy returned to her voice. If Alexander was right, there was still a tiny sliver of hope…
“Yes, I believe so. Logan, go into the other room. Come up to this wall, approximately where I’m standing, and knock three times. If I hear you, I’ll knock right back.”
Logan nodded, and raced down the hallway into the other room. Laura watched from the doorway. Alexander stood by the wall, examining it for any faults, and waiting for Logan. After a few moments, Logan came running back.
“I knocked,” he said. “You didn’t hear anything?”
“I heard it faintly,” Alexander said, “but not at all like I should if you were on the other side.”
“So something’s in there,” Laura said. Alexander nodded.
“Yes. Cleverly hidden into the architecture. Come out into the hallway. I have a feeling we’ll find a way in out there.”
Laura stepped aside to let Alexander pass, and followed him and Logan into the hall. Alexander counted his steps again, stopped, then turned to face the wall. He motioned toward it.
“Right here,” he said, “is where the first room ends.” He took a few paces further, and again pointed to the wall. “And here,” he said, “is where the second one begins.” He took a step back to look at the space he had marked. It was about six or seven feet in length. “We’ll have to tear down the wall.”
“Yes,” Logan agreed.
“Do we have any tools?” Laura asked.
“Don’t need tools when we’ve got our hands,” Logan said slyly. He stepped beside Alexander, and placed a powerful punch right into the wall. The building shook, and dust came showering down from above. Logan stepped back and did it again. Once more, his fist sent a shockwave through the entire structure. Cracks spread across the mortared wall. Logan punched it again, and cracks erupted all over. Bits of mortar fell off.
“Very smooth,” Laura said laconically.
Logan shrugged and grinned. “This way we can grip the edges of the wall.” He reached for one and ripped it off. Underneath, Laura saw a dark metal surface. Quickly, she stepped beside Logan and began to help. Alexander joined in too, and it wasn’t long until three of them had torn down the entire mortared wall. Underneath the plaster was a heavy iron vault-like edifice.
It rose from floor to ceiling, and its front covered the entire space they had excavated. There was a single, solid door that was carved onto the front, and around it was a bizarre frame of angular shapes. Laura took a step closer, and what she saw erased any doubt about the nature of the vault from her mind. Inscribed in between those shapes in a tiny, thin hand, were symbols she recognized. They were the same symbols – or at least, of the same type – as the ones that had been on the vault entrance down in the mines. This was it! They had found the repository!
She gave a happy squeal and wrapped her arms around Logan then Alexander in turn. “We did it!” Laura exclaimed. “Logan, you did it! You found the repository!”
“Let’s not celebrate quite yet,” Alexander said in a bemused tone. “We don’t know how we’re going to open that.” He nodded at the thick door.
“It shouldn’t be that hard, should it?” Laura asked, coming up to the door. “We just pull—”
“Stop!” Logan commanded gravely. Laura froze.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I recognize the symbols. It’s angelic script. And I think… I think it’s a warning. Alexander, will you look at this?”
Laura stepped aside as Alexander and Logan moved closer. Carefully, Logan traced his fingers along the shape of the doorframe. “Right here,” he said, tapping his fingers against a particular inscription. “I don’t know exactly what it means, but I think it signifies danger.”
“I believe you’re right,” Alexander said slowly, once he’d had a chance to examine the marking. “It’s a warning against opening the vault.”
“But we have to go inside,” Laura said. “We need to get the torrial in there.”
Alexander turned around. “Are you sure? Perhaps just knowing where this is will be enough. We can meet the angels here in the dream realm.”
“And then what?” Laura asked. “We need access to the torrial, both out here and in the dream realm.”
“But, the warning,” Logan began.
“Of course there’s going to be a warning,” Laura cut in over him. “The torrial were sealed away because of their danger, remember? We need them, though. Do you think if the elders had access to them, they would shy away at the last moment?”
“Absolutely not,” Logan said. “But that doesn’t mean we have to rush head-first into it. We don’t know what’s inside.”
“Torrial are inside,” Laura said. “Step aside. If you two aren’t going to do it, I will.”
She pushed through Logan and Alexander and placed her hands on the handle. She knew she was being rash, but it was beyond time to get to the torrial. They did not have forever. She lifted the handle, and pulled.
Nothing happened.
She tried again, summoning all her strength. The door remained in place.
“It’s locked,” Alexander said coyly, “but I do not see a keyhole anywhere.”
“How is that possible?” Laura asked.
Alexander came over to examine the handle. “You’re sure you want to open it right now?”
“Yes!” Laura said.
“Fine. Let me try.” Laura moved away to give Alexander space. He lifted the handle much as she had done, and tried to pull it. Again, brute force did not budge the door. He knelt down, looking at the handle carefully. He tried twisting it side to side, and moving it up and down, but there was no mechanism that Laura could see to make the door open. Alexander tried pulling again, all to the same result.
“Strength is not the answer here,” he said fin
ally. “I believe the door has been locked from the inside.”
“From the inside?” Laura exclaimed. “How? Why?”
“Most likely,” Logan said, “to keep everyone out.”
“But there must be a way to open it, right?” Laura asked. “I mean, why would they put the door onto it in the first place, otherwise? Alexander, do you think we can access the lock somehow?”
He shook his head. “Only from within.”
“Then what do we do?”
“I don’t know,” Logan said.
“We can’t just come so close and then leave!” Laura exclaimed. Pushing by Logan and Alexander, she tried the handle again. But no matter how hard she pulled, the door would not budge. Logan tried after her, and then Alexander went again. No matter what they did, though, they could not pull it open.
They sat back, exhausted by their efforts. Nothing they tried managed to move the door in any way. The vault stood there, mocking them. Laura did not think it was fair. They were Vassiz, possessing supernatural strength. If the door was locked, they should have been able to force it open through sheer strength! But that was not the case.
Laura slumped against the opposite wall. She stared at the vault angrily. They had come this far, searched for three weeks, only to have failed at the very moment they found the repository? She wouldn’t believe it. There was some way to open it, and she wouldn’t leave her until she figured it out.
Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted that same dark shadow from the chest. It was crawling on the edge of the floor, slinking toward her. This time, she definitely was not imagining it. She started to get up, to alert the others to its presence – but something told her not to. Instead, she sat still and watched it move. It slid along the floor, never altering speed, moving as an amorphous blob. Laura watched, fascinated. It came all the way down the hall before stopping right in front of her. For a split-second, Laura felt like it was the shadow that was commanding her to remain quiet. Before she had a chance to do anything, it zipped to the locked vault and slipped into it under the crack of the door. Laura heard a distinctive click.
She looked at Alexander and Logan, who had their heads pressed together in conversation beside her. They appeared not to have noticed.