The silence in the cylindrical chamber was heavier than the stone walls, pressing in on them like a physical weight. It was a silence born of deep earth and held breath, amplified by the wet, metallic acoustics of the room.
It was a standoff.
On one side stood Eiden, a wreck of a boy. He was bruised, his ribs wrapped in stiff bandages that peeked out from his shirt, and he was drenched in sweat from the agonizing crawl through the Hall of Silence. He looked less like a student and more like a soldier who had walked through fire.
On the other side stood Emily, her pristine coat smeared with grease and soot from the ventilation shaft, her hair a mess. Behind her, peering over her shoulder like a frightened bird, was Linda.
Two beams of flashlight cut through the gloom, crossing like swords in the damp air. Dust motes danced in the light, the only things moving.
"You followed me," Eiden said, his voice echoing in the chamber, bouncing off the curved concrete. It wasn't a question; it was an accusation.
"I beat you," Emily corrected, stepping forward into the light. Her face was a mask of cold fury, her eyes hard. "I told you to stay away. I told you this was my family's business. You are a guest in my house, Eiden, not the master of it."
"It became my business when you let a monster loose in Bletchworth," Eiden countered, stepping closer, ignoring the pain in his side. "It became my business when that assassin came to kill you in the library."
"Well, I didn't die now, did I? I handled it. I helped you stop him!"
"You watched," Eiden spat. "You watched while I did the dirty work."
"Stop it!" Linda shrieked, her voice shrill and terrifyingly loud in the enclosed space. She stomped her foot, the echo cracking like a whip. "Why are we arguing in a dungeon? Can we just... open the door and get the gold? I want to go home!"
Eiden's head snapped to Linda, his eyes narrowing. "Gold?"
He looked back at Emily, realization dawning on his face. "Is that what this is? You're here for money? You risked your life... for a payout?"
"I'm here for leverage," Emily spat, her voice dripping with venom. "I'm here to see whether my father stole money from Rook or was he lying. I'm here to find the truth about the empire built on lies. What are you here for, Eiden? To sell secrets? To spy for the highest bidder? How much is my father paying you to betray me?"
"I'm here for a prisoner," Eiden roared, his patience snapping, his voice booming off the walls. "I'm here for Evergreen!"
The name hit the room like a physical blow. Evergreen... Evergreen...
The sound vibration hit a specific, tuned frequency in the walls.
Above them, hidden in the shadows of the vaulted ceiling, a rusted sensor tripped.
KLANG.
The heavy doors they had just entered—both Eiden's steel door and Emily's hatch—slammed shut simultaneously. The wheel locks spun on their own, sealing with a pressurized hiss that signaled airtight closure.
Then came a rumble, deep in the floor.
Around the perimeter of the room, rusted iron grates slid open.
Dark, freezing water began to pour in, gushing from the walls like arterial blood from the earth.
"Oh no," Linda whispered, backing away until she hit the cold wall. "Oh no, no, no."
"It's a trap," Eiden said, looking at the water rising over his boots. It was ice-cold, shocking his system. "The Water Lock. It seals the level if it detects intruders. It's designed to drown anyone who finds it."
"How do we stop it?" Emily yelled over the rushing noise, pointing her light frantically around the room.
Eiden scanned the room with his light, his mind racing. The walls were smooth concrete, seamless and brutal. No keypad. No lever. No way out.
"There!" he pointed.
High up on the wall, near the ceiling, about fifteen feet up, was a large, red iron wheel valve. It looked seized by time.
And directly opposite it, already submerged near the floor, was a second, rusted blue valve.
"Pressure release," Eiden shouted. "It's a two-man fail-safe. We have to turn them both. At the exact same time."
"I'll get the top one," Emily said, judging the distance to the pipes running up the wall. "I can climb."
"You're too short," Eiden said bluntly, measuring the gap between the last pipe and the valve. "You can't reach the leverage point. I have to do it."
"Your ribs are broken!" Emily shouted back, grabbing his arm. "You can't climb! You'll tear yourself apart!"
"Watch me!"
Eiden shook her off and lunged for the pipes. He hauled himself up, his boots slipping on the wet metal.
His ribs screamed. It felt like a hot knife being twisted in his chest with every pull. He gritted his teeth, sweat blinding him, mixing with the spray of the water. He got five feet up. Then six.
His muscles spasmed violently. The pain was too much; his body simply refused to obey.
He slipped.
He fell back into the rising water with a massive splash, disappearing for a second before surfacing, gasping in agony.
"Eiden!" Emily rushed to him, grabbing his collar to keep his head up. The water was already at their knees. It was freezing, numbing the skin instantly, sapping their heat.
"I can't..." Eiden wheezed, clutching his side, his face gray. "I can't reach it. My side... it's gone."
"And I'm not strong enough to turn the bottom one underwater," Emily said, looking at the dark water swirling over the rusted blue valve. "It's seized. It needs torque I don't have."
They looked at each other. They were trapped. The water was rising fast, a relentless black tide. Waist deep now.
Then, they both looked at Linda.
Linda was backing away, hyperventilating, pressing herself into the curve of the wall. "No. No. Don't look at me. I can't. I'm useless. You said so! I'm just the cousin!"
"Linda," Emily said, wading toward her, the water dragging at her clothes. "You are the smallest. And you are the lightest."
"I don't like heights! And I don't like water! And I don't want to die in a sewer!"
"Do you like breathing?" Eiden snapped, forcing himself to stand upright despite the pain. "Because in two minutes, that's going to be a luxury."
"We have to lift you," Emily said, her voice softer but firm. "Eiden will boost you. You have to turn the red wheel. I'll take the blue one."
"Me? Turn a wheel? I've never turned a wheel in my life! I have people for that!"
"It's like opening a jar of caviar," Eiden growled, grabbing her arm. "Just... bigger. And heavier. Move!"
The water was chest deep. It was hard to stand, the current swirling around them.
Eiden grabbed Linda. She was shaking like a leaf in a storm. "Put your foot in my hand. When I push, you jump for the pipe."
"I can't!"
"JUMP!"
Eiden roared with effort, ignoring the fire in his ribs that threatened to black him out, and launched Linda upward. She screamed, flailing, but her hands managed to grab the cold, wet pipe near the ceiling.
She scrambled up, finding a perch on a narrow bracket, her expensive boots slipping. She was right next to the red wheel.
"I'm here!" she cried, clinging to the pipe, looking down at the rising black water. "It's slippery! I'm going to fall!"
"Grab the wheel!" Eiden shouted. He took a massive breath and dove underwater.
Emily took a deep breath and dove with him.
The world turned silent and murky. They found the blue valve. It was underwater, covered in slime and barnacles of rust.
Eiden grabbed one side. Emily grabbed the other.
They looked at each other through the murky water, their hair floating around their faces like halos. They nodded.
Turn.
They pulled. The valve didn't move. It was rusted solid, fused by decades of neglect.
Eiden roared bubbles, putting his whole body into it, his wound straining. Emily pushed with her legs braced against the wall, her face contorted with effort.
Creak.
It moved an inch.
Above the water, Linda was struggling with the red wheel. The water was lapping at her ankles, then her knees. The air pocket was disappearing.
"It's stuck! It's stuck!" she sobbed.
"LINDA! TURN IT!" Eiden surfaced for a split second, gasping for air before diving back down. "Turn it or we die!"
"I'm trying!" Linda shrieked. Panic took over. She kicked the wheel with her expensive Italian boot. She hammered it with her fist. "OPEN, YOU STUPID PEASANT WHEEL! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!"
She put both feet on the wall, grabbed the spokes of the wheel, and pulled with everything she had, screaming in frustration.
Below, Eiden and Emily heaved on the blue valve, their lungs burning for air.
Above, Linda pulled on the red, the water touching her chin.
CLUNK-HISSSSSS.
Both valves gave way at the exact same moment.
A massive shudder ran through the room, vibrating through the water.
The floor grates slammed shut.
A new drain opened in the center of the floor with a terrifying, sucking WHOOSH.
The water swirled, creating a violent whirlpool. It drained away as fast as it had come, sucking the cold liquid down into the dark bowels of the earth.
Linda fell from her perch as the water receded, landing on Eiden, knocking him back into the shallow remnants. Emily collapsed against the wall, coughing wetly, spitting out water.
They lay there on the wet concrete floor for a long minute, just breathing. Shivering. Alive. The adrenaline crash left them shaking.
Eiden pushed Linda off him. He groaned, checking his ribs. The bandages were soaked and useless now.
"You kicked me," he said to Linda, rubbing his shoulder.
"You threw me," she countered, her teeth chattering so hard she could barely speak. "We're even."
Emily stood up, wringing out her hair. She looked at Eiden. The anger was gone, replaced by confusion. "You said..." she started, her voice quiet. "You said you were here for a prisoner." Eiden looked up. He was too tired to lie. He was too cold to fight. "Evergreen," he said. "The diary said she was here. On the grounds. I thought she was in the basement. I thought..."
"Evergreen?" Emily frowned. The name tripped a wire in her memory, deep and buried. It wasn't just a name; it was a sensation. A cold draft in a warm house. A forbidden room at the estate. She remembered being six years old, finding an old, leather-bound book in the library with a leaf pressed inside. Her father had snatched it from her hands, his face pale with a terror she didn't understand then. He had thrown the book into the fire and watched it burn to ash. Never speak that name, Emily. It is a curse.
"That name..." she whispered, her voice trailing off, her eyes unfocused. "My father... he hates that name. He banned it from the manor years ago. He burned a book once, just because it had that word in the title. I thought it was just... superstition."
"Why?" Eiden asked, watching her closely.
"I don't know," Emily said, a shiver running down her spine that had nothing to do with the cold water. "But if he hates it that much... it must be important. And if she's a prisoner... and my father has a treasure..."
Emily looked at the massive blast door at the end of the chamber. It had unlocked when the water drained. The green light above it was blinking, inviting them in.
"Maybe they are the same thing," she whispered.
Eiden stood up slowly, water dripping from his clothes. He offered a hand to Emily.
She looked at it. The hand that had held the burning shotgun. The hand of the "Devil" who had terrified her.
Then she looked at his face. The boy who had just held his breath underwater, risking his life to save her cousin. The boy who was bleeding for a ghost.
She took his hand. It was warm.
"Truce?" Eiden asked.
"Until the door opens," Emily said. "Then... we see what the truth is."
"Fair enough."
He helped her up. They turned to the final door, the gateway to the answer they both feared.
"I hate this school," Linda muttered, wringing out her ruined dress. "I am transferring to Switzerland. Tomorrow."