The morning sun filtered through a thin veil of clouds as Eli spread the old surveyor’s map across the kitchen table. Beside it lay the faded ledger, open to the page with the strange coordinates—or what they now believed were coordinates. Kate leaned over his shoulder, a mug of coffee warming her hands.
“You sure about this ridge?” she asked, tapping the map.
Eli nodded slowly. “I’d bet it’s this one here. See how the stream curves just below it, like the one we passed last week? The handwriting in the ledger mentions ‘a rise west of the split oak.’ That tree’s still there, or what’s left of it.”
“Then we go today?”
Eli gave a thin smile. “We go today.”
By midmorning they were deep in the woods, following the narrow footpath Eli had hiked countless times but now with a different purpose. The trail grew steeper as they approached the ridge, its base thick with ferns and moss-covered stones. Here and there, Kate paused to examine old growth trees, some bearing the scars of past lightning strikes or deep, vertical notches that might’ve once held surveyor’s markers.
“There,” Eli said, pointing toward a cluster of rocks partially hidden by underbrush. A faint line of stacked stones, almost indistinguishable from the surrounding landscape, ran along the base of the ridge like the remains of a forgotten wall.
Kate knelt beside it, brushing away leaf litter. “Looks intentional. But old.”
“Old’s what we’re after,” Eli replied, stepping carefully ahead.
They followed the line to a narrow outcropping—jagged limestone worn down by time and rain. At its base, behind a screen of brambles, was a dark recess. Eli crouched low and pulled back the brush. The smell of earth and damp stone wafted out.
“A cave,” he whispered. “Or a crawlspace.”
Kate squinted into the dark. “How far do you think it goes?”
Eli reached into his pack and pulled out a headlamp. “Only one way to find out.”
The passage was tight at first, forcing them to stoop and shuffle sideways. The air grew cool and heavy as they moved deeper. After twenty yards, the tunnel opened into a chamber. Natural formations surrounded them—stalactites hanging from above, water dripping in rhythmic intervals. But something else caught their eyes.
“Look,” Kate said, her voice hushed.
Just ahead, partially buried in silt, was a timber beam—weathered but clearly shaped by human hands. Another lay to its side, and beyond that, a shallow alcove in the wall bore deep gouges, almost like chisel marks.
“This wasn’t just shelter,” Eli said. “Someone worked this place.”
Kate moved her light along the far wall and froze. “Eli.”
A smooth section of rock bore a carved mark—a circle divided by a cross, with what appeared to be an arched feather etched beside it.
Another cipher.
Eli stared at it, the hair on the back of his neck prickling. “This is it. This is Mark Two.”
They stood silently, the faint sound of water echoing off the walls. Somewhere deep within the rock, it felt as though time had paused—waiting for them to uncover whatever had been hidden so carefully, so long ago.
Eli stepped closer to the mark and traced the faint outline with his fingertips. As he did, the floor beneath him gave a low groan.
A stone shifted.
Then, with a grinding sound, part of the wall beside the cipher mark cracked along a hidden seam—and slowly began to open inward, revealing a narrow stone staircase descending into darkness.
Kate stepped back instinctively. “That wasn’t caused by you... was it?”
“I don’t think so,” Eli said quietly.
A cold draft rose from the opening, bringing with it a smell that was neither fresh nor decayed—but something else entirely.
Something ancient.
Eli clicked his headlamp to full beam and peered into the darkness. The staircase curved slightly and vanished into blackness.
Kate’s voice was steady, but tense. “Do we go down there?”
Eli glanced at her, then back at the opening. “We came this far.”
Behind them, somewhere in the darkness of the chamber, there was a sound.
A faint click—like something metal tapping gently against stone.
They turned at once, lights sweeping across the space.
There was nothing there.
But the sound had definitely come from inside the cave.
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