“What?” I asked, peering at the wall before us.

It looked real. It was made of the same light stone as the corridor that surrounded us. Nothing about it hinted that it was fake in any way.

“It’s a fake wall,” Mitch repeated. “I’ve come across them a bunch of times before. Normally, there’s some pattern that you need to tap, hidden switches behind the stones. Once, I had to step on the right slabs on the floor at the same time. Lost one of my favourite tools that day but it was one of the only things heavy enough to weigh it down. It was just after Zaq left so I was stuck doing it alone. This one… I bet it’s the stones. See how some protrude more than others?”

He looked back at me and leaned out the way so that I could see.

“Yeah?” I answered.

“That’ll be it.”

I watched as he examined the door closely, leaning towards it but not touching anything. The anticipation was too much for me. There was nothing for me to do whilst he silently worked, there was nothing for me to even really look at.

The few protruding stones that I could see around him were completely unmarked. There was nothing obvious about them that even hinted at which ones we needed to press.

“How are we going to work it out?” I whispered after a moment.

Impatience was racing through me. I was excited, this was what I’d wanted to do, but at the same time, I just wanted to rush forwards and… I don’t know, do something.

“I mean, I assume some of these stones once had some kind of marking on them. You see this one here?” he asked, leaning to one side and pointing at one near the centre.

I started at the completely ordinary-looking rock.

“Yeah?”

“I think this once had something etched into it. You can just about see the outline of something but I think some of the rock has chipped away. We could just press the more worn stones, that would make sense, or…” He paused and shrugged his bag off his shoulder, pulling a strangely boxy-looking small camera with a thick case from it. “We could cheat.”

He grinned up at me.

“What’s that?” I asked, trying to peer over his shoulder as he switched it on and started moving it in slow, sweeping movements, pointing at the door.

“This is a scanner of sorts. It’s a powerful little device, completely not meant for this purpose, but it can see through the stone to anything that’s on the other side. And in this case… huh,” Mitch said, looking up at the door again.

“What?” I asked, quickly looking between him and the door.

“Well, this is fun. I truly did not expect there to be another bomb here,” he muttered.

“There’s a bomb?” I asked, feeling my heart leap at his words.

“Yeah, it’s probably not primed though. I mean, do you know how much effort it is to prepare a bomb and rush through a lowering door? It’s hell. Every single time I have done it, I’ve just continued running and hoped for the best. That's only failed me a couple of times.”

I stared at Mitch, not sure how to respond to that. I wanted to ask more about it but I didn’t want to distract him.

Not whilst he was trying to work out how not to set off another bomb.

“Mm,” he muttered after a while, looking up at the door again.

“What?” I asked, wishing he would just tell me what he was thinking.

“So, look at this,” he said, seemingly unaware of all of the cobwebs as he leaned against the wall and held the device out to me.

I stared at it, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. As he moved it, I could see that some of the bricks had something behind them. They looked like they were attached to something but I wasn't sure about anything other than that.

“Half of the stones are attached to something in the door. This mass here,” he explained, bringing the camera to the centre where there was a darker shape. “But the rest, I think, are attached to these side bits. See, here and here?”

I watched the screen as he pointed the camera at a stone near the top and another near one side.

They did seem to be attached to something that lead to the edges of the door but I wasn’t sure why.

“So… do we have to press those ones?” I asked.

Mitch cocked his head slightly.

“I mean… it feels too obvious, right?” he said, glancing back at me, his eyes scanning the staircase behind me.

I checked over my shoulder too, making sure that there was no one silently sneaking down the stairs but they were empty.

“Obvious?” I repeated. “Why obvious?”

He grinned at me.

“We’re under a church,” he said, as if that were enough of an answer.

I stared at him blankly for a moment but he just continued to smile at me. My brain works furiously, trying to work out what he could be referring to him as he swept the camera back and forth over the wall before us.

He must have realised that I had no clue what he was talking about because finally, he spoke again.

“Father, son and holy spirit,” he explained. “We need to push the stones that make up a cross.”

My mouth fell open slightly.

No wonder he looked so uncertain about it. It did feel too obvious.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

He glanced at the scanner again before nodding.

“I’d say so. Alright, stand behind me and don’t try to peek, okay?” he told me, shuffling slightly so that his body took up as much room as possible.

I nodded, moving so that I was behind him before completely ignoring his instructions and craning my head over his shoulder.

“Kid, what did I just say?” he said with a slight chuckle. “Duck your head down because if you get hit in the head with a stray rock, you’re going to be in for a rough time!”

My eyes widened and I did what he said, huddling down behind him.

I really didn’t want that to happen. If something did happen to the door or if the stones Mitch was about to press weren’t the right ones, it could explode. But then, I didn’t want Mitch to be in front of me. He’d be right in the danger zone, he’d die surely.

Just as I realised that and lifted my head to say something, I felt Mitch start to move again.

“Okay, kid. Once the door opens, I assume it’s going to lift up based on what I can see, we’re going to rush through. Grab onto the back of my vest and move when I do. We’ll stop just on the other side because there might be more traps or stuff there. Wait,” he looked over his shoulder at me. “Do you want earplugs? This is going to be loud. I probably have a clean pair or two at the bottom of the bag.”

I hesitated, poking my head up again to look at him.

“How loud is it going to be?” I asked.

“Well… in my experience with places this old, pretty damn loud. Back in the day, it was probably well-maintained and therefore silent but… No one has used it for years so the tech gets old and that makes it loud,” he explained.

I bit my lip, debating it for a moment, before saying, “I’ll be okay.”

“Alright. Grab onto me now,” he said.

I reached out, grasping the rough fabric as tightly as I could, and huddled down again. I felt Mitch move, probably reaching out towards the stone. The passageway was too quiet for a second before a loud noise came from in front of us, the sound of rock grating against rock.

“First one down and no explosion. Good start,” Mitch muttered under his breath before straightening and reaching out with his foot to press the next one.

Again, nothing happened.

I was tempted to peer over Mitch’s shoulder as I felt him reach out once more but I forced myself not to move. The only noise in the small passageway was the sound of stone scraping as Mitch pushed what felt like countless rocks.

Finally, he paused.

“Alright, kid. Last one. Are you ready to run?” he said.

My heart hammered in my chest and my sweating hands tightened on his vest.

Somehow, it felt so real. So much more real than when I was waiting for Mitch to uncover the trap door. This was it.

It felt… terrifying but I was exhilarated.

“Ready,” I replied, my voice breathy.

“Okay. Three, two, one.”

I heard the rasp of stone before there was a moment of silence. It stretched out, feeling like we were in a bubble that was about to pop at any moment but, when it did, dust showered from the ceiling and the noise was almost unbearable. I almost wanted to let go of Mitch to cover my ears, regretting that I’d refused the earplugs, as the deafening rumble of something moving in front of us.

The entire passageway shook so hard that I stumbled, fighting to keep my balance and struggling, but Mitch didn’t even move.

Dust filled the air, falling from above and suffocating me, but I felt Mitch surge into action and I tightened my grip on him, blindly darting forwards.

My foot caught on the gouge in the floor where the door had rested and I stumbled against Mitch hard. He caught me, spinning to hold a hand up under the doorway and whirling me out of the way. I wasn’t sure that it would have done much if the door were to come crashing down on me but he’d moved me out of the way before I had a chance to find out.

I coughed, still clutching Mitch’s vest, as he turned towards the door. I felt him moving but my eyes were crusted with dust so I couldn’t see properly. I felt air rush at me though as Mitch fell still and the vague shape of the door crashed down again, cutting us away from the exit.

The silence that followed felt oppressive, somehow loud, and punctuated by my hacking coughs. I couldn’t breathe. It felt like my lungs were coated in thick white dust, blocking any air from getting in.

“It’s alright, give yourself a minute,” Mitch said, turning back towards me. “Sorry, kid. I should have told you to hold your breath.”

I forced my hands to release his vest and doubled over, catching myself on my knees as I coughed and fought to clear the dust from my lungs.

“You stay right there,” he said in a gentle, soothing voice.

I wouldn’t have been able to move anyway. I was breathless, trying desperately to fight the tightness in my chest.

“Grace,” a voice asked and I looked around in confusion.

That wasn’t Mitch.

“Was my mother looking for me?”

I blinked, the bright pool room startling me, and sucked in a mouthful of water. I coughed, paddling for the edge of the pool as I fought not to swallow even more.

My mom watched as I pulled myself out of the water and finally managed to clear the water from my lungs.

Even so, my chest felt tight as I stared at her.

“Um… Yeah, I think so. I told her she could probably call you if she wanted to,” I said eventually.

My mom’s eyes widened and she reached for her pocket, whipping her phone out and checking it.

“No missed calls,” she muttered quietly. “Did she say why she wanted to speak to me?”

“No. She said it could wait till you got back though?”

My mother’s face froze and she glanced over her shoulder.

“I should probably go find her. Did you want to go out for dinner soon?” she asked.

Confusion washed over me and my head whipped around to stare out the window.

Somehow, it was already starting to get dark. I wasn’t sure how it had happened, but it was late. I had been swimming for hours.

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” I said, trying to hide my surprise.

“Great,” my mom smiled back at me. “I’ll go see what my parents want to do. You should probably get out and shower soon. All this chlorine is going to ruin your hair, it’s already dry enough as is.”

“Yeah, I’ll go shower now,” I said, fighting the urge to disappear back into my fantasy where I could almost hear Mitch talking to me.

I felt myself reply, feeling the phantom sensation of my lips moving.

“Did you bring a deep conditioning mask or do we need to go out and get you one in the morning?” my mom asked, bringing me back to reality.

“I brought one,” I said, starting to stand and walking towards my towel.

“Good. Make sure to use it.”

“I will,” I said, trying not to sound irritated.

I was so used to it but I still hated how much she cared about my appearance. It didn’t matter if my hair looked dry, I already knew I had dry hair and I tried to fix it but nothing really worked.

I did need to make sure that I didn’t let it get too dry whilst I was in Scotland though. If it did or if my grandmother thought that it did, I knew that she'd have something to say about it. Knowing her, it would probably be something about me not knowing how to look after myself.

She enjoyed complaining about that. Apparently, my dry skin and sporadic acne were signs that I didn't know how to be a woman which, according to her, could only bode badly for my future.

She had told me that for years.

I wrapped the towel tightly around my body before following my mom from the room. She wandered off towards the kitchen, her body tensed and ready for the inevitable attack, whilst I started down the corridor towards the stairs.

As I climbed, I could feel myself slipping back to Mitch.

“Whoah, careful there. That is really unsteady,” he warned, holding his hand out towards me.

I sucked in a sharp breath as I fought not to fall from where I was perched on a rotted wooden bridge. I grasped his hand as I stood still and blinked frantically, trying to force the dizziness out of my brain.

But I couldn’t stand still. It was too precarious. The bridge I was standing on was between two outcrops of stone but I couldn't really call it a bridge. It was more just a plank of wood with decaying rope on either side. I knew that if I were to so much as touch it, it would crumble to nothing.

There were holes in the wood too. Places where it had crumbled to nothing.

“You're alright,” Mitch said softly. “Just step where I stepped.”

I looked down at the bridge, trying to work out exactly where Mitch had walked but I couldn’t.

He was standing on the other of the bridge but there was a hole in between us. He must have skirted around it in some way but I couldn’t work out where he’d stepped. My eyes caught sight of the drop below me and I swayed, gripping Mitch tightly.

I couldn’t even see the bottom, just the light stone lining the endless ravine that seemed to cut deep into the earth.

“Grace,” my mom said with a knock on the door and I immediately blinked back into reality.

“One second,” I called back, looking around the bathroom.

I was standing in the shower, having turned off the water, combing a hair mask through my hair. I climbed out quickly and grabbed a towel, wrapping it around myself before opening the door just a crack.

My mom’s face appeared in it.

“Mom and Dad are about to go out for dinner. Did you want to go with them?” she asked.

I hesitated for just a moment.

“Oh, I’m not ready yet,” I said, stating the obvious, since I was naked and hadn’t finished my shower. “I have a hair mask in still.”

My mom nodded approvingly.

“Good. Alright, I’ll tell them you don’t want to go. We can always meet them there or just go somewhere else. What about that Italian place in town?” she asked.

I glossed over most of what she said, focusing on the Italian place.

I loved it there. It was one of the few places I could get a pizza without my mom judging me for it. Apparently, being artisan made up for it being a pizza. She didn’t even judge me too much for ordering garlic mayonnaise.

“Tony’s? Yeah, that would be great,” I said with a genuine smile.

“Wonderful,” my mom said. “I’ll go tell them.”

I felt my smile fall slightly but I didn’t force myself to keep it as I shut the door again.

I almost wanted to ask her not to blame it on me but I knew that it was pointless. She would never take the blame for anything that happened around her parents, it was just easier for her to blame me, but that just made them dislike me even more.

But… I did really like going to Tony’s. It was a small place, kind of fancy but in the same way as the restaurants we went to with my grandparents were. As far as I was aware, they had never been and I didn't think they ever would. It was a shame, I feel like they would've liked the food there, it was really good. There was no point in trying to convince them though.

I pushed that thought from my mind as I methodically climbed back into the shower and began combing my fingers through my long hair, already disappearing to Crete.

Thankfully, when I was already on the other side of the bridge. I couldn’t help but feel relieved about it even as I stared at the low tunnel Mitch had started through. It was little more than an archway cut into the tall light stone, rough and uneven on all sides.

I felt my stomach clench with claustrophobia but I forced myself to follow him. Luckily, it wasn’t that low. Mitch had to duck lightly so that he didn’t hit his head but I could walk through easily. Even so, it felt tight. I was too painfully aware of the probably hundreds of pounds of stone on top of us that could come crashing down at any given moment.

I wasn't even sure how far underground we were. It had felt like we were climbing down the steps forever but I couldn't really trust time in my daydreams. It always felt a little… Inconsistent. Either way, I was deep enough underground to know that if something happened and we got stuck, we would probably never be found.

“Whoah, whoah!” Mitch cried suddenly. “Stop.”

I froze instantly, panic pounding in my ears.

I stood as still as I could as Mitch leant forwards slowly before he stopped moving again.

“Okay, kid. There’s some kind of trap ahead so we’re going to turn back and work out what to do out there,” he said in a calm voice.

I let out a tight breath and did as he instructed, my knees shaking. What kind of trap would it be?

We’d already encountered bombs, would there be more?

Even through my fear, I felt the undercurrent of excitement. This was what I wanted when I dove into this fantasy. I wanted adventure, I wanted excitement. This was perfect.

It felt so real. Everything from the chill in the air from being underground to the musty scent of long undisturbed air made it feel like I was actually there. Despite being in the shower, combing my hands through my hair to rid it of knots, I could feel the solid stone beneath my feet. I could feel the hard wall of the passage against my arm as I bumped into it.

It felt real.

“Grace,” a voice called.

I sighed, irritation washing through me. I knew that it was my mom again but she'd only just spoken to me a minute ago. I almost wanted to ignore her but I knew it wasn't worth it.

Reluctantly, I turned the water off and squeezed the excess water from my hair before stepping out of the shower again. I wrapped a towel around my hair and another around my body.

“Grace,” my mom shouted again, her tone sharper this time.

She sounded far away and I knew she was in her room, shouting at me from across the corridor. She wouldn’t be doing that if my grandparents were still there.

“Yeah?” I called, cracking the door open a bit as I began to gather my stuff to head into my room.

“Mom and Dad have gone out. Shall we go out in about ten minutes?” she asked.

I paused, clutching my still wet swimming costume to my chest, a slight smile forming on my face.

That should give me enough time to work out what the trap was with Mitch.

“Yeah, sounds great!”