I opened my eyes wearily, the sun blinding me as it snuck into the room around the blinds that never quite closed all the way. Confusion washed over me and, for a moment, I didn’t know where I was. The room I was in was familiar but at the same time, it wasn’t. The half-naked pictures of men and women on the walls were all the same as they’d always been but they filled me with unease.

Something felt very wrong.

Panic gripped me as I realised that I didn’t remember getting home or even going to bed last night I’d been in Crete with Mitch the whole time.

I sucked in a breath. I’d fallen asleep and left Mitch alone! The Sterlings were approaching quickly and I’d just left him. Of course, he’d be okay, he always was, but it was so irresponsible of me. Anything could have happened there and I wouldn’t even know.

I squeezed my eyes shut again, already reaching out for the familiar dizziness, before hesitating. What if we were running away from the Sterlings and I did something to distract Mitch and he were shot? What if I stumbled because I was dizzy?

No, I needed to go anyway, I couldn’t stay away.

“Okay, easy, easy,” Mitch muttered to himself.

I stumbled backwards just a little as dizziness shot through me so strongly it hurt. My hand shot out to grab a barely intact shelf, my torch light weaving lazily across the room as I swayed uncontrollably.

But Mitch hadn’t noticed. He was standing halfway inside the shelf that we’d been emptying whenever I’d fallen asleep before, the crowbar back in his hands and the tip wedged into the back corner of the shelf.

I blinked hard, my gaze floating in and out of focus for a moment before finally returning to normal as I stared at Mitch. Everything looked almost exactly as it had the night before, to my relief. We must have finished cleaning out the shelf because all of the items were neatly piled along the row but apart from that, I wasn’t sure how much time had passed.

There was something on the floor between Mitch and me too. A weird unrolled tarp or container of some kind. Probably in case we found some scrolls, I realised slowly, sleepiness making me dumb.

A bang came from behind us and my head whipped around. I almost expected to see the people in black tactical gear creeping towards us but the noise had come from further away. They weren’t there for now.

“Okay, you ready, kid? This is stiffer than I thought so if anything falls, cover your head and try to dodge it, okay?” Mitch called softly.

“Yeah,” I answered quickly.

“If this breaks and ruins anything on the other side, I swear to god, I will be so sad,” he muttered before I saw him push all of his weight onto the crowbar.

At first, it looked like nothing was happening. There was no change or any sign that what Mitch was doing was working but then a loud crack split the room. He didn’t even hesitate, he just continued levering the door further open.

Before long, he abandoned the crowbar, throwing it to the floor and squeezing himself into the gap. Bracing himself in the space, he slowly managed to get the fake wall all the way open.

I edged forwards, trying desperately to see into the gap behind the shelf, despite Mitch having told me to stay back, but I couldn’t see anything around him. Instead, I settled for staring at his back, trying to work out if he had found what he wanted. He wasn’t moving much as he slowly seemed to survey the space. My heart pounded in my ears as I waited and fear started to creep into me. What if there was nothing there? What if the space had been raided years ago and this was all for nothing?

A loud knock startled me and I looked around fearfully.

“Are you still asleep?” my mother asked.

I pulled myself out of the fantasy, my hands gripping my duvet as nausea washed over me.

“No, I’m awake,” I said, blinking hard.

“Good because it’s almost ten. I understand that you’re on holiday but that doesn’t give you the excuse to sleep the day away,” she chided.

“I know,” I replied, trying not to completely lose sight of what was happening in Crete.

There was a pause and I saw Mitch start to step back before my mom spoke again, distracting me.

“Are you not going to get up now?” she demanded.

“Yeah,” I said, looking away from her and staring around the room, frantically looking for an excuse to be by myself for a bit and not be distracted by anyone.

My gaze fell on my swimming costume, still hanging on the radiator, but I knew that wasn’t good enough. Someone could walk into the pool at any moment and start talking to me. Plus, I was still a little worried about drowning whilst in a fantasy.

If I were to drown whilst in Crete with Mitch, would I just die in real life and stay there? I wasn’t quite sure what happened after death but if that were to happen, I wouldn’t be too upset about it.

No, I couldn’t do that. But I could go out for a run. The grounds around the house were lovely. I could go for a run through the forest and no one would bother me.

“Actually, I was going to go for a run before lunch,” I said brightly, sitting up and smiling.

My mom looked a little taken aback by my sudden happiness. Suspicious crossed her face.

“Without having breakfast?” she questioned.

“Yup, I’m not really hungry today. I probably just ate too much yesterday,” I lied, hoping that my stomach wouldn’t choose that exact moment to grumble.

Luckily, it didn’t.

“Alright,” my mom said, still eyeing me suspiciously. “Have a good run and don’t go too far out of the grounds.”

“I won’t,” I lied again.

She nodded, watching me for a moment longer before leaving my room.

I hurriedly got up, already slipping back to Crete as I grabbed my running clothes.

“Is it there?” I was asking as I returned.

“Oh yeah,” Mitch said with a huge grin, turning back towards me.

Another crash came from outside and the grin slipped from his face. His eyes darted towards the door before he checked his watch.

“Alright, kid,” he started softly. “I’m going to start loading some things into my bag and making sure they’re waterproofed. We’re going to be leaving through the other passageway. It’s not the nicest way to go and I didn’t want to use it but I think it’s the only way. Turn your torch off, I need you to keep an eye on the door and take this. It’s semi-automatic so just point and shoot until you run out of bullets.”

He took a gun out of the holster on his leg and held it out to me, handle first.

I took it with shaking hands, handing back my torch so that I could hold the gun properly.

“You want me to… shoot them? The Sterlings?” I asked.

It suddenly felt too real. I knew this was coming, I knew it was inevitable, but it was still terrifying.

What if I hit someone and killed them? It was just a fantasy, of course, but it would change how I thought about myself. I would become someone who could kill.

“No!” Mitch answered quickly. “You don’t need to aim at them. Just point roughly in their direction and pull the trigger. It doesn’t matter if you hit them or not. The chances of you actually getting a good shot on them are very low.”

Somehow, his words did not reassure me.

I nodded anyway. I needed to do it. I couldn’t just let the Sterlings attack us.

“Should I… Should I go to the end of the row?” I asked, glancing around uncertainly.

“No, there’s no need. Just find a part of the shelves where the back has crumbled away and you can see through to the door,” he instructed.

I nodded and started to walk away from him, my eyes scanning the shelves around us. I didn’t need to go far, however. In many places, the wooden shelves had crumbled to nothingness.

I stopped, squinting through the gap and making sure I could see through to the door before lifting the gun slightly. It felt weirdly heavy in my hands.

“You got a good position, kid?” Mitch asked as he moved carefully back towards the tarp on the floor, an old crumbling paper in his gloved hands.

I hadn’t even noticed him put the gloves on but the gloves were a pristine white plastic.

“Yeah,” I said, snapping my gaze away from it to glance at the door again.

Still nothing.

“Okay, good. I’ll try and be as quick as I can here and then we’ll head to the port entrance,” he said, bending down slowly and laying the scroll between two layers of thick plastic gently. “I’m going to warn you now though, kid. Lauren said that way is real bad.”

“What do you mean?” I asked anxiously, unable to look away from the door.

“It used to be a port, back in the day, so it’s open to the elements but there was a rockslide at some point since then. I’m not sure if it was intentional or not but she said it’s almost entirely blocked the way. Lauren’s cleared it out best she can and left the scuba gear in the opening but… apparently, the smell is… significant.”

My nose crinkled up and I felt fresh air hit me in the face. It took me a moment to realise that I’d left the house in real life and began walking toward the back of the gardens where the forest started.

“How bad is it?” I asked Mitch’s retreating form as he raced back into the secret room.

“I mean… have you ever smelt a beached whale? You know, once the rot has really set in?” he asked as he returned with another disintegrating paper.

I wasn’t sure how old the parchment was or if it was actually from the Library of Alexandria or just a more modern recreation but it looked really old.

“No,” I answered.

“Well then, today should be a fun experience for you. There’s no whale carcass there but… apparently, from the smell of it, you’d think there was.”

My stomach clenched slightly in anticipation of the smell. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I knew it would be bad.

“Alright, a couple more things and then we should be good to go. As much as it’s going to pain me walking away from this place and leaving some of this behind, I’ve got the photos. Plus, Sterling won’t keep all of this. It’ll show up in auctions in a few years,” Mitch said, starting to walk out of the room before pausing, having spotted something. “Oh, this though. I’m not leaving you behind, beautiful.”

I looked away from the door, trying to work out what object he was crooning at but it looked just like any other scroll. I wasn’t sure what was so special about it but I wanted to know.

Mitch had started to bend down, the scrolls clutching in his hands, but he paused. His gaze snapped to his watch.

I froze, my eyes returning to the door. We were out of time. It was too late, the Sterlings were approaching.

We needed more time though. Mitch hadn’t finished loading the stuff into his bag and the waterproof wrap was still open.

I glanced back at him uncertainly. His stance hadn’t changed but he’d placed the scrolls on the floor and had reached for his thigh. Slowly, he pulled another gun out and placed it on the floor next to him.

“Once they’re in range, the electric trap I put down should buy us a little time. If you see them come through the door, start shooting,” he breathed.

Anxiety and fear threatened to overwhelm me, making my hands shake and my knees weak, but I nodded.

I had to do this.

I brought the gun up to point through the hole, my chest tight. Part of me was excited though. I had wanted action and adventure, I’d wanted to feel like a character from one of my books and now, I basically was one. We had discovered proof of a secret organisation that protected knowledge and stole things from the lost Library of Alexandria, we had found scrolls maybe from the library. Everything had been building up to this point and now that I was there, I was terrified.

Then I heard them.

Footsteps in the corridor outside. Many of them, people running towards us. Their steps echoed. I ripped my eyes away from the door, needing to check on Mitch. He was carefully layering the papers on top of the plastic, making sure that nothing was overlapping before laying another sheet down.

I swallowed and looked back at the door.

The footsteps were getting louder. They’d be at the door soon. Why hadn’t Mitch’s trap worked? He said that it would buy us some time so why hadn’t it gone off? Was it broken? Or had he set it up wrong?

“Halt!” a voice shouted from outside but they were too late.

A fizzing noise ripped through the air and I felt the hair on my arms stand on end as a bright light erupted from a small box in front of the door. I squeezed my eyes shut as lights burst in front of them, so bright and disconcerting that I was forced back to reality.

I stumbled, dizziness making the barely trodden path unsteady under my feet, before pushing myself to return to Crete. I stepped away from the shelves, my vision still hazy as shouts tore through the air.

“Get ready to run, kid,” Mitch said, his voice almost blocked out by the noise. “I’m almost done.

I couldn’t look away from the door though, I knew they were close.

The shouts slowly died down and I heard someone’s voice speaking over the noise.

“Scan for more traps,” she called. “That was too modern, it was placed by him!”

There was a moment of silence, occasionally broken by soft snuffling coming from the doorway, before I heard movement from Mitch.

This time, I did look away from the door.

Mitch had lifted another small box out of his bag, similar looking to the electric trap he’d placed near the door, and was loading everything else in. He slowly closed the zip before glancing up at me.

I looked away from him quickly, knowing that I needed to be staring at the door. I needed to be ready for when the Sterlings appeared.

There was a soft rustling noise again, moving closer to me this time.

“Alright, kid. What’s going to happen now is we’re going to make a run for it. Move slowly towards the end of the row, I’ll go in front of you, and keep an eye on the door. They might find the other trap but it’s only a little one so I’m not sure. Either way, I’ll set it off when we’re in position. Once we get to the end, I’ll prime this one and set it off to fill this place with smoke and then we run. How does that sound?” he breathed so softly I barely heard him.

I nodded, not trusting myself to be able to speak quietly enough.

“Okay, start moving. When we make a break for it, I want you to go first. My backpack is lined with kevlar and some other stuff so it should keep me fairly protected,” he said.

I nodded again, wanting to disagree but not being able to.

He started to slip past me, his steps soft. I followed him, trying to peer through the broken shelves as much as possible whilst also trying to keep an eye on the floor and make sure I didn’t kick any of the many rocks and broken pieces of wood there.

After what felt like an eternity, we stopped. Mitch slowly started to duck down, placing the trap out into the path just as the first person came through the door. I started to lift my gun but Mitch shook his head at me.

I stopped, holding the gun uncertainly as the guy who’d walked into the room looked around uncertainly. Mitch still didn’t move though. He seemed to be waiting for something.

Slowly, he lifted his arm, his other hand joining it and resting on his smartwatch. I looked away, glancing back at the man who was standing in the doorway, searching for bombs. How had he not seen the explosive on the floor or the one Mitch had put out next to our row? It felt so obvious to me.

“I think it’s safe,” the guy called.

That must have been what Mitch was waiting for because suddenly, smoke shot out from the small box, hidden behind a rock in the corner of the doorway. Thick white clouds burst to life from several of the rows. I hadn’t even seen Mitch place the smoke bombs down but he must have done.

Mitch didn’t move as the room quickly filled with smoke and shouts again. He waited until the smoke was thick before his hand closed on my arm and he started dragging me towards the back of the room.

“I heard footsteps,” someone behind us shouted, their tone victorious.

But Mitch was already pushing me to go fast.

“Keep going,” he said, his voice barely audible over the noise. “I’m going to drop some smoke grenades.”

His grip on my arm disappeared and I did my best to keep running straight towards the archway at the back of the room. It was hard. Even though the smoke was thinner towards the back of the room where we were, it still was so thick that I was basically running blind.

A heavy thunk followed by a hissing noise came from behind me before a hand closed on my arm again, pulling me slightly to the left.

“Almost there, kid,” Mitch said. “We’ll stop just out of the room so I can check the path for traps.”

I scrambled to keep up with him whilst also listening to the noise behind us.

They seemed to be searching through the room for us still, seemingly not realising where we were or even that we were running away. I was glad. It felt like at any moment, someone would realise and they’d start to chase us.

I hoped that wouldn’t happen though.

“This way,” Mitch muttered, pulling my arm just in time as I crashed into the edge of the doorway.

I hadn’t even seen it until just a millisecond before and if Mitch hadn’t pulled me, I would have run face first into it, rather than just hit it with my arm.

“Stop here, are you okay?” he asked, glancing at me for just a moment.

Pain shot through my arm and I knew that it would be bruised if it had happened in real life but I was okay. I tightened my grip on the gun, glancing back over my shoulder at the smoke-filled room.

“I’m fine,” I said quickly.

“Okay, good. Wait here whilst I check this and if they start shooting, shot back. You don’t need to aim, just fire. I just want you to scare them, that’s all. The more scattered the better,” he muttered, already crouching down and examining the floor of the cave.

I turned away from him, staring blindly back into the smoke filled room. My heart pounded and my hands felt slick as I squeezed the gun harder, bringing my finger to rest on the trigger.

I didn’t want to shoot the gun, despite a hint of morbid curiosity. I didn’t want to hit someone or kill them. I just wanted to be able to escape with Mitch and get to wherever we were going after this so that we could examine all of the things that he’d taken.

But I had to. I wanted to live out something like the adventure books I read and there was never an easy escape in those. They always had daring getaways, filled with gunfire and excitement. I thought that was what I wanted but now that I was actually in there, I just wanted to get away.

I could have just left. I could have blinked back to reality where I was running through the forest and just come back when we were somewhere safe but I couldn’t leave Mitch.

“There!” a voice cried from somewhere too close to us.

Gunfire erupted from the room behind us, the noise much louder than I expected. My ears rang and I lifted the gun, pointing it towards where I thought the room was. My finger tightened on the trigger and bullets exploded from the gun, shaking my arms and making me almost stumble.