Episode 15: One Week
789 Words
The words remained on the page.
THE DOOR OPENS.
Heaven couldn’t look away.
“One week,” she whispered.
Conrad stood beside her.
“We have seven days.”
Maya looked terrified.
“Seven days to do what?”
Sierra answered.
“Find out how to close it.”
Dylan looked around.
“And if we don’t?”
Sierra didn’t answer.
That was answer enough.
The group returned to the library.
They spent hours searching.
Books covered the tables.
Old papers were spread everywhere.
Maya searched school records.
Dylan searched newspapers.
Sierra looked through the old magical texts.
Conrad studied everything connected to his family.
Heaven sat beside him.
After hours, she was exhausted.
“I can’t do this anymore.”
Conrad looked at her.
“Take a break.”
“There isn’t time.”
“There is.”
“One week isn’t enough.”
He reached for her hand.
“Then we’ll make it enough.”
She looked at him.
“How are you always so calm?”
“I’m not.”
“You look calm.”
“That’s because you’re looking at me.”
Her heart skipped.
She smiled.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“I know.”
They stayed like that for a moment.
Then Maya shouted.
“I found something!”
Everyone rushed over.
She had found an old newspaper article.
The headline read:
STUDENT DISAPPEARS FROM DELTA HIGH SCHOOL
Heaven read the article.
The student was Sierra’s sister.
The date was twenty years ago.
But beneath the article was a handwritten note.
She was not the first.
Sierra stared at it.
“There were others.”
“How many?” Heaven asked.
“Three.”
Conrad frowned.
“Who?”
Sierra pointed to three names.
One was her sister.
One was Conrad’s father.
The third name was unfamiliar.
Heaven looked at the name.
“Who is that?”
Sierra shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Dylan frowned.
“Then how did they know each other?”
Nobody answered.
The lights flickered.
Heaven’s fingers began glowing.
The black book opened.
A page turned.
A picture appeared.
Three people stood in front of the glowing door.
Sierra’s sister.
Conrad’s father.
And the third person.
Heaven stared.
“Wait.”
She pointed at the picture.
“That’s not someone from twenty years ago.”
Everyone looked at her.
The third person looked exactly the same age as they did now.
Maya whispered,
“How is that possible?”
Sierra stepped closer.
Her face went pale.
“I know him.”
“Who?”
Sierra swallowed.
“He’s still here.”
The library doors slammed shut.
The lights went out.
Conrad immediately grabbed Heaven’s hand.
“Stay with me.”
A voice whispered from somewhere in the darkness.
“You’ve been looking for me.”
Everyone froze.
The lights came back.
Nobody was there.
Then the library door slowly opened.
A figure stood outside.
A boy.
He looked like a student.
Calm.
Ordinary.
Except for the golden symbol on his neck.
Sierra stepped backward.
“No.”
Conrad stared at him.
“Who are you?”
The boy smiled.
“You already know.”
Conrad shook his head.
“I’ve never seen you.”
The boy looked at Heaven.
“But she has.”
Heaven frowned.
“What?”
The boy smiled.
“In her dreams.”
Heaven’s blood ran cold.
The hallway behind him suddenly changed.
For one second, it wasn’t the school hallway.
It was the dark corridor from her dreams.
The glowing door appeared behind him.
Then everything returned to normal.
The boy was gone.
Maya looked at Heaven.
“Who was that?”
Heaven couldn’t speak.
Conrad squeezed her hand.
“We’ll find him.”
Sierra shook her head.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
“We shouldn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because he wants us to.”
Conrad frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Sierra looked at the empty doorway.
“He isn’t trying to hide.”
She looked at Heaven.
“He wants you to find him.”
Heaven stared at the black book.
A final line appeared on the page.
SEVEN DAYS.
Then another.
FIVE DAYS.
Heaven’s eyes widened.
“It changed.”
Conrad looked at the page.
“It was seven days.”
“Now it’s five.”
Sierra stepped backward.
“That means…”
The school bell rang.
Everyone jumped.
Heaven closed the book.
She looked at Conrad.
“We have five days.”
He nodded.
“We’ll do it.”
She squeezed his hand.
But neither of them noticed the small golden mark that had appeared on Heaven’s wrist.
And somewhere inside the school…
the mysterious boy smiled.
Because the countdown had already begun.
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