CHAPTER 2 — The Coffin That Held Nothing
Before sunrise...
Sophia stood outside the cemetery with a court order.
Victor arrived furious.
"This is insanity!"
"You want to dig up my brother?"
The judge answered calmly.
"The will requires it."
Television crews surrounded the cemetery gates.
Millions watched the livestream.
The coffin was lifted.
Every eye focused on the lid.
The workers opened it.
Silence.
No body.
Only a single wooden box.
Victor turned pale.
"This..."
"This can't be real."
Inside the box lay three objects.
An old brass compass.
A faded photograph of Jonathan standing beside a tiny cabin.
And one handwritten sentence.
"Gold disappears. Land survives. Blood remembers."
The back of the photograph contained coordinates.
Deep inside Montana.
Victor smiled again.
"If there's treasure..."
"It's mine."
He secretly hired armed mercenaries.
He planned to reach the cabin first.
What nobody knew...
Sophia had already recognized the compass.
She remembered receiving it as a birthday gift when she was ten.
Her father had whispered,
"One day this will always point toward home... even when home no longer exists."
She had thought it was only a bedtime story.
Now...
The compass needle wasn't pointing north.
It pointed west.
Toward Montana.
Victor's helicopters took off immediately.
Sophia drove alone.
No security.
No lawyers.
Just the compass.
Three days later...
Both parties reached the abandoned cabin at almost the same time.
Victor kicked the door open.
Nothing.
Dust.
Broken furniture.
Spider webs.
He laughed.
"The old man fooled us."
Then Sophia noticed something strange.
The fireplace bricks formed the shape of an "A."
She pushed one loose brick.
A hidden staircase slowly emerged beneath the floor.
Victor shoved her aside.
"I found it first!"
He rushed downstairs.
The old wooden steps cracked.
CRACK!
Victor screamed.
The staircase collapsed beneath him.
He plunged nearly thirty feet into darkness.
His flashlight shattered.
His phone lost signal.
Above him...
Sophia stared into the darkness.
Then she heard Victor whisper...
"No..."
"It can't be..."
Something else was already down there.
May you like
Waiting.
TO BE CONTINUED...
