Chapter 75 - The Door at the End of the Hall
Beyond the reading room, another narrow hallway descended deeper beneath the mountain.
Unlike the carefully preserved chambers above, this passage showed signs of recent use.
Fresh footprints marked the stone floor.
Samuel knelt to examine them.
"Three different people."
"Recent?"
"Within a few days."
Daniel's pulse quickened.
"They came before us."
The stranger looked troubled.
"They shouldn't have."
At the end of the hallway stood a modest wooden door.
No vault.
No iron.
No hidden mechanism.
Just an ordinary brass handle.
Yet someone had recently polished it.
Daniel reached toward it.
Before his hand touched the knob, Lily noticed a folded sheet of paper tucked beneath the door.
She picked it up carefully.
The handwriting was neat.
Familiar.
Daniel recognized it instantly.
Victor Hayes.
The note contained only one sentence.
If you have reached this door, everything you believed about why you left home is still incomplete.
Beneath the sentence was a freshly drawn arrow pointing toward the room beyond.
The ink had not fully dried.
Samuel looked from the note to the stranger.
"This wasn't written fifteen years ago."
The stranger slowly shook his head.
"No."
Daniel's eyes narrowed.
"Then Victor Hayes..."
He stopped speaking.
Because from the other side of the wooden door...
Someone quietly knocked.
Once.
Twice.
May you like
Then a calm voice said,
"Daniel... I've been waiting for you to ask the final question."
