🌙 Chapter Four: The Chimes at Midnight
The night air was sharp, with a faint scent of lilacs drifting from the churchyard. Rita, Georgia, and Kyle huddled under the shadow of the tower, staring up at its dark, looming shape. The bells hung silent in the moonlight, but Kyle swore he’d heard them—chiming on their own.
“It was like a whisper at first,” Kyle said, shifting nervously. “Then... it was like someone was playing a tune, but soft. And then it stopped.”
Rita frowned. “Did you tell Lane?”
Kyle nodded. “He went to get a flashlight. He’s coming.”
Just then, Lane jogged up, breathless, with the flashlight beam bouncing across the grass. “Got it! What’s the plan, detective?”
Rita glanced up. The bell tower’s iron door was shut tight, but the small side window—barely big enough for a kid—was cracked open. “We’re going in.”
Georgia groaned. “I knew you’d say that.”
Kyle gave a crooked grin. “Adventure’s calling, G.”
Lane boosted Kyle up, and with a grunt, Kyle slipped through the window. Rita followed, feeling the scrape of the windowsill on her elbows. Georgia sighed dramatically before climbing in last.
Inside, the air was damp, filled with the faint scent of old wood and metal. The floor creaked beneath their feet. They tiptoed toward the stairs, the flashlight beam sweeping over dusty beams and ropes.
Kyle stopped suddenly, pointing the flashlight upward. “Look!”
The gold symbol from the photo—the swirling keyhole surrounded by ivy—was carved into the wooden beam above the bell rope. Rita’s heart leaped.
“It’s real,” she whispered.
Lane tilted the flashlight, revealing a small latch hidden in the wall beneath the carving. Kyle pressed it—and with a soft click, a panel in the floor shifted.
They exchanged wide-eyed looks. Georgia muttered, “This is so not in the building plans.”
Rita knelt and gently lifted the panel. Below was a narrow staircase, descending into darkness.
Kyle gulped. “Anyone else hear that?”
They froze. A soft, distant chime echoed up from the hidden stairwell—one note, then two, then silence.
Rita’s pulse raced. “The bells…”
Lane took a step back. “Guys, this is way more than we bargained for.”
Rita looked at her friends—faces pale, eyes wide, hearts pounding. She knew they were scared.
But she also knew this was the clue they’d been waiting for.
“Let’s go.”
And one by one, they slipped down the hidden stairs into the shadows—toward the secret that had been waiting beneath the tower all along.
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