The gate creaked open and the sweet fragrance of yellow flowers tickled her nostrils. The air inside the front yard was slightly cooler than on the outside. Ina stepped lightly through the old worn paved alley with grass growing between the cracks. She stopped right at the wide stairs to the cathedral's main entrance. The monumental building loomed before her quietly with an ominous air.

What kind of tragic secret was hidden inside?

She heard about the incident the other day, during the meeting with her employer. He handed her the detailed files and described the situation briefly, summing it up as peculiar and sinister.

Roughly 60 years ago during the war, a platoon of soldiers was forced to retreat somewhere safe. With all escape routes cut off, they hid in an abandoned monastery to wait for reinforcements, but once the help arrived nobody was there. Literally, no bodies to be found whether dead or alive despite signs of violence around the complex. The rations and damaged equipment were piled up in the back of a military truck that crashed in the woods nearby.

The only lead was a cryptic message sent from them before the contact was cut off. A report stating that people went missing one after another and that there might be a murderer among them. The culprit - as expected - was never found.

The case remained unsolved and the place earned a reputation as haunted due to unfortunate accidents after the war.

"And so here I am." She thought while looking far up at the rose window reflecting the evening sun. "Please, let me help solve this mystery and show me what happened."

Ina closed her eyes and adjusted her breathing while focusing deep. Slowly the sounds around her - the rustling of leaves, the breeze, the chirping - all of that started to fade until the world went completely mute. A moment later the silence was broken by a loud male voice right behind her.

"Attention lads! You better listen carefully!"

When Ina opened her eyes and turned around, she could see soldiers in old war uniforms lined up in front of a lieutenant. The colors of the world were slightly saturated with a tint of sepia, like in old movies.

That was her power. The power to see the past with her own eyes, except that she couldn't interact with it and the people in her vision couldn't see her. Like Bastian described it before, it was as if "stepping into a movie".

The lieutenant carried on with his speech, but she didn't pay any attention to it. She decided to circle around them to examine their faces closer. Most of them looked young, serious and quite worn out.

Ina passed by the lieutenant's back, taking her time when she noticed that one of the soldiers seemed to follow her with his gaze. Their eye contact lasted a couple of seconds before the blond man was nudged to focus on the speaker. She turned around to see what might've caught his attention, but there wasn't anything in particular. It struck her as odd, it was in no way possible he looked specifically at her. She had no influence on what happened in the past, so she shrugged it off and ended the session.

The world around her returned back to normal.

"I look forward to working with you."

Ina smiled and looked briefly at the space where the soldiers stood in her vision just a moment ago. She then passed the stairs and looked for the key to the main entrance.