CHAPTER 3 - THE VAULT

The darkness was absolute, a suffocating blanket that enveloped every corner of the cave. The only sound was the gentle lapping of water against rock, echoing like a distant heartbeat.

With each stroke, the water yielded reluctantly, cool and inviting against the skin. But there was no comfort in its embrace, only an eerie sense of isolation. The absence of light distorted perception, turning the familiar into something foreign and unknown. It was a world devoid of color, where senses strained to distinguish between reality and imagination.

“Mon Cheri!” Mr Chevalier shouted, his voice echoing loud into the void.

He knew he couldn’t see anything. Still, moved by instinct he continued to turn around, looking for her in every direction and finding nothing but the unwelcoming darkness. 

“Mon Cheri!” He tried again, but could only hear the echoed sounds of his voice and of the chilly water disturbed by his moving arms.

Yet, amidst the darkness, there was a glimmer of hope. Looking down, he noticed a faint pinpoint of red light at the bottom of the pool. He took a deep breath and was about to dive right at it, when he noticed the red light rising to the surface.

“Thought I lost you for a second.” he said, staring at Amy as she resurfaced. 

A pendant made of an oval red stone she carried on a collar around her neck was shining brightly under the water, enough to dimly illuminate her face with an eerie red light.

“Got my new big shoes stuck between some rocks, at the bottom.” she said. “Had to get rid of them to get out.”

“Why is it shining like that?” he said.

“I don’t know.” she said, grabbing the glowing pendant and raising it above water. The light shone much brighter, as if she was holding a torch. “Let’s just get out. This water is too cold.” 

She used her glowing red stone to take a look around and to help guide them to the shore.

“Your crazy idea worked.” Mr Chevalier said, getting out of the pool.

“Let’s hope there is no need for more crazy ideas.” she said, accepting his hand to get out.

“What is that?” he asked, pointing at the red stone.

“It was a gift from my mom.”

“Is it made from any rare materials? Is it worth a lot of money?”

“Not at all. To everyone else this is just a rock. But to me, it is priceless.” she said. “My mom gave it to me right… right before she died.”

“I’m sorry. Can I see it?” he asked, trying to touch it.

“No.” she said harshly. “This never leaves my body.” she said again, caressing the red stone with her fingers, then frowned and tilted her head a bit.

“What?” he asked.

“Weird. Not only it never shone like this, but now I can see some lines inside it, forming a star shape.” she said.

“And you’ve never seen that before, either?” 

She shook her head.

“My mom used to call it a star stone and I never understood why. Did she know the stone could shine like this? Had she seen the star shape inside it? Why did she never tell me anything about it?”

“Maybe she thought you were not ready yet?” 

“Doesn’t matter.” she said, dismissing the subject as it clearly bothered her. “What do we do now? Where do we go?”

“Well…” he said, looking around. “You have the light. So, lead the way. Let’s explore and find out.”

And so they did. The intrepid explorers continued to venture deeper into the labyrinthine cave system, as if being swallowed by this fossilized leviathan into a never ending journey into the darkness. Their only source of light was the radiant glow emanating from the shimmering stone on Amy’s neck, casting dancing shadows on the rough-hewn walls.

With each step, the air grew colder, making their wet bodies shake to the point they now feared hypothermia. The silence around them was palpable, broken only by the sound of their echoing footfalls against the rocky floor and the occasional cough. Suddenly, the flickering light of the stone revealed a faint glimmer ahead, drawing their attention to a section of the cavern wall adorned with intricate carvings.

Drawing closer, they marveled at the ancient script etched into the stone, its lines and curves worn with the passage of time. Dust danced in the air as they brushed away millennia of neglect, revealing symbols that seemed to become activated by their presence and began to  pulse with an otherworldly energy. 

Mr Chevalier’s eyes were alight with excitement and curiosity. With trembling fingers, he traced the contours of the glyphs, his mind racing to decipher their meaning.

"This is it," he exclaimed, his voice echoing through the cavern. "We have found it!"

Amy moved to his side, stepping close to the wall he was studying. Suddenly the red stone around her neck started to pulse like a heart beating outside of her chest. The symbols on the wall shone with a red light and pulsated in synchronicity with the red stone.

"Beyond the river of darkness, where the stars meet the earth, lies the vault of the ancients," he read aloud, his voice echoing off the walls. "There, guarded by the three guardian spirits, the key awaits those who dare to seek it."

“What language is that?” Amy asked.

“A very old and forgotten one,” he said.

“So, are you an archeologist? A linguist? How do you know that?” she asked.

“Me? No, no, no. My father was, though. Both things. Just like your father… I guess.” he said and continued to brush the symbols with his finger. “I’m just… born into the family business.”

With newfound resolve, the explorers pressed onward into the depths of the cave. Guided by the ancient writings on the wall, they were led to a dead end. Unlike the walls on both sides, the one in front of them looked more like a plain stone wall that was put there a long time ago to block their path. It didn’t look natural and it definitely didn’t look like it belonged to that cave system. It had a light gray, smooth surface with a single star symbol at the center of it.

“Was there another way?” Amy asked, palming the wall.

“No. This is the only way.” Mr Chevalier said.

“But it’s a dead end.” she said and pondered for a while. “Can you repeat what you read on the wall back there?”

“Beyond the river of darkness…” he said, then paused trying to remember the rest. “... beyond the… oh, beyond the river of darkness, where the stars meet the earth, lies the vault of the ancients. There, guarded by the three guardian spirits, the key awaits those who dare to seek it. Why?”

She looked over her shoulder to the darkness behind them.

“Beyond the river of darkness…” she whispered, then looked at the stone wall with the star symbol in front of them. “This can’t be it. It makes no sense.” She said again, looking down at the red stone in her hand.

“It is clearly connected to this place.” He said, catching up with her logic. “You said it never shone like this before. But as soon as we got near this place the stone activated somehow.”

“This is absolutely ridiculous.” She said, then removed the red star stone from around her neck and pressed it against the star symbol on the stone wall.

“Where the stars meet the earth…” Mr Chevalier whispered.

The tunnel began to shake, making a deafening sound as the heavy stone door slowly slid away against the rocky ground and gave them passage.

“...lies the vault of the ancients… Magnifique!” Mr Chevalier said and walked through.

Amy put the red stone back around her neck and followed him.

They stepped into a big square room. The ceiling was four meters high, the room was about twenty meters across and the floor was evenly covered by one meter squared stones. Each wall had a big white crystal etched into the center of it, casting a bright light that together lit up the whole room.

“Why build a secret chamber deep in the rocky underground of a cave system at the heart of the Amazon Rainforest?” she asked.

“To protect something very valuable that only those deemed worthy should possess,” he said.

“So, this is all about money? What is it? Gold? Diamonds? What?” she asked.

“I don’t need money. I just transferred your tribe one million euro like it was nothing. And it was nothing. No, mon cheri. Anything that can be bought with money is cheap. This… this is about forgotten knowledge. A rare kind of knowledge and power that needs to be earned.” he said, walking with her across the room until they both stepped on a pressure plate and heard a clicking noise. 

Amy dragged Mr Chevalier away from the plate and sent him down on the ground with her, both covering their faces. A fraction of a second of hesitation and both would have been impaled. A hole appeared on the pressure plate they had previously stepped on and a huge metal spear shot out of it. Then it retracted back under the plate like it was never there.

“Merde alors! Thanks, mon cheri. How did you know?” he asked, standing up and checking his body to see if there was a wound anywhere.

“I didn’t. Just instinct, I guess.” she said with a shrug.

“You seem to have very good instincts.” he said. “Either that or a lot of luck. Maybe both. Still, we better watch out where we step next.”

“You little shits!” they heard someone else say with a grunt.

They both turned around and saw the big, wet, covered in bat shit, bloodied barefoot brute entering the room, his gun pointed at them.

“You gotta respect his persistence.” Mr Chevalier said.

“Yeah. It’s very annoying, though.” Amy said.

The big stone door slid shut behind the brute.

“Hey! Let me out!” he cursed, hitting the door with his open hand, then turned around to Mr Chevalier and Amy. “Open the door. Now!” he shouted, pointing a shaky gun at them.

“We are trapped here with you.” Mr Chevalier said, raising both hands over his head.

“Look. We need to help each other, or we will all die here. Look at them…” she said, pointing at the skeletons scattered around the room of past explorers who failed to find their way out.

Logic was clearly not the brute’s strength and seeing those skeletons only made him more agitated. He stiffed his arm, pointed the gun at Amy and crossed the room in her direction.

“Get me out of here right now you bit…” he said and was interrupted by a huge metal spear impaling him through the chest before it retracted under the pressure plate and vanished.

The brute’s lifeless body fell on the floor, forming a big pool of blood next to the pressure plate he had just stepped on, the gun still in his right hand.

“Well, that problem is solved.” Mr Chevalier said, without a care for the brute’s death.

The room began to tremble with a loud rumble, shaking off cascades of dust from the ceiling and, unbelievably to their eyes, it began to move down in a mechanical rhythm as if it was unaware of their soon to be crushed existence.

“Oh, merde…” he said, letting out a big sigh in frustration.

“We need to get out of here fast!” she said.

“YOU THINK?” he shouted at her. “Sorry. Not constructive…” he raised his hands apologetically.

This was the most nervous she had ever seen him.

“Are you claustrophobic?” she asked.

“Me? No.” he said. “I only fear rooms that TRY TO CRUSH ME TO DEATH!”

“Okey dokey…” she said, rolling her eyes. 

“Ok. Sorry. Let’s figure this out.” he said, taking a deep breath and trying to regain his composure. “We need to find out which of these stones are safe, which are a death trap and if any of them opens a new door somewhere so we can escape.”

“There are no markings on the floor.” Amy said, analyzing the floor stones. “But we know that we can’t step on that one near his body.” she said pointing to the floor near the dead brute. “Nor can we step on that one that almost killed us.” she said, pointing to the other one close to them. 

“They are all the same.” he said, showing two identical squared stones near them. “They are all huge, stupid blank floor stones paving a huge, stupid, big room and there are no markings, no symbols, nothing at all indicating which one is a trap and which one isn’t.” 

“Where the stars meet the earth…” she said.

“We already used that one to open the door, mon cheri.” he said.

“I know but… look there.” She said, pointing at the center of the room. “It is a bit far away but isn’t that…”

“....the same star symbol from the door.” He said in a loud whisper, while squinting his eyes at the symbol.

She nodded. 

At the center of the room there was a barely visible circle carved one centimeter deep into the stone with a star symbol at the center of it, just like the one they saw on the door outside. Or at least it looked like it from that distance.

“But how can we reach that without stepping on another death trap?” She asked.

“I have an idea. Give me the stone.” He said, extending his open hand to her.

“No.” She said, covering it in her hand.

“Seriously? After all we’ve been through? It’s not like I can run away with it.” He said, showing around the area they were trapped in.

“I’m sorry. It’s not that.” she said, feeling a bit embarrassed and removing the stone from around her neck and handing it over to him. “It’s a knee jerk reaction. I just… I don't like anyone else touching it. I guess I also have mommy issues.” she said again, offering a yellow smile.

“Thank you for your trust, mon cheri.” he said with a short bow, taking the spherical red stone and removing it from the crude leather net holding it, then turned to face the symbol at the center of the room.

“So…what’s the plan?” she asked, hands on her hips while watching him.

“Well… I very much doubt there will ever be any other situation in my whole life where being a bocce national champion will come in handy.” he said. “I am confident I can throw your red stone and make it stop exactly on that mark.”

“What happens if you miss?” she asked with a frown.

“I won’t.” he said while concentrating, his right hand swinging the red stone back and forth as if testing its weight and calibrating his throw. “I know this sounds arrogant, but I have earned the right to be this arrogant when it comes to boccia. I am just that good. It’s one of the few skills I have mastered.”

“Isn’t bocce played on the sand?” she asked

“Oui.” he replied.

“Because this is a stone floor…” 

“Oui.”

“Don’t rush into it. We only have one shot.”

“...”

“But, also, don’t take too long. Because, you know…” she said, pointing at the ceiling.

“Seriously!?” he said, standing up straight to stare at her, clearly annoyed by her interruptions. “Do you wanna do this?” he said again, showing her the red stone.

“No. Sorry. You do it… quick, please.”

Amy’s stone was an opaque red stone, the size of a tennis ball and, thus, smaller and much lighter than a bocce stone ball, but Mr Chevalier still felt quite confident he could do it.

“Ok. Here goes nothing.” he said, turning back to face the symbol on the floor at the center of the room. He swung his right hand back and forth three times, recalibrating his throw, and then the world seemed to move in slow motion as he released the red stone from his hand and let it roll on the floor.