Claire points her hand at a wall and said.
"This is the thing, we discovered."
There were... Graves.
Nicolas asked.
"why are .. Graves here?"
There were total of seven graves.
"These graves... belong to the last survivors."
Sierra noticed some marks on the wall that were made of planks.
She goes closer and touches it.
"What are these?"
"These look likes scratches done by nails."
Sierra understood something and suddenly shouted :
"Wait!"
The graves were kind of strange.
quietly a thought came to her mind.
"perhaps these are not scratches, but something that is written by nails."
"I don't think I understand this language."
"You have keen eyes." Claire continues. "This is one of the language that was forgotten long ago."
"Do you have any guess what was written here."
"Well... Its hard to say I know yet I don't ."
"Yeah! Claire granny you were telling your tale."
Nicolas said curiously.
"Ho oh. I guess you likes stories."
Claire smiled.
"I have a hobby of reading. Well. I used to love the stories."
Nicolas said.
"Don't you read now?."
Sierra asked.
"It's not important right now. Granny, continue the story."
Nicolas said hastily.
FORTY YEARS AGO
"What are these?"
I questioned.
Steve replied with a sense of grief.
"These are the graves... of last survivors."
...
I didn't say anything.
Then he went closer to the wall and said.
"Claire, see this."
"This was the thing that the spirit wanted to show me."
"What? It's a wall. That has so many times been scratched by someone's hands."
"These are just not scratches.There is something written by nails."
"Who would scratche to write with their nails."
He faces the graves and sayed
"I guess it was their compulsion to this."
And than they started to try and decipher the language.
He stared at the wall for around 20 minutes.
Then he said:
"I think I heard something like that from my grandma."
"Grandma?"
"I guess... Yeah. My grandma! My grandma told me a folklore about a town in my childhood."
Sighhh
"Seriously, when will you move from the knowledge of your mad grandma."
I was mad at him for joking in a situation like this.
"It's for real. Whenever grandma started telling me the story. Grandpa stopped grandma saying it would be better not let anyone know this after us. And he stopped my grandma to tell me the whole story till his last breath. So..."
He stopped mid sentence.
"So?"
"So, grandma told me about that folklore, the one that my grandpa not let her tell me ,In her death bed. Shortly after grandpa passed away."
"She said quietly in pale voice. Don't let anyone know about this story. It is a secret. That has to be kept away from people."
"What was the story?"
I asked seriously.
"Something like... There was a place that was once called Arcadia. The paradise in earth. It was a place blessed by God of prosperity. All the peoples were pure souls. There was just kindness in their hearts. They were known as most prosper city in continent. But one day a devil came..."
"Then?"
"Then one night peoples heard screams coming from outside. They went to check outside."
"It was as if they have entered hell ,the monsters were swarming in it. The peoples were dying because of the monsters. And it was so serious that secret society couldn't find the clue of the curse and form a barrier around it."
"What barrier?"
"She died while talking about it. So I couldn't understand what she wanted to say."
"Are you saying this is Arcadia."
"And what was the secret society."
"I don't know."
"So what do you know?"
"I know what is scratched here."
"What?"
"This is the story. That I told you."
"If this is. Then tell full story. Why just half."
"It is half story till the monsters appear."
"Is there anything that can help us get out of here."
"Yeah. It is written."
"There is written that to break the town curse we need to find three things."
"What are those?"
"I don't know. It is not described."
"where are those?"
"First one is
Truth does not sleep beneath stone.
It lingers beyond forgotten hours.
Seek where time no longer moves,
and where no voice reaches the sky.
Do not look for what remains—"
look for what still watches."
"Isn't this too big of a location."
"I need to decode another two written here."
"He note down that in his diary."
**PRESENT DAY**
Claire moves her hand forward and gave the diary to Sierra.
"It's the diary Steve wrote what he found from this wall."
Nicolas asks
"what happened to Steve then."
"... I will tell that another time."
Sierra starts reading.
"Truth does not sleep beneath stone.
It lingers beyond forgotten hours.
Seek where time no longer moves,
and where no voice reaches the sky.
Do not look for what remains—"
look for what still watches."
" What could be this?"
"What about second one?"
"The lock has no shape,
yet the key still waits.
When roads abandon their names,
and stone begins to wander—"
follow not what opens,
but what is left behind.
Where no path remains,
the rusted one sleeps."
"You understand anything?"
"How could I understand these trashy riddles."
"Couldn't they just write the location and object normally."
"..."
"Let's go back to the ground."
"Yeah"
They returns to the ground level.
It was almost night.
The light was faded from the sky.
"Granny." Nicolas calls out.
"Wouldn't those monsters come here. If we show light in the night." He continues "it was lit yesterday too"
He was curious why this place was different from others and why monsters don't come near it.
"It would be not a problem. Monsters can't come here."
"Why?"
"My husband also used talismans here too prevent monsters."
"O... Okay"
"Let's have dinner for now."
"Yeah"
**AFTER DINNER**
Nicolas in his bed reading the diary in the light of a lantern.
"What can these riddle means?"
He lies down from frustration.
"Ahhh"
"He saw it again."
"Truth.. does.. not.. sleep.. beneath.. stones.."
"I guess it says it's not below stones"
"Then what about, It awaits forgotten hours."
"Which son of a bitch make those shitty things."
"Btw What happened to that town?"
"And what was the secret society and it's barrier?"
"Whatever."
"I will see it with a fresh mind. Tommorow."***