Chapter 40 - The Boy Who Was Buried AliveThe hidden staircase descended beneath the palace farther than Ethan thought possible.
Cold air rose from below, carrying the smell of ancient stone and extinguished candles.
Captain Rowan insisted on going first.
King Aldric followed him, holding a lantern.
Ethan came last.
Every step made the strange whispering louder.
"How long has this place been here?" Ethan asked.
"Longer than the palace," Aldric answered.
"Then who built it?"
The king hesitated.
"You did."
Ethan stopped.
"I'm twelve."
"Now, perhaps."
The staircase ended in a circular chamber illuminated by blue crystals embedded in the walls.
At its center stood a stone coffin.
Its lid was carved with the face of a young boy.
Ethan approached slowly.
The resemblance was perfect.
Even the small scar above his eyebrow was there.
Rowan whispered, "By the Seven Kings."
Ethan brushed dust from the inscription.
HERE RESTS ETHAN COLE, THE BOY WHO SAVED A THOUSAND YEARS.
His fingers trembled.
"If I'm buried here, how am I standing here?"
Aldric did not answer.
Instead, he pointed toward seven enormous stone doors positioned around the chamber.
Each door displayed the same boy at a different age.
Twelve.
Sixteen.
Twenty-five.
Forty.
Sixty.
Eighty.
And one final door without a number.
Aldric explained that the royal historians had always believed the doors represented seven generations of kings.
"But when you arrived," he said, "I realized they represented seven versions of one person."
Ethan looked at the coffin again.
"Me."
Aldric nodded.
Ethan grabbed the coffin's stone lid.
Rowan stepped forward.
"Young master, perhaps we should—"
"I need to know."
Together, they pushed.
Stone scraped against stone.
Inside lay a skeleton wearing ancient armor.
Beside its right hand rested a modern digital wristwatch.
Ethan recognized it instantly.
His father's watch.
He had seen it every morning before school.
His father always wore it, even though its screen had been cracked years earlier.
"That's impossible," Ethan whispered.
He reached into the coffin.
The moment his fingers touched the watch, its dead screen flashed.
OCTOBER 17.
Then the display changed.
DO NOT LET HIM OPEN THE SEVENTH DOOR.
Ethan staggered backward.
"Who wrote that?"
The skeleton's bony fingers suddenly moved.
Rowan drew his sword.
A deep mechanical sound rolled through the chamber.
Every crystal turned red.
The final door began opening.
And a voice spoke from inside the coffin.
It was not Ethan's voice.
May you like
It belonged to his father.
"Son, if you're hearing this, I'm already dead."
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