Tuesday , 17th June 2025
Dear Diary,
They shut the portal.
Or at least… they tried.
As the red-eyed soldiers began to coalesce within the rift, the scientists unleashed some kind of containment grid—monstrous beams of blue energy that fizzed and crackled like lightning. For a moment, I dared to hope it would succeed.
But something unfolded out of there then.
A hand.
Clawed. Metal. Anchored on the tunnel floor as if it sensed we were present.
That was all it took.
BOOM.
The tunnel collapsed.
Concrete, dust, flame, silence.
Lucas and I were yanked out just in time. Our lungs were scanned by paramedics. News reporters buzzed around like flies. Soldiers cordoned it off. And then, finally, the general found us.
Same guy. Hard face. Crisp uniform.
“You’ve done more than we ever hoped,” he said. “But if there’s more we need to know—now’s the time.”
Lucas looked at me.
I had reached into the hoodie and pulled out the map—the map we had taken from the castle. Still dirt-stained. Still softly glowing along the edges. But now, held up to the streetlight, I noticed something different.
Weak symbols. Lines of script.
On the reverse.
Lucas rolled it out slowly. The general leaned in. And there, faintly etched onto the parchment:
“Below where silence sinks in deep,
The guards stand guard over what none shall possess.
The general read it slowly, aloud.
“It’s a riddle,” I had explained. “We think it’s the key to the next portal. Maybe even where the invasion will start.”
Lucas waved his hand. “The front of the map showed Maelgor’s kingdom. but there are arrows that cross over into our world. All on the same date: June 21st.”
The general glared. “‘Silence sinks in deep’. could be a cave. A mine. A bunker.”
“‘The watchers guard what none shall keep,'” Lucas quoted. “What if there are creatures here already? Waiting to watch?”
The general stood up. “We’ll investigate every avenue. But you two—you’re coming with us. You’ve seen things we haven’t. And if this map is real, we don’t have time to wait.”
He was right.
We have only four days until June 21st.
The first portal is buried, but the invasion isn’t over.
Somewhere below—where silence lives—they’re still watching.
And we’re going to find them.
—Shaurya