Page 103 of Immersed
They packed up the most relevant documents and headed toward the courtyard, Levi leading with Faine’s journal open in one hand.
“Wait.”He stopped at an intersection of corridors.“Faine mentions a ‘Specimen Storage’ in the east section. We should probably check it after the courtyard.”
“You want to split up?”Asher asked, eyebrow raised.
“No,”Levi replied too quickly. The thought of navigating the darkened halls alone sent a cold spike of fear through his stomach.“No, we should stay together. The courtyard first, then circle back to Specimen Storage.”
Asher nodded and stepped closer, fingers brushing Levi’s wrist in a gesture that could have been accidental but definitely wasn’t.“Together, then.”
Levi didn’t pull away this time.
The courtyard was bathed in ghostly moonlight.
Stone benches arranged in a circular pattern surrounded a central fountain, its basin dry and filled with dead leaves and debris. Thetemperature dropped, their breath visible in small clouds that dissipated in the still air.
“Over here,”Maddie called, waving from the fountain’s edge. She and Owen must have received the same message from Jasper.“We’ve been recording EVPs. Listen to this.”
She held up a digital recorder, pressing play. Static crackled, then a low grinding sound emerged—like massive gears turning beneath the earth.
“That’s not an EVP,”Levi said.“That’s the building.”
“What do you mean?”Owen asked, brow furrowed in confusion.
Before Levi could answer, Jasper’s voice came through their radios again:“Guys, use the UV light on the courtyard stones.”
Maddie pulled a handheld UV light from her equipment bag and switched it on. The purple beam swept across the flagstones, revealing nothing at first. Then she aimed it at the fountain.
Glowing symbols blazed to life—intricate geometric patterns etched into the stone but invisible to the naked eye. They formed concentric circles around the fountain, with a triangular shape at the center.
“Holy shit,”Owen breathed, adjusting his glasses.“These markingsweren’ton any of the historical documentation.”
Levi crouched, examining the nearest symbol. It matched the mark on cabinet thirteen—a triangle within a circle.
“There’s writing,”Maddie said, pointing to a series of characters circling the fountain’s base.“It looks... Latin, maybe?”
Owen knelt beside her, squinting at the glowing text.“Not Latin. It’s a substitution cipher.”He pulled out a notebook and began copying the characters.“Give me a fewminutes.”
Leviwasimpresseddespite himself. Owen’s analytical skills proved genuinely useful—somethinghe’dneed to remember when Asher inevitably suggested sacrificing him later.
“Jasper,”Levi called into his radio,“how did you know to check with UV?”
“The thermal imaging showed cold spots in a pattern,”Jasper’s voice replied.“Like, unnaturally cold, in a perfect circle. Figured it might be reactive to light on a different spectrum.”
This has to prove to Asher that we need to keep them. They’re not obstacles.
“I’ve got it,”Owen announced after several minutes of furious scribbling.“It’s English, just encoded. It says: ‘Three Guardians stand before the threshold. Blood of the Creator. Voice of the Creator. Flesh of the Creator. Only when all three bow will the path reveal itself.’”
“Three Guardians,”Levi said slowly, meeting Asher’s eyes across the fountain. The phrase connected with what they found in the file cabinet.“The biometric checkpoints.”
“What do you mean?”Maddie asked, looking between them.
“We found documents in the Research Wing,”he explained.“About a security system Dr. Faine designed. It requires three different biological samples to access some hidden floor beneath the building.”
“Biological samples?”Owen’s face scrunched in disgust.
“Biometric authentication. The files mentioned it requires ‘three-point biological verification’ to access something called the sanctum. And this,”Levi gestured to the glowing text,“says the same thing. Blood, voice, and... flesh.”
“That’s seriously messed up,”Tyler muttered.
