'Are you sure you want to read your letter?' Noa asks as Gio holds the metal box in his hands.
'Of course, I want to read m..my letter. Wouldn't you want to do the same?' 'I don't know, I like the idea of my parents being alive and waiting for me, but I also don't know who they are. Maybe they didn't even write me a letter and my box is empty,' Noa says.

He sighs as he reaches for his neck, feeling around to see if he can find a tube as well.

'But I do think I want to at least get it out of my body.' 'You should probably wait until Ace is back, if you pull a Grace now, we have no one left I trust to take the lead.'
'I'm right here!' I shout from the other side of the table.

A small chuckle fills the room as Noa places his hand down on my thigh.

'We know.'

Gio decides to waste no more time as he starts opening his metal box hopefully containing a letter.

'Do you think everyone should be able to read their letter?' I ask Noa as I look at Gio folding open a piece of paper.

'Everyone definitely deserves to read them, but I don't think it's possible to get everyone's tube out. We still don't know 100% certain what will happen when it's removed. Gio is fine, but you went mad,' he explains.

Gio looks up from his letter trying to get our attention.

'It's from m..my dad, nothing too useful. He's telling m..me to take care of m..my sister and that m..mom wrote to her. Also, some depressing talk about a bunker.'

He scans the letter one last time before he puts it in his pocket.

'I'm happy I had the chance to read it though, thank you.'

He seems disappointed with the context of the letter as there's not a spark of hope or excitement found on his face.

'Well at least we know we're siblings now,' I add. 'Doesn't m..make m..much of a difference, you already felt like a little sister to m..me. Definitely, after I found out we were family earlier.'

He sighs as he gets up again.

'Well, that's it, time to go back to work,' he says before making his way over to the ladder.

A loud thud is heard as the light in the hallway disappears.

'What the- HEY!' Gio yells.

Noa gets up without wasting a second more and makes his way over to him. I decide to keep seated, I would probably be in the way if I did as the hallway wouldn't really fit three people.

'HEY! Who's there? Open the door!'

Open the door?

No response is heard as Gio is banging against wood.

'What's wrong?' I finally ask. 'Someone closed the trapdoor and probably put the chest back on top.' 'So, we're stuck in here?'
'Yes,' he sighs.

The boys bang, yell and push for what feels like forever before they give up and join me at the table.

'This sucks,' Gio groans.
'Maybe it's just Terry,' I suggest as I don't know who else would want to lock us up in here if not for a silly little joke.
'I'll m..murder that kid if he doesn't get us out right now,' Gio mutters under his breath.
'Chill, it's just a harmless prank and it's not the worst place to be stuck in,' I state.

He looks around as Noa lets out a small chuckle.

'He doesn't do well with small spaces, you should've seen him when Terry locked him in the toilet,' he explains.
'Not funny Noa, I'm not talking about your fear of birds either.'
'You have a fear of birds?' I ask in shock.

Noa raises his hands in the air as he keeps his lips tight together not saying a word. Sitting sideways on his chair as he's moving his leg up and down.

'Birds, really?' I repeat.
'I don't want to talk about it.'
'Little Noa is afraid of birds!' I poke his stomach as I speak.

He takes his chance to grab my wrist and pull me to the side almost making me fall forward from my chair if he hadn't raised his leg to keep me up.

'Okay chill, no birds I get it.'

I move back to my chair as he releases my wrist. I cross my arms as I look at him, but then he starts laughing.

'What?' 'Nothing, you just look a bit funny with your brows in a frown,' he explains.
'Not funny, you scared me.'

I laugh when he tries to contain his laugh.

'Okay maybe slightly funny,' I agree. 'Nothing is funny, we're stuck in this shitty basement,' Gio responds.

I almost forgot he was here too. I scan the room in hopes of finding something that could help us get out of here. My eyes fall on a window only a few centimetres high, that lets in just a single small stroke of light.

I make my way over to it and try to look out of it, but I find out I'm lacking a little bit of height.

'Little help?' I ask motioning to the window.

Noa gets up, walks over to me and lifts me without saying a word. His arms tightly wrapped around me to not drop me.

I look out the window and notice some shoes nearby. I start banging against the window until the shoes wander towards the sound. Ducking down to reveal the shoes belong to Echo.

'We're stuck, can you help?' I shout out in hopes he can hear us.

And hear us he did as only a few minutes later we heard the ceiling creak, followed by some raised voice, a loud thud and an object scraping over the floor.

'Having a party without me?' He asks as he pokes his head down the trapdoor.

Gio doesn't waste any time and practically runs out and we follow.

But what I saw when I got through the trapdoor was not what I expected at all.

There wasn't a giggling Terry rolling over the floor laughing at his joke. No, it was Ace grabbing at his head.

'What happened?' I ask. 'I think it's better if you guys just go..'

Noa doesn't waste any more time, hooks his arms around my shoulder and leads me outside with him.

Did Ace look us in there?