It was a summer day.
The birds were singing.
The flowers were blooming.
The sun was really strong.
Four little friends, Jeff, Kate, Charlotte, and Mark, decided to spend most of their holidays at Jeff's grandfather's house.
For about a month and a half.
They were under his close supervision, as the kids had just started middle school; they were still little.
The first day was beautiful.
The kids played happily outdoors, and the old man didn’t have to worry about anything.
However, on the second day, the kids started playing the explorers' game: looking for something interesting in the grandfather's house that they could research.
This did not please the old man, who was trying to hide his treasure in the attic.
It so happened that one of the kids, very curious, decided to put his sticky hands, covered in honey, into the attic.
It so happened that the boy was Mark.
Mark was confused; he didn’t understand how they hadn’t found a precious object in such a vast and large home.
Jeff found Mark in the attic and told him that their grandfather had communicated that it was forbidden to go there.
But Mark wanted to know.
Jeff, scared of the punishment that the grandfather might assign him, decided to carry Mark out of the attic, managing to do so.
The girls saw the two of them very tired in the living room.
They recounted the incident to Kate and Charlotte, and the old man, from the other room, had heard everything.
The old man could not allow it.
So he told all the kids that if they went to the attic, they would have to leave and not return until the next summer.
The kids, bewildered, surrendered. They no longer wanted to play at being explorers.
Actually, everyone except one.
Mark.
He wanted to know what was up there at all costs.
But if he told his friends, they would stop him.
However, Jeff suspected that something was wrong.
In fact, on the third day, everyone was having fun except for Mark; he was always distracted by that mystery.
All the time.
All day.
The fourth day started off on the wrong foot.
Everyone was at the table for breakfast...
The grandfather wanted to be sure that none of them had gone in.
So he decided to ask each one of them personally.
Jeff, of course, answered no.
So did Charlotte, frightened by the old man's brusque behavior.
And Kate also said no.
Mark confidently denied everything.
The old man tried to understand who among them was lying...
Those little eyes could deceive millions of people, but not the grandfather. He knew his pockets.
He knew that someone was lying.
But he decided not to pursue it further.
He told the kids that he believed them and then went to the kitchen to watch his favorite show: "Kid Slicer."
Charlotte, scared, told her friends that she now wanted to go to the attic to destroy what the grandfather was protecting, as for her, the object was something that corrupted the heart of her dear grandfather.
Kate changed her mind. She had become curious thanks to the old man's brusque reaction.
Jeff wanted to talk directly to the grandfather, but he couldn’t take the risk.
So the four little friends decided to go to the attic.
However, something was not right...
On the stairs leading to the attic, there were strange pink gadgets.
Jeff, looking at them, remembered that his grandfather, when he was a scientist, had shown them to him.
They were motion sensors. They were scattered all over the stairs.
The kids, desperate, immediately went back to bed.
Jeff, puzzled by the incident, woke up around 5 in the morning.
He went downstairs and found his grandfather in the kitchen.
The old man noticed him and, with a smile in his eyes, asked why he was already awake.
The grandson asked him openly why he was preventing the little ones from going to the attic.
The old man, wanting to respond sincerely, did so.
He told Jeff that he wanted to hide a secret that was very, indeed, too powerful.
It was a spell.
The old man refused to go further with the story. In his opinion, this little bit of history could be enough to satisfy his grandson enough to make him give up.
Jeff nodded off, not having understood well.
Then he went back to bed.

<The Chapter 2 will be revealed on 12/22/24>