The vault was colder than expected.
Not the kind of cold that seeped into bones and made fingers tremble—it was something different. More subtle. The kind of cold that didn't come from temperature, but from silence. That hush of stillness that belonged in places untouched by time, places buried and sealed, left forgotten not because people didn't want to remember, but because they were too afraid to.
Kev's boots echoed softly as he stepped inside. The others followed behind, single file, as if stepping into a sacred chamber, though nothing about the rusted steel and cracked cement felt divine.
Only the boy.
