An unexpected task

The question filled the room. They did not answer. It was at that moment that I realised I was in my pyjamas. My Gryffindor pyjamas with short sleeves and shorts. Thank goodness they were as much or more Harry Potter fans than I was. I apologised, grabbed a random outfit and went into the bathroom to change clothes. I had never shared a room with anyone, much less got up in my pyjamas around the house. I was so embarrassed at the time to do so. No wonder when I got to the bathroom and looked in the mirror my cheeks were so red. I washed my face and put on my clean clothes.

As I left the room's bathroom, I made my bed while my friends watched me and finished their breakfast. They were both really awake when they arrived and I wondered if that would be their second or third coffee in the morning. They were waiting for my room to be as clean as a whistle and accompanied me to the kitchen while they admired the house.

As I passed through the lobby I saw the pile of plans, books and photographs that had been left in the hall. I looked at them without believing it. What were all those leaves piled up on the floor? What were they doing so early in the morning in my house? Why had they left so many things there? Wouldn't I be hallucinating a lot of things? Wouldn't it be another dream? The questions, it seems, were passed on to my face, because immediately afterwards Hypatia went to pick them up and answered me.

"No, you're not hallucinating. This is ours."

"Well..." Lydia interrupted her. "I don't think we can say it's ours. I remind you that we have borrowed it."

"Yes, that's true."

"Wait." I stood in front of them to slow them down. "Borrowed from whom?"

Lydia smiled as she bit her lip. Hypatia shrugged her shoulders and passed me several maps. Many of them had the seal of the National Archaeology Museum, others had the seal of the Central Library of the village (one of the most complete in the world). The books were at least several years old and I was 100% sure that they were not on loan or that you had to have a researcher's card to take them out of the room where they were accumulating dust that was removed every five minutes.

"Let's just say that on our last visit to the capital last year, we snuck in and left copies."

"Will they notice that the plans are missing?"

"Not at the moment." Hypatia opened the kitchen door so we could both come in. "No sign of the theft of the White House blueprints has been reported."

I spit out the tea I had just put in my mouth. The White House? Were they crazy? Did they have a screw loose? If they were discovered, they'd be put in jail. And not just them, me too for agreeing to join.

"You should give them back before they miss them," I said. "Besides, if you wanted maps of ALL the levels in that little mansion, you could have called me."

I left the ones I had on the kitchen island and looked at them really worried. I took one of them and looked at the title on the plastic envelope. It said "Pipes". Another was the wiring and the next was the strengths and weaknesses of the whole building. They were from twenty years ago. I had the ones from two years ago because of a strange package that came to me. It was addressed to my parents and was written by a certain John.

"I got the current ones." I nodded, leaving them back where I had placed them. "What do you want them for?"

"Sneak into the White House to get the Big Book of Secrets."

"Are you sure this book exists?"

"No, but we know we won't leave empty-handed."replied Hypatia. "There's more going on there than anyone is telling you about. Just like in all the presidential houses in the world."

"And you, dear friend, will come with us for whatever is waiting for us there." Lydia raised her eyebrows and her hands. "Pack your bags, you're coming with us to Washington tomorrow."

I sat from the impression on the first chair I caught. I ran my hands over my face and looked at them in disbelief. I denied a hundred times saying "No, no, no." They waited patiently for the news to settle in my head. Hypatia tapped me on the back and Lydia looked at me with her face resting on her palms, smiling as always. I took a breath and went to fill a glass of water to drink. I asked if they wanted one too.

"Are you sure?"

Lydia shook her head in the affirmative to make sure that there was nothing to worry about, that everything was thought out and that no one would stop them.

"Well, I have nothing better to do," I left the glass in the sink and looked at them. "Do I have to buy the ticket or did you?"

"We'd better talk about that later. Since we are leaving tomorrow, we have to train you in..." Hypatia looked at the time on his watch. "Ten hours. We have ten hours to train you in the art of stealing."

"It is an arduous task, which takes years to perfect." Lydia imitated a conceited woman, and then shook her head, laughed a little and continued to talk normally. "But we know that you have a talent for it and that all we have to do is perfect you."

Hypatia opened one of the kitchen drawers. I stopped her before she could touch anything. I grabbed her by the wrist, separated her from that specific drawer and then closed it delicately. She looked at me as if I was hiding something from them. I nervously put on the black T-shirt I had worn and cleared my throat slightly.

"If I were you, I wouldn't touch anything," I started to explain. "Many weapons and knives in that specific drawer were designed by me after I found out what happened to my parents. They are built thinking that my enemies could take them away from me. They recognize my fingerprints. If I don't take them... They throw poison. One of the worst."

They raised their hands as if they were surrendering. Lydia nodded and laughed. She was one of them before they knew it. But they were doing it for the truth, to bring it out; I was doing it for my protection. Hypatia would ask me later if I would mind giving her the plans for some of the weapons she had seen in that drawer. There were not only kitchen knives, but several butterfly knives, two pistols and a dismantled rifle. Now I wonder how everything fit in that drawer, it was tiny.

"We could train her in the ballroom," proposed Lydia to Hypatia. "Or in any of her huge halls."

"And in a gym?" I asked curiously. "I don't want to spoil the marble on the floor or the paintings on the walls. I wouldn't know how to fix them."

"Wait a moment," Hypatia raised her right hand. "Do you have a gymnasium?"

"Of course. The second basement."

"Something else you want to share with the class. I don't know... A room full of guns, maybe?"

"You never asked, I didn't think I should tell you."

Lydia laughed loudly at her friend.

"Then guide us, please."

"At your service, Captain."

Hypatia rolled her eyes with a smile on her lips. We had always been very close. When we messed with each other, we always ended up laughing our heads off at stupid things we said. Lydia, Hypatia and I developed a friendship similar to that of siblings, but without fighting. We were so close that when that disaster happened I could hear their hearts breaking at the same time as mine. We even knew what each other was thinking. But that was many years ago. Now I only complain about their absence.

Going back to that moment. I went into the pantry where my parents kept their wines, champagne and other liquors. They were coming after me.

"When were you planning to invite us?"

I simply mumbled.

I moved a shelf to the right without much effort leaving a large oak door visible. I put the keys in and made it give way after several pushes, as it was stuck, like many other times.

We go down the stairs through multiple doors that I still can't find the key to and I don't know what's inside. My uncle told me that if I didn't find them, nothing would happen, it would be for some reason. But I needed to know what was behind those doors. There were some that blended in with the wall, others that were simply for decoration. Further down, I remember that there were cells, a kind of prison. My blood would freeze just thinking that someone might have been locked up there. What the hell would have to happen in my house for my parents to have so many cells? There were also those that had an armoured metal door with a grille with tiny glass. I wonder how I didn't have nightmares and how I could be comfortable in that mansion.

We arrive at the door of the gymnasium. I opened it and turned on the whole room. The spiral stairs were hidden in the large central column. I allowed Lydia and Hypatia to gossip all they wanted. The corner ring, the ballet area, the karate area, the running machines... They stood in front of the black laser cubicle in which I trained yesterday. It was not lit and looked like a torture room, like the one in the next basement, but small. Why would my parents have a torture room at home? No idea.

"What's that?"

"A specialized training room," I opened the door and forced them to stay behind the security line. "To learn how to dodge bullets, darts... Anything thrown at you at high speed."

I pressed the button that turned the machine on and stood next to them to watch the rays appear and disappear in a matter of seconds and in different directions, speeds and movements.

"It also serves to train the ear. To know where the shots are coming from."

"What happened to your parents for them to design this? Were they some kind of Batman and this their Batcave?" Lydia went to move while Hypatia spoke, but I stopped her in her tracks.

"I built it. They made the plans and ordered all the materials. I think they were spies, because of all the other instruments around the house. British spies with a lot of money being taken out of trade with Asia."

"Cool," was all Lydia could say.

"Have you ever managed not to get the lightning? They go pretty fast."

"I've been training on that machine since my uncle helped me finish it. I was eight years old."

"Are you as gifted as we are?" Lydia asked incredulously. "Are you like a supergymnast?" I nodded to the second question hesitantly. "Hypatia, did you hear that? I wasn't wrong about her."

"You're never wrong to describe anyone, Lydia. Need I remind you?"

Then she faced me.

"I think the ones who really need to train are us. Would you mind if we used it from time to time?"

"Whenever you want. You are already in the interface of the house, you can take what you want and enter wherever you want, but be careful with the weapons. Those are mine and I don't want anything to happen to you for designing them the way they are designed."

I explained to them how the machine worked, the buttons that had to be pressed to turn it on, how it had to be done, its levels, how to activate the test mode and many other things that this machine had. Then I explained how to uncover the pool, as it was covered with a wooden floor and you needed to go to the control room of the gym to open it.

"Thirty meters by ten of pool for us alone. With a meter deep at the beginning and fifteen at the end. That's why there are no rooms underneath it. The third and fourth basement are twenty metres below this one, if you are curious".

"How do they stand the pressure?" Hypatia was one of the most curious people I had ever seen.

"I would have to see the building plans of the house for that and I think they're in one of the rooms I can't open."

"We can teach you how to open doors," said Lydia as she got up from touching the pool water.

"I think opening doors is not her problem, Lydia. She can probably open doors without a clip."

"But she probably doesn't know how to do it in the most effective way, Dep."

"I can't open doors without anything but keys, girls. My uncle made sure I didn't learn. He didn't want me to know the secrets my parents have worked so hard to keep."

"What?" Hypatia didn't believe it.

"Get ready, because we're going to show you."

I felt bad about learning something that my uncle thought was unnecessary for my sake, yet I wanted to know, and I won't deny that as a child I tried it once or twice.

I closed the gym and left it just as I had found it: clean and organized. Then we went up the stairs to the first door. I was not going to go down to the cells because I was really afraid of that place and I had read too many books about psychiatric hospitals to make it clear to me that I should not go down unless everything was on, bright, and I was accompanied by an army.

Lydia bent down to look at the lock on the first door that crossed our path that had been closed for almost eighteen years.

"I've never seen one like it. It's exciting," he reached into his small backpack to find an instrument to open it. "It's very simple. Just watch. You put this thing through this part of the lock, then you put this other thing over it and turn it until you hear a "click" and you can turn the knob correctly".

Lydia continued to do what she had told me until a noise similar to the one she had told me was heard, but it bounced off the inside walls and got lost in whatever was inside. The door opened slowly and squeaked open. He was complaining that it was being opened and that his supposed eternal rest was being disturbed. It was heavy, made of wood covered with metal patches. It guarded an entire room of stone, with a stone table in the centre and a wooden and leather chair that stared at us. Behind it there were more shelves made of the same material that came out from the wall. There were no windows or electric lights, only a lot of candles placed in strategic points to properly light the room.

Lydia took out her mobile phone and turned on the torch, the rest of us imitated her. There was a lamp at least one hundred and fifty years old. If we had been in Europe and this had been located near a village, I would have thought twice about my parents building their house on top of an old castle and that the dungeons were no more than that; old dungeons. However, we were in the United States, in a house lost in the undergrowth of a dense Texas forest and here, as far as I know, there were no medieval castles.

On the shelves were a pile of old scrolls, half broken and almost burned, among books that might be no less than eighty years old and worn-out candles. We also found a pile of letters on each shelf. Many of them bore royal seals, others were normal and there were two unsealed ones. The latter were on the table. We approached slowly, afraid that, without giving us time to react, a living skeleton would appear and chase us.

The one above was addressed to my uncle and was written in my mother's handwriting. They were elegant, cursive, graceful, they seemed to want to get out of the paper. It had been opened previously and read several times because it was so worn. I almost threw the inkwell away when I went to get it.

I was afraid to touch it, that it would disintegrate as soon as I lifted it. Lydia was quicker than me and took it in her hands. She read it out loud so that we too could know what it said.

"My beloved brother,

I know you don't expect me to write you a letter, let alone hide it in this room. We hoped that this day would never come, even more so with the young age of the child. We will all have to run away from here. Brother, I recommend you to follow our example, take your family and disappear from the face of the earth for a few months.

I have been irresponsible to drag Alan into this. He should have stayed out of it, but you know how your brother-in-law is. I understand why you didn't make a scene when I introduced you to him. You are one of the best brothers in the world, I am an irresponsible one. I've dragged you all down with me. Alan, you, your family and little Stella. I only pray that one day you and yours will be able to forgive me.

Things have started to get worse. There are ravens watching the house. The girl saw a calandria the other day. I am very worried about her. She is showing the same signs as Alan's sister and I told you how she ended up. That's why we're going far away, we don't want her to be found, much less suffer the same fate as her aunt.

Forgive me, brother, for messing up so much. I should have listened to you when you told me to stop spying on the government. Then I wouldn't have found what I found, so I wouldn't have had to burn it, so we'd all be safe and sound for a while. So they wouldn't look for my family and threaten to kill them.

I'm sorry I disappointed you, dear brother. I'm sorry I meddled in government affairs and put both your family and mine at risk. I am so sorry, brother.

Love you and will always love you,

Your little sister.

P.S.: If for some reason we don't get it and Stella comes out alive, don't even think about telling her about the government. That was my mission. Your mission is to save your family, to be a better person and not to seek revenge."

Among all that dizziness of letters, the only thing I could hear was: "If it is not too much to ask, I will relieve you of your position, now you are the only one who can continue. Reveal the truth, reveal the truth, reveal the truth. Take care of her."