Page 60 of Make Me Hunt
Because this is just the beginning of the end.
twenty-three
-Brynn-
Ares left about an hour or so ago, and I’m already feeling like a panther trapped in a cage. Still, I give it another half-hour before I start searching the place.
First stop: the basement. I saw a lot of doors there, and there has to be something worth my attention behind one of them.
The basement door is unlocked this time. I check the house again, just in case Ares came back or, worse, his sister showed up—which I deeply hope doesn’t happen. Then, I get downstairs and start searching the rooms one by one.
The first few are filled with all kinds of objects—probably things Ares collected throughout his endless life. Not as valuable as the ones he showed me in the artifact room, but still as old, and probably meaningful to him in other ways.
Most of the rooms are used for storage, like some gym equipment, even things that once belonged to celebrities. They’re labeled, some even signed and stored in protective cases. I’m actually starting to think this place is some kind of personal museum. Maybe he collects things that’ll probably be worth a fortune someday. Smart move, especially since you’re staring down eternity.
The one room I’d like to linger in is a small library. But not an ordinary one. Ancient books sit quietly on the walls, lost mysteries, untold tales, and maybe even some secrets never meant for the mortal eye. I have a feeling historians would kill for any of these books. And I’d love to peek through just at a few.
Normally, I would. But I’m running out of time, and I need to find something that can help me.
I still don’t understand how he can keep all these treasures lying around here without worrying someone could break in. I search for cameras, or any kind of security system, but I find nothing.
Strange.
It takes me almost an hour to get through all of the rooms, and that’s because I can’t help but pause in wonder every time I open a new door. The things he must’ve seen. The lives he lived. Pure fantasy for any kind of man.
But still no clue about where the game is being held, or how to get myself a spot in it. I need answers. I need to be sure that Ares was the one who killed Elias. Because now I’m not facing just a man, I’m facing a god.
I will still try to avenge Elias, even if that comes with the price of my own life. Besides, if Ares is responsible, he gave me the means to kill him.
Even gods can die.
I finish going through every room, and it seems pointless. There’s nothing here—no clue, no secret office, nothing that could give me a lead. The corridor ends in an old wine cellar, and just as I’m about to drown my sorrow in one of his most expensive bottles of wine, I notice a thin ray of light sneaking in through a corner of the wine rack.
We’re a few feet below ground, so it can’t be a built wall leading outside. There has to be a secret passage.
I try to push the rack, but it won't budge. It’s holding a few hundred bottles, so either the secret door hasn’t been used in ages or there’s a secret release I don’t see.
I carefully search the rack’s edges and crevices for almost five minutes without any kind of result. But just as I’m starting to lose my patience, I start to study the wine bottles, and though they look improbably clean for their age, a slight thin dust has begun to gather on all of them. Except for one—an old Greek bottle, judging by the label. Go figure.
I grab the bottle and pull it out, waiting for some Indiana Jones-style trick. Still nothing happens.
My patience is wearing thin, and I’m starting to think there’s nothing there, and that I’m still on the wrong track.
But just as I’m about to give up, I try my luck and reach into the spot where I just pulled the bottle from. I don’t have high hopes of finding anything, but as my hand searches the edges, I find a handle.… I pull it, and instantly there’s a loud crack echoing through the walls.
Wow, this really is some kind of Indiana Jones shit after all.
I push the rack, and this time, it moves with no difficulty. A whole new corridor opens in front of me, and my heart starts racing like it’s on an F1 track.
My legs tremble as I advance down the corridor, which is an extension of the first. Same dark brick walls, same dim lighting deepening the mystery.
The difference is that this stretch is a lot shorter, ending with a high-end metal door that looks more like something you’d use for a vault, or even a panic room.
There’s no secret mechanism on this one. It just looks plain unbreakable, unless you’re a cat burglar or some kind of security genius. Neither of which I am.
That only leaves me with four doors, just like the ones I’ve walked through before. Only there has to be something special about these since there’s a secret wall, hiding them even from the few people who ever come down here.
My hands shake as I unlock the first door, expecting to finally make a breakthrough. Which makes the disappointment sting even more. It’s just a small kitchen, packed with different cabinets stuffed with snacks and groceries—like the kind you see in office break rooms. Basic appliances to reheat things, or maybe even cook something light.
