Chapter 2 Part 1

The door on the far left clicked, and everyone knew that it was open. On the screen, John picked up a large hourglass and flipped it. The sand started falling. The group turned to each other, tried to read each others' body language, but failed to do so. "So," Said Esther, "What do we do?"

Ivan said, "I doubt that this is real. This has got to be a hoax, or at least a gross exaggeration."

"What? The guy was just talking to us through a wall, how is that a hoax?" Said Esther.

Ivan said, "Well, obviously that's not a trick, we just saw it. But it was also just a picture, it doesn't mean that everything he said was true. What if we go in there and it's a trap? Maybe we're not supposed to go in there."

Esther raised her voice, "If he didn't want us here, then he easily could have left the front door locked. Or he could have told us not to go in there when he was speaking to us. Or, you know, he would have just left the door locked!"

Ivan raised his voice, as well, "Maybe he's just sick! You heard him, 'I look forward to meeting you.' What the hell is that? He's clearly nuts, this place is, according to him, something like 700 years old!"

Esther yelled, "So he was a little eccentric, who cares? Look, we need to go in there. If there's anything in there like what he just did with that picture, then we could be walking into a goldmine. Besides, if he really wanted to kill us, he would have done it by now. He could have just made spikes come out and stab us. Hell, he could have just locked the front door and let us starve to death. He unlocked the other door, gave us the option to leave, and left the front door unlocked."

Ivan calmed down a little bit, "It's still probably a big waste of time."

Esther didn't calm down, "Then we'll leave after we look! I'm going in. Listen, if nothing else, we should try to get that moving picture machine out of here. If we can get that back home and figure out how it works, then we could be rich just for that."

Ivan paused for a moment, then spoke, "I suppose you're right..."

Esther calmed a bit, "Even if he's exaggerating, and the stuff in there isn't world-changing, there should at least be a few cool machines we can grab and use. He also clearly has some sort of fuel here to run this stuff, we can grab that, too."

Ivan paused again, "What if it is as big as he said? Should we be the ones to find out?"

Esther, now perfectly calm, said, "Absolutely."

They both looked up at the screen to see that the hourglass was now half-way through. They both walked toward the door and stopped a couple of feet away from it and stopped. Esther took a breath, and stepped forward to open it. She reached out her hand to grab the door handle, and jumped out of her skin when Stephanie shouted, "Yeah! Let's do it!" Esther and Ivan both turned around and glared at Stephanie, who had her fists up in the air and a ridiculous grin on her face. She looked embarrassed, put her hands down, and wiped the grin off her face. Esther grabbed the handle and pulled on the door. It wouldn't budge.

"What the hell?" Yelled Esther, as she began pulling the door with all her might, "It won't open!" She then kicked the door and it swung in easily.

Ivan walked up to the door to inspect it and pointed at some writing above the handle, "This must mean 'Push'."