Elena couldn't move.
The flashlight beam trembled in her hand as it rested on the chair in the center of the underground room.
Ropes still wrapped tightly around the arms.
The wood had rotted with time, but the knots were still visible.
Carefully tied.
Deliberately placed.
Daniel stepped into the chamber first.
Dust rose beneath his shoes, untouched for decades.
"This room was sealed for a reason," he murmured.
Elena forced herself to step inside.
The chamber was small — barely larger than a storage room. The stone walls were rough and damp, and the ceiling curved low above them.
But something else caught her attention.
Scratches.
On the wall behind the chair.
Thin, uneven lines carved into the stone.
Elena stepped closer and raised the flashlight.
Numbers.
She swallowed.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
The scratches stopped there.
Days.
Someone had been counting days.
Elena's chest tightened.
"Lucia…" she whispered.
Daniel examined the floor carefully.
Near the far corner, half buried in dirt and broken stone, something pale was visible.
He knelt slowly.
And brushed the dust away.
Bone.
Elena's breath caught.
Not scattered remains.
A skeleton.
Curled slightly against the wall as if the person had collapsed there.
The flashlight beam shook as Elena moved closer.
The bones were small.
Fragile.
And around the neck—
A thin metal chain.
Daniel gently lifted it.
At the end hung a small pendant shaped like a cross.
Elena recognized it instantly.
It had appeared in one of the old photographs from the newspaper archive.
Lucia Bellini always wore it.
Elena covered her mouth.
"She was alive down here," she whispered.
Daniel's voice was quiet.
"For at least seven days."
The realization hit them both at once.
Lucia hadn't died from an accident.
She had been imprisoned.
Left alone in the dark.
And no one came to save her.
A deep rumble echoed faintly through the tunnel behind them.
The storm above was growing stronger.
But Elena felt something colder than the rain.
Someone in Seravalle knew Lucia had been here.
And instead of rescuing her…
They sealed the wall.
And buried her alive.