The wind that greeted them outside the towering walls of the Museo della Civiltà Romana felt colder than it should have been.
"This is cool stuff!" Kevin exclaimed, seeing the outrageous building of the museum.
In front of them, was a massive, pale concrete structure shaped like a stepped pyramid, with clean, geometric lines and large rectangular windows. Its façade was imposing yet orderly, echoing the grandeur of ancient Rome, while inside, wide halls and soaring ceilings display Roman history in stark, timeless elegance.
Italy had welcomed them with golden sunlight, ancient ruins, and the distant hum of Roman traffic - but none of that mattered now. After splitting into different directions to search for the Artifact for hours, it wasn't there.
Kevin stood still at the museum steps, his jaw tight. "So we crossed continents... opened a portal... nearly got stranded again... Just for nothing?"
Lenora's fingers trembled around the old notebook she had carried from the beginning. The inked sketches of the Artifact stared back at her like a mockery. The information she had pulled from the ancient volumes - the fragile pages, the faded maps - had been accurate.
A thousand years ago.
Joyce paced in sharp movements, her boots echoing against the stone floor.
"The records weren't wrong," Lenora insisted. "Perhaps they were just... outdated."
"Outdated?" Kevin snapped. "Joyce almost bled out for that ritual!"
"Enough," Cole cut in quietly, but his voice carried weight.
Inside the museum, moments earlier, hope had still lived.
The trained volunteer — a woman with sharp eyes and unsettling calmness — had guided them through halls of towering Roman sculptures and cracked marble inscriptions. She had listened carefully when Lenora described the Artifact: a relic pulsing with unnatural power, older than empires.
And then she had stopped walking.
"There is something," she had said. Not in the display halls. Not in the archives open to the public.
But In whispers.
According to restricted historical accounts, the Artifact had vanished centuries ago. Stolen. Not by thieves. But by disciples — Evil minors of the Dark Lord.
The words had sucked the oxygen from the corridor.
"They were recorded in fragments," the volunteer continued, lowering her voice. "Descriptions of hooded figures. Unnatural storms. Entire villages reporting shadows moving without bodies."
Joyce had swallowed. "Where did they take it?"
The lady hesitated.
"There were sightings," she finally said. "Long after Rome fell. Long after the Artifact disappeared from our land. If you read History a lot, you should have an idea of what am talking about"
Kevin leaned forward. "Sightings?..... Where?"
"In a far woodland, specifically inside a cave" she answered slowly. "In what is now the United States."
"Not all woodlands in the U.S. has hills!" Lenora had said.
And just like that, the ground beneath them shifted.
Now, standing outside the museum, the reality hit harder — They had been chasing history.
But history had moved on.
"A woodland in the U.S. is not a location," Cole muttered. "It's half a continent."
Lenora's eyes darkened. "Not half." They all turned to her.
She flipped through her notebook with frantic precision. "When I studied those huge texts, there were symbols carved into the margins. I thought they were decorative. But they match something."
She tore a folded paper from between the pages and held it up. A symbol — a crescent pierced by three vertical lines.
Joyce's breathing slowed. "I've seen that before."
"Where?"Kevin demanded.
Joyce hesitated. "When we opened the second portal. Right before it destabilized."
Silence followed....
Cold, suffocating silence...
Lenora processed it first. "You're saying... the ritual energy reacted to the same force that holds the Artifact."
Joyce nodded
Lenora nodded slowly. "Which means it's still active."
Kevin ran a hand through his hair. "Active means protected."
"Or guarded," Cole corrected.
A memory flashed in Lenora's mind — the volunteer's final words before she left.
"They were not ordinary followers," she had said. "They were bound by blood to the Dark Lord. And blood remembers." Lenora's stomach twisted.
Blood remembers.....
Cole stepped closer to the group, lowering her voice. "If those disciples were last seen in a woodland in the U.S., we need more than folklore. We need specifics."
"And how do you suggest we find secret evil disciples hiding in American forests?" Kevin asked bitterly.
Cole expression shifted. Not fear —Recognition.
"There are forests in the U.S. people avoid. Mrs. Helen used to call them 'forbidden'," he said. "Forests with missing hikers. Towns built near nothing but trees and legends."
Joyce's eyes widened slightly. "You think it's still there."
"I think??" Cole asked himself carefully, "am giving suggestions on how we find this particular woodland"
"First plan is clear....." Kevin said
"Get to U.S first" He added
"If the Artifact is powerful enough to survive a thousand years, it wouldn't sit quietly." Lenora said
The sky above Rome darkened suddenly — clouds rolling in too quickly to be natural.
Kevin looked up. "Please tell me that's just weather."
Joyce didn't answer.
A sharp crack of thunder split the air. Tourists screamed lightly and hurried down the museum steps as rain began to fall in heavy, sudden drops.
Lenora's notebook fluttered in the wind. The symbol on the page almost seemed to pulse as lightning flashed overhead.
"They know," A voice behind whispered. It was Mrs. Jenny, the Museum Volunteer from earlier.
Cole grabbed her arm. "Who?"
"The dark minors," she breathed. "Or whatever's left of them. If the Artifact is active, it reacts when someone gets close."
"Neither do we have the Artifact yet nor are we even close to it!" Lenora said
"Maybe putting effort looking for something like that is already close enough" Mrs. Jenny yelled, as the disturbance covered her voice.
Joyce's voice was steady, but her eyes betrayed her. "We came to Italy chasing a relic."
Kevin finished the thought grimly. "But the relic might be chasing us."
"Are the disciples gonna find this reaction and come down here?" Cole turned to Mrs. Jenny
"That's what I don't know"
The thunder roared again - louder, closer.
For a split second, Lenora could have sworn she saw something in the reflection of the museum's glass doors.
A figure.
Tall. Hooded.
Watching. Waiting.....
She blinked — and it was gone.
"We can't stay here," Cole said sharply. "If the energy spike we caused with the portal alerted them, then they must know we're searching for the Artifact."
"They should know that to be able to track us" Kevin said
"I think this is gonna stop if you guys get out of here!" Mrs. Jenny suggested
Joyce nodded. "We need to open another portal. Back to the U.S."
Kevin stared at her like she had lost her mind. "After what happened last time?"
"Come on, Bro!" Joyce exclaimed
"We can't keep capitalizing on my past mistake. Besides, I opened the portal that brought us here" She turned to Kevin.
"Please, do it right this time" Kevin added
Rain poured harder now, soaking them within seconds.
Lenora clutched the notebook to her chest. Her voice was no longer shaking.
"They took the Artifact once," she said quietly. "They hid it. Protected it."
She lifted her gaze, determination cutting through the fear.
"But if something is still guarding it... that means they're afraid of something."
The teens looked at her carefully. "Afraid of what?" Cole asked. Lenora met his eyes.
"Of it being used against them."
Another flash of lightning illuminated the museum behind them, casting long distorted shadows across the ground. For a heartbeat, their shadows didn't align with their bodies.
There were more of them.... Watching. Waiting.
Kevin swallowed. "Tell me we're not being followed."
Joyce didn't look back.
"We are."
The storm intensified, unnatural and violent.
Somewhere across the ocean — in a woodland far from Rome - something ancient stirred.
And it knew they were coming.