The next evening, Efad was forcing herself off her Ibuprophen dependancy by the time she left for the church. She somehow forgot to mention why two yellowed keys had mysteriously disappeared off her dad's keyring... She did, however, remember to grab her "Survival Bag" (which included a flashlight, a small lighter, bandaids, a piece of string, and many other useless-until-you-don't-have-one items) before she left.

"So, not only are we breaking into the churchagain with a stolen key again, but we're not going to call the police?"

Efad shot Kevin a contemptuous look. "You had your chance to step out of this, you know. And besides,we haven't caught these guys doing anything criminal yet."

Justin idly kicked at the knee-high ashtray ("ashcans", as they had come to call them). "What about "Breaking and Entering"?"

"Nah," Brian said with a laugh. "We do B&E all the time to open the Big House!"

There was an awkward pause, only filled by the key tinkering in the door. Aaron finally said, "I think that might've been Efad's point, Bri."

"AHA!" Efad said triumphantly. "We're in!" She held the door as everyone filed past, relocked the handle, and pocketed the keys. "Now we find places to hide. Kevin, I've a special job for you -- you get to hide outside with 911 on speed-dial."

He grinned. "So you finally listened to reason?"

"No," she said patiently, "this was my plan the whole time. You just never let me explain it."

They crept down towards the chapel, and from there scattered in different directions. Kevin snuck back outside to hide in the bushes, Brian and Justin took their posts in classrooms across from the chapel, and Christien took his laptop to the balcony overlooking the hallway below. Aaron and Efad went into the chapel and took to the task of setting up a wireless camera from Christien's computer.

As Aaron was hiding the camera in a cranny of the pump organ an arm's length from the closet, he looked up from his knees at Efad. "I'm almost done here; go ahead and join Chris upstairs, okay?"

"Um... I'm staying down here with you," She reminded him slowly. "We agreed on this already!"

He sighed tiredly and, giving the camera one last tweak, rose to his feet to give her a stern look. "I think it's too high a risk."

"So it's not too risky for you?" Efad asked hotly. No way was he going to cut her out of this -- this was HER idea! Andwhat made him think she wouldleave him down here in harm's way, anyway?

"Let me finish," he pleaded in exasperation. "I don't want to put you too close to these guys again. Last time was a fluke and they weren't expecting to find a girl in the closet. This time, they'll be looking."

Efad frowned. Sometimes his "overprotective brother" act was cute, but it was starting to annoy her. "Okay, how about this: if I find the most foolproof hiding place in this room, will you let me stay?"

"...what do you have in mind?"

"Wait here." An impish grin crossed her face as she dashed out of the chapel. When she came back, she was toting a white tablecloth used for the communion table in the sanctuary. Aaron had turned off the lights and was sitting on the first row pew when she came in. "Here, help me out -- move the Bible off the table..."

He let out a grunt as he lifted the large Bible and its heavy stand off of the altar. "You can't possibly think this will work."

"It's worth a shot," Efad said defensively. When he leveled a skeptical stare at her, she grinned. "Besides, you're curious -- otherwise you wouldn't be helping me with this."

Soon they finished spreading out the sheet and crawled underneath. Efad hurriedly brought out her flashlight and did two test signals outside their hiding place to Brian across the hall, and two flashes answered. Aaron nervously nudged her shoulder and she retracted her hand. "What?" She whispered.

"Listen," he hissed back, putting a hand over the front of her flashlight. Efad tried to breathe quietly. Someone was outside the church, fiddling with the lock on the door. Her heart leaped into her throat.

She gripped her flashlight. 'This is it...'

The outside door opened, slowly at first, but then it was thrown aside so fast that it crashed against the wall. Efad heard voices drifting in from the hall. One was angry... it was Vic again. The chapel door swung open and hit the wall with a loud clatter.

"So much for stealth," Vic's friend muttered.

"Yeah, I don't care, Keith! Just get it done!" Vic snapped.

Efad raised an eyebrow and made a mental note. Keith? Huh. How fearsome.

The footfall on the soft carpet came closer, but just as they were within arm's reach, they veered to the right towards the closet. Tools clanked loudly in a bag; the closet door was opened, and the tools were rooted through for a few moments. Finally, Keith said, "hold the door for me, and I'll get started." Vic moved, muttering something to himself, and it there was a moment of silence before a heavy drill echoed through the chapel.

Aaron nudged Efad in the shoulder. She quickly put her flashlight out under the tablecloth, flashed the light to Brian twice, and withdrew her hand without hearing any vocal protests from Vic or Keith.

Now they could only wait.

Just as the loud noise of thedrillingwas starting to get on their nerves, it stopped. For once, Vicsounded excited. "You done? Are we in?"

"Almost," Keith muttered. "I've just about got a door, and once I pull it out, we're in."

Very far off, Efad could barely hear a siren coming ever closer. She grinned. Good boy, Kevin. She heard Vic and Keith stop moving all together, as though nothing would happen to them if they stood completely still. But as the siren grew louder, they panicked.

"I thought you said no one was here!" Keith shouted, throwing tools back into his bag.

"Did you SEE any cars?" Vic snapped back. "No one's ever here after hours! I don't know how the cops found us!"

"There's another door, through the tower. We can get out before they find us!"

Hurried carpeted footsteps shuffled past Efad and Aaron, and echoed in the hallway as the two broke into a run. Aaron waited for a moment, then hesitantly poked his head out from under the table and the rest of him soon followed. Efad shifted uneasily in the darkness.

"C'mon!" Aaron whispered. "We'll get Chris to turn off the feed."

Efad slid out from under the table, and Aaron gave his hand to help her stand up. "Go ahead, I'll catch up with you."

"What're you doing?" He hissed.

She grinned in the darkness. "Don't you want to see what they were after?"

"Do you want the police to find us in here?"

Her grin faded. "...oh. Right."

---

It was a few hours later before the police left the crime scene, and Efad and the guys hadn't been spotted; they had hidden in the Big House until they were sure every last car had gone. The six crept back into the chapel, everyone armed with their flashlights at the ready. "Are we sure no one else is coming back for more evidence, like on all those crime shows?" Brian asked worriedly.

"I think the forensic team with the Police Department is a little better trained than a bunch of actors," Christien said. "I doubt they missed anything worth coming back for."

"Here's hoping you're wrong," Efad said under her breath. "I hope they didn't find what Vic was looking for."

Kevin frowned. "Here's a thought. This "Vic" guy could be on his way back right now. If he finds us in here, we're more than dead. He'd kill us so hard we'd turn UNdead!"

"Kev, if you were a criminal,would you go back to the scene of the crime evenif you knew the police had already been there?" Efad ignored the glare she was getting. "C'mon, let's just have a look for ourselves." She tugged off her overshirt and wrapped it around her hand so as not to leave fingerprints behind; the door opened sluggishly when she pushed, and the long-neglected hydraulic hinges creaked in protest. It almost pained Efad to see the gaping hole in the closet wall and plaster dust on the floor. It all felt as though something sacred had been defiled, like a special place had been violated and vandalized...

"What's wrong?" Aaron's voice brought her crashing down out of her thoughts.

"I was just thinking," she said distantly.

The flashlight's beam cut through the stale and dusty air, but by its light Efad saw all that she remembered the Secret Passage to be: the stairs to the upstairs closet were littered with stacks of paper, which Efad presumed were outdated permission slips and VBS sign-up sheets; the railing was broken at the base and laying askew across the stairs. The lower flight was cluttered with long-ago retired drama skit props, and several boxes of forgotten scripts and faded green tee-shirts that read "BACKGATE" in black letters. Efad could see where the policemen's shoes had left treadmarks in the grey dust on the floor.

"How's it looking?" Justin called.

"So far so good," Efad said absently, and began busily examining everything with her flashlight. "...but someone certainly did a number on this place. We'll be lucky to find anything in here."

She heard Aaron and Kevin come through the hole behind her. Kevin gave a low whistle. "Dang. I forgot what it looked like in here..."

"Yeah." Aaron prodded the broken railing with his shoe. "And I don't remember it being so run down, but maybe that's why the Elders decided to seal it off --I guess it wasjust collecting dust and not serving any real purpose."

Efad carefully made her way down the stairs around all the boxes. She felt the wall in search of a hidden door, but found nothing; she knocked on squeaky stairs to check for hollow compartments, but still found nothing; after she examined the walls at the foot of the stairs, she groaned and sat down heavily in the disturbed dust. "This is stupid! The police probably already found it, and I bet it's not even anything of value..."

"What're the odds the guy's just crazy?" She heard Justin mutter.

Christien laughter echoed in the Passage. "Yeah. He lives in his own little world where it'sokay to break into churches and tear down closet walls."

Aaron sat down next to Efad and gave her a reassuring pat on the back. "No worries, E. If there was something in here to find, maybe it's better if the police already have it." He set his flashlight down on the stairs. "I mean, if it really was something valuable, I'd hate to think of what someone like Vic would do to get it from us."

She sighed. "I guess so. It's just major-league disappointing... I got all hyped up over nothing."

"I know. We all did."

They fell silent, both listening to nothing until Kevin said, "alright, let's get out of here. I've had just about all the reminiscing I can take in one night."

Aaron stood and started to reply, but stopped as he accidentally kicked his flashlight off the stairs. It clattered to the floor loudly and lay there in its stirred-up cloud of dust; Aaron grunted in disdain. "Great. I'll be up in a sec, let me see if I can find where my flashlight fell." He used the railing to hoist himself under just before he jumped down to the floor.

The floor rattled.

Efad looked up, wide-eyed in surprise. "...uh, Aaron..."

He froze where he stood, and after a moment he carefully gestured for Efad's flashlight. The girl came along with it and peered over the edge of the stairs as Aaron picked up his own flashlight, turned it on, andswept the beam back and forth across the floor; right in front of his left foot, a dull metal glint reflected back at them. Efad's heart was racing. "It looks like the dust is mostly undisturbed down here," Aaron said, more to himself than anything. He bent down and brushed off the place where the light had reflected back. Without hesitation, Efad scurried down the stairs and knelt next to him. "...guys, I think I found something," he said, more loudly than before.

"Found what?" Kevin took Efad's abandoned post on the stairs, shining his flashlight where Aaron had his. "What is it?"

"A door pull of some kind," Aaron said. "I think there's a trapdoor here!"

With rapt anticipation, Efad watched her friend hook his finger through the ring and pull straight up. Nothing budged. Aaron frowned and handed his flashlight to her and did his best to grip the ring with both hands, and yanked. The hidden panel gave way and flew out of its hole, and Aaron toppled over backwards on top of Efad, who cried out as they fell onto some costume boxes. It took a moment for the dust to settle, but by the time it had, the other three boys had climbed through the closet wall and were behind Kevin on the stairs. "Well?" Brian said eagerly. "What's in there? Did you see anything?"

"We're alright, thanks for asking," Aaron grunted as he carefully hauled himself to his feet.

"Says you!" Efad wheezed. The collision and fall had knocked the wind out of her, and the stars in front of her eyes were just now beginning to fade.

"Think of it as "taking one for the team", Efad," Justin said. "So, can you get a good look in there?"

The hole was a three-foot square, and upon Aaron's investigation with his flashlight, he saw that there was a floor only about ten feet down, and a hidden ladder was attached to the wall. Aaron gave it a few experimental tugs to test its stability. "Huh. I wonder where this goes..."

"Are you going in there?" Christien asked. For the first time that night, he sounded genuinely worried.

Brian jumped down from the stairs, which blew dust into Aaron's face. "I want to go with y'all," he said over Aaron's sneezing. "Don't worry, Chris, I'll make sure they're safe!"

"Right. Down we go, then!" Efad climbed over the edge and braced herself on the sides of the opening until she could grab the ladder beneath her. With one hand, she held onto the top rung; with the other, she moved her flashlight so she could hold it in her teeth. Aaron held his own flashlight over her head, which gave her a clear view of the floor beneath her. Halfway down, she jumped off and landed easily on the floor, but her flashlight was knocked from her mouth by the landing and it rolled a few feet away.

"Coming down." Aaron started to climb down the ladder. "Everything alright so far?"

"So far." Efad bent to reach her flashlight, which had rolled under a small set of wooden shelves. "What IS this place? I don't remember ever hearing about a secret room under the church..."

"Well, you wouldn't hear about something if it was truly secret, would you?" Kevin said flatly.

"Very funny."

Christien peered over the edge after Aaron was out of the way. "Yeah, but this does beg the question: What is so important and worth hiding that the Church would put it in this little room, hide it with a trapdoor, and come back and seal up the only opening from the outside?"

Aaron jumped off and landed without dropping his flashlight, so he started to look around. By the light of both flashlights, Efad could see that the room was rather small; in fact, it was only about as big as the utility closet next to the chapel. Several sets of wooden shelves had been installed into the three walls, and where a fourth wall should have been was instead a wide doorway that led to a dark hall. "I don't think the Passage was the only way in," Aaron said.

Efad picked up the book nearest to her. It looked very old; the yellowed pages and faded cover proved that much, at least. All the books on all the shelves were the same size and had faded dark red covers, but the books on the lower shelves looked progressively newer as the shelf went along. Efad examined the outside for a moment and, after she could find no title or markings of any kind on the cover, started to leaf through the pages. "This is weird," she mused to herself. "This book is just a collection of names..."

"Like a church directory?" Brian asked as he finished climbing down the ladder.

"Something like that." Efad turned to the first few pages in search of a title page. "...huh. It's a listing of all the Elders in all the Presbyterian churches in Alabama. This one's from 1955..." she trailed off and started to scan the shelves, her lips parted in silent thought.

Aaron started towards the doorway. "Shouldn't we see where this goes?"

"Yeah, yeah," Efad said absently. "Look at this; the books are in chronological order as you go around the room... hmm, if the ones in the middle here are from the '50s..." She crossed to the left side of the room and looked around with her flashlight for a stool, which she found in the corner and dragged to the beginning of the shelves. "I bet the oldest one is up here."

"Why would a directory of Elders be worth hiding?" Brian muttered as he watched his friend take down the first book. "Don't people hide, y'know, gold and stuff in hidden trapdoor rooms?"

From above, they heard Kevin laugh. "That's right, Indiana, there's cursed Mayan treasure buried beneath this church..."

"Hey, it could happen!" Brian kicked idly at the dust on the floor. "You know thatpeople have ways of keeping stuff really secret..."

"Ooh! This one's from 1891!" Efad blurted excitedly, and jumped down from her stool to show Aaron the book. "Look, you can feel that the text is raised -- it was printed on a printing press!"

Aaron sighed. "Are you getting excited because it's important, or because you like old books?"

"There's nothing wrong with liking old books," she protested. "Just think of it as a healthy interest in history..."

Aaron started to say something, but stopped as he saw Brian wandering out into the hallway. "Hey, c'mon, Brian's leaving us behind!" He tugged on Efad's sleeve, and she hurriedly put down the book and followed her friends into the darkness.

There were more cobwebs than there had been in the room, and after walking into his third one, Brian fell back to walk behind Aaron. Efad used her flashlight and scanned the walls as they passed by, but they were just uninteresting brick walls. Maybe it was a little too romantic to wish for a few skeletons hanging by rusted chains, or some filthy little rats scurrying over her feet...

"OW!"

Efad's train of thought was derailed, and she looked to see Aaron painfully cradling his head. "You okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But either the floor slopes up right here or the ceiling comes down... this hallway will probably get smaller as we go along. Geez, whoever built this really should've put a 'Mind Your Head' sign in here..."

"Or a 'Tresspassers May Experience Unexpected Head Injuries' sign," Efad said, and Brian laughed. "But seriously, this doesn't get too small, does it? I mean, we CAN still get through?"

"I hope so."

They felt along the ceiling as they continued down the dark hall; eventually they had to crawl on their hands and knees to fit, but still they pressed on. It felt like ages had passed before Aaron finally found that he could stand. He cast his flashlight around him and discovered a wooden door directly in their path. "How many doors can they put in one building?" He muttered.

"As many as the Session sees fit," Efad said with a weary laugh. "Is it open?"

It was. Aaron looked over his shoulder at his two friends, then cautiously peered around the door. Then, to Efad's surprise, he started to laugh.

"What is it?" Brian asked eagerly.

"It's the water closet off the Coke & Coffee Room!" He cackled. "I don't believe it! The way to this secret passage beneath the Secret Passage wasn't completely sealed off..."

Efad raised an eyebrow at him. "And why is this funny?"

"It's just so absurd! Vic could've gotten in here at any time and he didn't have to break down a wall to do it!"

There was a noise from across the room. The three jumped and tried to shut the door, but it was stuck! The door to the closet flew open; light flooded the room, and there in the doorway was...

Kevin, leaning tiredly against the doorframe with a smirk on his face. "You DO know we could hear you out here, right?"

Both Efad and Brian pointed at Aaron. "It was him." They chorused innocently.

"Yeah, I could tell. C'mon, Chris and Justin were heading upstairs to lock the doors -- let's go home."