“I didn’t know Grandpa was a Nazi,” Adria snorts, holding up a wooden box.

“What?” Wren marvels, biting back a laugh. She drops the old journal she’s been reading and scrambles to Adria’s side.

Adria traces the Nazi symbol painted on the box, the old red paint flaking off. “I can’t believe he was a Nazi.”

Wren shoulders Adria and rips the box from her hands. “Open it up.” She unties the leather knots, “you’re so slow.”

Adria rolls her eyes. “Womp womp.”

Wren rummages through the box, shuffling through folded photos and long-forgotten letters. Adria stares at the photos, most of them of little kids with small Jewish symbols embroidered on their sleeves. They all sit in suitcases or guitar cases, smiling, but their eyes are empty and void of happiness. Grandpa stands next to them, barely smiling.

Wren reads through the letters, a small smile fighting its way onto her face. “Grandpa was smuggling kids out of Auschwitz.”

“Aw,” Adria grins and holds up the photos, “that’s so sweet.”

Wren glances at the photos, then continues to dig through the box. “Those must have been the kids he saved.”

Adria glances around the attic at all the boxes and bags of old baby toys. “Who woulda thunk,” she jokes.

Wren gasps. “I found a key!” She jumps from her spot on the dusty floor.

Adria snatches the rusty copper key from her sister’s hand. “No way.” She rubs the cold key against her skin. “This is some Scooby-Doo type of crap.”

“Do you think it goes to the trap door in the basement?”

Adria shrugs. “Mom said that leads to the crawl space.”

“How would Mom know?” Wren smirks, striding towards the ladder.

Adria follows her sister down the ladder. “Maybe because Mom lived here most of her childhood?”

“Why do you have to be so pessimistic all the time?” Wren groans, dusting off her grey jeans.

“I can’t help it, it’s in my blood,” Adria jokes and hands Wren the key.

---

Wren holds her breath as Adria slides the key into the hole. “Smells like cat crap down here.”

Adria laughs. “Probably because Grandpa never cleaned out his cat’s litter box. Bro’s cat died a year ago.”

“Rough.”

Adria turns the key, and her stomach drops when it doesn’t budge. “Well, guess it doesn’t work.”

Wren falls to the ground and shoves the key further into the keyhole. She yanks on the handle, and slowly, inevitably, it shudders open.

The smell of soot and rainwater drifts through the room, rotting Adria’s nose. A steel ladder descends into what looks like hell.

Adria strains her eyes to see past the first three steps. “You first.”

Wren snorts. “Heck no.” She gives Adria a little shove. “I was born first, therefore you’re my loyal servant.”

“Whatever,” Adria rolls her eyes and turns on her phone’s flashlight. “If I die, I will claw my way up from hell and kill you myself.”

Wren holds her hands up in defense. “Womp womp.”

“You’re a bozo.”

Adria crawls down, grimacing every time something squishes under her shoes. The tunnel’s walls drip with soil and rainwater, and through cracks in the stone, small bugs and beetles crawl. She hugs her sweatshirt close to her body, fighting off the chills running down her back.

She bites back a scream as she shines her light on a skeleton-like corpse, its Nazi suit slowly weathering away.

“Is it safe?” Wren calls down.

“I’m literally being mauled to death,” Adria snickers and fakes a scream.

“Ha ha,” Wren deadpans. “I’m coming down.”

“Don’t get mad at me when you die.”

She hops down with a huff and grins at Adria. “This is totally bonkers.”

“Bonkers?”

Wren’s eyes travel down the arched stone walls and eventually fall onto the dead Nazis and their guns laying at their sides. She, unlike Adria, doesn’t hold back a scream. She stumbles and grabs onto Adria’s arm for support.

“Holy guacamole,” she breathes out in heavy quick bursts. “Why aren’t you freaking out?”

Adria shrugs. “Because it’s so obvious that these bodies are ancient and have been dead for a very long time.”

Wren glances behind her. “Let’s go back upstairs.”

“No way,” Adria begins, “we just found a huge time capsule full of dead Nazis and their guns. We could find really cool stuff down here and get paid a crap ton of money.”

“What else besides bodies and guns will we find down here?” Wren snaps back.

“I don’t know, a car maybe?” Adria rubs a hand over her exhausted and honestly scared face. “I’m staying down here.”

She stalks over to a corpse and pries the gun from its hands.

“What’s that for?” Wren questions before stepping up on the ladder.

Adria gives Wren a sloppy grin and shrugs. “Just in case.” She turns on her heel and begins her long journey through the tunnel.

——

This was pretty rushed, lol. Don’t take this writing seriously because I didn’t.