The Secret of the Locked Door

Previously

…Then, tucked away in a dusty box labeled “Miscellaneous Town Records – Pre-1900,” Alex found it. A collection of fragmented diaries and letters, penned in elegant, spidery script. One diary, belonging to a woman named Eleanor Vance, dated back to the late 18th century, caught their eye. Eleanor wrote of her family, the original landowners of the very area where Alex had found the path. She spoke of their ancestral home, nestled deep within the woods, and a peculiar, deeply carved oak door that served as its entrance. “The oak stands sentinel,” Eleanor had written, her words