Friday: A New Discovery
Early the next morning, Jas woke to an odd stillness. They stepped outside the Airbnb to find Ivy Mae and Roman staring at the horizon.
“What is it?” Jas asked.
Roman pointed to a faint outline in the distance—a massive tree, its branches reaching impossibly high.
“It’s the tree from the journal,” Ivy Mae whispered.
Jas’s pulse quickened. “We need to get there.”
Before they could discuss it further, a strange hum filled the air, growing louder by the second. The ground beneath them vibrated, and the sky took on an eerie green hue.
“Not again,” Roman muttered.
The hum stopped abruptly, replaced by a voice from the bus’s speaker system. “Follow the path to understanding.”
The trio froze, exchanging wide-eyed looks. “Did that bus just talk?” Ivy Mae whispered.
The voice repeated the phrase, and a light beam shot out from the bus, pointing directly toward the massive tree.
Jas swallowed hard. “Looks like we have our next destination.”