Hey guys! Guess who's on a roll? THIS GIRL! Second chapter this week:) (I just really wanna finish this story tbh haha) See you the bottom! ~DP55

Ten

The Mill

"What do you mean, Isabelle's coming too?"

"Well, I cannot leave you two here. That would be absurd."

"Nollie, what is he talking about?" Isabelle was staring at me, eyebrows furrowed, "What mill?" I had no choice but to explain everything to her. I was terrified at what she would say to the situation, what she would think of me after she learned of everything.

But more often than not, people surprise you. "That sounds like an adventure!" Isabelle smiled, "I get to be part of your adventure?"

Tintin looked at her, shocked. "All right. Well, we need to go—" He went for the door, pulled his coat off the rack, and stared at Isabelle and I. We stared right back, not moving. "Well, come on now, ladies!"

"I need to change…" I laughed, staring at my nightgown and socks. "I can't go out like this…" I raced upstairs and changed in an instant, pulling my boots on as I walked out the door with Tintin and Isabelle, my own trench coat draped over my shoulder. We got in the car and Tintin started it, pulled away from the curb, and drove off into the dark. I looked at Isabelle, seated beside me in the backseat of the car. I searched for any sign that she wasn't enjoying this impromptu adventure—but she looked perfectly happy, smiling out the window at the countryside passing by.

When we arrived at the mill, Tintin shut the engine off and turned to us in the back. "All right, ladies," he spoke very quietly, as to not let anyone hear but us, "I have a plan for how we are going to get the top floor."

"But isn't it impossible?" I heard myself say.

"Nothing is impossible, Nollie," he stared at me for a moment before continuing, "Anyway, I have a plan, but you're going to have to listen closely and follow every instruction in order for it to work…"

He finished explaining the plan—which turned out to not be that tedious—all it required was for me to walk across a beam on the destroyed top floor, like a tightrope walker, and get to the other side of the room, where the loot was. We got out of the car, walking towards the mill, which was completely boarded up. It was a gigantic brick building, seven stories tall. Tintin scanned the perimeter with his flashlight, before handing it to me. "You first."

"What?"

"I said, you first. You go first into the mill." I stared at him, not touching the flashlight. "Nollie, be brave."

"Fine," I gingerly took the flashlight. "Now what?"

"Now, the door is hidden behind that bush right there—he pointed toward a gigantic, overgrown hedge, "You'll need this to remove the branches," he handed me his pocketknife, and I examined it closely.

"That's gonna cut the bush back?" Isabelle laughed, "It'll take five years. You need something bigger."

"We don't have anything bigger," Tintin muttered.

"Iz, this is as good as it gets for hedge clippers when it comes to us," I chuckled, trying to lighten the tension between Tintin and Isabelle.

"All right, well then… let me do it." She took the knife from my hand and began to hack at the bush with the blade. When this proved difficult, she began to take branches in her hands and snap them, one by one, until the door was in view. She twisted the knob and shoved the door with her shoulder, which, instead of opening, just creaked and blew dust onto her cream-and-floral top. She brushed her hands on her navy skirt and tried again. Tintin moved to help her, and they both tried shoving the door opened. It gave way and they both fell forward into the entryway.

"Let's go," Tintin rounded back towards me, gesturing for me to follow. As soon as I entered the dark building, a car tore into the gravel lot outside, screeching to a halt right as several men leapt out. Tintin cursed and shut the door.

"Who are they?" Isabelle asked.

"Get out of here," Tintin was pressed up against the door, trying to use his weight to keep it closed from the approaching men, "GO! Get upstairs and remember the plan." I stared at him. "Nollie, go!"

"Not without you!"

"I said go."

"Nollie, be brave!" Isabelle grabbed my hand and took off, dragging me behind her, for the spiral staircase a few feet away from us. "Go!" I clicked the flashlight on and raced up the stairs as fast as I could. I counted the floors as we went—one, two, three…and then there was a gunshot from downstairs. The first thing I remembered made me shriek—Tintin was unarmed. I froze and screamed his name. I was about to turn and run downstairs when Isabelle stopped me.

"Be brave," she reminded me. "He'll be okay." Just then, we heard thunderous footsteps coming up the stairs after us, and she gasped. "We need to keep going. Come on!" She pushed me forward, and we kept onward. Fourth floor. Fifth floor. Sixth floor. Seventh, eighth… by the ninth floor, we were exhausted, but Isabelle was persistent. "C'mon, Nollie! Sherlock wouldn't give up now. We gotta get to the vault!" I rolled my eyes at her and kept climbing.

Tenth floor. Finally.

I opened the door directly in front of us and gasped, teetering in fear. There was literally no floor beneath us—just a few charred beams holding up the remaining walls. This time, it was Isabelle who cursed. There was a main beam stretching out in front of us, leading right to the vault on the clear other side of the room. The walls were forty feet apart. I exhaled deeply and looked at Isabelle.

"Will you hold up the flashlight for me?" I asked her, gulping.

I have been wanting to do the scene where they run up a staircase in an old, abandoned mill since I first started the series. Seriously! Like, a week after I started writing, I was at a church camp in this cute little town and they had this huge mill near where we were staying and I was like, "I want that in my story." 'Course, it didn't end up in Prophecy Stone, but hey, at least it made it! Haha. Anyway, REVIEW PLEASE! 3 ~DisneyPrincess55