It was a long boring day. Nico lived on Matero street in Cancun, Mexico. It was a day with clouds and a few rays of the sun. Typical. So he went to ask his mom, Ria Hernandez to drive him over to his neighbor’s house. He lived in the woods so his mom had to drive since the next house is 3.5 miles away. Ria was working as a maid in other houses. His dad, Diego Hernandez worked as an innkeeper at the local hotel. Nico sometimes felt lonely because he had no neighbors and sometimes he thought the woods were creepy.

Sometimes he heard owls howl on a full moon night, or wolves howling. Nico’s favorite book was The Burning Forest, by Juan Rodriguez. He liked it so much that he read it thirty-six times. That was his only entertainment because his family was a little poor and could barely afford this house. Nico was twelve years old. He was going to Ramirez-Allerano Middle School. He was born on April 26, 1986. Tomorrow was his birthday. His friend’s name was María Gonzalez. She was in the same class as him and both of them were in seventh grade.

“Nico, we're here,” Nico’s mom spoke.

As Nico got out of the car, He saw a glimpse of a shadow. A wolf? No, it looked more human to him.

“Well, go to María,” His mom said anxiously. 

 He ran onto the broken sidewalk to the brick-red steps. He pushed the doorbell when something pushed him aside. Before he could see who pushed him, that thing ran away.

“Ma Ma, did you—“

But Ma-Ma was gone.

“Hello?” María asked “Oh, hi Nico."

“Hi.”

“Come on in,”

“Okay,” Nico said in Spanish.

They climbed the stairs and went into her room.

“I’ve noticed a few odd things: A glimpse of a human shadow, someone pushing me before I could see who did that, have you?”

“Yeah, I saw that thing in the woods one day, and he/she had a gun,” María said.

Nico shivered. It sounded scary to him. “What should we do?”

“Our usual thing, is play, then eat.”

Nico was surprised by that. He thought they would go to investigate. But he kept silent. As they were playing, Nico remembered that he used to live on the streets waiting for his parents to come back to him after their long day. Nico just got a house a few weeks ago and just started school. He had seen a few weird things in school, a dark hole in the in a closet, water leaking possibly from every sink or water fountain. He wanted to see if the hole and the water were connected. He was going to find out.

Nico hadn’t noticed that there was a note on the window.

“Hey, what is that?”

“What?”

“That note on the wall,”

María went to the window and tore it from the ceiling. It was a letter with ink that was wet so whoever wrote it just wrote it. It had no nice border,  and it also did not say it was for us and it also did not say who was it from. Nico was getting very curious.

It said Beware, the boy in the black hair on Matero with a creepy house in the woods, you will be promised to find out those answers you are curious about.

María looked puzzled. “Is that you?”

“Hmmm, it says the boy with black hair, I am a boy and I have black hair,” Nico said “I also live on Matero street and also in those creepy woods.”

“What about this part? You will be promised to find out those answers you are curious about,”

Nico wasn’t sure whether to tell María, but she was his only friend. “I was curious about some things at school.”

María didn’t answer. Nico was starting to wonder if all of this had a connection, like the weird things at school and the strange he/she. 

“Dinner’s ready!” María’s mom said.

Nico and María raced down the stairs for dinner. Dinner was enchiladas. Nico didn’t eat much. He didn’t feel hungry. It was complete silence for ten minutes. 

“Nico, your mom is here,” María’s mom told me.

Nico walked to the door and came in their Prius. Their car made a rattling sound and then drove on the dirt road.

When they came it was about nine at the night. Nico went to bed and the next morning he woke up and got dressed. When he took the bus to school he sat on the only seat. When he came to school he went to the bathroom and in one of the stalls he found another note. It said:

You are going to be taken, Nico Hernandez. The only thing that can navigate you out of my lair is a map. The only place you can find it is in the Brillar.  There is an entrance to the school. Good luck, you’ll need it.

Nico was curious. But maybe that hole that he saw was the entrance. 

So during the free period, Nico told María “I found a note and it said we have to go through Brillar. I think we should go now.”

“But we need food, water, and medicine. I have a feeling it would not be Happyland there.”

“Sure, let’s go to the storage closet.”

They went to it. They packed energy bars, 5 jugs of water, and some medicine. When they came to a tile, it opened to a tunnel, so they went inside it.

It was a dark hole. It was pretty spooky to Nico. Owls hooting, lava waterfalls, gigantic trees, and a lot more. The only light was from the lava and these dim torches.

"If there are torches, someone has come here at least once. Oh, look! A minecart." María said.

They went to the minecart and sat in it. Nico was curious. The minecart wasn’t moving. Then he saw a lever and he pulled it. The minecart jerked to a start.

When they reached the end of the rail, they found two portals, one for the lair and one for Brillar. They went into the Brillar one and the world turned purple. Then, a second later they were in a desert, and it was nighttime. Then, all in a second Nico felt very nervous. There could be anything out here. He felt hungry so he told María “Let’s go eat something,”

They ate one energy bar each and kept on walking.

                                     …

Meanwhile, a spy was nearby. It had eyes on Nico and María. Hiding behind a cactus was a little robotic eye. Spying on Nico and María. Nico started to make camp for the night. Suddenly, a group of rampaging zombies out of nowhere came at them.

    "We forgot one thing, weapons!" Nico said.

María and Nico ran quickly in the opposite direction and found a house. 

They went inside it regardless of who was in there. It looked abandoned. Nico went downstairs and went automatically into an arrow trap. Nico knew how to disable the trap, Just pull the levers. There was a chest at the end. A bow and the arrows Nico collected from the trap. Then, there was also a map. Nico climbed up the stairs. But instead of María, a man with a beard was there. Instantly he saw Nico, he trapped him and took him to this underground series of tunnels.

                                      ...