"This is stupid. There's no way-"

"IM SERIOUS! Sirens exist! They might not be here today but they will come back!"

Ever since the boys had their little midnight meeting about L, they were determined to find out what was going on. According to Near he was sneaking it to see a siren, and he too had seen the siren.

So during the weekends playtime, the three of them went down to the creek where near had seen the siren and hoped to see it again. Matt and Mello were still skeptical about this whole thing being true, but given L's sudden fascination with the sea and mermaid mythology they were willing to at least try.

"I don't see any sirens" Mello sassed.

"Duh because sirens don't live in small creeks. They need more water than that, they probably only come up here to see L" Near replied.

"Well does the creek connect to a lake or something? If they need more water then maybe they'd be there?" Matt suggested.

Near had no idea. He didn't even know the sirens name he just knew they existed. And he'd never been past the pine trees of the Forrest since you weren't allowed to go there, so he had no idea where the creek lead.

"I don't know, I've never been past the pines" he said.

"Well let's go up the creek and look. It's not like we can get lost if we follow the creek back" Mello suggested.

"But we aren't allowed to go past the pines!"

"So? We're trying to solve a case here! The grown ups don't need to know. We have playtime for another three hours so as long as we're back by then no one will know we're gone" Matt added.

Mello was the trouble maker, Near was the goody-two-shoes and Matt was the enabler. That's how it'd been since they first got to the orphanage. Near knew he was outnumbered here, and even if it meant potentially getting in trouble there was no fighting them. And he did want to know what L was up to...

"Fine... but if we get in trouble it's all your fault!" Near caved.

The three of them set off down the creek, deeper into the woods than they'd ever been. They could still hear all the kids playing at the orphanage, but it got more and more distant as they followed the creek looking for some kind of connection to a lake or river. The deeper into the Forrest they got, the more they became uneasy as the world around them got quieter. But they were determined even if they were breaking rules.

"It looks the same to me" Matt said.

"This Forrest probably goes on for ages that why" Mello replied.

"Don't stand too close to it and fall in like I did. If you come back wet then the grown ups will know we're been snooping around" Near warned.

The three of them watched the creeks small stream of water rushing down the dent in the ground, sticks and rocks poking out of it. It seemed to be just the same size as it was before, and it seemed to go on forever.

"Hey... what's that?" Matt spoke up, stopping in his tracks.

The other two stopped beside him and followed his gaze. Off to the side of the creek in a clear patch of the dense Forrest was a circle of rocks.

Round rocks, too perfect to be natural.

"Rocks?" Mello sassed.

"No look, they're in a circle... and there's a bigger one in the middle" Matt replied.

As they approached it, they found it wasn't just a rock circle, but a whole platform like thing in the ground. It had carvings in the shape of butterflies and flowers, they could tell even as kids this was absolutely not naturally occluding. It was like it was something man made deliberately placed in the woods.

"Woah... it's like a fancy floor or something..." Mello said.

"Guys we should stray away from the creek" Near replied.

"We're not we're just looking at this"

Intrigued by the strange finding, the boys ducked down to get a closer look at the carvings on the marble circle.

"What language is this?" Mello asked.

The carvings of rune like letters confused them, they'd never seen an alphabet like this before.

"Dunno... probably French or something" Matt said.

"Dumbass French uses the same alphabet we do! It looks more like Japanese or something" Mello replied.

"What? It looks fancy and French is fancy!"

Near rolled his eyes at them, he may be the youngest but he had the most common sense.

"It's not an alphabet we use anymore. It looks like a really old one like Ancient Greek or something. You know like the ones we see in our history class books? Near explained.

They obviously had no idea what it said, but it was clear to them that it was meant to read in the shape of a spiral, following the other carvings. It started on the outside and swirled in.

"What even is this? Who'd just build this in the woods where no one ever goes?" Matt asked.

As he stood up and look at the other carvings, he stepped on a flower one and to his shock it began to glow.

"Oh my god-"

"What did you do?"

"Matt! What happened?"

The boys all looked down at the now glowing carving, in shock and awe. If Nears claims of sirens didn't convince them, now they'd seen magic for themselves. How could a random rock just start glowing when they stepped on it?

"Hang on..." Matt pondered.

He followed the glowing trail from the flower he stood on, down the butterfly carvings and finding that it stopped at the next flower.

"Hey... Mells step on that one there" he suggested.

Hesitantly, Mello stepped on the next flower and watched as it lit up too. They all gasped, watching the scene unfold before them.

"See! I told you magic was real! This has to do with L's siren, it must!" Near sassed the previous non-believers.

"Ok, ok. Maybe you were right. But that still doesn't answer what this is" Matt replied.

"I guess there's only one way to find out"

Usually Near was the more quiet, level headed one of the group. He didn't take unnecessary risks or do anything that could get him in trouble. But this time, his determination took over. From what he saw when Matt and Mello stepped on the carvings, he figured that you were meant to walk along the spiral to active this thing. So stepping on the next flower he followed the butterfly trail in the shape of a spiral as each carving lit up under his feet.

They didn't call these boys the smartest in the class for nothing, it took them all of a few minutes to figure out how this magic worked.

When he reached the centre, the boys watched in amazement as the ground below them began to glow, and soon it was so bright they had to cover their eyes for a moment. When it died down and they opened their eyes again, they found that they were no longer in the woods. They were in a completely different place, still wooded but not THEIR woods.

"What... the fuck-" Mello said.

"Mello! That's a bad word!" Near replied.

"Who's going to hear it? We just... teleported"

"Where are we?" Matt added.

They looked around, confused and a little scared at being in an unfamiliar place. But the fear was minimal compared to the amazement at what just happened.

"This has got to be where L goes..." Mello said.

"Which means... it's where the siren is" Near replied.

They'd done it, they'd cracked the case. They found out where L goes and where the siren came from. Now they had more questions, where was this? What just happened? and why was the gateway even in the woods?

The only way out if the densely wooded area they were in was a path lined with flowerbeds, maybe they'd find their answers if they headed east like L did all that time ago...