Maxine and Daniel stood facing each other in the dark, damp basement. Maxine's heart was still racing from the scary incident they had just had. Daniel's face was serious, and Maxine could tell he was worried.
"What do we do now?" Maxine asked, trying to sound brave. "The curse should be broken, right?"
Daniel looked around the dark basement. "Not quite," he said. "We got rid of the altar, but there's something else down here, something really bad."
Maxine's eyes widened. "What are you talking about?"
Daniel went to the corner of the basement and pulled out a hidden trapdoor. "This goes to the old foundation of the building," he said. "That's where the curse started, where the bad stuff happened. We need to go down there and finish it."
Maxine was scared. But she didn't want to run away. She wanted to face the bad stuff, to get rid of it once and for all.
"Let's do it," she said, trying to sound brave.
They went down the stairs, and the air got colder and darker. Maxine could feel the bad energy getting stronger. Finally, they reached the bottom and saw a huge stone monolith in the middle of the room. It was covered in weird symbols, and Maxine could feel the dark energy coming from it.
"This is it," Daniel said. "This is the source of the curse. If we break it, we can stop the curse for good."
Maxine took a deep breath. "How do we do it?"
"We need to smash it," Daniel said. "Together."
Maxine felt scared, but she knew she had to do it. They raised their hammers and brought them down on the monolith. The stone started to crack, and the air got even darker and more intense.
Maxine hit the monolith again and again, but it was hard to keep going. It felt like the bad energy was getting stronger, trying to stop them. But she kept going, and finally, the monolith shattered.
The room was silent for a moment, and then... something strange happened. The darkness seemed to grow, spreading out from the broken monolith. Maxine felt a chill run down her spine.
"What's happening?" she whispered.
Daniel's eyes were wide with fear. "We didn't destroy it,"
"We only unleashed it."