A few years ago, there was a village in the middle of a forest. The school was close to a football field.

    There were three friends from the 5th grade at this school: João, 11; Manuel, 10; and Francisca, 9. They were very curious, smart and brave.

   One day, on their way home from school, they agreed to go play football in the field. As they were getting ready, a storm suddenly broke out.

They went to take shelter and spotted a mansion in the distance.

They went there and noticed that the iron gate was open.

They entered slowly and noticed an abandoned garden full of mushrooms, weeds, brambles, and frogs.

When they saw the house, they were frightened because it was in ruins. It was made of stone, had two floors and eight windows. They reached the wooden door and rang the bell. They waited but nobody came to the door. Suddenly it opened… creaking.

They entered with fear, everything was dark, and found some candles. After lighting the candles, the first thing they saw was many boxes on the floor and broken crockery scattered about. The house was full of dust, cobwebs, and pumpkins.

They decided to explore the house further. They opened the door to the first bedroom – it was full of graffiti and toys. The second door was old, broken and scratched. It fell as soon as they touched it. Everything inside was messed up and scattered.

The third door was blue and when they entered, the room was filled with candles on the floor. There was nothing interesting, so they went to the fourth door – it was full of cobwebs. They opened the door and found some ghosts dancing in the air and the floor on fire. They got scared and went upstairs to the second floor.

The fifth door was green, it had many holes with thorns. They opened it and screamed because the room was full of trapped bats, but when they opened the window, the bats escaped. They left and went to the sixth door: it was brown, dusty, and mossy. They opened the door and were very surprised: everything was neat and smelled good. On the bed, John found a paper with a number: 243.

Francisca said: 

– How strange! This must be the password to a safe or a hotel room. 

– Could it be? – asked Manuel. 

– Let's see if there are more doors! – suggested João.