Dillan woke up to the sound of his little brother crying. Sitting up he looked around. Almost forgetting where he was. The necklace he had put on last night was pulling on his neck from being twisted up in his sleep making him need to adjust it.
"I guess it wasn't a dream after all." He whispered to himself.
He had fallen asleep on the blowup mattress watching a cartoon last night. Stretching, he got up and walked through the living room and receiving room. There was a door to the left of the stairway standing open and he could hear his little brother Isaac playing with toys and his mom talking on the phone. Instead of bothering her he figured he might as well get started on clearing out his room.
The boxes were going to take forever to move. His mom decided they could all be moved to the basement for now. This way all of them could be gone through later to see what could be kept, tossed, or donated. Dillan started closest to the door and started hauling the boxes through the hall down the stairs and into the kitchen where the door to the basement was located. He set the few boxes in his arms down onto the floor next to the doorway so he could find a light switch. Finding none he swallowed loudly and looked down the dark stairway. The end was felt like a giant black nothingness, just waiting to swallow him whole.
"I can do this. There is nothing down there. I am alone and there no such things as monsters." Dillan looked at the boxes by his feet and down into the dark basement again.
"You can do this, stop being such a baby."
Shaking himself, as he could shake off the fear, he took a deep breath and started descending the steps. Keeping one hand on the railing and the other on the wall he crept down slowly. Just as his foot hit the fifth step down, he heard something move in the shadows to his right.
"He-hello, is anyone there?" He stopped and held his breath. He strained his ears for any hint of sound.
"Just a rat... or something." He whispered under his breath. "It is nothing to be afraid of."
Waiting a moment longer, just to make extra sure there wasn't any other sounds, he continued down the steps until he reached the bottom. Blindly feeling along the walls he hoped there was a light switch. He stumbled forward awkwardly shuffling his feet, so as not to trip, he kicked something in front of him. The object skittered across the floor and hit something on the other side of the room.
There was more movement coming from across the room where whatever he kicked had landed. Dillan squeezed his eyes shut and frantically used both hands to search the basement wall for a switch he was starting to think was not going to be there.
"Finally!" he yelled in triumph and the lights flicked on in the center of the room. He opened his eyes and took in the basement surrounding him. It was mostly empty; except for some shelves with more boxes on them. There was also some long forgotten furniture, draped in dusty white cloth. There was an empty can of spray paint lying in front of what looked like a sofa. He figured that is what he must have kicked.
It was a relief to not see or hear any more signs of movement. Walking around the room he tried to figure out what could have made any noise. Walking between the furniture he slowly made his way to the opposite wall but could find nothing. The shelves holding the boxes didn't look like much either and nothing in them that could have made and sounds.
He was about to turn around and head back up the stairs to grab the box at the top when he noticed his necklace glowing slightly, the green light coming through his shirt. Looking back at one of the shelves again he realized there was something behind the boxes, also emanating a faint green light. Dillan quickly removed a few from a shelf that was eye level and set them none too gently on the floor.
"This is so cool." He said to himself. He was now staring at the source of luminescent light. A section of door, hidden behind the wooden shelving, became visible. The part of the door he could see seemed to have the same detailed vines covering it as his necklace. Reaching out, he laid his hand on the door causing the orb and the door to simultaneously grow blindingly bright before snuffing out completely a second later.
"Dillan are you down there?" Dillan's mother called, startling Dillan out of the trance he seemed to be in. Her head peeked out from the top of the basement stairs, eyes searching for him in the dim light.
"Yeah mom." Dillan called back, hurrying to replace the boxes.
"The U-Haul is here. Why don't you come up and give me a hand, ok?"
"Coming!" Dillan answered as he slid the last box into place. He wasn't going to tell his mom about the door or the necklace, yet. First he had to find out why they seemed to glow when they were next to each other. He also wanted to find out what was behind the door. As he ran back up the stairs to the kitchen he looked back one more time, just to make sure the door was hidden properly. Satisfied that it was he went to help his mom.