The Secret Passage
"Have you ever seen one of those movies where the people are trapped inside that small, steel room, and then the only way out is a passage?" Louis asked out of the blue.
"Uh, I dunno. I guess. Probably," Twitty replied.
"Well, maybe there's one in here, too," Louis said, examining the room with one wide eye.
He began banging on all the walls. "Come on, man, feel for something hollow."
"Uh, right." Twitty awkwardly began to tap on the walls.
"Hey! I think I've got something." Louis repeated a bang on the wall.
He was squatted on the floor, and continued his knocking. It sounded like knocking on an empty cardboard box.
"I think there's something behind here," he got excited. "Now all we've got to dofind is a door."
"Uh, dude," Twitty pointed to the wall next to the spot where Louis was kneeling.
On the wall was a white, dusty vent that looked like it hadn't been opened in ages.
"Uh, I saw that." Louis stated, letting out a nervous giggle.
He carefully, but hesitantly, placed his fingers around the edge of the vent door, and pulled with all of his might. At first the covering wouldn't budge, but then it finally let go, accompanied by an unpleasant creak that hurt like nails on a chalkboard.
Twitty knelt down beside his friend and waved his hand at some cobwebs that lined the inside of the vent. "Ew, do we actually have to go inside here?"
"Oh, come on, it's just like the movies!" Louis exclaimed.
With that, he crawled inside the large, black hole and didn't bother waiting for his friend to catch up with him.
Through the opening, just as expected, was a long, pitched-black tunnel. It reminded Louis of the tunnel he'd dug with his dad to find that treasure. But they had had flashlights.
Louis seemed to zoom right through the tunnel, but Twitty was a little more careful. He felt his way around, and winced when it came to a cobweb. He never remembered being this afraid of things before. Something was strange.
Suddenly, the tunnel changed directions. Since Louis was far ahead, Twitty had to yell for him to hear him.
"Hey, Lou, where do you think this goes?" He shouted.
His voice echoed off the narrow walls.
"Twitty, dude, BE QUIET!" Louis whispered as loud as he could, almost out of earshot. "Who knows who could hear us"
So Twitty sealed his mouth just as the tunnel changed directions, but this time, instead of turning, it went down. Twitty hesitated again, but then started forward. The floor of the passage was so slippery with webs that Twitty ended up sliding down. His franticly felt for something to hang on to, and just found something that faintly resembled the feeling of a rope on the side, but then before he knew it, his head was jammed into Louis' (A/N: How should I say this?) bottom.
At least the tunnel was level again.
"Oh, man, that hurt" Twitty muttered below his breath. He rubbed his head.
Louis didn't seem to feel a thing. "I think we're almost there."
Twitty was not sure of where "there" was, but he just nodded and continued crawling.
>>>>
Tawny had a vague idea of what the wall could represent, but her thoughts were interrupted, yet encouraged, when she heard a small bang behind it.
"Oh man, that hurt" came a familiar voice from inside.
"That's Alan!" Allison exclaimed.
Without even responding, Tawny pressed her hands against the wall and followed the thumping from inside.
After turning one more corner, the tunnel stopped abruptly, so suddenly, that Louis almost collided with the wall.
"Now what do we do?" Twitty asked from behind.
"Allow me!" came Tawny's voice.
"Huh?" Louis was startled as the wall was pushed into him, and light poured into the tunnel.
Tawny's head appeared above him.
"Tawny! You came and saved us!" Louis scrambled out of the tunnel and wrapped Tawny in a hug.
"Um, yeah," she said awkwardly as Louis released her.
"You know, I'm here too." Twitty stated as he got out of the tunnel.
He quickly looked around. "This place looks familiar."
He stared at the wall he'd just come through. "Louis, this is that one wall we almost went into."
Louis observed the wall. "Hey, you're right."
"Um, what are you guys talking about?" Tawny asked.
"Miss Pateer locked us into a room that was like, on the fourth floor!" Twitty exclaimed.
"There is no fourth floor," Tom cut in.
"You know, there could be," Allison remarked. "Like how during the Holocaust, houses had an extra floor that people hid in, but it looked like it didn't have it. This house looks like it could."
"Yeah, and it looked like a baby's room."
"Baby's room?" Tawny asked slowly.
She stared in horror at Allison and Tom.
"Yeah, so?" Louis demanded.
"You never heard the story," Allison replied.
The three friends grabbed Louis and Twitty's arms and dragged them back to the girls' room.
The third girl the room was shared with, wasn't there, so Tawny shut and locked the door.
"Baby's room, secret passage." She continued repeating this over and over again.
Tom quickly filled Louis and Twitty in on the story of the murderer Jake Schemer.
Twitty flinched. "Oh, man, we were in a room where someone died?"
"More than one person," Tom added.
"You know, Miss Pateer mentioned a secret passageway that Jake used. And she seemed to regret it when she said it. I think she's hiding something," Tawny said.
"Like we didn't already know that?" Allison asked.
"But there's still one problem," Twitty said. "How could Jake have gotten inside of the house? The passage stopped at the wall inside of the hallway. And I think we would have noticed a change in the tunnel's direction that led to the outside."
"So maybe he sneaked inside of the house while the family was away. I've heard of a lot of murderers doing that, and hiding until the family falls asleep," Tom answered, "but there's always the possibility of there being another passage."
"Maybe we'd better check it out," Louis said, standing up.
"But what about Miss Pateer?" Tawny asked. "She thinks you guys are still locked in Eleanor's room."
"We can avoid her," Louis said proudly.
"I know you've gotten out of things worse than this, so—" Tawny began.
Shuffling feet that halted at the door interrupted her.
"They've escaped?" came Miss Pateer's voice. "Oh, they can't run far. We'll find the little youngsters."
Louis half expected the feet to walk away, but they stayed put at the girls' door. He gulped. "Oh, no."
A/N: Again, I'm sorry I didn't update sooner, but I will try to get the next chapter posted ASAP. Please review!