Chapter 7
Frozen, I tried to recall how I knew those shapes; then it hit me. At the club, when all those colors swirled in my vision, and I saw that picture of a spiral staircase and a room that was too dark to see clearly…that was my room! Turning around quickly, I looked at the wall to see if I could figure out how in the world there could possibly be a spiral staircase in the middle of my room. Immediately, my eyes went to the protruding wall in the corner, which just happened to be now right in front of me almost. I walked over to it, and started feeling the wall to see if there were any creases that I could pry apart in order to get inside. There had to be a way in! The wall had nothing. No cracks or crevasses, no wholes or dents, nothing! I stepped back, and saw that on the side of the protrusion was my dresser. Squeezing between it, I was able to push it away from the wall so that I could inspect that side as well. Again, there was nothing!
I decided to inspect the wall higher up to see if I had missed anything. Nothing on either wall, so I looked lower. Nothing; until I noticed that the baseboard on the wall facing the dresser. So, if the baseboards don't touch the floor, then the wall should slide? Let's see…lets look closer to the corner! Going over to the corner, I ran my hands up and down the wall. Gotcha! About three inches away from the corner closest to the wall, I found a crevasse big enough to fit four of my fingers in.
Cramming my fingers into the crevice, I pulled will all my might, but nothing happened. I pushed against the wall, and still nothing happened, thinking that maybe it was a decoy. So, shoving my fingers back in, I put my socked foot up on the wall, and once again pulled with all my might, and very slowly, the wall budged and inch. Shocked, my grip loosened, and I went flying backwards onto my bed. I didn't think that it would really move, but okay! Going back to the wall, I put my hands in the opening between the two walls, and pulled. I figure that this has not been opened for at least a century because of how much I was fighting it; I'm not weak, though some would assume so since I'm a girl. In agonizing slowness, the wall came open inch after inch, until the edge I was holding came level with the corner of the perpendicular wall. There was about three inches of wall left to go before it came off of the hinge, so I didn't have to worry about it totally coming off though.
Staring into the darkness of the opening I had just created, I could make out a structure that reached up into the ceiling. On instinct, I knew that this must be the spiral staircase from whatever it was that had happened to me at the club. Running downstairs, I ran into the kitchen to look for a flashlight so that I could investigate what I had just found. Okay, in my house, we keep the flashlights in a drawer next to the sink, so, maybe it's the same here?
Going over to the sink, I rummaged through all the drawers, but found nothing but kitchen supplies. My next thought was to go look under the sink, but found nothing but cleaning supplies. Those might be good for later, depending on what I find up there, I'll keep those in mind. Before I could move on to look anywhere else, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and voice call behind me, "Who are you, and what do you want?" Gasping, I whirled around found that it was only Thomas, holding as baseball bat!
"Thomas, what are you doing?" I asked, looking at the bat in his raised hand.
"I could ask you the same. What are you doing out of bed lady Kitiara?" he asked, lowering the bat when he found that it was me. "And what in light's name are you wearing?" he asked, staring me up and down.
"Um, my PJ's?" I said confused. I was too, a pair of PJ pants with a tank top. "I'm looking for a flashlight. I dropped my necklace Mother behind the dresser, and I can't see it with just the bedroom lights on." I said, thinking quickly of a lie that he would believe. He had seen me wearing a necklace when I arrived, but wasn't wearing now, so I figured that he would believe me.
"Here, take mine." he said, handing me the flashlight he had in his hand. "Make sure you return it though. There are others in the basement. Now, get your necklace and get to bed."
"Yes sir."
Back upstairs, I took the flashlight and grabbed my umbrella in case there were any spider webs; which I dearly hate; I started up the spiral stairs. Looking at them, they looked to be made of a black metal with lace like designs carved into each step. Praying that there was no calcite rust or any damage done to the stairs since they were last used, I was really hoping that they would hold me all the way to the top. Finally, after thirty two steps, I reached the top.
Reaching for the door knob, I attempted to turn it, but to my un-surprise, it was locked. Great, just like in the movies, the hidden door is locked! How typical. So, hoping that the key was in a normal spot, I felt around on the sides of the door frame and on top of the door frame, hoping that it would be nailed to the frame. Unfortunately, I had no luck; so naturally, I checked the railing and the center pole of the stairs. Again, no luck, so I shinned my light on the steps, hoping that the key might have been tied underneath the step. Still no key though, so I headed back down to my room in utter dismay.
Well what do you know! It was down here all along! Stupid for not thinking about there being a locked door to begin with! I chastised myself mentally. There enough, on the back of the hidden door, was the key to the door at the top of the steps. Thank goodness I had thought to close this door in case someone had tried to come into my room, or else I never would have seen it! Grabbing the key, I headed once more to the locked door at the top of the secret spiral stair case. Sticking the key in the lock, I opened the door.
Immediately in front of me was a wall of boxes. So, since the door opened into the room towards the wall, I had no choice but to go left. On both sides of me, all I could see were boxes, though I could tell that there was a wall on my left, so I am assuming that this room was a mirror image of my bedroom one floor below, so I quickly came to another wall of boxes, but I was left an opening to squeeze through on my right. I headed down what was beginning to seem like a street with boxes on both sides of me, just spiraling around the room, one wall after another, but at the end of this wall, the boxes did a U turn instead of continuing along the third wall, which I'm assuming is the wall facing the street. This 'street' led to another heading back to the stairs, but on the other side of the first wall of boxes. My gosh they have a lot of boxes! Is this ever going to end? At the end of that 'street' was another heading to the street, but it stopped well short of where I thought my room ended into the tower. Making another U turn back towards the steps, I walked down another passageway of boxes. Maybe I should turn back…To my pleasure and my surprise, at the end of this 'street,' the passageways of boxes ended.
Stepping out into the middle of the secret room, I saw that that last passageway did indeed stop short of the tower, because I could see the stain glass shining in the moon light. These pains depicted a medieval wedding of some sort. There was the groom and the bride and the pastor, all standing under the watchful eyes of the crucified Christ, but the congregation was made up of humans, most likely the family of the couple, elves, trolls, giants, fairies or pixies, dragons, and all sorts of magical creatures! All in all, of what I could see in the dim light, it looked gorgeous. Under the window pains was a giant cushioned bench seat similar to the one in my room, but this one took up the entire circle of the tower! The cushion was covered with a white cloth. Upon getting closer, I removed it. Underneath, I could see that the cushion was one giant pillow made out of a blood red silk, but it was incredibly dusty, and some of the buttons holding it together had come loose. On the wall facing the street, which was to the left of the tower, I could make out a huge shape, covered in a white cloth, and in the middle of the room were several more square-like shapes, also covered with white cloths.
Walking over to the larger cloth covered blob, I took the sheet off and found an old, and very large desk. The desk was made of what looked to be Red Wood, but it was hard to tell, especially since it was covered in faded lacquer and gilt and dust. In some of the places, I could see that the dust was in a thinner layer, but there was still a lot of it. The thing was enormous, with four large drawers running down the legs with what looked to be gold pull knobs. The back of the desk had actual cabinets like you would find in a burrow, also with gold pull knobs, and shelves and more drawers, all with those knobs. Knowing I'd come back to look through it, I moved on to the objects in the middle of the cleared part of the room, which wasn't so big after that maze of boxes.
Pulling off the sheet, which actually turned out to be three sheets, I found four chests. Whoa! These are like real treasure chests! These were made of the same wood as the desk, with the same amount of lacquer and gilt, and dust. Each had its own lock on it, each one different from the rest. The corners as well as the locks were made of the same gold like material as the knobs on the desk. Man, I had no idea that my grandmothers were so rich! These must have been up here for generations! Hey, maybe they don't even know they are up here, maybe they were here from the person who owned this house before them, and they forgot to get them! Cool, I really did find hidden treasure! I thought, laughing to myself.
Hearing a creak, I stopped dead, not moving a mussel, holding my breath for fear of being heard. "Kit, are you awake?" I heard Tristan half whisper. Oh good, he's down stairs in my room. Wow, I though someone might have come up here after me! Boy am I glad that I closed the secret door! "Hey Kit, are you okay? I thought I heard you moving around in here. Where is she? Damn it, I did hear her, I heard her move right out of her room! Great, I'll never find her if she's been gone for too long, I'll just have to wait up for her, and scold her in the morning." I heard him say as he moved back to the door of my room. Scold me? Who the hell does he think he is, my father? I hardly think so. I'll just have to come up with some way to get him.
Walking out of the room, through the maze of boxes, down the spiral stairs, and through the secret door, I thought of ways to let Tristan know who really was in charge. Hopping into my bed and snuggling into the pillows under the covers, I smiled as I drifted off to sleep. I think that this vacation is going to be fun after all!