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Caught on Camera

Photograph: In the Dark

Two children slept in the next photograph, leaning against each other where they sat on the floor of what looked a bit like an empty closet except that Shinichi could see bits of bookshelves on the outer edges of the photo. It was almost like the shelves formed a wall in which an empty window had been cut to show the little room beyond.

"That's the secret room in your library," Kaito said, recognizing the parted, bookshelf doors hidden by the shadows in the room itself.

"You two gave us all a real scare that time," Chikage informed the two, shaking her head at the memory…

. . . . . . . . .

He'd known it was a bad idea to climb around the library bookshelves especially when none of their parents were around. It was common sense. All sorts of accidents could happen with two little kids climbing up and down those really tall shelves after all. It didn't even take a very creative person to come up with a whole long list of them. But Kaito was supernaturally skilled at making things that were obviously bad ideas sound like good ideas. Shinichi just wished he'd remembered that sooner.

On the other hand, falling into a strange, empty compartment built into the wall behind one of the shelves had not been on the list of accidents he might have expected. Maybe if they were in the Kuroba house, it would have crossed his mind, but this was his own library here! He hadn't even known there were any secret rooms in the house.

Not that this place qualified as a room. Secret broom closet was more like it even if it didn't have any brooms in it.

"There has to be a handle or switch somewhere," he protested to the darkness in general as he ran his hands over the walls and floor. All of them felt seamless. Behind him he could hear Kaito doing the same on the other side of the closet.

"Not if this place wasn't designed for people," Kaito replied, sounding far too cheerful for their current predicament. "If this is just supposed to be a secret storage space then someone else would have to let us out."

"It seems kind of tall to be just a storage space," Shinichi said doubtfully, looking up into the utter blackness overhead. He raised his hands and waved them around but felt nothing. "And it's empty."

"But not dusty."

"That's true… I guess that means someone has to have cleaned it recently." Sighing, Shinichi turned around—and realized with a shock of horror that he couldn't remember which wall was the one between them and the library. And he couldn't see a thing. "Uh…Kai?"

"Yeah?"

"Which wall's the door?"

There was a beat of silence. "I'm not sure."

For several moments after that neither of them spoke. Taking in a deep breath, Shinichi started knocking on the walls. They all sounded equally solid. Beside him, Kaito shifted from wall to wall, pressing his ear against each and listening hard. Still nothing.

Shinichi could feel his heart rate rising as he knocked harder on the walls, hoping one of them would move or just do something. It felt like everything was closing in on them. Could air even flow between this horrible place and the outside? If it couldn't…then how long would it be before they ran out of oxygen? He squeezed his eyes shut—not that it made a difference—and ordered himself not to panic. There was no dust in here, so someone must have cleaned it recently. So that meant there was a good chance that that person would find them. But…what if whoever it was didn't really clean it all that often and they just happened to have fallen in after a rare cleaning session?

He started abruptly when he realized that Kaito was saying something. He hadn't heard a word of it. "What?"

"I said maybe we should try calling for help."

The two of them spent the next however-long-it-was yelling at the top of their lungs. Shinichi had no idea how long they were at it but his throat was sore by the time they finally gave up on the idea. If their air supply was indeed limited then they had just used a lot of it, he thought with a sinking feeling in his stomach. He sat down and wrapped his arms around his knees. Beside him he could feel Kaito making another round along the walls before joining him with a sigh.

"I guess we have to wait," the aspiring magician grumbled, leaning back against the wall behind him. Waiting had never been his strong point.

Shinichi made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat before both of them fell silent. The seconds dragged and the darkness seemed to grow thicker.

"Kaito?" Shinichi asked finally, his own voice sounding oddly small and flat in that still, stifling darkness.

"What is it?"

"What if…what if no one finds us?"

Kaito swallowed. He'd been trying not to think about that. They were only eight. There were still so many things he wanted to do! He still had to become a great magician and travel the world! And Shinichi still had to become a detective like he was always saying he wanted. They couldn't be stuck here—they just couldn't.

"I'm sure they'll find us. I mean, your dad writes mysteries for a living, and my dad's the world's best magician. If anyone can find us, it has to be them," he reasoned aloud, drawing on all the acting lessons his father had ever given him to inject as much confidence into his voice as he could. After all, they had to believe it.

"I…guess you're right," Shinichi agreed, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly as he firmly squashed the niggling fear that wanted to latch on to the 'if'. Getting disheartened now wouldn't do either of them any good. Not, granted, that being hopeful did much good either, but at least it made waiting easier.

There was the rustle of movement and an arm slid around his shoulders. Shinichi leaned into the embrace, grateful for the contact. At least they weren't here alone.

X

Yuusaku looked up from the newspaper he'd been reading when his wife breezed into the living room.

"Have you seen Shin-chan?" she asked, glancing around the room in case her son was hiding somewhere in the nearby corners. "I just bought the cutest new jacket I wanted him to try but I can't seem to find him anywhere!" As she talked she shifted a few steps to the side so she could look behind the sofa. Nope, no Shinichi.

"Have you checked the library?" her husband inquired, going back to reading.

"Of course!" she huffed in indignation. That was the first place she'd gone since she knew as well as he did that it was Shin-chan's favorite room. "Did he go out?"

"No. I'm pretty sure he and Kaito are both upstairs."

"But I already told you, I've looked in every room."

"Perhaps they hid when they heard you coming," he suggested, earning himself a frown. He raised his hands defensively. "I'm sure they'll come out eventually. Probably when they get hungry."

But lunch came and went with still no sign of either boy. When dinner time also passed they knew something had to be wrong. Yukiko called the Kurobas while her husband began a meticulous search of the house. Soon he was joined by all three of his fellow parents. There were no signs that the boys might have snuck out of the house but they were clearly not in any of the rooms either. Toichi had been sent up to check the roof but they weren't there either. The only mark that they had been in the house earlier was a scattering of books near a few of the shelves in the library. And that, Yuusaku noted, was odd. Shinichi wasn't the kind of child who would leave books lying around on the floor where they could be stepped on. He loved books too much for that.

"It looks like they were using this place as a jungle gym," Toichi noted, gesturing to the way several of the displaced books had fallen from shelves far too high for the boys to have reached from the ground.

Yuusaku looked over the shelves again before it struck him. That was the shelf where… Striding quickly to said shelf, he reached into the space that had been left by some of the fallen books. There was a click and suddenly the shelf's three middle rows parted in their center and swung inward to reveal a dark, closet-like space.

And there, sitting on the floor inside, were the two missing boys, both fast asleep.

. . . . . . . . .

…The room had originally been designed by Yuusaku as a place where he could hide from unwanted visitors (like impatient editors). As it was the mechanism to open it from the inside had been placed far too high up on the wall for a child to reach. It also wasn't particularly easy to find in the dark unless you knew exactly where it was.

"I always said building that room was a stupid idea," Yukiko declared, shooting her husband a pointed look. "But would you listen? No. It's cool, he says, and useful…"

TBC

A.N: Hmm, not much humor in this one, though I guess it wasn't meant to be anyway. For some reason I like writing them as kids now and then. Anyhow, see you next time!