My eyes were wide open, and my heart was beating fastly at the thought of the personal mission I was to go this night, I took deep breaths to lessen the anxiety pressing against my chest and waited for the forlorn creakings of the wooden boards to stop.
•
I wasn't so sure if Ramone was lying or not, 'cause I'd seen nuns and monks entering the doors with sketchy looks and shaking children.
Though their bounty of hysterics seemed enough to dissipate any doubts I'd have had, I wanted to be really sure and also I wanted to explore the building, alone, in a time when it was devoid of people.
So I waited, I waited for the creakings to stop, for the last of the doors to slam, I waited with baited breath, until only the shrill calls of the nocturnal insects remained.
But there was this sense of foreboding, of the impatient and nervous wait for something big to happen.
I decided to wait a little before getting out.
Then I heard something.
Downstairs, where the three doors and main hall were located, a little muffled to the hearing, was a cry, the fact that I could hear it from the floor where I was, meant that it was a loud one.
I got down from her bed immediately and put my ear to the wooden floor.
I listened hard but I could only hear shuffling and muffled voices.
I then tried squeezing my eyes shut and straining more, it had always worked when I couldn't hear anything while eavesdropping,
And like magic it sounded like they were only two floors away.
I could hear them fairly well.
"Shut you mouth, you little fool! You don't want to wake up the entire hold, do you!"
There was the sound of slapping and whimpering.
" That's right, you little mutt, next time abide by the rules,"
An evil voice hissed. I breathed.
I listened closely and heard jingling of keys and a door creaking open, a struggle ensuing as the child tried to back out and run away but the older person being stronger, pulled her in and then the door slamming shut.
I tried listening for more noises but all was still and quiet once again.
I got up and headed to the door.
....
I closed the door to my room quietly and turned around.
Suddenly I heard the sound of something expensive and breakable falling.
"Ah! Gah!"
I almost died of heart attack, staring at the statue that had fell on me and was staring meanly at me.
It was not the creepiness of it's eyes that made me panic, it was the fact that it could have crashed on the floor and Mother Moth would ask me about it and she would give me the stare that made you confess about everything you did and didn't do and then I would try to lie but fail horribly and she would know I snuck out after lights out and would punish me for five wrong doings.
I put it in place and took a look at it, it was an ursine and medieval looking woman with a pompous sordid snarling expression.
The statue was life-like and stared despicably into my face, I looked around and noticed there were more statues of people with alike pompous sordid snarling expression as this one.
I looked at the hately expression again and frowned.
"Shhhhhh," I put my finger to my lip. The statues looked like they would tell Mother Moth on me.
"Don't tell, or I'll break you," I whispered.
The statue's expression seemed to twist the more after I said that.
I tiptoed down the hall and down the six sets of floors and finally stepping foot into the first floor.
I tiptoed across the large hall, past the kitchen and pantry and finally stopping in from of the three doors.
They were normal regular doors, there was nothing special about them, there was an old musty smell around them, as if there were really abandoned things in there.
I shrugged and ran my hand across the door, it was dusty. Then I gently turned the knob of the first door, it was locked.
So was the second door. The third door, when I turned it, thankfully, creaked as it widened in front of me.
I•••••••••••••••
The interior was rectangular, the walls were so close to each other that with a stretch of my arms, I could touch both at the same time.
It was dark and although lengthy was every claustrophobic's nightmare. The place too was very cold and icy, a different temperature from the hall outside, which was cold anyway.
I carefully surveyed the room first, to watch out for any inexpectations.
It was dusty, so that I was breathing in dust even as I stood outside the room.
But there was something weird, the air was dusty, the floor wasn't. Which was why I didn't see any footsteps on the floor as their steps would be obvious if there was.
Unless...
'Unless, of course they were floating,'
A chill ran down my spine, but I heard footsteps back in my room so the idea dissipated soon.
The room was completely empty except for a few old items shoved together at the head of the room.
As soon as I walked in, the door closed slowly behind me. I stared as it creaked close, then gulped fearfully as I continued walking.
I reached the end of the room and removed the cloth covering the things. I realized then that the cloth wasn't dusty at all.
'That's strange,'
Underneath was a long sturdy iron rod almost reaching the ceiling, on top of it was a large shower head thingy, connected to it was a large and long pipe that ran from the wall.
There was a tap there, the pipe seemed to be for water.
'but water for what?' I asked myself. There was an idea floating around my head but I chased it away.
I walked past the water shower, there was something else covered beyond it. I uncovered it and widened my eyes when I saw what it was.
It was a chair filled with metal straps enough to hold firmly a grown person in place. The chair looked old and heavy. Infact everything here looked very old and creaky and heavy.
I looked back at the hydrant on the rod and remembered what Ramone had said, 'The water cycle,' and from the low temperatures here, it was most likely the water was freezing cold.
I imagined a child strapped there, squirming and gasping for air as a full pressure of water rushed at her face.
I gasped but this wasn't time to jump in conclusions, maybe..... maybe it was for something else.
Unconsciously, I had leaned against the metal rod.
It suddenly tilted over.
'wha!? No?!'
I rushed to push it into position in panic. But stopped when I saw it had stopped midway, it had made a 30° angle with the floor and I looked at it in shock, totally befuddled.
Suddenly the ground made way into a stair case leading down into the darkness.
I gasped in excitedness.
"This place is getting more terrifying and exciting," I said smiling widely as I marched down the stairs.