Choke: 2 (Pillage Trilogy (Pillogy)) (6 page)

Illustration from page 7 of
The Grim Knot

CHAPTER 5

I can’t remember falling asleep, but I was pretty aware of waking up. Wind was working its way in through all the cracks and openings the huge old manor had. I tried to just close my eyes and go back to sleep, but I think my body was sick of being in bed. I sat up slowly and looked around in the darkness. The only light came from the red digital numbers on my new clock. The sound of something large creaking cracked through the air.

“Wane?” I whispered. “Thomas?”

There was no answer, only the slow whine of my bedroom door easing open. I scooted back in my bed and tried to see better in the dark. I could faintly see the outline of my opened door—there didn’t seem to be anyone or anything standing in the doorway.

“Hello?”

Only the wind answered. I slipped out of bed and shuffled across the room and up against the wall. I reached for the light switch and flicked it up—nothing. I groaned; the power always seemed to be on the fritz. I moved to the open door and stuck my head out. The hallway was as dark as coal, and I could feel a stronger wind pushing through it like a slow train.

The wind picked up, and I could hear bits of dirt and debris tapping up against the windows as things blew around outside. A door banged open and shut somewhere down the hall.

“Just go to bed,” I told myself. “It’s only a door.”

Apparently I wasn’t in the mood to listen to myself because I had retrieved a small flashlight from my dresser, and I was now all the way out in the hall and slowly walking toward the banging door. Besides I was no longer tired at all.

I shined the flashlight down the long hall. I felt a little bit like I had when I had chased the light and discovered the basement. But unlike before, I knew the manor a lot better, and I figured there was nothing that could surprise me. I walked carefully down the hallway. The noise led me across the large open floor and over to where more rooms and doors were. The banging was getting louder.

“I’m coming,” I said aloud.

I entered the far hallway that turned toward the south wing of the mansion. I really didn’t spend much time in that part of the house. I mean the manor was massive and there were still a number of rooms I had not investigated. I think I had ignored the south wing because it didn’t face the back gardens where I had once been forbidden to look. So I figured it was just a bunch of locked doors leading to empty rooms or stuffy old bedrooms that were filled with prissy furniture covered in old white sheets.

The wind was racing through the hall and I could hear the door slamming much clearer now. I pointed the small glow of the flashlight down the south wing.

After passing dozens of doors I came to the end of the south wing hall. The last door on the end was opened. It slammed shut and then popped open again from the surging wind. I pulled the door shut, and the wind bullied it open again. I went into the room and could see that one of the windows was cracked open. I shoved it closed, and the wind began to whistle in anger.

“Sorry,” I said.

I left the room and closed the door behind me. This time it stayed shut. As I turned to walk back down the hallway, the beam of my flashlight washed over a small green door across the hall. I moved the light back. The small green door looked like a tiny cabinet or dumbwaiter entrance. I had seen other unusual doors throughout the manor, but I couldn’t remember seeing this.

I thought about just going back to my room and checking out the green door in the morning, but I was wide awake and I had a flashlight. The combination seemed perfect for exploring.

I knelt down and turned the knob. It was locked and there was no give. I ran my hand over the small green door and I could feel the dust collecting on my fingers. I smacked my palms together, and dust shot into my nose causing me to sneeze. When I lifted my arm to sneeze into my elbow, my hand knocked the top of the tiny door and my fingers snagged against the corner. I could feel something. I grabbed my flashlight and shined it on the top of the door. The trim was chipped and looked like it was coming off at the corner. I grabbed the corner with my free hand and pulled. The top popped away from the wall, and behind the back of the trim was a key wedged into the wood. I twisted the key free and held it up. It was brown and rusty and looked like an old house key. I didn’t admire it for too long. Instead I shoved it into the lock on the small door.

It fit perfectly.

The door clicked open and immediately a belch of air blew out. The belch was followed by the wind from the hall racing in. I shined my light in but all I could see was more darkness.

I put the flashlight in my mouth and bent down to crawl in. I stood up and shined my light around.

I was kind of disappointed.

From what I could see it was just another room. There was a desk against one of the walls and a large mirror hanging near the right corner. I looked in the mirror and was surprised to see how scared I looked. Against the biggest wall there was an ornate fireplace with two cherub angels carved on the sides of it. The opening of the fireplace was almost big enough for me to stand up in. There was a regular-sized door near the mirror, but it was locked and boarded up. On the floor was a thick rug with a large woman wearing a crown stitched on it. On the sides of the rug there were a bunch of scarabs sewn around the edges.

It seemed like just another boring room, but the way the wind drew through the open door and howled across the room made me think that there had to be another opening somewhere. I stood in the fireplace thinking the wind was just racing up the flue, but I couldn’t feel any wind. I used my flashlight to carefully examine the rest of the fireplace. I had seen so many movies where there was a secret button or switch to open up a hidden door in the fireplace, so I just kept feeling around for anything that might work. I even reluctantly poked the cherub’s behinds thinking that just maybe their rears were the trigger.

They weren’t.

As I was stepping around the side of the hearth, I could feel my foot hit something raised on the ground. I shined the light down and saw a small black tile that was slightly raised. I pressed my foot down and heard a click.

I looked around thinking the fireplace had opened up. It hadn’t, but the mirror hanging near the corner was now glowing softly.

I turned off my flashlight.

The glow of the mirror was even stronger. I stood up and stepped over. The reflection on the mirror was gone and I could see a thin flight of stairs going up behind the glass. I reached out and grabbed the side of the mirror—it didn’t budge. I took hold of the other side and it moved just a bit. I crammed my fingers around the edge and pulled. The mirror slid open like a glass door. The wind was flowing like a mighty river now.

“Whoa. I love this house.”

The stairs behind the mirror were wooden and extremely narrow, barely wider than me. I stepped on the bottom stair and the wood creaked like a whistling monkey. The second step wasn’t as bad. I turned around and slid the mirror closed. It snapped back into place with a soft click.

The mirror stopped glowing.

I flipped my flashlight back on and directed the beam upward. The passageway was only about three feet wide and the stairs appeared to go ten steps higher and then turn to the right behind a corner wall. There were cobwebs everywhere and it smelled like dusty glue.

I began to climb.

Wait,
I heard myself telling me.

Thoughts began to slosh through my head like marbles being dropped down a waterslide. I thought about when I had found the basement and the sort of trouble it led to. I considered just going back to bed and pretending this was a dream. But I started to think about the look on my dad’s face when I had told him about the visitor with the sword. I thought about dragons. I thought about the book,
The Grim Knot,
and wondered if there was any reference to weird mirrors in it. I thought about just once being responsible enough to ask permission to go exploring mysterious stairs before I actually did.

My thoughts settled at the bottom of my stomach, and, as usual, I ignored all the important ones and continued climbing.

I stopped to shiver and then resumed my climb. Dust popped off the stairs and into my light as I walked. There were cobwebs stretching across my path. Normally I’m not a big fan of cobwebs, but these cobwebs actually made me feel better. It was sort of a confirmation that this secret passage had not been used in sometime, which meant nobody besides me was around.

The stairs turned behind a wall and then ended. The passage was now long and level. I moved slowly, shining my light over every inch as I went. There was writing on the walls, but most of it looked like unreadable scribbles. There were a few words I could read. I saw the word “Time” and a large “Tell them.”

Farther down the passageway was another mirror. I couldn’t move it, but the beam from my flashlight went through it, letting me see the room behind. It looked like the room I had just been in, but there was no fireplace. I pushed up against the glass and could easily see every bit of the room.

I made a mental note: never change in front of mirrors anymore.

I turned from the mirror and continued down the passageway. After about twenty feet more there was a spiral staircase. The steps were so narrow that I had to turn sideways to climb up them. At the top there was another passageway that forked in two directions. I took the one on the left and accidentally stepped right through a huge spider web. I spent the next couple of minutes dancing around in a panic, trying to peel the webbing off.

Once I was relatively web-free, I kept moving. I was considering turning around before I got lost, when I reached the end of the skinny passageway and looked down. I appeared to be standing at the top of a wooden slide. I shined my flashlight, but the beam of light didn’t reach far enough to see where the slide ended. It was narrow, steep, and tight, and looked like it raced down at least three floors.

I should have thought about it. I should have taken a moment to think things out. After all, that’s what a rational, straight-thinking person would do. Instead I jumped down, held my arms up and slid.

Illustration from page 8 of
The Grim Knot

CHAPTER 6

I was moving so fast my eyes couldn’t keep up with my rapidly collapsing stomach. On most slides you simply climb up some stairs or steps, then slide down a metal or plastic surface, and arrive at a flat ending. Then you stand up, comment on how fast or slow you just went, and then do it again. The slide I was flying down, however, was nothing like that. This slide was made of wood and slicker than anything I had ever been on. I felt like a bar of wet soap slipping down a glass hill.

I tried to shine my flashlight in front of me but I was so busy flailing my arms that I couldn’t get a clear glimpse of what was coming. The slide twisted and suddenly I was flying sideways and dropping fast.

The slide straightened out and then dipped, bouncing me up two feet and then slamming me back down. The passageway was so tight, my shoulders kept hitting the walls as I raced. I could see wood beams in front of me stretching across the
passageway. My head smacked the bottom of one. I threw my body back and zipped under the rest of the wood beams. The light from my flashlight flew back and forth like a spastic spotlight.

I could see rats climbing on the wood beams. One fell from above and smacked me in the face. I screamed and reacted poorly by throwing my flashlight at it. It was a dumb move, now I couldn’t see anything.

The slide turned sharply again and I scraped against the wall as I bounced around it. After two more dips and a short spiral, it began to level out. My body slowed and I came to a complete stop.

I lay there trying to catch my breath and patting myself all over to feel if I was okay. It felt like my arms and legs were still on, and I couldn’t feel any bleeding. But I was covered in cobwebs that clung to my fingers as I tried to pull them off.