The Passage in the Closet

"Come on, let's go exploring." my younger sister said.

I yawned and rolled over. It was about 9 in the morning, the normal time that I had been getting up since our school had shut down.

"What do you want?" I groaned as I opened my sleep-filled eyes.

"Come on, wake up sleepy-head, I want to go exploring." my sister said again.

"Then go exploring, and leave me in peace," I replied.

"But this house is creepy." my little sister answered.

"Good for you," I replied.

My sister walked over to the curtains and pulled them open wide, letting the light shine into my huge bedroom.

I groaned and stuffed my pillow over my head. "leave me alone." I groaned and turned to face the wall.

My sister jumped on me and started bouncing on my bed. "Come on, just for a little while, then you can go back to sleep."

"No!"

"Your no fun."

"Your right, I'm tired."

"Then you shouldn't have stayed up all night playing on your I-pad."

"How do you know?"

"I saw you."

"Don't tell."

"I won't."

I breathed a sigh of relief.

"If you come exploring with me."

I groaned but rolled out of bed.

"Good, get dressed and meet me down in the ballroom in 5."

Oh, yeah, we live in a mansion, that's why we wanted to go exploring. Our great grandmother died and left us several million dollars, and so we moved out of our apartment in Chicago, and into the countryside of New York, where we bought this mansion. All of that only happened two weeks ago.

I quickly dressed in my huge bedroom and went down two flights of stairs to get to the ballroom.

Once there I saw my little sister, Gertrude, and my older sister, Janet.

I groaned again, "You brought her along too." I said, motioning to Janet.

Janet looked up from her phone long enough to take in my messy hair, and mitch matched clothing and said, "I'm your chaperone."

"Great," I muttered under my breath.

"Moma said if we wanted to explore we had to have a chaperone, so I got Janet up," explained Gertrude.

I shrugged. "Get on with it then, where are we going first."

Gertrude pulled out a map. "We can start in the library, and then work our way around the bottom floor, then head up."

"Ok," I said and started walking.

"Um, Greg, the Library's the other way."

"I knew that," I said, turning on my heel, and following Gertrude into the library.

Gertrude pushed open the doors into the library, and I followed her inside. The library was massive. I mean, humongous. It must have been twice the size of our apartment in Chicago. There were books everywhere, I mean, it's a library, there should be a lot of books, but there must have been close to a thousand, or more.

The bookshelves looked like glazed oak, that had been polished until it shined like gold. It stretched on for at least a hundred yards. There's a wrap-around balcony as well, for the second level, which, from where I was standing, looked like classics. I saw a sign that read, Shakespeare, and another that read Dickens, and several other names that I didn't recognize.

But the books in those sections didn't look like normal books, they looked old, and almost all of the Shakespeare books looked like the had pigskin covers.

"They're priceless." I gaped.

My younger sister nodded, "I thought you would like the library."

I nodded and went over to a ladder. I started to climb, and it took me a second to realize that it was one of those wheely ladders, and so when I was about halfway up, it started to slid along the bookshelf.

"Help!" I cried out as I went barrelling down the bookshelf and towards another tall bookshelf.

Gertrude started to run, and launched herself at the sliding ladder, and managed to grab the leg, but it just kept on sliding, with her in tow.

"Let go," I yelled and started climbing down the ladder.

Which is easier said than done, for I was not that good at climbing ladders, especially ladders that liked to speed down bookcases, and seemed to have a thirst to crash.

Gertrude let go, I didn't have to tell her twice.

I continued down the ladder and finally made it to the bottom. I tried to jump off, forgetting that my arm was around the edge of the ladder, and so when I jumped, I swung around the ladder, so now I was going to hit the bookshelf, not the ladder.

I dug my heels into the ground and tried to slow myself down, but the ladder was going to fast. I looked over my shoulder and saw the bookcase 20 feet away, then 10. I dug my heels harder into the ground, and finally, the ladder screeched to a halt less than a foot away from the bookcase, talk about cutting it close. I collapsed on the ground out of breath.

"Your alive!" Gertrude cried.

"Don't sound so surprised," I replied, in between great gulps of air.

I stood up and promptly fell back on my rear.

"Are you okay?" Janet asked, looking up from her phone for a moment, then looking back down again.

"Yeah, shaken up a little," I replied.

I was shaken up a lot.

I stood up, and this time my feet held me. I took on last look around the library, and noticed that now it seemed to have lost its appeal to me and said, "Let's go somewhere else."

Gertrude nodded and answered, "Next place to explore is the laundry room."

"Could we go explore the kitchen, I'm so hungry," I asked, and to prove my point, my stomach growled.

"Sure, take the door on the left."

I turned, and opened the door on the left, and was suddenly hit by the aroma of fresh-baked bread.

"Hey, mom."

I said as I walked into the kitchen.

"Hey honey, how's the exploring going."

"Good." I answered, "But we figured next we could explore the fridge, I'm hungry."

"Ok, sit down in the dining room, I'll make you guys some breakfast, and Janet, get off your phone."

"Sorry mom," Janet said, and she actually had the decency to look sheepish.

We went into the dining room through a door and sat down.

"We should explore this room," Gertrude said.

"What is there to explore? It's the dining room." I replied.

"That door there," Gertrude answered, pointing to a normal door that probably lead to a normal closet.

"It's a door that probably leads to a closet," I said.

"Yes, but why would you put a closet in the dining room, eh."

"Ok, fine, open it then."

Gertrude slipped out of her seat and walked over to it. She gingerly opened the door, and it opened to reveal, tada, an empty closet.

"Told you," I said smugly.

Gertrude wasn't deterred, however, and she reached into the back of the closet and twisted something. I blinked, and she disappeared.

"Gertrude!" I cried, running over.

I looked down a deep hole that had opened in the floor when she had twisted the hook in the back wall.

"I'm okay," she called up, then she inhaled sharply.

"What is it?" I cried, afraid something was wrong.

"Come down here, there's a tunnel."

I jumped down, and realized as soon as I did, that there was a ladder.

I landed and rolled. I stood up and saw that there was indeed a tunnel, stretching off in both directions under the house.

"What do you think it is?" Gertrude asked.

"I don't know," I replied.

"It's probably an old servants tunnel, going from the servants lodging to all around the mansion so that they wouldn't disturb the owners," Janet said climbing down the ladder and dropping to the floor next to us, and this time she had left her phone on the dining room table.

"So, which way?" I asked.

"Left," said Gertrude.

"Right," said Janet.

"Left it is," I said, and started walking.

We walked for several minutes. going in the same direction all the while, until we came to another trap door sort of thing, except this time, it was in the wall.

"Should we go in?" I asked.

Both Gertrude and Janet nodded, so I pushed open the door and stepped through, and into an old room flooded with light. It had a bed, a dresser, and a staircase going down into the house.

As Gertrude and Janet stepped in, I realized that someone was sleeping on the bed, a Canadian man, it looked like. 'He could have crossed the border, he might be an illegal immigrant' I thought, 'we're close enough to the border for that.'

Janet gasped when she saw the man. "I think he's an illegal immigrant," she said quietly.

But I guess not quietly enough, for the man stirred, and lifted his head.