There's Someone in My Walls

Hi, my name’s Elise. I live in Beverly Hills, California with my parents and my brother Brody. You might say that we live in a mansion. We have 12 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, 4 kitchens, a pool, a full basketball court, and a gym. Okay, fine, we do live in a mansion. Due to COVID-19/coronavirus, we can no longer go to school. We have to stay at our house and we can’t really leave unless it’s absolutely necessary. So, thanks to coronavirus, I have been spending all my time in my room.

It’s Friday, and after I finished online school, I layed on my bed and scrolled through TikTok and Instagram. Out of nowhere, Brody came barging into my bedroom, screaming.

“AAAAAAAHHHH!”

Great! He ruined my peace and quiet!

“Brody, get out of my room! I’m going to tell Mom if you don’t leave now!”

“NO. AAAAAAAHHHH!”

“GET OUT!”

I shoved him and he fell into my bookshelf. He grabbed the bookshelf to stop from falling on the floor, and it turned and opened up a space.

“Oh my god, Brody. Is that a secret passageway?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, thanks for asking,” he said sarcastically.

“Oops, sorry. But seriously, Brody, look! I think we just found a secret door!”

“Cool! You’re welcome! Still want me to get out of your room, Lissy?” he responded.

Okay, fine, I wanted him to stay and explore with me, but there was no way I was going to tell him that. “You found it, so you’re going to see whatever creepy thing is in there.”

Brody looked a little nervous, but he just played along. “Okay, I’ll go in, but you’re coming with me.”

I was kind of worried about what we would find in there, but I agreed. “You drive a hard bargain, but sure. I’ll come.”

We stepped into the open doorway, and we looked down and saw a spiral staircase. I glanced at Brody before we started down the stairs. About half way down, we found a crawl space filled with children’s toys, clothes, and blankets. Brody and I shared a look, and then something dawned on me.

“Brody,” I said breathlessly. “Someone was living here. Someone was living in our walls.”

“No way. I don't believe it. How could we not hear them? Oh my god Lissy, what do we do?” Brody looked terrified.

I was debating whether we should go back to my room or continue down the stairs and through our walls when I heard Mom yell, “Brody, Lissy, time for dinner!”

I looked at Brody and told him, “Okay, listen to me, Brody,” He nodded. “We are going to leave this, this place, and go back to my room. We will go downstairs and have dinner with our parents, and we will not talk about this to anyone. Anyone, do you hear me?”

“Yeah.”

We walk up to my room. “Okay, great. Come to my room after the movie and I’ll talk to you about going back in there.”

“Okay.”

He still looked a little shaken up, but he turned around and went downstairs to have dinner. I waited a minute in my room, checked my phone for any messages from my friends, and then I followed Brody and joined my family for dinner.

__________________________________________



We had pizza for dinner. Mom and Dad shared stories with us from work. We tried our best to focus, but we eventually just stopped paying attention while Mom and Dad kept talking. Brody and I were too focused on the fact that we found out that people were living in our walls. After dinner, we had ice cream for dessert. Our parents let us go back to our rooms after we finished dessert. I got to my room and waited for Brody to come in. He was taking a while, so I turned on my phone and scrolled through TikTok, trying to busy myself with something. After around 30 minutes of waiting for him, I got out of my bed and went to his room to try to find him. 

“Brody! Where are you?” I called. No response. I went to his door and knocked. “Brody?” Still no response. I opened his door and checked for him. He wasn’t in his room. I texted him to ask where he was. I heard a buzz from next to his bed, where he had left his phone. This was not good. Maybe he was just in the bathroom? I went to check his bathroom, but he wasn't in there either. I went back into his room to see if I missed something when I saw that his mirror was slightly off of the wall, so I walked to it. I pushed it all the way open, and I knew that Brody had to be somewhere in there. I walked in and used my phone as a flashlight.

“Brody, you in here?” He still wasn’t responding. I went farther into the secret passageway. I had been looking for about an hour and I still hadn’t found him yet. I couldn’t stop worrying that something bad happened to my brother. Eventually, I thought that I would never find him. As soon as I was about to turn around, I heard a blood curdling scream. I ran back to the entrance and bumped into Dad. He looked very concerned, and just as I was going to explain, he asked me one question: “When?”

I didn’t have to ask what he meant, and I told him that we found the secret passageway right before dinner. He turned around and ran to the kitchen to grab something. When he came back, he was holding a flashlight and we ventured into the tunnels together to find my brother. We went down the hallway until there was nowhere else to go except turn left or right. I looked at Dad and, without speaking, we chose to go right. 

We started walking down that hallway until we found another hallway that looked like it led to a bigger area, so we moved into that area with as much confidence as we could muster. The second we stepped into the room-like area, I screamed. My dad followed my line of sight and his mouth dropped. He covered my mouth so that I wouldn’t make another sound. There, in the corner of the room, was Brody.

He looked awful. His mouth was covered in duct tape, he had scrapes all across his face, and he looked like he was passed out. After a few seconds, though, his eyes fluttered open, and he saw Dad and me. He looked at us with pleading eyes. He started to try to scream at us, but we couldn’t tell what he was saying because of the tape, so I started towards him. He kept shaking his head no, and I slowed down. Did he want us to leave? Right when we were about to save him? I looked around to see what was causing him to want us to leave when, all of a sudden, someone put a bag over my head. I screamed, but something on the bag was making me groggy. The last thought I had before I lost consciousness was, “Help.”