The Secret Passageway

The night grew deeper and deeper.The neon lights in the streets had ebbed away during the solitary nights when the whole world seemed to be in a profound slumber baffled by the cause of the C_19 virus killing thousands mercilessly,disregarding shape,size,status or colour."Shane ,stay in,my dear son.God will protect you."Those were the final words of his mom that day prior to the departure from this world.The virus attacked her.He stared into the vast void ahead,not knowing where to begin all over again.He felt that he was in a deep gorge surrounded by monstrous mountains trying to devour him.There was none to feel his pain.Everything around appeared bleak and silent.Nothing stirred.He reminisced about his childhood devoid of a father figure.His father was a leader of a prominent terrorist movement killed a few years ago.A serpent of crime ,truly a fiend.He was 15 now.Whenever he interrogated his mother,she evaded his questions as if his father had been an unknown entity;an alien like creature.Why?Why?Why?he wailed day and night but that night when the hospital declared his mom's death he was devastated.His world collapsed.

That was the night ;the night he had to live in that ancestral house,isolated and dejected.Isolated as he had no siblings and dejected since the world outside knew not their existence.Having reclined on his mom's easy chair he reminisced about his life at 'Clementine' their abode since his birth.It was a colossal house with ample space and there were areas which he had never explored.He could remember his mom demarcating a section of the house as _forbidden.It remained shut prohibiting entry to anyone.A bell sounded in his inner mind to seek the mysterious and the hidden elements of their house.There was no one to disturb him,no one to discourage him nor anyone to stop him.He assured himself.Although apprehension clutched him as he steered ahead an immense weight pressed him down.'No,never' he muttered to himself and armed with a torch he embarked on his mission.The moon from somewhere peeped as though she desired to be a partner in his escapade.He halted at the huge,teak door that led to the sanctuary which stood like a guard,solid yet formidable.He considered it as a sanctuary by the way his mom protected it.The maids' quarters were on the other side so that too assured him of no intruders to check on him.Suddenly,someone screamed from behind,"If ever you enter ,you'll be thrown to the devil's bosom".Shane shivered like a water reed.He turned.Only darkness,silence and seclusion stared at him but he felt the eerie presence of another being closer to him breathing heavily.His hairs stood upright.There was no option for him so he pushed the door with all his might to which it obliged.The door opened with a creak sending gusts of dust all over.There......he saw a secret passageway ,a long,dark tunnel of darkness.

Somewhere a siren sounded and simultaneously he was pushed forward into the darkness by a mysterious force.Weird thoughts struck him.Would this be my end?Who was this mysterious being?Would I be trapped forever?There....right ahead a black silhoutte of a man sauntered,his head cloaked and bent.'A phantom 'he screamed but who was there to aid him?With shivering hands he flashed the torch ,and stood dumbfound witnessing the sinister elements around.The blood smeared walls,dangling ropes,a sort of grotesque graffiti on the passageway walls ,even images of wild creatures with fangs like teeth were evidence of horrendous deeds committed in this sanctuary.What made mama to conceal all these from me?he questioned himself.Then ,his torch light flickered and allowed him a glimpse of a beastly head painted in black and red.On close inspection he realized that it was an emblem with the slogan_'Kill to find Liberty'.At once he assumed that it belonged to his father's terrorist movement.It also carried another slogan in blood red_'Hail our leader_J'which indicated his father,Jerome.With utmost disgust and fright he scanned the passageway when his eyes popped out of their sockets seeing the death toll written beneath the emblem.He cursed his father.

Then ,he hurried his pace .The passageway became narrower and narrower until he reached the end of it which led to a dingy dungeon like a prison cell.Gliding down the side of the wall,he fell onto the cold floor beneath which suffocated him with its pungent,nauseating odour.For a split second he lay there unable to come to terms with his vibrating heart.The bizarre silence continued to torture him sending reels of dread through his nerves.Fear erupted from his eyes and forehead but alas how could he arrest it!Squeaky sounds unnerved him.Having pulled out his feeble torch ,the dim light allowed him a gross view of the cell.There were high walls lke that of a prison so that the occurences within could be shut down from the rest of the world.He glimpsed at a small platform where an unusual chair was placed and above it the same emblem was displayed with all its hideous details.Shane gazed at it when a devilish roar emanated from it.The floor beneath too commenced its motion which hurled Shane against the walls around with such tremendous force that his body was battered and bruised.Blood seeped out from his body as he battled to reach the chair.He called his mom and all the gods in the world to rescue him.By now,the chair itself had started to rock back and forth;back and forth.Instantly,an insane laugh filled the cell calling Shane to meet his doom.:"You rejected my warning!let the devil embrace you"The mysterious voice exclaimed.When Shane implored the fiendish spirit to pardon him,two cold hands gripped him,lifted him and thrust him onto the chair.He was a reed in those sturdy hands.Emanating from the four corners were the heart_ wrenching sounds which frightened Shane so he attempted to escape yet little he realized that once it was a torture chamber where victims were tormented to death.He almost lost consciousness as he grasped the sides of the chair.In the pitch darkness he spotted a beam of light flashing on him and a gentle voice calling him,"My dear son,do not fear.I'm awaiting your arrival."It was his mom.Before he could reach his mom,a cold ,chilling nose of a pistol touched his forhead.The silhoutte of a man in a hooded cloak stood in front and laughed insanely.Shane felt that there was only a few seconds left for him..........