B. Larson - Creatures

“Good,” breathed Beth when yellowy light splashed and flickered over the walls. “The batteries in my flashlight wouldn’t have lasted much longer.”

I nodded and held the lantern up to look closely at the space we were in. There were leather straps and things hanging on the walls. Small rooms built of wood were here and there around the dusty interior.

“This must have been for animals,” said Beth. “That’s a bridle, and there’s a yoke, like for oxen.”

“Yes,” I said, “I get it, they must have kept animals down here years ago. But why keep them underground?”

“I know in cold places they did that, like Scandinavia,” said Beth. “To keep the animals warm, the lower levels of a big house were for the cattle and horses in the winter.”

“Wouldn’t have been much fun for the animals,” I said.

“Nor the people caring for them, either,” said Beth.

I nodded, wondering how old the mansion really was. It had to be a century old, maybe two centuries. As we explored the stables, I worried that we might find something horrible, something that I didn’t want Beth to see. The adults had whispered about the old days, and I knew that the people of Camden hadn’t always been completely civilized. This basement seemed like just the kind of place where dark secrets would be hidden.

But all we found were empty storerooms and empty animal stalls. There were pitchforks and shovels and wheelbarrows and horseshoes.

Eventually, we found more stone steps leading further down into the Earth. We both stared at these steps and the ancient wooden door at the bottom. The door was obviously far older than anything I’d seen in the mansion before. It looked medieval. It was made of heavy dark wood. The thick, crudely cut wood planks were held together with rusty metal straps. There was no doorknob. Instead, a massive ring of black iron the size of a large man’s hand served the purpose.

Beth hugged up against me as we looked down the steps at that closed door. “What’s down there?” asked Beth.

“I have no idea.”‘

“I don’t like the look of it.”

I shook my head. “Me either. I feel like we are going back a century in time with each level we go down.”

We heard sounds back far behind us. They echoed from the stone walls. It was the sound of voices, and footsteps. I found a loop of thick rope and dropped it on the stone steps that led down to the ancient door. I had the beginnings of an idea.

I took a step downward, reaching toward the huge iron ring. Beth held me back.

“If we go down there Connor,” said Beth in my ear. “Eventually, we will run out of levels, and we won’t have any way to go back up. We’ll be trapped down there.”

“Maybe,” I said, “But I’ve got a plan.”

We pushed the dungeon door open. That’s what it was, really, I could tell just as soon as I pushed those groaning ancient hinges open. Rusty iron was everywhere, and what greeted us past that door could only be described as a prison. Cells with barred windows lined both sides of the winding passageway. Stone walls that perhaps had been hidden under the mansion for decades stood in dusty crumbling silence. Down here, it smelled very earthy, the way my parents basement had smelled when I climbed down into it as a tot. In a way, I found it comforting. Beth, however, was anything but comforted. A large dusty cobweb caught on her face and hair and she gave one of those shrieks that only girls can make. I shushed her, but it was too late. I heard shouts behind us.

“What’s your plan, Connor?” she asked desperately.

I look both ways down the corridor. The floor was so covered in dust that if we walked in it we would surely show which way we had gone. I took a plank that leaned against a wall and put it on the floor. I walked along the plank to the nearest cell door. It was locked, so I tried two others. Finally, one opened on stiff, groaning hinges.

“Quick, come along the plank and hide in here.”

She followed, but balked when we got to the cell. “What if they lock us in?”

I grabbed her hand and aimed the flashlight at the cell door’s lock. It had been torn out like a bad tooth. “I doubt they will be able to lock that,” I said.

“Did something escape from here?”

I shrugged, not wanting to tell her that was exactly what I thought had happened. She reluctantly went inside, shining her light everywhere as if she expected a dozen skeletons to jump out at her.

When she was inside, I trotted the other way down the corridor.

“Wait!” she cried, “Don’t leave me Connor!”

“Shhhh!” I said, “I’ll be right back.”

What I did was run back and forth a few times, stirring up the dust and leaving plenty of footprints going away from our cell. Then I came back and walked the plank to Beth.

We sat huddled in the cell for what seemed like hours, but which was probably only minutes. Beth played the light around on the walls. They were made of rounded river stones, like the level above us, but down here they were even more dank. In places, slippery moss grew down the walls where water trickled down from somewhere above. We found an old wooden table in the cell, with a stool sitting at the table. On the table was a quill pen like I’d seen at museums, and a loose leaf book with a thick cover that looked like it was made of leather.

“A book?” asked Beth. She picked it up and dust puffed up in our faces.

We heard voices above in the stables level. They were coming.

Beth and I cupped the flashlight to hide the light as much as we could and dragged the plank into the cell with us. We pushed the creaking cell door closed as quietly as we could. The broken latch didn’t let it go all the way shut, but it would look good enough from outside. Beth grabbed up the ancient dust-covered book and slid it under her arm. I frowned, wondering what kind of grim family secrets were in that book. We had a habit of not looking at our past too closely in my family.

We snapped off the light when we heard steps on the stairs. I heard a single, sharp bark, and I knew a new fear. If Danny or Thomas could sniff us out, all my work would be for nothing.

I was glad to hear a sneeze. It was a dog-sneeze, I felt fairly sure of it. A furry head poked down into the dungeon and I slipped back against the crumbling walls of our cell.

“Get a light down here,” said Danny in a growling voice. Sometimes, it was hard for us to speak when we were fully changed into animal form.

“I don’t think they’re down here, Danny,” said another voice, this one whiny. I thought it was Thomas.

“Get down here you chicken. I smell a rat.”

“It’s a dungeon, man, of course there are rats.”

“Not this big! Come on.”

More steps and a growing pool of light. They had a lantern of some kind.

“They’re down here, I knew it! Look at the footprints. Get everyone.”

“Now who’s scared of a rat?” chuckled Thomas.

“Okay we don’t need help. Follow me.”

They were in the hallway now. I could tell by the way the light was splashing the walls further away from us that they had taken the bait. They wandered further away, and still we waited. A few more kids showed up and followed them. When it was quiet again, I gave Beth’s hand a yank and we ran for it.

We burst out of the cell and ran up the steps. We pulled the door closed behind us, and I gathered up the rope I’d left on the stairs. I quickly tied one end to the loop of iron and the other to the stairway rail. They were trapped down there for now.

Beth and I took a moment to grin at each other. I hope it scared the heck out of them.

We rushed up the steps and spilled out into the room with all the horse harnesses when we ran straight into Sarah.