Room with a Hidden Door

This week's Prompt: A Hidden Door, Secrets.

Sue moved a box marked Bedroom to get the one she was looking for. It had Kitchen Appliances in large writing. “That’s the one,” she said out loud. Opening the box, she took out the kettle, half-filled it with water, and plugged it into the socket.

Hearing the water boiling, James shouted from the Living room, “That sounds good, our first brew in our new house. Hey Sue, come, look at this?” He was standing in the hallway looking at the wall, then stepped into the living room.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Here, look at this” Sue stood beside her husband and followed his movements. Standing in the doorway, they looked down the hall towards the front door, then stepped into the living room and looked in the same direction.

“I don’t know what you're looking at,” Sue proclaimed

“Look at the difference—the length from here to the front hallway (they both moved left). “Now look at the distance from here to the window.”

The kettle boiled, so Sue went back into the kitchen, “You sort it, this is a man thing”

James walked towards the window. Tucked in the corner was a bookcase, which was screwed to the wall. James took out a screwdriver from his newly acquired utility belt and unscrewed the screws. Sue came in with two steaming hot cups of tea, “Ok, what have you found”?

“It's a door, look,” he tapped on it, “Solid, looks like it's been here for years”  

"Well, go on, open it," Sue was getting excited. She overturned a cup with keys inside and said, "Here, I think this is the one.”

James popped the key in the lock, and it turned. He put his head against the door; I can hear buzzing.” He pulled on the handle; it did not budge.

“Hope it's not wasps, I hate wasps.” Sue pulled a face.

James pushed the screwdriver into a gap and tried to prise the door open. “It's stuck tight, pass me the hammer” He knocked on the door frame, trying to loosen the paint that had been painted several times over the gap; it worked. The door became loose.

“What do you think is behind the door?” Sue asked, hiding behind James as he pulled it open.

“We'll soon see” The door moved an inch, then three inches, then a foot. “It's stuck on the carpet, but I think I'll be able to slide in,” James said, squeezing between the door and the wall.

“Is there a light?” Sue was moving closer to the gap, standing outside but peering into the darkness. It smelled damp and musty, and a cobweb wafted across her face. “James,” she shouted. Looking down at her bump and rubbing her hand over her stomach, she knew she wouldn’t be able to squeeze through.

James moved further into the darkness, blinking his eyes to adjust to the lack of light. He felt a handrail to his left, tapped it a few times, then pulled on it to check if it was secure. It was. Inching forward, he realised that the ground had disappeared from beneath his right foot. “I think I've found stairs going down,” he shouted. Then he thought, I wish I’d brought a torch. He thought again, my phone has a torch, so he took it out and selected the app. The stairwell lit up. On the right was a light switch; he flicked it on, but nothing happened. “Never mind, worth a try,” he said out loud. He heard Sue shouting something, but he couldn’t make out what she said, and in her condition, he was glad she stayed upstairs. So, he moved on further down. Swishing the phone light from side to side, he had a good view of where he was going. The walls were bare, just panelled boarding, made to look like bricks.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, he counted fifteen, in case he needed a quick escape. He knew how many he had to run up. He found another door. James tried the handle; it opened the first time. This door opened inwards towards the room, slowly pushing it; the hinges creaked with age. The damp smell was filling his nostrils. But he carried on inside the room. Feeling the wall, he found another light switch, and he flicked it on, but nothing. “No surprise there”, he muttered.

Using his torch, he began moving anticlockwise around the room. There was a large bookcase similar to the one they had moved upstairs. He thought of Sue, then his mind drifted back to the bookcase, where on the shelves were books, tins, and folders. The folders contained papers, and he noticed that the edges of the papers had turned brown and looked distressed. Continuing his search, he found a large board attached to the wall, in the centre of which was a map of Manchester, and around the outside were Photographs and newspaper clippings. He moved closer, then stopped. He put his hand over his mouth and stared at the photographs. He was looking at his wife, Sue. He went around the board, some showing pictures taken from outside their old apartment. He followed a length of string to their old address. “Oh my God” Moving around the board, he saw pictures of Sue at St James’s School, where she worked, at the Hospital where she had been to the antenatal classes. Then, a newspaper clipping on Sue as a child.

James started to read, “I didn’t know anything about this.”  he turned to look at the door. In the corner of his eye, he saw a red light flash. He looked again; it had gone. James carried on reading about Sue as a child, then the light flashed again. He stopped reading and walked over to the corner. Again, it flashed. He shone his torch up; he couldn’t see properly, so he grabbed a stool, stood on it, and shone the torch into an air vent. The light flashed again. He needed something to take the cover off, using a screwdriver from his utility belt, James didn’t bother unscrewing the screws, he just stuck it in and prised it off. Inside was a small camera which had a cable attached. James pulled on it. The cable was fastened to the wall. He followed it along the ceiling to another air vent. James could see light on the other side of the vent. In his mind's eye, he followed the room and the direction of the cable. It's gone outside, he said to himself.

Jumping off the stool, he turned to the wall, took several photos with his phone, and made his way back to the door. In four strides, he made it back to the Living room where Sue was waiting for him. “Well, what's down there?” she asked, pulling on his sleeve.

“I, erm. I need a minute,” James pulled away and walked out of the living room, down the hall, and opened the front door. Kneeling, he found the cable coming from the air vent, following it along the wall, which went into a small box. Picking up a rock from the garden, James smashed the box open to find that the cable was attached to a small motherboard and an Antenna.

Sue was standing behind him with a worried look on her face, and she had folded her arms close across her chest “James, what is it? You are worrying me now. Please tell me what was in the basement.

“I think we should go inside,” he said, waving his hand in the direction of the door.