She woke, shivering, in the dark of the night. She felt as if there was a presence in her room. Marsha looked around but there was no one else except her husband sleeping beside her. She went downstairs to have a glass of water.
When she came up to her room, her floor creaked. It had never done that before. She put her feet there again and it creaked.
“Let me see what is going on here” she thought to herself.
She pulled the carpet from the floor and saw that there was a hidden door. She’d never noticed a door there before.
“Greg will wake up if I try and open the door right now. I’ll have wait till morning to open the door. I’ll tell him about this when he comes back from work tomorrow” she thought
She went to bed soon after. Her mind was racing, thinking what could be down there that had been hidden for so long. They had been married for 10 years and till now Greg had not mentioned the door and what was down there. Both of them had a very keen interest in the olden times so they had kept the house as they had bought it with all the old furniture and settings.
“Ok honey, finish your breakfast fast or you will be late for work” Marsha said to Greg. She couldn’t wait for him to go to work the next morning.
“What’s the hurry? I’m leaving in 5 minutes anyways” he asked
“Nothing honey, I just saw a bad dream yesterday that you are late for work and your boss fired you” she said sweetly.
“Oh honey, you are so sweet, you worry about me too much. Nothing like this will happen” he said assuring her.
“Phew, what a save” she said after Greg left.
Marsha quickly ran upstairs to her room, pulled the carpet and tried opening the hidden door. With difficulty she was able to open the latch. It was pitch black downstairs.
“Let me take a torch” she thought.
‘May God be with me’ with this thought she went down the wooden ladder. “I wonder what could be in here” she thought as she was moving ahead.
She could see very little in the dark but she made her way through the tunnel. She wondered if there is a light connection down here, Marsha searched for the main switch board and found it at the end of the tunnel. She switched it on and she was amazed to see how big a place it was.
It was a jailhouse. There were several cells made side by side and skeletons lying in many of them. She came across a cell which looked like was heavily guarded, there were several skeletons lying outside that particular cell, but there was nothing unusual about it.
“What is this place? Looks like it was used as a holding place for some kind of prisoners; There must be a reason why this one in particular was guarded so heavily.” she thought to herself.
Thud Thud
“Wow, what is that noise? Maybe I should get out of here” she said as she ran out of there as quickly as possible.
An hour later, Marsha was in her room researching about this house. But to her vain, couldn’t find anything.
“Greg honey tell me about this house” she asked her husband as they were having dinner.
“What do you want to know? And suddenly why such a curiosity about the house?” he asked
“Just want to know about the place we live in. I want to know everything, when did you buy this house? Who was the previous owner?” she said excitedly.
“Ok, I bought this house right before our wedding, as you very well know. We did the house hunting together” he said
“I know, but who were the previous owners? What were they like?”
“They were normal people like us, the father been promoted so the family had to move” he said with a raised eyebrow
“Don’t look at me like that honey, I just found something which is not ours, so I thought I’ll inquire about the previous owners” she explained gently.
“Sweetheart, I know you, I know that look. Tell me what’s going on, this morning also you were acting funny” he said
“Ok, I’ll tell you everything. But you have to promise me to keep it a secret”
“Yes, I will not tell anyone. Now tell me please” he said
“Yesterday, I got up in the middle of the night and found a door underneath our carpet. I opened it today and found a whole jailhouse down there. I don’t know more as of now, that’s why I wanted to know about who lived here and the history of this house” she clarified.
“Hmmm..lets go and see what exactly is going on”
“Be careful, it’s a little dark in here” said Marsha as she went downstairs towards the switch board
“Woah” said Greg as Marsha switched the lights on.
“I didn’t know this place even existed. How did anybody not know about this. It must have a holding cell for the prisoners back in the 40s” said Greg.
“That’s what I thought. But how did it survive for so long and there is something else I want to show you” said Marsha
“Look there and tell me there is something there” said Marsha pointing towards the heavily guarded cell.
“There must be something in here which was being protected. Come let’s go inside and see what it is” said Greg
“But how, it’s locked?”
“The keys are right here” Greg said taking the keys from one of the skeletons’ hand.
“Now let’s see what all the fuss was about” Greg said inquisitively.
There was nothing unusual about that particular cell, its back wall was made of bricks like the others and the other three of iron bars. Marsha and Greg started exploring the brick wall one by one and found that one of the bricks was loose. Marsha took the brick out and saw that it was a lock.
“What could be in here? How will we open it?” Marsha asked Greg.
“I don’t know sweetheart but we will find out soon enough. Let’s go for now and see what we come up with” said Greg.
Greg decided to get the blueprints of the house and the records of all the previous owners and the original owner who built the house.
“That ought to help us for sure” said Greg and Marsha agreed.
He managed to get the records and found out that this house belonged to some government official who kept prisoners here until they were transported to the main jailhouse facility in the city. He also found out that he used to treat the prisoners very badly and treat them like his servants and if anybody objected, he used to beat them up until they were on the verge of death. The legend also said that those poor souls were trapped in this house.
“Greg, I’m scared, I don’t want to open the hidden chamber now. Who knows what we might find inside” said a horrified Marsha.
“Honey, don’t worry, I’m with you. We have found this room for a reason, there must be something here that we have to do, maybe we are the ones who get to release all those poor prisoners’ souls” explained Greg.
“If you say so, but I don’t like this one bit” said Marsha.
“So, the legend says the official guarded the key to the chamber with his life so he must have kept it someplace safe, where it’s easily accessible to him but hidden from the others” said Greg.
“Where could that be?” asked Marsha
“Maybe his bedroom, in a safe”
“Or his study?” said Greg
“Let’s check it out” said Marsha
Both of them went looking, Greg in the bedroom, and Marsha in the study.
“Greg, I think I found it” shouted Marsha from the study.
There was a concealed compartment in the study table. Greg opened the drawer and there it was the key to the hidden chamber. Both of them went downstairs quickly and with a heavy breath both of them looked at each other and put the key in the lock and turned it.
Click
The key opened the lock and with that the brick wall started to move inwards and a room opened up.
“Aaahhhhh Greg, help me”
“Marsha Marsha, where are you? I’m right here” screamed Greg
After about 15 minutes, both of them calmed down.
“What was that?” asked a scandalized Marsha
“I think that were the prisoners souls we talked about. When we opened the door the souls must have been released” said Greg
“Oh my God Greg, look at that” said Marsha with eyes wide opened.
“OH MY GOD!” exclaimed Greg. His eyes also widely opened.
Both of them were stunned. There was another skeleton there. Lying down tied to chains. “Do you know who this is?” Greg asked Marsha “Is he who I think he is” said Marsha “Yes, I think so” Greg said checking the name on the skeletons shirt to make sure. “He is the world renowned thief who was said to have vanished and never to be found by anyone. He must have been caught and imprisoned here. How they must have tortured him is a mystery.” Said Greg “Hey, didn't everyone say that no one ever found the treasure he stole?” asked Marsha. “Yes, why?” “What if he left a clue here or some kind of a map which might lead to the treasure” said Marsha “You think a lot honey, why would he leave a map. He died protecting this secret” said Greg. “But, he must have wanted the world to know about his ability to hide the treasure so perfectly that no one could ever find it but at the same time wanted everyone to know” said Marsha hopefully. “Look here is a proof, what does this mean” said Marsha pointing to a symbol on the wall. “Hey look, here’s another one” said Greg pointing to another symbol on the wall. “Oh my God, it’s a treasure map. We will find the treasure and we will be rich” Marsha said over excitedly “Now wait a minute, we are not going anywhere, do you know how dangerous this can be” said Greg “Please honey, we can at least try” said Marsha looking at Greg with puppy dog eyes. “Oh alright, but we will talk about it tomorrow and discuss it how will go about it. Ok?” said Greg. “As you wish honey” Marsha said happily hugging her husband.