Secrets in the Walls

 

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Introduction

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Chapter 1

Shana sat in the dim, silent room and listened to the wind howling through the trees that surrounded her late uncle's house.  She sighed as she looked at the dark walls and scuffed wooden floors. The house was going to take weeks to clean up before she could put it on the market. Uncle Leo had always been a bit unusual, but had become an eccentric recluse after Aunt Kate died ten years before. Shana's mother had a very strained relationship with her older brother, and had asked her daughter to handle the details of the estate after Leo passed. Although the will had been read, there had been very little involved. His only asset had been the big house on the edge of town. It had been left to Shana's mother, Wendy. The house had been Aunt Kate's family, but there were no living relatives. Wendy just wanted to sell the house and be done with everything. Shana was glad to relieve her mother of the hassles of dealing with the house.

Shana wandered around the house and made lists of all the repairs and improvements that she would have to do before it would have any value in the market. The wiring was old and barely worked, so the lights would flicker at random times. The wind would whistle through cracks in the ceiling and walls. It was unsettling at the best of times, but at night when there were no other people around, it could be quite scary.

Shana was walking down the hallway toward the library when she heard what sounded like children giggling and whispering. She turned and looked down the hallway, knowing she shouldn't see anything. The closest neighbors were at least a quarter mile down the road. There were no children in the area. She stared down the shadowed hall and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. She stood there for a moment then shook her head and kept walking. "This house is playing tricks on me" she thought as she opened the door to the library. Shrugging off the strange sensation that she wasn't alone, Shana headed for her uncle's desk. She wanted to get started with the paperwork. But as she sat down, she looked at the door again and wondered what had made the eerie sound.

Shana sat back and stretched. She looked at the clock and couldn't believe she had been sitting at the desk for the past three hours. The paperwork seemed endless. Uncle Leo hadn't been completely open about his finances in his will. Shana was astounded at the records she found stashed in folders all over the office. Apparently, Uncle Leo had been investing money for decades and had told no one. She had found stock certificates and bonds for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Shana couldn't figure out how he had hidden this for so long or why. She shook her head as she got up. The mystery could wait until morning, she decided as she went down the hall to her bedroom.

Shana woke screaming. She bolted up out of bed, turned on the bedside lamp and looked around the room. Despite the feeling that she was being watched, she didn't see anything out of place. She couldn't figure out what had caused the nightmare that she still couldn't shake off. Trembling, she sat back down on her bed and tried to slow her breathing. The remnants of the nightmare were still holding on. All she could remember was walking down a dark tunnel, heading toward a flickering light. A low, rhythmic sound echoed off the walls of the tunnel. She rounded a corner and saw something. Right at that moment, she had jolted out of the unsettling dream. There was no reason for the uneasiness to be holding on so tightly. Shana finally just shook her head and went back to bed. It took several long moments before she felt herself start to doze back off.

 

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Shana finds something sinister

Shana stared at the trap door she found in the old shed. She had no idea what could be behind it. She knew that she had to open it and find out what was beyond the rotting wood. She wasn't sure why she felt so unnerved, but she just knew that whatever was hidden in the bare ground below, it would change everything. Somehow, she knew that it would answer the questions that had been building up in her mind since she had found the strange papers in the office.

She took a deep breath and reached out her trembling, numb hand to pull open the rusting handles. She started tugging, but the doors were stuck. Shana reached down with her other hand and grasped the handle. She yanked upward with all her strength. Suddenly, with a loud pop, the door flew up and open. Shana stumbled backward as her hands slipped off the door. When the door swung open, all she could see was the opening of a cold, dark hole leading down into the ground below. She edged closer and peeked over the edge. She could see the first three rungs of a ladder going down the side of the wall into the dank shaft. She shivered as she stared down into the inky black pit, but she couldn't help but wonder what was in the depths below. She looked around the shed and noticed a lantern and a flashlight on a small shelf right next to the pit. WIthout a second thought, Shana gtabbed the flashlight and swung her legs into the opening. SHe headed down the ladder and into the pitch darkness that was waiting. When she reached the bottom, she was surprised to find herself standing in what looked like a mine tunnel. SHe had no idea what the tunnel was for. She looked down the dim tunnel but couldn't see more than ten feet down it. Shana got a firm grip on the flashlight and started forward. As she walked, she noticed that the air was cool and dry. She continued walking for what seemed like hours. Just as she was ready to turn back, she noticed a strange flickering light on the sides of the tunnel. She paused for a moment, puzzled by light she shouldn't be seeing. SHe also heard a low mumbling. Shana slowly moved toward the light. She noticed that the lights were flickering around the corner of an opening. The mumbling got louder. Shana gapsed as she realized that this was the nightmare that had jolted her awake days before. she felt her skin grow cold and clammy. It took every ounce of courage she had to move forward. Step by shaking step, she approached the doorway to the cave beyond. As she got to the end of the tunnel, she froze. What she had originally thought was mumbling had become recognizable as chanting. even though she couldn't recognize the language, the eerie, rhythmic sounds sent chills up her spine. She forced herself to move forward the last few steps she needed to see around the wall.  As her eyes adjusted to the flickering lights, she saw what looked like an altar of some kind. Strange objects were scattered along the ornate top and in niches that were cut into the cave walls. She could see shadowy figures moving behind the torches that had been casting the light down the tunnel. The figures were chanting and moving around something hidden in the depths of the cave beyond her sight. As the chanting grew louder, Shana noticed a glow surrounding the dim object on the cave floor. She also saw a ghostly, hazy figure emerge from the top of the cave. It started floating down from the hidden roof. As it got closer, Shana felt the hair on her arms stand up and her face go numb. whatever this thing was, she didn't want to be anywhere near it. Shana gulped, turned and ran back down the tunnel. She bolted up the ladder and ran as fast as she could to get back to the house.

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chapter two

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The depths of darkness

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