I awoke with a start. My heart racing, covered in sweat. I had no recollection of what I was dreaming about, and yet it still had me awake and aware of everything around me. I layed back down, facing the ceiling and closed my eyes. I waited several minutes, but it was no use; sleep was lost, I would have to wait till I was tired again. Rolling onto my side, I stared into the dark. It was probably just my imagination, or a residue from whatever dream I just had, but something seemed off to me and I wasn’t sure what. I was trying to shake it off but- the door was open. I could see it, right there across the room open just a few inches… I distinctly remember closing it, I thought I should close it again and just ask around in the morning to see if anyone came in for some reason. I sat up, and as soon as my feet touched the cold floor the door quickly closed with a quiet thud. I rushed to my feet, then to the door. Determined to catch whoever was there, when I grasped the door handle and jerked my head through the opening I saw… No one.

The hallway was empty, but I thought I saw something turning around the corner. Quietly, I went back into my room and went for the lantern on the fireplace mantle, and checked the time while I was there. 1:23 a.m. I lit the lantern using a box of matches on the fireplace and went back to the door, then went down the hall. I wasn’t really sure what to think, I wasn’t scared, I wasn’t angry, I was mostly calm and confused. Walking quickly, I went around the corner, kept down the hall, and stopped at the top of the stairs. I watched over the railing as I went down, eyes peeled for any sign of whatever I saw earlier. I managed to catch a glimpse of it passing the stairs below before it turned around another corner. It moves too fast for me to get a good look at, so all I see of it is a blurry roundness before it’s gone again. Intrigued, I sped up. When I got to the corner I watched it duck through the basement doors. I got a much better look this time, it was higher in the air than I expected, it was basically a ball of white-blue dust or fog. I paused, the basement is too confusing to navigate during the day, and it’s the middle of the night now. Something tells me I should follow it anyway… Reaching a solution in my mind I ran quickly up to my room, and retrieved a spool of string from my sewing drawer, then ran back down. Walking through the threshold of the door I tied the end of the string to the handle of the door, and carried the spool with me. When I turned back around I could see the orb floating at the bottom of the stairs, I couldn't help but feel like it was watching me. It darted down the hall and to the left before I could move. I chased after it, careful not to break the string. Every now and then I’d stop and wrap the string around a door handle so it would be easier to follow back and less likely to catch and break. Eventually the orb stopped in front of a door, and I approached it cautiously. As I got close it lowered, and shrunk, before it sunk into the keyhole of the door. I went this far already, I might as well keep going. I grasped the handle, and yanked. The door was locked, wonderful. I sighed, and stared at the door a moment longer.

“Uh, hey… The doors locked…” I said aloud, thinking whatever led me here might be able to open it. I tried one more time to open the door after getting no response.

“I guess I’ll, uh… Come back later?” Suddenly feeling ridiculous, I turned around and followed the string back upstairs. Everything seemed much more quiet now that I was no longer chasing something. Not that it wasn’t silent before, it was different then, I was focused. Now I was just left to my thoughts and confusion. Questions like ‘What was that?’ and ‘Am I going crazy?’ swirled around my head without end, suddenly the thought of losing my sanity had me unsettled, and that’s the way I stayed after I got back into bed and eventually fell into a dreamless sleep.

I awoke in the morning incredibly tired, and very confused. I had been convinced last night was a dream, until I went downstairs and saw the string still on one of the open basement doors. I shut the doors and went about my morning normally until after breakfast, wanting to keep my promise to whatever I saw last night whether it was an entity of some kind or a hallucination.

“Mom, dad? Do you know if the previous owners left any keys or something?” I asked tentatively. They looked confused.

“Well yeah, they did, why?” My mom responded after thinking about it for a moment.

“I found a locked door in the basement yesterday, I wanna see what’s inside.” I was afraid of them getting suspicious, so I tried my best to sound nonchalant.

“Honey, will you go get the box please?” She turned to my father, who wordlessly got up and left the room.

“Thanks.” Was all I said.

“Let us know what you find.” She said with a smile and a wink. A few minutes later dad walked in with a box. It was bigger than a toaster, and smaller than a microwave. When he handed it to me I saw through the open top that it was full of keys.

“Good luck kiddo.” he said with a laugh, and I left the room. I was determined to get this out of the way already and find out what was hiding in that room. I flicked on the lights at the top of the basement stairs and began following the string. After what happened yesterday and this morning I was surprised that I wasn’t terrified, maybe a little nervous but nothing to make me run and hide. Once I reached the door I pulled a key out of the box at random, and tried it out. Nope, I tried again, and again, and again. Eventually I decided to organize them, I removed every matching key from the box and set them down together (the majority of the keys in the box were parts of a set), I put the keys that were too big in their own pile, I put the small ones in their own pile, then I put all the modern keys in their own pile. The key I was looking for had to fit a worn, old fashioned lock. By the time I was finished organizing that left me with several keys. I tried the ones that had a matching key first, then to the one of a kind keys. Finally I found a match, it was a old iron key with a symbol on the end of it that looked kind of like a leaf or a feather. I dumped the rest of the keys back into the box and set it aside before I slowly turned the handle, suddenly apprehensive. Taking a deep breath, and holding it for a moment, I opened the door. Finally releasing the breath once I stepped inside. The room looked like it had been left untouched for years (which wouldn’t be surprising, given how hard it was to find both it and it’s key), dust was floating around and some even caught on my glasses. That’s not what I paid any attention to though. In the center of the room was an old, ornate rug, and against the back wall was a single suit of armor. I stepped closer to it, and observed it closely without touching it; there was no doubt about it, it’s definitely authentic. Suddenly filled with excitement I took one last look around the room, and left footprints in the dusty floor as I ran out to find my mom. I was able to find her in the study, organizing the bookshelf.

“Hey Owen, wanna help me set these up?” She asked when I entered the room. Normally I’d love to organize the books but my mind was very occupied by my discovery.

“Maybe later! You have to come with me I found the room I want, please come look!” I pleaded, out of breath from running here.

“Alright alright, where is it?” She followed me out the room. I walked faster, unsatisfied with the pace until I realized she wasn’t going to speed up.

“Basement, kind of hard to find.” I answered quickly. She nodded, then finally spoke again once we reached the basement doors.

“What is all this string everywhere?” She said incredulously.

“It’s so we don’t get lost.” I looked back at her with a grin, she responded by shaking her head. When we finally reached the door, I pushed it back open and strolled into the dusty room, and I stood in the middle of the rug with my arms out at my sides.

“Here we are.” I announced.

“I see that.” She waved at the dust in the air, then squinted towards the back wall. “Is that..?”

“Yep! I checked it out already, I’m pretty sure it’s authentic.” I answered her unspoken question.

“Oh… Kiddo that’s probably worth a lot of money…” She brought up, hesitantly.

“You’re probably right, but c’mon it’s so cool.” I waved my hands around, she made a face like she was thinking.

“Okay, you can keep the room and the armor for now, but you aren’t gonna mess with it except maybe to clean the dust off of it, okay?”

“Yes ma’am!” I saluted. She rolled her eyes.

“Now come help me with the bookshelf.” I nodded, still smiling. I locked the door as we left, she lifted an eyebrow but didn’t ask. We made quick work of the bookshelf, I alphabetized them by author, while she put them on the shelves. When we finished I left to go find Sophie or Paisley. After not finding them outside or in either of their rooms I checked up on Paisley’s new space that we found yesterday. Where I found her sweeping, and Sophie was lying on a pillow-playing with a feather duster, and watching from the second level.

“Hi Owen! Where’ve you been?” Sophie shouted at me from her perch.

“I was getting my new space checked out by mom.” I said, smugly.

“Ooooh! Where is it?” She asked

“In the basement, you have to follow a string to find it.”

“In the basement?” Paisley joined in, raising an eyebrow. “You sure about that?” She was obviously referring to yesterdays dilemma.

“Uh, yeah. I’m pretty sure it’ll be fine.” Whatever happened last night, whatever I saw- I didn’t think it was dangerous. It had this feeling around it that was hard to describe but easy to trust. I took my mind off of it for now.

“Can we see it?” Sophie requested.

“I dunno, can I see yours?”

“No! No boys allowed!” She protested.

“Fine then! No little girls allowed!” I told her, with finality. “It’s a shame, that means you’ll never be able to see the suit of armor in there…” I trailed off.

“What!? Nuh Uh!” Sophie said, to which Paisley agreed.

“I’m being serious! Mom’s letting me keep it too.” I insisted.

“Prove it! Prove it!” Sophie chanted.

“Can’t! Already told you! No little girls allowed!” I refused, then added. “Maybe Paisley can see if she wants, but only because she hasn’t kicked me out yet.” Paisley laughed.

“Maybe later.” She said “I told Sophie I’d help with her room after this.”

“Suit yourself, but can I borrow the broom and duster?” She passed me the broom in her hands, and I took the feather duster from Sophie. I turned before I left.

“Au Revoir!” And with that I ducked away. I wasn’t actually sure what to do with my room yet, I absently tapped the duster against the broomstick as I thought. It wasn’t until I was unlocking the door again that I came up with an idea. I looked at the string around me, and then at the armor in the room.

“A fashion studio.” I said to myself aloud. I haven’t been able to for a while, but I used to make my own clothes, and make adjustments to whatever I bought from the store. School got in the way of that though, and it hasn’t been on my mind. Now that it’s summer time I can get back into it. Smiling, I got to work. Starting with the armor, then working on the floor. I did a once over with the broom, and the dust came off of the rug surprisingly easy, the problem is there was so much of it that I’d have to sweep a few more times to get rid of it all. I was doing my second pass over when I stumbled over the corner of the rug and almost fell. I managed to catch myself at the last second, but the broom handle extended out in my panic. I heard a loud clang as I landed, it made me flinch and my heart thud, I had to take a deep breath before I turned around. On the floor behind me was the helmet from the suit of armor. With a grimace, I carefully inspected it for damage, then placed it back on the armor.

Still a tad shaken, I looked over the suit a few more times, and noticed something off with his foot. The left metal boot wasn’t flat like the other one. Thinking nothing of it, I kneeled down, and tried to gently press it against the platform. It moved easily at first then seemed to get caught on itself or something, so I pressed harder. It came down onto the platform solidly, and made a clanging noise. I quickly let it go, fearing I broke something, but the foot just popped back up like a spring. Confused, I leaned down with my head near the dusty floor to see if something was stuck beneath the foot before a startling grinding noise sounded out and I jumped. About a foot and a half to the left of the armor, the wall was separating to reveal a hidden room behind it. I fell back and stared, silently gaping even after it finished opening. Unsure if this was even real, I pushed myself forward and waved my hand in the space where the wall used to be. This had to be what that thing was trying to show me last night. I stood on shaky legs, and walked inside. It wasn’t too dark, on account of the old hopper windows with privacy glass; so I could see inside rather well. It was a library, to my amazement. Shelves stacked with books that reach the ceiling, a desk and chair in the corner, and there was a loveseat next to the windows too. There wasn’t as much dust in here as the other room, since the area was sealed well.

I walked in further, and observed everything around me carefully. I saw a switch on this side of the room on the floor and felt tempted to test it out. I was worried that I’d get stuck though, so I opened my phone to see if I somehow had service. To my luck and surprise, I did! So I stepped on the button, like how the suit of armor would’ve, and watched as the wall began to close. Once it did, I clicked the button one more time and the wall once again slid open. I felt like I was in shock, this is the kind of thing that only happened in books and cartoons. I was about to start looking over everything else in the room, but I heard a singing voice coming from the hallway. Suddenly panicking, I stepped on the button one more time and ran through the gap in the wall as it shut, I didn’t stop once I was on the other side though, I kept running until I got to the still open door, thankful that no one was in this hallway yet and quietly closed it as I waited for the wall to finish shutting and making noise. I saw marks in the floor where the dust was disturbed, and ran to the broom to start sweeping everything in that area away as fast as I could until I heard a knock at the door.

“C-Come in.” I stuttered, and took a deep breath as the door opened to calm myself. Paisley was on the other side.

“Hey.” She said casually, oblivious to my inner turmoil. She looked around. “Cool room Owen. I totally thought you were kidding about the statue.”

“It’s not a statue, but thanks.” I eased up a bit, and kept cleaning. “Thought you were helping Sophie?” I wondered aloud.

“I was, but she told me I was doing it wrong so I left her to do her own thing for a while.” She answered.

“Ah, somehow that doesn’t surprise me.” Sophie was just as stubborn as dad and I, if not worse. She was Six after all, she will probably grow out of it at least a little bit. The two of us continued messing with the broom for a little while longer until we got hungry and we went upstairs for lunch. The string was getting annoying at this point, so I drew a small map on the back of my hand after we ate, then I cleaned up the string and went into the garden with the dog and my sisters. It was nice to get my mind off of things for a little while, first a dust ball in the middle of the night, then a suit of armor, then a hidden room behind it? It was kind of a lot for one day. I threw the tennis ball I had in my hand for the umpteenth time for Alice to chase, but she stopped just before she picked it up, and stared at something intently off to the side. I walked closer to see what she was looking at, but the movement startled the creature. Next thing I knew Alice was sprinting after a small white rabbit around the garden. I tried distracting Alice to no avail. The rabbit saved itself by hiding in a large rose bush, more toward the back of the garden. I watched as Alice shoved her head into the shrubbery and flinched, hoping she didn’t catch any thorns. I jogged over to her to try and get her to come out, but she pulled back on her own right as I got there. She looked at me, tail wagging, and right there, between her big brown eyes was a little blue caterpillar. I laughed at her and plucked the tiny creature off of her nose, and placed it on one of the roses before I tugged on Alice’s collar to bring her back inside.

Later that evening, I was reading in the living-room while mom, Sophie, and Paisley made dinner. I’d help, but I wasn’t much use in the kitchen, and Sophie was already taking care of that, so I was content to just stay out of the way. The story I was reading was set in victorian times, and the main character was a strong young woman who wanted to make a name for herself outside of just being a nobleman’s beautiful daughter. The story was great so far, and had potential to be one of my favorite books if finished correctly. It was around then that I heard what sounded like a car door closing, and I was greeted by the sound of my father walking through the front door. I closed my book and quietly walked into the entryway. My dad had his back turned as he hung his coat on a hook and slipped off his shoes. He turned back around and flinched upon seeing me.

“Good lord, kid. You gotta stop sneaking up on me like that.” He sounded exasperated. My lips twitched, I took a secret joy out of startling him like that.

“How was work?” I asked, straight to the point.

“Oh it was good actually, everyone was very respectful.” He sounded happy to talk about it.

“Big surprise there, you being at the top of the food chain and all.” I lifted an eyebrow at him as I spoke.

“I may be up there but I’m not at the tippy top just yet, I still have to answer to people too.” He explained.

“You have like one boss, the two of you are the ‘people’ you just mentioned. Who is he anyway? He sounded cool when you talked to him through email.” I followed him as he started walking through the house.

“Yeah he’s alright. We didn’t get to talk much today, we were both pretty busy.” He suddenly stopped walking. “Where is everyone?”

“Kitchen, making dinner.”

“Ah.” and he continued walking again, now in the direction of the kitchen. I yawned, tired after a long day, and kept up with him.

Dinner was like usual, except I wasn’t very hungry. I felt like I was lying to everyone by not telling them about what I saw and what I found but I couldn’t bring myself to speak up about it.

“Owen honey, you doing okay?” I heard my mom ask, after I yawned for what must’ve been the millionth time.

“Oh, yeah. I’m just tired, I didn’t sleep well last night.” My parents exchanged looks.

“Maybe you should turn in early tonight. You look like you need rest.” She urged, my dad nodding in agreement.

“Uh, yea, okay. I’ll go do that now. I’m not very hungry anyway.” I got up from my seat, and backed away until Sophie grabbed my arm. I leaned down and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

“G’night Sophie. Night guys.” I turned and left, after receiving goodnight wishes from everyone else. I briefly considered going to my room in the basement, but then quickly changed my mind. I had enough excitement for one day. I got ready for bed, slipped under the covers, took off my glasses, and immediately fell asleep. I had a dream that I was a wealthy young individual from the victorian era, struggling to break away from someone else’s shadow.