Backwards Into Hell

Part One: The Lodge

Anais' Diary

Monday 25th October

After David ordered us to talk to the authorities, we wavered. What would happen if they came sniffing around?

Darren & I dashed into the dining room, the place with the closest landline, & paused.

'Do you think we should?' He shot me a wide-eyed glance. 'What if they find it?'

'They won't. It's hidden.'

Regardless, Darren stepped back.

'If this is murder, they'll search every corner.'

He was right of course, shaking as he spoke, but it was strange—Darren had never struck me as a coward. Back in the garden, he couldn't even talk to David.

I suppose I should explain: the way to the basement is concealed at the bottom of one of the kitchen cabinets & under the sink. It's simple, really. There's a dark tunnel leading down & all you have to do is find the ladder. Except not a single guest has found it yet & we've become complacent. Just a few nights ago, Darren left the cupboard door swinging open all night.

But our guests aren't detectives. The police, meanwhile, will look at everything & even if we locked the entrance shut, they'd find a way to get in.

'We don't call them, not yet,' I said.

Darren was pacing heavy across the floor. 'But we can't keep Harriet a secret.'

'What if we hid it?'

'What?' He stopped.

'We could change the cupboard, fill it with something, make it look normal.'

He stared at me quizzically.

'All we need to do is put a cover over the hole.' I used my hands in a sweeping motion.

'With what? A trapdoor?'

I cast my eyes over the room, methodically searching for something. It struck me.

'What about the table?'

'The table?'

'The one in the lobby. It's not the right size, but I can cut it down.'

Darren turned, glancing at the lobby door. Then he smiled.

'Brilliant,' he said.

Except there was one problem: everyone was in the lobby, apart from Jake & David, who were still outside.

'I'll grab it,' said Darren.

'How?'

'Just watch.'

He moved to the door, took a breath, & calmer than water with no wind, strolled into the lobby. I watched as he casually lifted the table, the tiny oak one in the corner I'd found in a charity shop, & sauntered back out. No one even looked up.

'Confidence,' he said to me when the door was closed. 'That's all you need.'

I'd almost wanted to laugh, but Jake & David were still in the way of the shed outside & I needed my tools.

'I'll distract them.'

We measured the hole in the cupboard before Darren dashed toward them. He was good. Jake and David turned to him as I sprinted behind them &, silently, crept into the hut at the end of the garden.

It didn't take me long to cut the table to shape, especially with some of the industrial equipment I'd brought to renovate the kitchen last year. Once it was finished, I made another anxious dash back to the kitchen. By that time, David & Jake had moved to the lobby.

Darren watched as I squashed the makeshift trapdoor into the hole. It worked, if a little haphazardly, & I slapped glue around the edges.

The panel was an odd colour. It was a few shades darker than the rest of the wood, but by the time we'd filled the cupboard with various tins & pasta, no one would suspect a thing.

As I rushed about, chucking various kitchen items inside, Darren picked up the phone, & just as I stood back to admire my ingenuity, he cleared his throat.

'This phone's not working either,' he muttered. 'Shit.'