The book of clues

4 - The Chessboard

Alex opened the door of his room as quiet as possible. Closing it carefully, he walked on his toes, quietly towards the stairs. He was wearing a blue t-shirt, his army shorts, some old sneakers with holes in them and his backpack over his shoulder. Trying to make no noise, he carefully grabbed the railing and stepped down. When there was a stair that creaked, he stopped for a minute so he could hear if anyone woke up because of the sound. It was so quiet that he could hear his own heartbeat. Then continued carefully. The sunlight shone through the windows next to the front door right in his eyes when he arrived downstairs. The house seemed immediately a lot less scary in daylight. His plan was to figure out what lays behind every door in this hallway. He started with the farthest one, the one next to the front door on the left. This door was made of a dark colored oak, just like all the other ones in the house. He opened it with a swing. It was a kitchen, an old one, but nice designed and it was big. He stepped inside and inspected everything. The floor was covered with black and white tiles. There was a retro fridge in the corner next to where he had entered. In the center, there was a big square table placed, with four chairs and a withered flower in an orange vase placed in the middle of the table. There were cabinets against the opposite wall topped by a cooker and a sink. There was a large long window between the cabinets and the fridge. Everything looked very clean, which surprised Alex a little. As he was walking out of the room, on his way to the one across, he heard footsteps coming from upstairs. He jumped up and ran to the door in front of him. He opened it and took a quick look around. This room looked like an old study or something. The walls were stocked with books with a long wooden ladder leaning on them. On his right, there was a large desk filled with jars with dried ink and paper. He jumped under the desk and tried to remain there as quiet as possible.

The footsteps came closer. Alex looked scared around him to see if there wasn't a better hiding place. But there was nowhere else to hide. He laid himself on his back, and looked up. The underside of the desk was decorated with a black and white square motive, like a chessboard. While staring at it, he forgot about the footsteps. Wait a minute. It wasn't just the underside of the desk! There was a real chessboard attached to the bottom of the desk! Alex stretched his arms and took grip on the board. He didn't even have to pull it hard, it just slid of the bottom like it was nothing. He looked at it and turned it in different angles, there was a small hatch on the side of the board. He clicked the small button on the hatch and opened it, there were chess pieces inside. He closed it again because he didn't want to lose any of the pieces, it looked like all of them where in there. He turned the board around again and noticed another smaller hatch in de side, a little more hidden. This one didn't have a button, yet Alex tried to open it but failed. It was stuck. Alex now realized that he hadn't heard the footsteps for a while so he tried to crawl out of his hiding place. "Good morning!" Lilly said exited as she jumped in front of him. Alex didn't expect to see anyone so jumped up because of the shock and hit his head against the bottom of the desk. "Aaauuwtch!" He screamed out, "What the hell is wrong with you Lilly? That really hurts," he said while putting his hand on his head and let the chessboard fall on the ground. "I'm sorry," she laughed out, "I couldn't keep myself from doing that, it was too funny. Why were you even hiding, silly?" Lilly asked trying to hold back her laugh. "well, I heard footsteps and..." Alex started. "That was me you silly, you weren't scared, were you?" She laughed even louder now. "Of course I wasn't!" Alex said, defending himself as he stood up. He would never admit that he was scared. "Hey, what's that?" Lilly asked while she picked up the board. "Oh, that, I just found it, want to play a game with me?" He took the board out of her hands and looked at it again. "yes, I'd love to, but not now, I'm starving!" she said, and she turned around and hopped in direction of the kitchen.