The Secret in the Walls

The Thing Under the Carpet

Chapter 3:

Scruf-scruf. 

"What was that," says Margaret. 

"Excuse me Ma'am are you lost?" asks Louis, in surprise that he found someone this far away from the main room.

 "Oh, excuse you, and no, I am not lost, I am simply looking for a bathroom." Replies Margaret. 

"Well, seem to recall there being a bathroom down this corridor, and...to your first left then... then I think it was the second door on your right-hand side." Explains Louis.

 "Down the corridor and to your... second left, no or was it your first," repeats Margaret, worried that she will forget it.

 "I'll see you on your way, now." Says Louis.

 "First left, then second door on your right. First left, then second door on your right. First left, then second door on your right," repeats Margaret while she walks down the corridor.

 The corridor is lined with doors and red velvet curtain that hang from floor to ceiling. Pictures of people with grey hair and children hang on the velvety walls. 

"Why are there curtains but no windows?" thinking to herself she realizes she has not seen a single window.

 She finally reaches the bathroom she is looking for. The door she opens has a brass nob with a tiny monogram on it, but she cannot make out what it says, so she relinquishes the handle and walks inside. As she uses the bathroom she looks around and spots a small candle flickering for some reason she cannot look away. She tries to distract herself with thought hoping that her eyes will close. Her thoughts are racing, she cannot, move she stuck. Then quick she saw a thing move under the carpet she stood up and screams. 

"PLEASE NO, PLEASE NO, PLEASE."

 Margaret repeats this 5 times over crying tears streaming down her face. Tears now streaming down her smeared mascara face, a tear gets trapped in her mouth. She tastes it and it tastes like...like what, what did this remind her of? SonnySalt her favorite salt that her mom had gotten her for her 25 birthday. She remembered how Lucas her dog used to try to lick it off her face. She runs outside and sees Louis the butler beating the floor with a chair. Frantically she runs darting through the shadows. She remembers Elizabeth and how she bullied her so all during high school.

 She regrets this "Karma, my mother always told me karmas a bitch so be careful what you do."

 She stops as if she were possessed the thing under the carpet must have grabbed her. She opens her mouth to scream but nothing comes out. She is terrified, she tries to move her arms...nothing. She gives in, then suddenly, she feels something on her shoulder but alas she cannot move. She closes her eyes and imagines how she was just a few hours earlier saying 

"Carpe Diem" to her younger brother because he was going to ask his friend Emma to prom. 

Then she drifts seamlessly into the walls of the house and swiftly goes through the maze that is the Jackson Manor. She stops abruptly and opens her eyes and there in front her is a boy. She screams and now she can, so she screams even louder for this boy is the most gruesome thing you have ever seen. He has rotten flesh hanging loosely from his face his greyish-greenish skin wreaks of feces. His eyes are the color of a swamp after the rain comes, his hair and his eyebrows, untamed, resemble one's nostril hairs. Yet under all that he looks like a lost, scared 12-year-old boy who has been stolen. Lost.