The Haunting

Secret Passages

My parents' bedroom was a great source of trepidation and was the stuff of nightmares in my eyes.

And no, not for the reason you probably think.

This also has to do with a door - actually many doors and passages that were within the house. Mainly, you guessed it, in my parents' bedroom.

While everyone was moving things into their correct room, I somehow found my courage and went for a walk around the house. When I got upstairs, the air felt heavy and I could feel the hairs on my arms to stand up.

I peeked into the first room and was confusedas to what it could be. At first, it reminded me of a princess tower, since it was sort of small and cramped, and circular in shape. In fact, I always referred to it as the tower room.

There was a small window in the room that overlooked the side yard and two more doors that led to crawl spaces - which I wanted no part of, thank you very much.

The next room down the hall was my room. It was white and bland, and didn't even have a closet!

Wandering further down the hall was the bathroom. This room had already been partially remodeled and had a nice new floor put in and the claw foot tub that had been, for some reason, left downstairs in what was to become my playroom, by the previous owners.

Now it was refinished and painted a clean white. I noticed there wasn't a shower, but I was so enthralled by the tub, I hadn't really cared.

Now, when you first walked in, there was an opening right across from the door. It was the closet, but my parents hadn't gotten around to putting a door up yet.

I walked over and was filled with anxiety and dread as I peered into the opening and was greeted by the black abyss. There was a large gaping hole in the slanted ceiling of the closet. 

Honestly, it was one of the creepiest things I'd ever seen in my very short life. But even to this day, thinking about it sends a shiver up my spine.

So, I continued on with my self-guided roaming of the upstairs and came into my sister's room. It was just another room that filled me with dread. I had no idea what was wrong with this house - or maybe what was wrong with me.

Needless to say, I got out of there as fast as I could and hurled down into the master bedroom and almost immediately regretted my curiosity taking me away from the safety of my parents.

To anyone else, it was a normal room, but to me it was filled with whispered secrets bent on tormenting me.

It left me wondering why there were so many doors and windows in the house. It was unnatural. My parents' room had two windows and two doors - not including the one I had just came down the hall and entered through.

The one to the left was in what was supposed to pass for the closet, except there were no doors. It was just a pole stuck up between the two walls. But it was what was behind the pole that held my attention. It was a door. 

I remember thinking it was odd to block a door like that. But when I asked my parents about it, they didn't seem particularly interested. Not at first anyway. 

I wasn't sure what the other door was for, and when I went over and studied what looked like a makeshift door of just thin plywood. There was a lock on it, but not a very good one. Looking back, it looked like nothing more than a wingnut. Definitely not designed to keep anyone out of the small crawlspace it was covering.

And that's all it was. It was a small area recessed into the wall. 

Except, for the fact it was opened up in the ceiling.

I can't help but wonder what the people who previously lived there were into, and why they needed so many access points into the ceiling, as I later realized the points were all connected. And my sister's room was at the center of it, as her ceiling had an actual access panel to get into the creepy crawlspace. And you could get to the small crawl space in my parents' bedroom and to the opening in the bathroom closet from it.

They were all connected!

Why, I have absolutely no idea.

Now, you need to understand something. The way the bathroom was, there was no plumbing for a shower, so it was just the claw foot tub in the bathroom, on the wall opposite the closet. And there was no shower curtain.

While I loved that tub, I hated taking a bath in that room. I always felt like something, or someone, was going to come out of the closet while I was in there. 

Needless to say, it creeped everyone out, so my parents eventually closed off the bathroom closet ceiling and the opening in their room.

But it wasn't a quick process. The bathroom ceiling was left open for a number of years, as my parents would store things up there for a while.

On the other hand, they had finished their bedroom rather quickly, so the crawl space in there was sealed off rather quickly.

While they were doing their room, they had a closet built on the opposite side, where the bar had been blocking the other door. After the bar was removed, they tried to open the door, but it wouldn't open. 

Thirteen years later, when my mom sold the house, we still had no idea what was behind that door!

The attic opening in my sister's room remained accessible though. 

It was just one of the many things that freaked me out about her room.