Short Stories of the Golden Six

The Cellar

This next story was written by my best friend ever. Her account is @Sire2253 so please go check it out.   

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     There was something about that cellar. Ever since Mark's family had moved there, he had sensed something mysterious down there.

     The day they moved, Mark had opened the cellar door out of curiosity. His mom had freaked out and locked the door as quickly as possible.

     "Don't ever go down there." She had said, " It's too dangerous. You could get hurt."

     From that very moment Mark knew that there was something strange about the cellar. Even though it had been two years since they had moved, Mark still felt a mysterious presence every time he walked past that door.

     Mark had become somewhat obsessed with the cellar. Sometimes his parents would catch him trying to pick the lock and scold him for it. Then, something happened to make him even more obsessed.

     In the first week of fifth grade, Mark came home slightly early. He had raced his next-door neighbour home and won. Tyler, his neighbour, was not very fast. Mark had just walked into the living room when he noticed the cellar door was open.

     "This is my chance." He thought. He took a slow step towards the door. Suddenly the door swung open and his dad's face filled with surprise when he saw Mark.

     "What are you doing home so early?" He asked.

     "What are you doing down there?" Mark questioned. He didn't even bother to answer his dad's question.

     Mark's dad looked him in the eye and finally gave him an answer. "I was taking a look at the ladder. It's been broken since we got here and it's about time we fix it, even though we don't even use the cellar."

     Mark glared at his dad unbelievingly but something inside him told him not to begin an argument.

     "Does that mean I can go down there then?" He remarked, making sure to sound as innocent as possible.

     "No, it's too dangerous." Mark's dad said a little too quickly. "Besides, there's nothing down there anyway."

     Mark could almost smell the lies. How could there be nothing down there? He had been forbidden to even look through that door. There was no way his parents would forbid him to go into a room that was empty. And the broken ladder? Just the way his dad had told him about it, he knew that was a lie too.

     "If you say so." Mark concluded. He raced up to his room to think.

     Mark couldn't just let this incident go uninvestigated, so he devised a plan. He wasn't going to let his parents get the better of him. He was going to prove to them that he was smart enough to figure things out on his own. He was going to outsmart his parents, bigtime.

     Saturday arrived, and the time came for Mark to take action. He got up well before seven and breakfast concluded not five minutes after. He had already asked Tyler to help him out and he agreed. Well, actually he didn't, but he owed Mark anyway for losing the race home the other day.

     Mark was in place by his parents' bedroom door by eight o'clock. That was Tyler's cue to come in, but he seemed to be running late. Mark took a minute to go to the bathroom and returned to his post. Finally there was a knock on the door. Tyler walked in, still in his plaid pajamas, and said his line.

     "Mrs. T, can my family borrow a few eggs? We seem to have run out. We'll pay you back of course." Tyler said rather convincingly. He was playing his part well.

     "Of course, Tyler. How many do you need?" She answered.

     "Ummmmmmmmmm," He looked at Mark nervously, who held up three fingers. "Three's good."

     "Okay, just wait right here while I get them." She replied.

     Right as she disappeared into the kitchen, Mark jogged quietly to his parents' bedroom door and burst through the door. His heart racing wildly, he opened the drawer of his dad's bedside table and dug through the contents inside. It wasn't there. Mark was about to give up hope when he realized his mistake. It must be inside the other bedside table!

     He raced to the other side of the bed and yanked open the drawer. The key to the cellar door was sitting peacefully on a stack of papers. Mark stuffed it in his pocket and raced to the door, hoping he wasn't too late.

     Peeking through the door, Mark saw his mom handing the eggs to Tyler. His heart almost stopped when his mom sent Tyler outside and made her way towards him.

     This was it. Mark was going to get caught and grounded for who knows how long.

     Mark watched his mom walk down the hallway and shut his eyes, bracing himself for when she walked in the room. But she never did. Instead she walked right past her bedroom door and went into the bathroom.

     "That was close." Mark said under his breath and slowly creeped out of the bedroom. Although this part of his plan hadn't turned out exactly as he planned, he couldn't think of any way he could mess up the rest of it.

     It was two o'clock, and Mark was ready to take action. As soon as his mom went for her afternoon nap and Mark was positive she was sleeping, he ran to the cellar door. Taking the key out of his pocket, he tried to think of what was down there. He imagined it was probably the normal storage stuff. Camping equipment, old furniture, that kind of stuff. But at the same time, he was still suspicious of his parents' attitude towards the cellar.

     Mark unlocked the door, opened it, and stared down into the black darkness of the cellar. He was glad he had a flashlight in his other pocket. Mark's eyes went to the old wooden ladder against the wall, descending into a room made of concrete. Leaving the key in the keyhole, Mark stepped onto the ladder and slowly made his way down the first few rungs.

     To break the silence, there was a loud creak from the ladder. Mark almost jumped straight off the ladder. He began to think that his parents weren't lying about the old ladder, but he was still convinced that there was something down there that they weren't telling him about, and he was determined to find out what.

     Mark guessed he was halfway down the ladder when he heard a snap from below him. In a split second he was sprawled across a dusty concrete floor, with wood splinters littered around him. Pain exploded in his knees which he assumed were scratched and bleeding from the fall. He spit the dirt out of his mouth and climbed to his feet.

     Mark spent the next few minutes standing there and contemplating how to get out of there without getting grounded. He finally gave up on a plan to get out, and took the flashlight out of his pocket. Turning it on, his thoughts filled with excitement. He finally got the chance to satisfy his curiosity and find out the truth.

     Forgetting about his problem of getting out, Mark shone the flashlight around the room. All he found were cobwebs and dust bunnies. Otherwise, the cellar was absolutely empty. Disappointment waved over him. He should have listened to his parents.