End House was gone but the game wasn't over for Linda and her friends.
As the ground closed up,
Linda noticed that the left section of the End House remained standing for a
few moments before it also dissolved into the ground. She didn’t know if she
had imagined it or if that section had survived in a transparent form before it
had gone underground. She thought back and tried to remember if she had ever
entered that side of the house. She realized that the answer was no; she didn’t
even know what had been there.
Turning to Todd, she asked, “Did you happen
to see anything unusual with the left side of the house?”
Todd look confused. “No.
What did you see?”
“The left side lingered
for a while in a shadowy form, before melting into the ground. What was on that
side?”
“Nothing much—the first
floor had an empty ballroom, and the upstairs had two empty bedrooms. And…oh. There was a locked door leading down to the tunnels beneath the house.”
“What was in those
tunnels? And where did they lead?”
Todd said, “I haven’t
heard anything recently about the tunnels. I don’t think anyone has gone down there for quite some
years. There have been many rumors circulating about the tunnels being dungeons
where people were trapped and tortured. I do remember hearing that the door
wouldn’t open for anyone.”
“Well, the left side of
the house is now also underground in these tunnels. The dungeons could hold any
number of evils. Maybe Tom and Edward—and possibly other humans, who’ve disappeared
from town—could be down in those dungeons. Remember, we visited the tunnels
when the stairs extended themselves below End House. It was terrifying down there
with all those ghoulish creatures grabbing at us. The tunnel seemed to descend
forever into a dark pit.”
“Let’s not worry about
this now. Maybe nothing will come of it—and if it does, we can deal with it in
the future. I don’t want to frighten the others more than they have been
already.”
Linda nodded her head. But
she didn’t agree.
She wasn’t going to sweep this secret
under the rug. If Tom and Edward were
trapped down there, then she was going to find a way to free
them. She was not going to allow demons to control her town
and her friends any longer.
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