The Door.

My name’s Aubree. People often tell you to be careful where you’re going, and to never adventure off on your own. I used to often say “Let destiny take control for once. Maybe life would have a bigger meaning if you weren’t so controlling all the time,” but then I realised that trusting destiny over your bigger instincts, wasn’t always a good idea.

I used to live in Norfolk, near Brandon Park, till I was 14 with my Mum, Dad and my younger sister Fay. It was brilliant living there. It felt like we had the whole park to ourselves as it was so huge. We often didn’t go far, for fear of losing our way back home, and since as Mum and Dad always liked to keep their eye on us, just to make sure that we were safe.

We would make up games, pretending that we were the fairy queen and princess, or that we were witches hiding and living in the forest, that we were having a tea party with our little woodland animals or we would even go for a bike ride through the park as a whole family. It was quite fun for a while until I started growing up. I was older than Fay by six years and although that wasn’t really much of a problem sometimes it was hard work playing with her all of the time, and I just wanted to be by myself.

From time to time, I decided to go for a wander deeper in the forest from usual, just to give myself time to think and relax, that way no one will find me any time soon.

I kept this up for a month, going for a wander once a week. No one ever really noticed as I was gone for 30 minutes at the most, and it was nice.

I decided one day that I wanted to adventure even further into the forest, so I would get a greater knowing of my surroundings, but what I found, I never expected to see.

There was a large cluster of trees that I was weaving in and out of, when I came across a trap door. I thought it wouldn’t cause any problems just having a look around inside so I carefully opened the door, with the piece of rope that was pierced through the middle of the crumbling wood. I saw a muddy, damp, greyish-brown rope ladder, and started to gently pull myself down into the darkness. After letting my eyes adjust to the dark, I saw some candles on the wall, some rubbish on the ground and a lighter which someone must of accidently dropped down here. I lighted one of the candles and started making my way through the cold, dark, damp tunnel. The place was filled with cobwebs that looked dusty, old and dirty. There were dead spiders hanging in the corners on the walls, and there were spiders that were scuttling away from me, who seemed surprised of my presence. I knew for sure that this place must have been abandoned way before I was born, but why?

 

The tunnel seemed never ending, and the wax from my candle was slowly melting further and further down, it wouldn’t be long before I’d have to light another.

The tunnel was starting to get colder with every step I took, and it seemed like it was going nowhere, but why would this tunnel be down here if that was the case?

The wax on my candle burned out. I was just about to light another candle on the wall when suddenly I felt a large gust of wind blow into my back, and the walls of the tunnel began to shake. I hurriedly lighted my candle and carried on running down the tunnel hoping that after my journey there’d be another way out. All of a sudden there was a loud crumbling noise, and the tunnel caved in, blocking the only exit I knew about.

I started to feel claustrophobic not knowing if I’d ever be able to get out, but I knew for sure that I’d have to keep on walking towards the other end now, to find the answer to my question.

 

My legs were growing tired, and it felt like I no longer had control of them, they’d grown so used to walking that they didn’t need me to tell them what to do. My hand that was holding the candle in the air had grown stiff and it felt uncomfortable to move, and when I tried to, it felt like it was creaking like an old door. My eyes were growing tired and droopy from the bleak atmosphere that surrounded me, and it almost seemed impossible for there to be an escape.

I was just about to sit down for a couple of minutes when I thought I saw something red down the tunnel, in the flicker of the candle light. I carried on walking, quicker this time to see what the light had presented to me.

It lead me towards a door. The door was just made out of planks of wood that were nailed together. The wood was cut very unevenly, and it looked damp and it seemed to be crumbling a lot. What interested me most about the door though was what was drawn across it. There was a large red cross painted across it making it look unwelcoming and alarming.

I recalled being told about something like this at school… I thought it might have been in history class, but I was so tired, I couldn’t be bothered to try and think about school, when all I wanted to do was get home. I noticed the air smelled quite a bit while I was standing there, a bit like something decaying, but if I don’t get out of here soon, then I’ll be the thing that will be decaying!

I grabbed hold on the metal, rusty door handle and gave the door a gentle tug, worried that if I pulled the door any harder, that it might break, but the door wouldn’t budge. I tried pushing the door, but it just stayed put. I gave the door a huge yank and it fell open, showing me the horror it was trying to hide.

There was a dead body lying on the floor covered by satisfied rats and mice gnawing at the flesh, stomach and bones. It was a boy, about the same age as me, who must have gotten trapped down here. There were flies, gnats and mosquitos buzzing all around his body. He was covered in red dots from where the gnats and mosquitos were draining him of blood, and he had purple and black lumps and blotches, making the fingertips and legs look like they were ready to drop off any moment now. Blood was seeping out of his body, from where the rats and mice were eating. There was a disgustingly strong odour of death making my eyes sting and water.

As soon as the animals saw me they all hurried away, trying to find a way to escaped from the tunnels just like I was.

I ran into the room covering up my nose, getting bitten what felt like every second from a gnat or mosquito, but I didn’t take any notice.

When I was running through the room, it looked like this place must have been a house. There was the front room which had the dead boy in, there were a couple of bedrooms which I ran past, and a small make do kitchen. I ran though the kitchen spotting another rope ladder and another trap door. I scrambled up the rope ladder trying to get as far from here as possible. I slammed the trap door open, and ran as fast as I could as if my life was at risk.

 As soon as I was 100 steps away from the place I took a deep breath of fresh air and relaxed, lying on the floor. That’s when it all dawned on me. The red cross was the symbol of the bubonic plague. The rats, mice, flies, gnats and mosquitos are all contaminated with the disease. I’d left the hatch open and they can all now get out now. Worst of all, I have been bitten loads of times, meaning that I’m going to be the first victim to die.