Endurance

Kelly crouched down, grasped the straw between her thumb and index finger, and tugged. The hay broke in half, still wedged beneath the wall.

WTF?

Then something nudged her from behind.

Kelly yelped, scrambling forward, turning around to face JD.

“Bad dog,” she said, though he really didn’t do anything worthy of scolding.

The comment didn’t seem to bother the canine. He brushed past Kelly, sniffing the floor, and his nose locked onto the corner of the closet. He whined and pawed at the wall, finding something that interested him.

Kelly nudged the Shepherd aside and pointed her iPod at the space he’d been clawing at. The white screen illuminated a small, wooden knob on the floor. It looked like the top of a broomstick, no taller than two inches. Kelly tried to pick it up, but it was stuck. Instead of pulling, she tried to push.

There was a clicking sound, and the wall Kelly had her shoulder against suddenly moved.

A secret passage.

Before Kelly had a chance to process what was happening, JD darted past her, scratching the wall, pushing it open on an unseen hinge like a big door. Then he charged into the blackness behind the wall, disappearing into the darkness.

“JD!” she yelled after him.

Kelly heard the click click click of his toenails on the wooden floor echo away into silence. She squinted into the gap. It was a thin hallway, no more than two feet wide. Unlit, though the iPod allowed her to see that the hall stretched for several yards.

She turned to go tell her mother, then stopped, imagining Mom’s lecture.

“You let JD run off? How irresponsible, Kelly.”

Mom liked the word irresponsible almost as much as irrational.

I should still go get her.

But why? I’m almost a teenager. I don’t need to go to Mom for everything.

What if someone is in there?

JD barked. He didn’t sound very far.

“JD!” she called again.

He barked once more.

Then he yelped.

The yelp was the deciding factor. Kelly had raised JD since he was a pup. Mom bought him right after Dad died, and Kelly had had quite enough of losing loved ones, thank you very much. If her dog was hurt, she had to go get him. No other way about it.

Kelly quickly put on her jogging pants and her gym shoes and stepped into the gap. It was just wide enough for her to walk normally, rather than sideways, though her shoulders did brush the walls. She moved quickly, her iPod bobbing up and down so she could alternate between watching her footing and looking ahead. The corridor smelled like mildew and dust, with notes of something else beneath it—something that reeked like really bad body odor.

The corridor ended at a right turn. Kelly paused. The iPod light wasn’t strong enough to illuminate more than a few feet.

“JD?”

No answer.

I should go get Mom.

Then she heard another yelp. Closer this time.

“I’m coming, JD!”

Kelly rounded the corner, picking up her pace. She held out her free hand and touched the wall, her fingers trailing along rough, unfinished wood, and stopped when she touched something that moved.

Kelly flashed the iPod light at the object. It was a small, square piece of plywood, swinging on a single nail like a picture frame. She touched the bottom and swivelled it upside down, revealing...

A hole. It’s a hole in the wall.

The hole was perhaps the size of a quarter, and there was a faint light coming from it. Kelly’s finger probed the outside. She got ready to stick her finger in, then halted.

Bad idea. It could be a rat hole.

But what if it’s another secret door?

She poked the tip of her index finger inside, ready to pull it back if she felt anything sharp. Her finger went in to the first knuckle...

The second knuckle...

And then it touched something cold and flat.

Glass?

I guess I have to look.

The hole was high enough for Kelly to have to stand tippy-toed to see through it. She pressed her nose against the wall, the wood smelling really foul, and squinted into the opening.

Kelly saw a toilet. She gasped when she noticed the toilet seat had Lincoln’s face on it.

It’s the toilet in my room.

Kelly backed away from the peep hole, turning to run back to the room. This was bad. This was really bad. That creepy old lady was spying on them, and Kelly had to tell Mom and Grandma.

“Help me.”

Kelly paused in mid-step. The voice belonged to a girl. A young girl, from the sound of it. Coming from the same direction she’d heard JD yelp.

“Please help me. My name is Alice and I’m scared.”

Kelly peered over her shoulder, into the dark. She knew she couldn’t leave a little girl behind. Fighting panic, she managed to sound calm when she said, “Where are you, Alice?”

“I’m here. There’s a doggy with me. He’s hurt.”

“How is he hurt, Alice? What happened to my dog?”

“He’s limping. His foot is all twisted up.”

JD cried out, a pitiful sound that made Kelly want to scream.

“I’ll be right there, Alice,” she said, racing ahead, frantic with fear and adrenalin, coming to another turn, thinking about poor JD with his paw broken, and then coming to...

A dead end.

Kelly stared at the wall, wondering what to do next, and noticed another hanging square of plywood.

“Alice?”

“I’m stuck in here. Please help me.”

The voice was coming from directly behind the wall.

Kelly sidled up to the wall and stretched to look through the peep hole. She saw only darkness.

“I can’t see you, Alice. Is my dog in there?”

JD yelped again.

Kelly pushed on the wall, but it didn’t budge.

“You need to pull it,” Alice said.

Kelly had no idea how to pull a flat wall forward, then decided to stick her finger in the hole and try tugging on that. She put it in carefully, gripped the side, and then...

“Uhhhhn....”

The pain was so sudden, so shocking, that it literally took Kelly’s breath away. She tried to yell, but nothing came out, and at the same time she tried to free her finger from the hole and only succeeded in making the pain worse.

Something had her finger. Something sharp and tight that wouldn’t let go.

Kelly dropped her iPod. It landed face-up, its gel case working as advertised and absorbing the shock. In the dim light it emitted, Kelly could see that there was blood leaking down her hand. She pulled again, determined to rip her finger off if it would free her, but the agony made her cry out. Kelly beat against the wall with her fist, then