A Place So Wicked by Patrick Reuman (life books to read txt) 📕

“There are words on the door in the basement,” Toby said. “They’re weird, like in another language or something. Has anyone ever opened the door in the basement?”

“I don’t know,” Eli said. “I’ve never heard of the door.”

“It seems like others have been stuck here but tried to escape. But what I’m wondering is if anybody has ever gotten that door open. If there is a ghost in there, why not just let it out? Why keep it locked up behind some door?”

“Please don’t,” Paisley said. “I don’t know what you’re going to try to do, but please don’t do it.”

“We have to do something. What else is there? Whatever’s going on, it must have something to do with that door or whatever is behind it. I need to know what those words mean.”

32

Toby came up with a quick plan. He would go down there and capture a photograph of the door on his phone then they would use that picture and the internet to translate the words.

Easy. Right?

That’s what he had told himself. And it seemed logical, right up until he stood in front of that door, the basement lurking on the other side. Eli had his arm covering his nose, his eyes squinting. Paisley was trying not to stare at Toby, waiting for him to take the plunge. But the task of going into the basement suddenly seemed a lot more daunting now that they were there and now that they knew that something may be lying in wait in the basement’s depths.

When Toby finally reached for the handle, he felt the cold of the doorknob, icy to the touch, as though someone had hidden it under a sheet of ice and only just returned it to the door seconds before they rounded the corner. When he yanked the door open, the expected wave of disgusting rushed out at them. Toby and Paisley were prepared for it, at least mentally. But not Eli. Even with his arm covering his nose, he stepped back, away from the door, hunched over, and dry heaved. For a moment, Toby thought the boy was going to pass out, but he didn’t. Eli steadied his waver and looked up at Toby.

Toby took off down the stairs. Every inch deeper he descended into the pit, the stench seemed to multiply in severity. He could hardly see, the light switch having given him problems at the top of the stairs. But his instincts drove him, guiding him through the dark. He wondered if the problem was the switch at all or if the bulb had already died, being trapped down here with the decay. He didn’t even bother pulling the light switch when he reached it. Instead, he just lifted his phone, flash-mode on, and took three pictures of the door in quick succession.

He glanced at the phone to make sure the pictures accomplished his goal. They did. Back at the top of the stairs, he reappeared from the darkness like a snake from a pit, surging out with speed and desperation. He swung the door shut behind him, ran for the back door, pulled it open, stuck his head out, and took in a long, deep breath of fresh night air.

Everything had been spinning but was slowly coming to a standstill as he looked up at the stars. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around.

“Just making sure you’re okay,” Paisley said.

He nodded his head yes but really was unsure. His entire body felt different from just those few seconds he had spent down there. It wasn’t specifically pain he felt, not exactly. It was a sudden feeling of exhaustion and vertigo. He clenched the doorknob for a moment, afraid his knees may buckle.

But he didn’t remain there for long. He knew, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, that if he got away from the basement, he would start to feel better. So he did, pretending the best he could that he was perfectly fine. They followed Toby to the living room. Once on the couch, as if magic, he could feel his body relaxing and regaining its energy.

“Can I see the picture?” Eli asked.

Toby handed him the phone, the camera app still open. Eli clicked and enlarged the photograph. The flash gleamed off of numerous small orbs and white mist. He knew from the internet that some might suspect those were spirits or some other supernatural entity the light was picking up. He wasn’t sure himself.

Beyond the mist, though, were words etched into a door. They looked foreign, ancient, like hieroglyphs on the walls of the Egyptian pyramids. He tilted the picture, trying to get a clearer look as if he were down there himself, looking at the words in person.

Toby looked over Eli’s shoulder. The words actually looked clearer, Toby thought, than when he had seen them before. Like they were etched deeper or wider. Toby read the words aloud, trying to pronounce them the best he could.

ULTRA HAEC QUAEDAM TENEBRAE MANENT

IPSAS UT LIBERES

VERBA CLAVE CANTA

A long pause passed between the three kids.

“I don’t know,” Eli said. “It’s another language, that much is obvious enough. But I don’t know what it means.”

Toby held his hand out, and Eli passed him the phone back. A smile formed in the corners of his mouth as he stared at the mystery words. “Well, thankfully, we have a magic tool called the internet.”

Paisley stuck her hand in her pocket. “We can use my phone.”

She handed it off to Toby. Looking from his phone to hers, he slowly typed in what the message appeared to say. Most of what popped up in the search made little sense to Toby, until he scrolled about halfway down the