"Passageways" by Lily

Passageways

by Lily
The sun shone brightly through the little windows as the car tumbled along the rocky and dirty path that sprayed mud all over it. Lily was completely carsick and bored. She was so bored that even Mars, her three year old black lab couldn’t cheer her up. She also felt terrible about leaving Pennsylvania and her friends behind.
“We’re here!” Called Lily’s dad over his shoulder as Lily gaped.
“What the…” She stammered. “What kind of house is this?”
“Lily…” Lily’s dad said in a stern voice. “You don’t know how much money this lovely house was.”
“Lovely?” Lily cried. “Don’t even say that! This house is the opposite of what I thought it was!” And with that Lily sprinted out of the car and stormed into the old house angrily with tears in her eyes.

As Lily turned into the house, she could hear her mom and dad yelling for her. Ignoring the feeling of guilt in her stomach, Lily didn’t respond. She was still extremely mad at getting such a terrible house.
“Mars, do you like this house?” Lily asked curiously while wiping the tears away from her eyes.
As if Mars had read Lily’s feelings, a low growl rumbled in his throat as if he were saying no. Lily sighed.
“Oh, I do wish we could go back to Pennsylvania.” And with that she went into the kitchen randomly to explore.
Lily ran into the kitchen, still furious. Then she suddenly gasped. Right in front of her was an amazing china plate. Feeling pleased with herself at finding the plate, Lily reached up and grabbed it. All of a sudden, Lily heard a low rumbling noise. Scared stiff, Lily ran outside to her car and started casually unpacking.
“Where were you?” Scolded Lily’s mom.
“Sorry, I just got a… a little mad.” Lily stammered uneasily.
“Ok. Well anyways, since you’re out here, start unpacking!”
So, Lily got her suitcase and ran inside just as the moving truck came.

Lily ran inside, flying up the steps. She was looking for a nice room she would call her own. She knew she would find that dream room. And guess what? She did. The little room she had found looked perfect and even came with a fresh new queen bed! The bed was so fluffy and so cushy that the mattress looked like a cloud. The walls were a deep green and an old chair sat in a dusty corner. A pale bookshelf was tilted against the wall where a balcony was and still had some very old books in it.
Still curious about her interesting room, Lily slowly crept towards the balcony. She came closer and closer until she gasped. The view was beautiful. She couldn’t believe her eyes. Fresh air filled her nostrils and new scents flourished in her mind. Lily knew that the room was absolutely, positively perfect.
Excitedly, Lily ran back into her new room and started unpacking her clothes in a rose vine dresser. She neatly took each piece of clothing and set it gently in the dresser. She was starting to realize that the old rotten house wasn’t as bad as she thought.

After unpacking her load, Lily wanted to do a little exploring with Mars. After all, it was a pretty big house.
Running downstairs, Lily bravely decided to see what rumbling noise was coming from the kitchen a little while ago. So, she cautiously tiptoed to the kitchen door and peeked in.
Lily almost fainted at what she saw in the cupboard. A huge hole had formed behind the china plate she had grabbed. Now curious, Lily walked slowly towards the cupboard and decided to check out what was inside the hole.
“C’mon Mars!” Lily cried. “We’re going to go exploring!”
Mars replied with a happy high pitched yip as they went in.
Darkness was all that Lily’s eyes could see. As she felt around, cobwebs stuck to her fingers and sharp stones made her flinch. Annoyed by the things that touched her, she angrily looked for a light switch. But as she felt for one, nothing felt like a light switch to her.
“Mars…” She said nervously. “I can’t seem to find a light switch.”
As if he were sighing, Mars walked over to an area and pulled down a string. Then bright lights flickered on.

Lily gasped. The little passage had turned out to be big. And it was so big that her soft voice echoed loudly through it as she talked.
“Wow…” Lily echoed. “I never knew how cool this room would be.” And with that Lily went exploring around the room. She checked every nook and cranny of the room while sweeping away cobwebs in her way. On the other side of the room Mars clutched an old book while sniffing furiously at a little crack in the wall. As soon as Lily saw the book Mars was carrying she gasped.
“Mars, what have you got in your mouth?” Lily exclaimed questioningly. Mars barked and dropped the book at her feet, sitting down obediently and cocking his head. Lily opened the book dramatically. Dust flew around in a gray puff and spiders crawled out of it. By the looks of it, Lily could immediately tell that it was very old, and something, just something was very special about it.

“Hmmm… I think I can see a map in here.” Lily said professionally while pushing the gray cloud of dust away from her view. “But I wonder what it’s a map of.” Mars and Lily stayed completely silent for the next fifteen minutes. They heard silent sounds, like drops of water falling, and mice skittering back to their holes. It was Lily who broke the silence.
“I know what it’s a map of!” She cried gleefully. “It’s a map of all the passageways in our house!” Mars barked with joy and the two took off towards the exit.

As soon as Mars and Lily got out of the cool little room they immediately started searching for new passageways on the book’s map. There were passageways in bathrooms, bedrooms, living rooms, and one even in Lily’s room! Mars and Lily were so excited that they decided to check out one more passageway- the mysterious one in Lily’s room.
Looking at the map, Lily carefully moved her queen bed. When she was done moving the heavy thing, she collapsed on the floor and crawled over to the trapdoor where the passageway was. The trapdoor looked old, rusty, and it was impossible to open. So Lily looked around her room and found two secret buttons behind the old red chair sitting in the dusty corner.
The secret door slowly opened up while Lily and Mars hopped into it. The little passageway was pretty dark but Lily and Mars could still make out how enormous the room was.
Cautiously, they made their way through the dim area, Lily plugging her nose at the terrible smell. In the large room, rats skittered their claws and snakes slithered. Neither Lily nor Mars knew they were about to encounter one dangerous creature.

As Lily and Mars slowly walked through the passageway, they suddenly heard a hiss. The two stopped dead in their tracks and turned around. Right behind them was a huge, poisonous snake.
Lily screamed. Mars howled. They took off running as fast as they could. They felt their hearts pounding and their energy being drained. And they knew they would meet their fate as soon as they hit the dead end.

Lily was so scared that she wanted to run away from her terrifying house and never come back. She was also very confused about this passageway having a poisonous snake in it because Maryland doesn’t have any.
The snake started hissing at them as it came closer, its eyes glistening with fury. It came closer and closer every second. And as soon as the snake was within her reach and Lily was closing her eyes in terror, a ferocious yowl erupted and a fluffy creature pounced out and killed the snake.
Lily was speechless as she watched the fluffy creature which was a cat lick her whiskers embarrassingly
“You… you saved my life!” Lily said, confused. The cat .just walked over to her and purred while Mars cocked his head and growled.
“It’s Okay Mars, the cat won’t hurt you. Lily said soothingly. So with that, Mars walked over to the cat and sniffed her. The minute Mars sniffed the cat he barked with glee and started running, the cat behind him. Lily laughed and followed eagerly, glad to be saved and to be happy. She knew one day she would repay the cat for something big. Something important.

Lily named that cat Leopard because of her brown spotted pelt and sneaky attitude. Leopard turned out to be a great pet and Lily’s parents accepted her immediately. She was also a great protector when they were exploring passageways.
“Mars,” Lily asked suddenly and randomly. “Do you ever want to find something big, something exciting?”
Mars just cocked his head and licked Lily’s hand. “Well, I guess you just don’t understand.” She sighed. “Well, if you did understand, I bet you’d say yes. You’re always up to finding something big and exciting.”
A couple of hours later, nighttime fell and Lily went exploring around to try and find a surprise. She first decided to check the bathroom. It was very hard to find something in there. So, first she tried looking at the map in the old book but sadly couldn’t see any “surprises” in there. But deciding not to give up, Lily tried turning on faucets, moving the garbage can, and even flushing the toilet! Sadly, none of these great ideas worked. But she still had one more chance- moving the loose bathroom tiles. Looking in the book, Lily finally found a page that showed her how to move the tiles into the right position and showed her that it was a very weird shape. The shape was a mixture of a square, diamond, and triangle. But knowing she had to make it, Lily moved the tiles and soon a huge hole opened in a wall. It was brightly lighted and wonderful looking clubhouse-like room. She jumped into the place and gasped with fright when she saw the most frightening thing in her life.

Lily was shivering with terror as she saw two men go up to her and whisper repeatedly, “don’t get the treasure. If you do, you will meet your fate. Don’t get the treasure!”
“I-I won’t,” Lily stammered, not knowing what this “treasure” was.
“Good.” Snickered the other man. “Now go.”
Lily ran out of the terrifying place trying to find her mom and dad but she remembered they were running errands. Next, she tried the phone but the robbers had snipped of the phone cord and the phone just sat there, beeping.
“Well, I guess I’ll have to get Mars.” Lily said as she ran to get him in her room. “Mars!” She cried to her obedient dog. “Run to town and go to the police! Now!” Lily knew the police station was very far away, but Mars just barked and ran outside. “Go Mars, go!” Lily shouted off the balcony as she ran to get Leopard to get in the passageway in her room.
As she slipped down, she could hear the frustrated calls of the men outside.
“I’m telling you, little girl that you better come out here!” Lily shivered at his eerie voice. “You know what you’re gonna’ get!” Lily could then hear the men start taking all sorts of items from the house. She could even hear them talking about taking some of her prized antiques from her collection! Then they started to tap the walls in some sort of pattern and Lily heard a rumbling sound. Lily could tell by their voices that there was an enormous amount of money in there.
“Oh, where is Mars.” Lily sighed. “Where could he be?”
An hour later when the men were about to take all of the stolen stuff out, sirens were heard and police surrounded the men.
Knowing it was the time, Lily got out of the passage and explained everything to the police. The robbers finally got arrested and soon Lily made the robbers room as her own clubhouse. Everything was peaceful, and life was good for Mars, Lily, and Leopard at the old house. They all learned a good lesson to think before you act.