A sudden burst of cold wind blew through the hole in the wall the bug revealed. Lydia shuddered and reached for her red blanket, draping it over her shoulders like a poncho. Now a bit warmer, she tried to peek at the hole. It seemed far too deep for something so small. And where could that wind be coming from? The closer Lydia got to the hole, the larger it seemed. No, wait, it was actually growing! The hole in the wall grew and grew until it wasn't a hole at all, more of a door, really. Lydia searched for a handle in the dark, but to no avail. She then knocked on the door once, twice, three times. To her surprise, it sprung open, with a stone spiral staircase leading down a seemingly endless tower. Lydia took one step down, then another, and another, and soon enough she'd slipped outside her room into somewhere completely strange and new.
"I had no idea there was a room like this in the house," she wondered.
With each new step, what little light was left in her room faded away. She looked over her shoulder but once, then turned her back on it for good. Lydia smiled to herself as she descended the final steps of the staircase.
At the foot of the stairs she found a little table with a hefty book. She brushed the aging dust off the cover. Unfortunately, it looked as if the book was in Latin, or some other dead language. These were the times where Lydia wished she'd paid a little more attention in school. Despite its size, Lydia found she could pick it up rather easily, and slipped it into the folds of her blanket. Maybe she couldn't read it right now, but if given a little more time, perhaps she could.
There was another door across the hall, beyond which a strange orange glow peeked. Lydia shuffled to the door, eager to explore more of this strange new world. She reached up for the doorknob, turned and pushed---
Only to find herself back in her room! She swiveled around, expecting to find the stone tower, but instead looked out on the familiar hallway. She couldn't believe it! Had it all been a dream, sleepwalking or something like that? But when she found the book she'd tucked away in her blanket, she knew something far more interesting was afoot.
"Oh Lyd-iaaaa dear! It's time for your dinner!"
That would be Mom calling for her. She must have been gone for a while if it was already dinner time. Lydia quickly hid the volume in a long forgotten shelf and hurried on down. She didn't want them to come up and find her (or the book).
Lydia sat down for an uneventful dinner, where her oblivious parents asked her about nothing and spoke only of their days. She took solace in this boredom, as it kept them from being suspicious of her whereabouts for the past few hours. She cleared her plate and slipped away without much fuss, and hurried back to her room. When she came back, the strange door was long gone, as she'd somewhat expected.
"Now what?"
Yet again, she fell into her bed with a troubled mind. She really wanted to take another look at that book, but until she could understand what it said, she'd be pretty out of luck. Maybe she could take another look at it, though? She had rushed through the pages, come to think of it. A little more time couldn't hurt it.
It wasn't all Latin, it seemed to be written in a hodgepodge of languages, one of which happened to be very old English. Though the letters looped and crossed everywhere, Lydia could just barely make out a word or two here and there. She read aloud to herself,
"Though I know I should be weary… Still I venture someplace scary…"
Again a cold wind howled and shook the walls. Lydia gripped her blanket tighter, struggling to read on.
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