MADISON cont.

She let the card drop from her hand. It fluttered down and settled gently on the hallway's smooth floorboards. The corridor she was about to enter was dark, but she knew she had to follow it, so she did.

Madison stumbled clumsily in the blackness. It might have once been well-lit, but the candles that lined the walls were all snuffed out and the wax that dripped down their edges was cold and solid. Madison passed dozens of doors and wondered if she should go through them. But she never did. The possibility that she had missed the place she was supposed to go nagged at the back of her mind, making her nervous and jumpy. She didn't want to get lost here; if she got lost in her dream she might never escape.

Madison only had to go a few steps farther before her fears were washed away. She saw it again--the joker, lying on the floor, its white face standing out in the dark. There was a mischievous-looking character on the card, holding a golden baton topped with shimmering bells that pointed directly forward. I guess that's where I'm going, Madison thought. She brushed past the card and continued straight down the hallway.

She kept going for a while, passing door after door. She eventually ran into another joker, again pointing dead ahead. This repeated like a pattern--walk, joker, go forward, walk, joker, go forward. It became so routine that she was surprised when she realized she had reached the end of the hall.

In front of her lay a flight of stairs, leading both up and down. "Down?" she whispered. "This mansion has a down?" She advanced toward the stairs, walking cautiously. She had no idea what to expect. A basement? J. Q. King had never told them about any basement. Who knew what could be down there?

Madison placed her hand timidly on the railing, as if it would come alive if she weren't gentle. She wasn't sure which way to go. "Do I go up, to J. Q. King? Or down, to who knows what?"

Then it caught her eye: one last joker. It was lying on the step above her, pointing down.

Madison woke up. She flew off the couch and ran to the door, pushing through and running straight to the maid. "Take me to Lara," she said in a gasp.

The maid nodded and led her to another small room that Lara was occupying. Madison woke her up, told her everything, and before they knew it, they were scurrying down the stairs in the direction of the lobby.

"So," Lara said sharply, panting. Running around only minutes after she'd woken up was harder than she'd expected. "You think...that your dream... means something?"

Madison didn't turn her head. She wasn't struggling as much as Lara. She rounded a corner, Lara following a few feet behind. "Yes, I do." She hated to admit it, but she remembered what J. Q. King had said before she stormed out of his office. "Dreams aren't always just dreams," she said to Lara.

Lara nodded. "Okay. So you think there's a basement in Murray Mansion?"

"I know there is."

"And you think there's something down there?"

"Well, there can't be nothing."

Lara took a few short breaths, then let out a long stream of air. "Do you think the joker means anything?"

Madison shrugged. "Maybe. But if it does, I don't know yet."

The girls stopped in the lobby. The fire was lit, casting its golden-red light around the room. Four hallways lined the walls--the one that they had just come through and three others. Madison headed toward the last one, which was directly across the room from the students' hall. She looked it up and down, taking note of the wooden floors, the candles lining the walls, and the seemingly endless rows of doors. Madison smiled and turned to Lara, who was still standing at the mouth of the other corridor. "This is it," she said.

She and Lara entered quickly. Lara seemed very nervous, but Madison didn't feel the same way. Although it had only been in a dream, she had been down this path before. She knew what was waiting for her. She led the way confidently, ignoring every door. The hall stretched on and on, but eventually it ended. Standing before them, just as Madison remembered it, was the staircase.

Lara stared wide-eyed at the black hole in the floor where the steps led. "It really does go down," she squeaked.

Madison took a candle and its holder off of the wall. She stepped forward, dipping her head to look down. The small candle flame only cast a tiny bit of light into the inky depths of the stairwell, revealing only a couple more steps, spiraling downward into the unknown. Madison straightened and said to Lara, "I can't see the bottom. If I had to guess, I'd say it's a pretty long way down."

Lara nodded and gulped. "So," she stammered, craning her neck in a last attempt to see what they were getting into. "Before we go down there, I would just like to clarify....Did your dream say anything about what we're going to find?"

Madison grinned. "Nope. Let's go."

She went first and Lara followed closely behind. In a few short seconds, the two girls' heads sunk under the floor and into the darkness.

The stairway was closed, surrounded by walls of red brick. It was very cramped, so Madison and Lara had to descend single file. It was wet and cold, like the inside of a tomb, and the air was stale. They deeper they went, the more chilled it became.

Lara was unsure where to put her feet. Madison walked in front of her with the only source of light they had. Whatever light tried to reach back to Lara was mostly blocked by Madison's shadow. Lara stumbled three times, almost stumbling into Madison. Each time, she reached out and placed her hand on the wall to steady herself.

After taking only a few more steps, she once again lost her footing and was sent teetering for balance and fumbling for a hold on the smooth bricks to her right. This time, however, she did not just find brick. Her hand met with something fuzzy, moving, and definitely alive.

"Madison!" she squealed, drawing back immediately. Madison turned, casting the candle's light on the wall, but whatever had been there was gone.

Madison looked at Lara. "What?" she asked. She wasn't really concerned. Whatever had made Lara scream was gone now.

Lara took deep breaths, glancing at the wall several times to make sure. "Nothing," she finally said in a weak whisper. "I'm fine."

It didn't happen again. Although it was still hard for Lara to see, she was more careful not to stumble. Even Madison slowed to make up for Lara's caution.

Since Lara was mostly watching her feet, she collided into Madison when she suddenly stopped walking. Lara bounced back a few inches, her eyes looking up in surprise. She opened her mouth to ask Madison why she had stopped, but what she saw made it obvious.

There was a door. The moist wood was growing mold, and the weak hinges were rusting. A layer of grime covered on the door's face and on the walls around it. There was a small window set in the wood above Madison's head, but a board was nailed over it from the inside.

"Someone didn't want people to find this place," Madison murmured quietly.

"Yes," Lara agreed, although Madison hadn't been talking to her. "We can't even see inside.

Madison reached down with her free hand and tried the doorknob. A layer of dust slid off onto her fingers, but the door didn't budge. "It's locked," she said.

While Madison rubbed the dust off onto her pants, Lara stepped forward to examine the door more closely. She set one of her hands on the decaying wood. "It looks like it hasn't been used for ages. I wonder if J. Q. King even knows it's here."

Madison grunted. "Maybe he doesn't. Or maybe he just doesn't want to admit it. He might be hiding something."

Lara sighed. "Sure. That's possible. But it won't do us any good if we can't get inside."

Madison's smile glowed in the light of the candle. "Who says we can't?"

"But I thought you said it was locked..."

"Locked," Madison said slyly. "But breakable." Before Lara realized what she was doing, Madison placed the candle on the ground, wound up, and kicked the rotten door off its hinges with a spray of splintering wood. Lara stood wide-eyed as Madison leaned down to retrieve the candle. She gestured toward the door. "That was an old kickboxing move. After you."

Lara took the invitation and entered first. The place beyond the doorway was just as dark and cold as the stairway. She could tell it wasn't quite as cramped, however, and she was relieved that she had the opportunity to stretch her limbs. Madison followed close behind with the light, stepping cautiously. This place had not been in her dream; she was in unfamiliar territory.

Holding her light at various angles, Madison was able to determine the basic shape of the room they were in. It wasn't small, but still not as big as the other rooms in the mansion. To Madison and Lara's relief, it was not shaped like a clover or something weird like that. Instead, it had a normal, rectangular perimeter with a high, flat ceiling that sloped down toward the back wall. As far as Madison could tell, the center of the room was empty, although there were several dusty cardboard boxes lining the walls. Madison walked forward to study one, stirring up a cloud of dust with each step she took.

Lara sneezed. "Bless you," Madison said. She reached forward and took hold of the box's flaps, peeling them back. "Napkins," she breathed, disappointed.

She checked the contents of another box, and then another. Lara trailed behind. After searching a dozen boxes, Madison only found more napkins, tablecloths, doilies, cutlery, and even really old, yellowing bathroom soap. She sat down on a box of forks and held the candle up to Lara. "Here," she said, bowing her head in exhaustion. "Look in some more boxes. If we don't find anything, we'll leave." As Lara wandered off, Madison dropped her head onto one hand. If we don't find anything, my dream meant nothing.

But it didn't. "Madison!" Lara's voice called from a corner of the room. Madison jumped to her feet and stumbled as quickly as she could toward the candle's glow. When she arrived at Lara's side, she found her looking down at a cardboard box. The box itself wasn't that exciting. It was the faded words  scrawled all over it that made Madison's heart jump with excitement. In red marker the box was clearly labeled "PITY."

Madison hurried to open it while Lara held the light up for her. The room was ancient, the box was ancient. Yet it was labeled with the name of the institute that they were attending now. How? She asked herself. What's in here? She tugged at the contents like a lunatic, spilling them out onto the cool, stone floor.

There were pictures--hundreds of them. There were newspaper clippings, police records, legal documents, and equipment bills. Madison sifted through the pile, looking specifically for something that would spark her interest. She soon found it.

"Look," she said to Lara, holding up a paper. It was a birth certificate. The date on it revealed that it was fifteen years old.

Lara squinted at it and shrugged. "It's a birth certificate. I don't...." she stopped as her eyes passed over the name. "Oh wow," she began. "Louis King.' King! That means..."

Madison grinned. "Maybe."

Lara bounced with excitement. Madison had to take the candle from her so it wouldn't blow out. "He has a son!" Lara exclaimed. "That's crazy. And look at the date! He's our age!"

Madison glanced back at the document. It was all there. J. Q. King had a son. There was only one thing that she didn't understand. If J. Q. King has a son, where is he?

She sifted through the pile of papers, looking for more information. She had only examined three papers before Lara interrupted her. "Madison," she hissed. "You need to see this." Lara was peering down into another box. Curious, Madison shuffled over on her knees and looked.

What she saw sent a shiver down her spine. In the corner of the box was a somewhat small container, capsized and spilling its contents: a long-bladed knife, a delicate red ruby the size of her thumb, and lumps of cotton.

Although these items alone were enough to set off alarms in Madison's head, there was more. There was a joker.

Madison and Lara both jumped when the bell sounded. The candle tumbled out of Lara's hand and onto the ground. They both gasped, but the candle landed on its side and the flame survived.

Madison hated leaving. But the bell had sounded. It was time for them to begin their studies. She promised herself she would return and find some answers. In the meantime, she would just have to sit through her lessons, although she doubted she would listen. How could I? she thought.