THE HOUSE

Through inheritance – including the associated real estate, financial assets, and so on – and with a lucky hand for the right investments, I was able to build up a considerable fortune and bought an estate, a personal retreat outside the big city.

Library, salon, butler’s quarters – everything was there that had once belonged to a wealthy family. Since the house had been vacant for a long time, much of it was dusty, and some parts had clearly aged. I walked through the rooms and took it all in: multiple floors, countless rooms, a grand staircase that splits and winds its way through the house. A vast park, fountains, overgrown gardens – one could only imagine how breathtaking this property must once have been.

The house had fascinated me from the very beginning. It had something comforting about it – but also something unsettling.

I thought: now that I’m alone – Elena had died far too early, and we had no heirs – I had spent many years traveling the world.

I had seen wonders: the pyramids, the Burj Khalifa, the Russian steppes, bears, leopards, piranhas – I even narrowly escaped a giant anaconda.

And several other awe-inspiring forces of nature followed.

After realizing that what I was searching for wasn’t out there in the distance, I felt drawn back to the United States.

The big city I had once moved to for love has now sadly deteriorated. Misery, despair, crime – and no political will to stand up to it.

I myself became the victim of assaults more than once. I was robbed, beaten, injured – in broad daylight.

Friends of mine were attacked and never truly recovered from it.

I so badly wanted to make a difference.

But around here, the chances of surviving such an effort are slim.

So I withdrew to the countryside.

My new estate includes a large forest, where I spend a lot of time. It grounds and calms me. I discover something new every day. The huge property is like a great adventure playground. It’s a pity that I can no longer share my discoveries with anyone…

I have made part of the mansion – as I now call the house – presentable and livable. Renovating the entire mansion… I don’t have the patience or desire for that. It’s simply too exciting to keep finding so many fascinating things in the old rooms. The library alone with its books is enough for 30 lifetimes… and as a German, I still struggle today to understand all the English words and expressions…

MUSIC ROOM

Right now I’m especially fascinated by the music room, almost drawn into a trance. There’s a grand piano here, unfortunately a bit out of tune. Back in Germany, as a young man, I used to perform on stage and also wrote songs, so now I’m trying my hand at the piano again…

Something crazy, very strange, and also somehow eerie happened today… after I had played a few songs and melodies on the piano, suddenly a book toppled out of the bookshelf in the room… The particularly strange thing about it was that the book tipped over, but although it was sticking far out of the shelf, it didn’t fall to the floor…

At first, I just stared at the shelf in shock and then continued playing.

But what was even more eerie – after maybe five minutes, when I looked at the shelf again – the book was back in place, as if untouched, back in the row of books!

The spines of the books on the shelf look so uniform that I couldn’t tell anymore which book had fallen out. But never mind, I don’t believe in ghosts – otherwise I probably wouldn’t have moved into this house in the first place.

⸻

FLASHBACK

The seller of the house told me that even hardened men would avoid the property and the house itself. Some claimed it reminded them of the cunning traps in the pyramids, designed to scare off intruders or trap them so they died a miserable death.

It was the same on this estate. After some time of searching, missing persons were repeatedly found here – either completely distraught or, unfortunately, already dead…

That nothing has happened to me so far is supposedly because I possess the master key to the estate…

IT HAPPENS

After I continued indulging in my passion for playing the piano, it happened again… apparently the same book fell from the shelf again – or rather stood again in that same tilted position without falling. After the first shock – since I hadn’t expected it to happen again – I pulled myself together, jumped up and rushed to the shelf and grabbed the book. I was just about to pull it further out of the row when the next shock followed.

The book actually moved, but only a little bit. After I had pulled on it, there was a clicking sound in the shelf and a middle segment of the shelf sprang open like a door…

Stunned and with a mixture of respectful caution and adventurous excitement, I just stood there and watched to see if perhaps another creepy event would follow. Someone or something that would come out from behind the door, to grab me or to laugh triumphantly that I – who didn’t believe in ghosts – had now finally been proven wrong.

But nothing of the sort happened. Nothing like that – and yet something did happen. The door closed again, faster than I could react or wedge my foot in the door. The tilted book was no longer visible either, and I just couldn’t manage to find the book that had come loose.

I was completely exhausted, and yet, ready to solve this mystery. What was behind the door? A secret passage? An escape route? A hidden room or maybe even a safe room in case burglars ever broke into the house…

The mystery had to be solved. It was already the middle of the night. I should have been dead tired, but now I was wide awake.

I was in my house, and no one could stop me from continuing my pursuit. No one was present except me. But would the house allow me to solve this mystery, or would it swallow me like all the others before me? Would it let me through or would I walk right into one of the many traps?

After strengthening myself with one or two sandwiches and a Kölsch beer that I had brought from my hometown Cologne, I first set out to find the book that apparently triggered the opening of the shelf door like a kind of lever.

On the door itself, I found no way to activate it. There was no handle, no latch, no loop or anything similar that one could pull or otherwise interact with.

I pulled on all the books, but they all could be easily taken out of the shelf, browsed through and – naturally – read.

The more I wanted to solve the riddle, the more the house kept me in the dark.

It must have been around 3:45 a.m. when – more out of desperation and probably just to clear my head – I sat back down at the piano and started playing randomly.

I played everything I had tried out here in recent times, when suddenly the familiar book tilted from the shelf again.

Wait a minute – could there be a connection between the piano playing, the tilted book, and the opening of the door? Was it a matter of how long I played, or maybe a specific melody or sequence of notes?

I sensed – or had the feeling – that I might slowly be getting close to solving the mystery.

There were now two possibilities:

Trigger the lever with the tilted book and open the door – if that worked again…

Or find out how I had managed to make the book fall from the shelf in such a way that it now acted as a lever instead of just being a regular book that could be removed.

I chose the first idea. I now wanted to know what lay behind the door.

“Hurry up!” it screamed inside me, “before the book disappears back into the shelf!”

So I jumped with a huge leap to the shelf, pulled on the book and…

YES! The door swung out from the shelf again!

With the next leap, I got my left foot into the doorway…

What was here now? Would I need light? I didn’t have a flashlight with me, but: my phone…

Wait, what’s happening here? I was behind the door, and it closed immediately after I entered.

It was dark. Panic and a very uneasy feeling shot straight to the pit of my stomach. I screamed out. Would I get out of here again!?

Light! Not much, but still enough that I could move toward it – and it got brighter.

It felt like it was meant to be that way, to help the pupils adjust to this environment.

It was just a short corridor, a tunnel, painted all black. Small LEDs in the floor seemed to lead in one direction – to… a cage!

What the hell! Was someone here seriously twisted and doing unspeakable things?

Before I could finish that thought, and after I had looked into the cage, I was proven wrong.

It was kind of a cage, but apparently more like a cabin. An elevator!

Hopefully not one straight to hell.

Would it still work? And if so, where would it lead?

In the tunnel, I seemed to be stuck. I couldn’t find any way back out through the bookshelf door. Nothing that would act as a lever or trigger to release it and let me escape. I had my smartphone with me. Did I have reception? Sadly, no! The walls in this tunnel seemed to block all frequencies completely.

How was I supposed to draw attention to myself? I was trapped!

No exit, no functioning phone, and I was alone in the house anyway – alone on this enormous property.

Trapped in my own house. I’d walked into a trap!

Would I now starve, dehydrate, and die here, completely alone?

I had to get into the cage and see if it would lead me out – or at least offer a way out of this situation.

But then what? Maybe the next room would be the one to finally become my grave.

Buried alive…

I stepped into the elevator. It had none of the comfort of a department store lift.

The term cage fit perfectly – the construction reminded me strongly of a mining elevator.

Two buttons, two directions. Up or down? Since my music room, along with the tunnel and this elevator, appeared to be on the same level – and that room was located near the top floor of the house – I assumed the elevator couldn’t go up any further, because it would have to be suspended from a winch, which in turn would have to be located above the cabin.

I had guessed correctly. Pressing the button didn’t activate anything…

Now for the button pointing down. A sound kicked in. It sounded exactly like something that hadn’t run in a long time – the motor creaked, cracked, but then finally wheezed itself into motion!

I was descending!

Accompanied by the soft yellow glow of the cabin light, the elevator jerked and groaned, just like in an old mine, going down – like through a pipe – deeper and deeper…!

Black rock, likely coated in soot from past explosions, accompanied my descent.

The now damp and clammy stone shimmered when I shone my phone’s light against it.

Cold reflections from the rock and a still uneasy but increasingly curious knot in my stomach accompanied me on the way down.

The elevator seemed to be moving in a slowed manner – probably faster in the past, at least when going down. Now it was moving more cautiously.

Suddenly, the reflections on the stone were gone.

What happened? Did the wall material change?

But my light no longer reflected at all. Even matte concrete should reflect something.

I peered through the cage bars of my cabin.

It was as if I were looking into a black void!

Where was the elevator taking me? It was still moving.

The muffled groaning of the mechanism from earlier had turned into a broad, far-reaching echo.

It felt like I was gliding downward through a massive hall or cavern, heading toward the center of the earth. But I couldn’t actually see anything.

I heard something that resembled the sound of water – like a waterfall.

The void echoed again, like inside a giant cathedral.

It seemed like the elevator was passing through a colossal chamber.

Then I saw reflections of something like glass in the distance.

I had the feeling I’d entered something enormous – and I couldn’t shake the sense that something even more gigantic existed within it.

On the way down – I now felt quite sure – some sort of light must have been triggered, in some form, big or small…

Suddenly, the elevator stopped.

I’d say there was absolute silence, if not for the unmistakable sound of rushing water.

It sounded like it was coming from a neighboring chamber – or better, cavern…

I reached out to the cage door – the elevator door – and slowly opened it.

I tried once again to shine my phone’s light into the darkness. But it felt like shining into a crypt lined with black velvet, where every bit of light was swallowed and devoured.

There – in front of me, right next to the elevator – stood something I hadn’t noticed at first while my eyes adjusted.

A kind of pillar, about waist-high.

It was labeled, even with dimly lit letters:

WELCOME HOME…

I couldn’t help but smirk.

Below that were three round lights in the colors orange, red, and green.

They appeared to be buttons. What they triggered was probably once written underneath. But sadly, it had been worn off over time and was now unreadable – no help there.

I made a decision and chose what seemed like the safest color: GREEN.

I pressed it. NOTHING!

Should’ve guessed.

Although… the elevator had worked and at least brought me safely to the bottom.

CLICK!

A soft crackling, then a louder crash.

Something seemed to have triggered in the ancient electronics down here.

The button press had done something –

likely just something that hadn’t been activated in ages.

Maybe somewhere, power was slowly flowing from a generator… or a backup cell…

CRASH!

An earsplitting crash – and then finally:

LIGHT!

I was in a cave! Truly gigantic – and not just that. No, not just that!

Light – lights in various sections – flickered on, one after the other, a bit choppy and staggered, revealing what – I’m at a loss for words – what might be the maximum possible contents of a cave. I was stunned. No, I was dreaming.

Where was I? What had I stumbled into?

I saw – it was unbelievable – a cave built out like a secret level! Like an underground research facility… only this one also housed – let’s call it – something like military vehicles. Like in a spy thriller…

In the center was something like an oversized command center.

A massive console with all kinds of levers, buttons, and controls.

Above it, a maybe 240-inch monitor and twelve smaller screens next to it.

To the right, display cases holding items that could have been evidence or something similar. The area looked like a forensics room.

Different vehicles – and flying machines, or so they appeared – stood on multiple platforms that seemed to be height-adjustable.

A motorcycle, or something like it, all black, with two oversized wheels, spikes, and elongated rods or lances. Possibly a weapons system.

There was also a helicopter – though more like a drone – with multiple rotors arranged in different directions. Also matte black, armored on all sides, and seemingly fitted with all kinds of weapon systems.

But what drew my attention most was a vehicle – was it a tank?

No, it looked way too dynamic and agile for that.

I couldn’t tell whether it was based on any known car brand.

The design was fascinating and pulled me deeper and deeper under its spell.

I looked for a way to get to this machine from where I stood at the elevator.

I found metal walkways connecting all areas.

It was laid out so cleverly that you could move quickly from one point to another.

I reached the vehicle, which now looked almost like a spaceship constructed by aliens, and discovered fantastic details.

There was a windshield and side windows – but none allowed a view inside.

Now I was completely entranced.

How did I get into the vehicle? Where was the car key – or how did you open the damn thing?

On what looked like a door, I found no opening that could’ve been meant for a key.

Of course! It must have had remote unlocking. Keys are so yesterday.

While I muttered to myself, I instinctively ran my hand over the door…

AND it slid aside smoothly, revealing the inside of the vehicle.

What –

And what topped all of this – what completely floored me – was:

How could a simple hand movement from me, someone who clearly had nothing to do with any of these objects, cause this monster of a car to open?

Oh my God!

Who could have built something like this?

And more importantly, how did all of it end up down here?

What secret organization or military unit was responsible?

And how had they managed to create all this in such a way that no one – not even a satellite – ever found out?

Who…?

Hmm. All of it had one thing in common –

some kind of logo or symbol that looked like…