What Lies Hidden in Your Closet: Part Seven

      "Well, I didn't find it for a very long time. But before telling about the door in the closet, I must tell you about another event that occurred before I found the door. It happened on yet another day when my owner was out of the house. Because I was still young and stupid, I snuck back into the potion laboratory. Sitting on the table, in the exact same place as the morphing potion had been, was a milky, white potion. Of course, I didn't think twice before taking a sip of the potion. As you can expect, something happened when I drank this potion... I became a ghost.

      "Now, you may be sitting here, thinking that I should have simply done what I had before - grab some Neopoints and run into town to buy a morphing potion. The problem was, I didn't have enough Neopoints left for a morphing potion, and I doubted I could get back home in time anyway. Come to think of it," said Sury, now in deep thought, "I'm not sure a morphing potion would have done anything. I was terrified at the prospect of my owner coming home and finding that I had been trespassing into her hidden room, so I decided that I would hide in my closet to postpone the moment.

      "I was still a very young pet at that point, so logic didn't influence my ideas of living in my closet for the rest of my life. I actually didn't think it'd be all that bad living in my closet - at least I had my dollhouse and other toys there to play with. When I was that young, my toys were all I needed. So, just like any other time, I had walked into the closet and plopped down on the floor in front of the dollhouse. One of my dolls had been left lying on one of the miniature beds in the house, so I reached to pick the doll up... and my paw went through the floor of the dollhouse! As you would expect, I was completely shocked, so I stuck my paw back through the floor of the dollhouse, completely expecting to find that my imagination had simply been acting up, but of course, it hadn't. And that was how I found out about the door in the closet. After sticking my arm into the house yet another time, I had noticed that I hadn't touched a wall, so I simply got up and walked straight through into that passageway you saw earlier. That was a mistake that I've regretted every moment since I did it.

      "After finding myself in the passageway, I decided to explore. I mean, who wouldn't? That stone hallway is very interesting, I must tell you. Smaller hallways branch off from it, but many of those hallways appear and disappear with predictable regularity. One of those hallways is the one that leads into this room. Now, I'm sure you noticed several wooden doors in that hallway, all of them quite similar to the ones in your closet and the closet of your owner's. Behind those doors are several more rooms, all of them an alternate version of 'visible' rooms in the house. For example, there is a living room behind one of those doors. It looks very similar to the real living room in this house, but it feels..." Sury stopped, trying to find the word she wanted to use. "It seems strange, somehow. The atmosphere of the room feels very suspicious, very fake. It's hard to explain. Behind the rest of the doors are other copies of rooms in the house. The hidden hallway and its adjacent rooms could be a house in itself! That is why," she said, giving a small nod, "the house appears to be bigger on the outside than it is on the inside. Extra rooms are hidden all over the place.

      "Later that night, while I was still exploring the hallway, I heard my owner enter into her potions laboratory. I snuck through that skinny passage that I took you through and went to spy on her. Somehow, she had found out about me sneaking into her laboratory, and she already knew I had consumed some of her ghost potion. I shouldn't have been all that surprised really." Sury shrugged.

      "What did your owner do?"

      "Well, I heard her mumbling something about enchanting the doorways. At the time, I had no idea what that meant, but I quickly found out. The doorways she had been referring to were the ones leading into my closet and her bedroom. In this way, she was able to trap me here. Night after night, I would frantically beat my paws against the inside of the closet door, but it would never open, and because it had been enchanted, I wasn't able to just slip through.

      "Those common rumors about ghosts being able to walk through all walls are untrue. As a ghost, I have only ever been able to walk through unenchanted doorways. Not walls. So, I was trapped in the hidden section of the house.

      "It gets incredibly boring being a ghost, especially when you're trapped in one place day after day. Eventually, my owner packed up her things and moved out of the house, and other people came to live in this house. None of the families had any young pets, however. At least, not until yours. Before you, there were other people who came to live in this house, but all of them were intent of stripping my beloved playroom of a closet of its toys, and I didn't like that. When you're a ghost, you never have to eat, or sleep, or do anything that normal pets do. Playing with my toys often made me forget that I was a trapped ghost, so I did it as much as possible.

      "When you came to this house, you brought more toys with you, and I liked that... so I let you stay. All of the previous owners I had scared away." She laughed - not evilly, although her style of laughter did frighten Kalina a little. "However, I did sometimes dislike having you around. You would go into the closet often to play, so I had to stay hidden. I'd come out and play at night, while you were sleeping." Sury's expression turned slightly sour. "Your owner caught me one night," she said softly, looking away.

      "She what?!" Kalina replied, shocked that her owner had already known a ghost was lurking in parts of the house.

      "Yes. It was on the night of your first day in this house. You had heard me making noise, so you crawled out of bed and fell asleep in front of the door. That is what your owner told me, at least. She poked her head into your bedroom to see how you were sleeping, and she found you asleep on the floor, lying against the door. Without any warning, she walked over to the closet and barged right into it. I didn't even have time to hide!

      "She didn't punish me too badly for making lots of noise," she admitted. "All she did was tell me to be quieter at night. Heh, and she also told me to stay away from her potions. She'd heard the stories about me from somewhere, I guess. Really, she didn't have to tell me not to touch her potions. Not only had I already learned my lesson, but I can't drink them anyway! In addition, she also requested that I make sure that you didn't drink any of them, if you happened to find your way back into that room."

      "Wait... her potions?"

      "Yes, of course! She does very nearly the same thing that my owner did. It's just one of her hobbies, I suppose. It was the same way for--" Sury abruptly stopped in the middle of her sentence, and her ears perked up. "Wait," she said cautiously, walking quickly but silently across the room. She pressed one of her ears up against the solid stone wall and listened for a moment. Then she gave a worried glance to Kalina, who was becoming suspicious. So far, Kalina hadn't been able to detect any strange noises, so she had no idea what Sury was hearing. "She's coming," she announced in a loud whisper.

      "She is?" Kalina asked worriedly, trying not to panic but failing. "What are we going to do? I can't let my owner see me in here!"

      The footsteps neared, and Kalina was becoming worried. She looked over in the direction of Sury to ask where she should hide, but Sury was nowhere to be seen. Of course! Kalina thought. She disappears just when I need her. Wait a second! This is no time for sarcastic thoughts; I need to find somewhere to hide! As the door started to creak open, Kalina dove under one of the grey tables, hoping that the room was dark enough to hide her.

To be continued...