The other three came over, and the four of us began searching the space for cookies. My foot shifted, emanating a creak from below us, which had all of us pausing and looking down.
“The old cellar,” Royce whispered, bending low to trace her finger over the small outline of a door.
Rook mirrored her movement and then I did too. I slightly remembered the cellar…but it had been years.
Royce reached for the metal handle. “We should see if there’s any Christmas decorations down there. Maybe cheer up the kids after the Mickey Mouse ones didn’t work.”
“We could get in trouble if anyone comes looking,” Ford said, looking around.
Rook moved to help while waving us off. “We can just tell them we were looking for more blankets.”
Rook pulled up, and Royce helped him lift the door. Lights flicked on underneath, lighting up the concrete floor and wooden steps leading down into the cellar.
“You go first. It was your big idea.” Ford nudged Royce, but she elbowed his arm in return.
“I’m not afraid.” Her bare feet hit the first step, and I rushed to join her.
She turned her head, her blonde hair flying as she looked at my hand that was now holding hers. She stopped walking, but I kept going. “I said I’m not afraid.”
I ignored her, scaling the steps until we’d reached the very bottom.
“I know.”
Rook and Ford followed after us, and once we were on the floor, we collectively stared at the large shelves and boxes around the room.
“Where do we even start looking?” Royce asked, with a slight tremble in her voice.
The floor was freezing, so I knew she had to be cold.
Letting her hand go, I moved to one of the storage shelves, inspecting all the supplies. Rook and Ford moved around to different parts of the cellar, sifting through things.
“Do you remember who Red was?” Ford asked, poking through a large box.
I turned toward them, shaking my head. “I think she died before any of us were old enough to meet her.”
“Isn’t this you, Connor?” Ford held up a framed photo of a baby being held in some woman’s arms who had white hair and a huge smile. My mom was next to her, so was Aunt Natty.
“That is me.”
Royce moved in, looking over my shoulder. “So you did know her then.”
I wanted to trace the woman’s smile because the way she was looking down at me, she must have loved me.
“There are more pictures in here,” Rook said, sifting through a box. I started digging through it too, seeing picture after picture of this woman with my family. It made me wonder about back then, when things weredifferent. When my mom and dad were just getting together from what they told me, at least. Dad had once told me all of it. The whole story about where I came from, the club he once led. The club my biological dad sabotaged and the way they had to come to the Stone Riders for help.
Just then, the wind started blowing, but the whistling came through part of the back wall behind the shelves.
“What is that?”
Ford moved first, walking down the hallway between two tall shelves as the whistling sound picked up.
“There’s a door back here…or at least there used to be,” Ford called from his spot behind the shelves. We all moved until we were behind him, crowding the small piece of wall that was boarded up, save for a sliver of space where cold air was blowing through.
Royce pressed her fingers into the crack, and Ford watched the side of her face with a grim expression.
“They boarded up whatever used to be here, but it wasn’t sealed off.”
Rook bent down and pulled the rug away from where we were standing. “The whole floor is just cold cement, except right here. Why would they put a rug here?”