TRAPPED

" Is anyone down there? "

Jake had always avoided the dark basement the dark basement ever since he and his parent moved into the new house three months ago. The first time he peeked through the door, he felt shivers down his spine. He also heard noises from below the basement at night. But he figured he was just being silly.

One evening however, someone had left the basement door open, and his pet pug, rover, had slipped in and gone into the basement. At first, Jake just left rover alone downstairs. But an hour later, Rover still had not come back up, he started to get worried.

" Rover ? "

Jake took a deep breath and went down into the basement. It's just a room. There's nothing down here, he reminded himself. He went downstairs calling rover's name. Why won't he come?
He wondered..

" Here boy! " he called out, but there was no response. Jake tentatively stepped into the room and turned on the dim light.
" Hey Rover, c'mere boy! "

When Jake reached the the bottom of the stairs, he heard the door shut. " Aaaah! " he screamed, startled. It's nothing, he reassured himself. As he looked around the dimly lit basement, he noticed that the floor was starting to glow RED. Then the red glow began to spread, opening like a portal.

" At last! " a deep voice from within the portal boomed. " a little boy whose life forced can break open the portal and let us through! "

Jake saw dozens of gnarled arms slowly creeping out of the portal's rim. Raspy voices started to growl in unison.

" Let us through, Little boy! "

Jake scampered up the stairs in fright, screaming. He reached the door, opened it and ran out..
But found himself at the bottom of the stairs again, inside the dark basement.

" There is NO ESCAPE! " one of the voices rose from the chorus of frightening moans. " We are maligno! We will come through! You made the mistake coming down here! The presence of a young boy opens up this portal. " we will come through! "

Jake remembered what his lolo said when he was young. To escape the maligno, one should turn his T-shirt inside out to free himself from the never ending loop they create to confuse their victims.

As Jake hastily removed his shirt, one of the creeping hands grabbed him by the ankles. During the struggle, Jake lost his shirt before he could put it back on. Then, he felt more hands dragging him into the portal.

" We are free! ", one of the voices said as Jake screamed, falling in the dark abyss