Tara pulled the string, felt the answering tug of tension but the door didn't budge. Blowing out her breath, Tara tried again with a little more force. Nada. She squinted at the door. From this side, she couldn't see any locks or marks where a latch was in place. It could be locked from the other side, she decided. She turned to leave but then whirled around as if sneaking up on the offending rope. This time, she jumped up, pulled and swung her weight. For a second, she hung suspended like a carcass in a meat shop. With no sound at all, she was dumped on her butt, still hanging to the string. Grimacing, Tara gaped at the ladder that partially unfolded and the black hole beyond.<br/><br/>Scrambling to her feet, Tara pulled a chair into the closet which she stood on to reach the ladder. Once it was properly opened and braced, she set on foot then the other on the stairs, stopping to listen and look with each riser. The only sound was her heart pounding in her ears. She didn't even notice the stifling, humid air and brushed off a drop of sweat with her shoulder across her cheek. At the top, Tara looked around. There was a crawl space, literally, a crawl space under the floor above. She pulled herself inside. to her right, was a wall. No one was going any further on that side, but on the left, which was toward the end of the building, the tunnel disappeared into blackness. Shaking her head at her blasted curious, Tara began to crawl. Soon, she lost all sense of light, her fingers now becoming her sense of sight.<br/><br/>The floor began a lengthy descent. The angle almost equal with a slide at the park. Tara kept going. In the distance, water drip drip dripped as if it were the heart beat of the Earth. The tunnel was relatively dry for all the sound of water. It was also extremely quiet, as if it were a tomb.