Nothing as tempting as a locked door...

There is nothing as tempting as a locked door.

James had lived at Oaken Berry Orphanage his whole life but had never seen the inside of the cellar. Nobody had. The room was locked the whole time and only Ms. Fuide had the keys. The door was made of oak with large brass hinges. It was probably as old as the buildings that made up the orphanage. The door needed three keys to be unlocked: one old, iron one and two smaller new ones. Ms. Fuide kept them with her at all times, on a large ring that hung from her belt.

Ms. Fuide was an old woman who hated children. James had often wondered why anyone who disliked children as much as she did would end up running an orphanage. In the end he had concluded that she was getting some sort of benefits or maybe a special pension plan. What ever the reason was, James couldn’t wait until he could get out of the orphanage and away from the old bat.

James had often wondered what was inside the cellar. His friend Alice reckoned that Ms. Fuide was really a bank robber and that it was where she hid the money. Tim thought that she was the head of a group of smugglers and that the cellar led to tunnels that ran all the way from the nearby seaside to the centre of Brighton.
Whatever their theories, everybody agreed that it was something to do with the strange noises that echoed round the house every other full moon. There was always the same scratching, a hissing, then a series of knocks, then silence, and then the whole thing would start all over again. Sometimes the noises lasted for only a few minuets, others it went on for hours. When the children asked Ms. Fuide about this she would simply say, “Oh, it’s just the pipes and floorboards creaking.”, and then tell them not to be so nosey.

Eventually the three children got up the courage to venture down into the cellar. So, when Ms. Fuide had fallen asleep in front of the T.V with a glass of gin in her hands, as was her habit, they sneaked into the room and carefully unhooked the keys from her belt and then made their way to the cellar. When they reached the door there was a few minuets discussion as to who should be the one to open the door. Tim said that James should do it, as it was his plan, after all. Meanwhile James thought that Tim should stop making such a fuss and do it himself.
Eventually Alice, who had become bored of her friends bickering, unlocked the door herself. The door swung open slowly, creaking on its hinges. Once it was open the three children walked nervously down the steps. At the bottom they found a dark passageway which led to another locked door. Unlike the first door, this one was made out of metal and had a wheel in its centre, like on a bank vault. They opened the door and stepped inside.

It was pitch black inside. James and his friends stepped inside. They walked forwards a few paces and fell down a slide built into the floor. When they landed they found that they were now in a pit, with an entrance like a cave one side. From this cave there came a deep hiss.

An hour later Ms. Fuide walked into the room, switched on the light and lent over the rail into the pit. There was no sign of any of the children, but where they had been was a mound of black fur. In the middle of this pile a red eye opened and looked up at the old woman.

“All full up now, are we?” She asked, as one might a kitten. A contented purr rose up out of the pit.

Outside the full moon shone brightly.