London, 1982

Five children crept through the musty underground passageway, fear shadowing their footsteps like a silent hunter.

Ada raised her hand. The others stopped behind her, torchlights casting eerie shadows along the jagged, moss-covered walls. Here, two paths branched off into the darkness. Ada knelt, picking up a small black plimsoll laying on the ground. She studied it before handing it to the serious-faced boy behind her.

Bobby nodded down the darkened passageway. “He tripped here then took off that way.”

“Um… You lot heard that, right?” Tony asked, swinging his torch to the passageway on the right.

“All I can hear are those giant clodhoppers,” DJ said, pointing at Tony’s shoes.

“Sounds like someone crying down there,” Tony said.

Ada pointed her torch down the tunnel to the right. Rather than being illuminated, the darkness seemed to swallow the beam.

“Yeah, that doesn’t look scary at all.”

Ada could not argue with DJ’s cynical assessment. A tremor shook the corridor and Tony cursed, brushing dust from his afro.

Cautiously, Bobby stepped into the corridor.

“I’ll go first, just in case there’s—”

“Traps,” everyone said in unison.

“Well, there might be!” he said. “Nikki, you watch our backs, alright?”

The broad-shouldered girl with pigtails, who stood like a giant oak at the rear, pushed her glasses up and nodded.

Bobby set off. Ada dropped in behind him, followed by DJ and Tony, who were still bickering. Ada flashed them a stony look, and the boys mouthed their apologies. Nikki was last, peering into the gloom behind them at odd intervals.

As they walked, the tunnel grew darker, and even more foreboding. An ear-piercing howl shot through the tunnel. Bobby’s right fist shot up. Everyone froze.

“Lights out!” he hissed.

The flashlights went off, plunging them into darkness. The howl came again, followed by an icy blast of wind.

“Shoulders,” Ada commanded, placing her hand on Bobby’s.

The others followed Ada’s order.

“Maybe it’s not crying. Sounds more like a dog now,” Tony observed.

“It’s probably got three heads and loves eating kids stupid enough to be down here,” DJ muttered.

Bobby set off again, but he stopped after a little while, his torch searching out the route beyond.

“This next bit’s really narrow, and it’s going down,” he said. “Nikki, you still okay being at the back?”

“Always,” she replied.

One by one they pushed their way through the tightening gap and continued downwards, only stopping when Tony caught his sleeve on a jagged outcrop.

Ada felt DJ’s hand squeeze her shoulder a little tighter every time the howls came echoing back to them, lower now but no less scary.

After a little while, Bobby led them out into a large crescent-shaped cavern. Ada took a deep breath, as if she could only breathe now. She scanned their surroundings. Six stone doors faced them on the other side of the chamber. She aimed her torch at each of the doors, revealing a series of symbols etched into each.

“Fascinating,” Ada said.

“Is someone there?” A boy’s voice called out from behind the doors. The echoes made it hard to tell which. “Please help me; those things are coming back…”

DJ darted towards the second door on the right.

“Wait!”

Bobby’s warning came too late. The stone door dissolved the instant DJ’s hand touched it and a fierce wind sucked him in. Nikki dived forward, grabbing DJ’s wrist as he tumbled into nothingness. Grunting with the effort she dragged DJ back onto solid ground. The moment DJ crossed the threshold the stone door reappeared.

Ada knelt beside the wide-eyed DJ, patting him on the back reassuringly. The wind had whipped his hair into a blonde mess atop his head.

“Are you alright, Dibney?”

DJ was panting hard, but he nodded, giving Ada a shaky thumbs up.

She cuffed him over the head. “Next time—”

“Check before… touching the… creepy door,” DJ said. “Got it.”

DJ’s near miss became a secondary concern for Ada, as the howling returned, this time louder, closer.

Ada spun on her heels, facing the others.

* * *