I was on many guided tours while on vacation last month. Some you'll do anything to escape.
The prompt is:
Trespassers
Susan giggled when Jeff made a blah-blah-blah hand gesture, as the tour guide droned on about the castle’s history. They drifted to the back of the group, then, as their guide turned down a side hallway, Jeff pulled Susan into an empty room.
“We’re going to lose them,” Susan whispered with a knowing smile.
“That’s the point.”
Jeff pulled her into his arms and leaned forward, but instead of kissing him, Susan looked over his shoulder.
“What’s that?”
“Huh? It was my attempt to kiss—”
“No. I mean that.”
She pulled free and walked to a bookcase that should have been flush to the wall, but instead was angled into the room. Hanging from it was a worn sign that read, “Keep Out. Trespassers Will B—” The rest of the message was torn off.
“It’s a secret passage.” Her voice was hushed. “Should we?”
By way of answering, Jeff plunged into the darkness beyond the wall.
“Whoa. Careful, Babe. There’s not much room in here.”
His cell phone light revealed a spiral staircase leading downwards into the darkness. Susan squeezed through the narrow opening and said, “Where do you think it goes?”
Jeff just shrugged and started down the narrow stone stair. As Susan stepped off the landing to follow him, the bookcase swung closed with an ominous click. Unable to budge it, Jeff said, “It’s got to go somewhere.”
As they rounded the spiral, the seemingly solid stone stair treads flipped onto their sides, turning the stairway into an amusement park slide. Down they went, around and around the spiral as the air grew cold and foul. They dropped the last ten feet into a round room littered with bones.
On the floor was the rest of the warning sign from above. “e Eaten.”
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