Paul J Penton – Songwriter

Trapdoor- Daily Writing – April 30

Full of secrets and hidden things, mysterious places, other worlds, curious compartments a trapdoor leads to interesting places – lofts, coal shuttles, basements, escapes….

I see a metal plated door at an angle, it’s got a squeaky hinge that rotates to the left, it squeaks like a pump that’s almost run dry, and then shudders in a thunderclap as the door judders open. There’s a black hole before me – I feel its intrigue sucking me in, almost as if I’m standing at the edge of a tall building and swaying in the breeze and could topple at any moment.

The Fat rectangle of the Dolphin Torch sears a beam of light into the gloom, dust motes undisturbed for aeons catch in slices of light, they dance in slow motion ballerina swirls. It sort of smells and tastes! dirty. There’s a matting of constricted dirt all over the floor as I begin descending the stairs, the echoes are deadened quickly by the almost complete lack of surface for them to bounce off. It’s a bit spooky, I wonder if something might come jumping out of the dark – a trapped bat perhaps. Sweeping the searchlight over walls, there’s a collection of hovering spider webs in the corners, pellets of rat droppings on the floor so somewhere there’s another way to get in and out of here. I imagine the trapdoor closing above me and I hear that screech of the locking mechanism and capture a moment of the terror that would flood me if it were to happen.

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