LABARYNTH HOUSE

Annie had just moved to to New Haven, to pursue her Graduate diploma at Yale. It had been a big effort to get in an to save enough to live there. She had to find a cheap place to stay, as her savings would barely cover housing, she needed to get a job in order to pay for her other expenses. She stayed at a friends house, for two weeks as her plan was to find roommates to rent a small house or find someone who had a spare room to rent. 

She was able to find a couple of options and finally decided to stay with this girl Samantha, who was two years younger but seemed responsible and friendly. They were lucky to get the first floor of a nice and well maintained house. They had enough space to live comfortably and somewhat close to school. 

There were other tenants downstairs, Sylvia and Danielle. Both nice girls and great company. Soon, they became friends and would walk to and from school whenever their schedules allowed. Annie was thrilled to find such good company so fast. She was happy.

Annie noticed that Sylvia and Danielle were noisy sometimes. She particularly hated when they pound on the walls, and the loud noises, shutting doors and windows, she could even hear them talk sometimes. She and Sam talked about it, and they didn't want to start any kind of fight with their neighbours, but decided to talk to them about this situation in a friendly manner. 

Annie and Sam, inited Sylvia and Danielle over for dinner. They were having a great time, they were the kind of company with which you can talk about anything. They were laughing when Sam noticed the pounding sounds. She stood in silence looking at the others, they were having so much fun that they were not noticing the loud sounds, until they saw Sam's face. They all stood in silence, until Danielle asked Sam what was wrong? 

Sam

- Can you all hear the loud noises, or its just me?

They stood in silence for a few seconds and then Sylvia looked at them and said

-We thought it was you who made the loud noises!!

Annie:

-We thought it was you as well, in fact we invited you over for dinner to discuss the situation.

They all looked puzzled. 

Sam

-So if the noise is not coming from our unit, and you say its not coming from yours, where does it come from? is there a third unit?

Sylvie

- I don't think so, when the owner rented the apartment to me she mentioned that there were only two units and at that time your unit was vacant, but you guys rented this apartment two weeks later. I started noticing the noises soon after you moved in, and assumed it was you. 

Annie:

- Well, we are clearly not the only tenants on this house. Is there a possibility of a third unit or room, maybe on the back of the house? why don't we take a look?

The other girls agreed. 

They went outside and searched the house from the outside. They found nothing, no doors or windows that were not the ones on their apartments. They went back in and decided to search tomorrow (saturday) during the day. 

They went to bed that night, but they could still hear those loud noises, they would come and go. 

The next day, all four of them woke up early. Annie and Sam went to Sylvie and Danielle's apartment, they were up and having breakfast. their friend Ed was there, Sylvie called him to help them search. 

It was nice to have a male friend in case they found someone. 

They decided to search outside first, look for hidden doors or any other way of entrance. They found nothing. They searched the basement, but it was empty, there was nothing down there, how can the noises come from an empty space. 

Then they moved into the units, they searched every corner of them. They found nothing. Ed suggested that maybe the pipes were old and probably the noises came from there. All four girls said it was not possible, as if the pipes were making noises, they could hear them anytime, but the loud noises went on all through the night. Then Ed explained that perhaps during the night as the weather cools, pipes and woods sometimes make crunch noises, due to weather changes.

They spent the entire day searching and found nothing. They decided to call it quits and perhaps it was the pipes making the noises. They all went home that night. Annie was not convinced on the explanation, but there was nothing else to blame it on. The house is a single family home, they don't share any walls with any other house on the block. 

That night, the noises came back. Annie had no sleep. And then she heard the voices, she then realised that the subject about the voices never came up on the discussion with Sylvie and Danielle. She then decided to text Sylvie and asked her: 

-Are you awake and talking to Danielle right now, I can hear your voices.

There was no answer, she waited until the voices were gone, still no answer. She then fell asleep. 

The next day Annie got her text answered. 

-We were asleep, what voices?

Annie felt a hole in her stomach. She kept searching the apartment on her own that day. found nothing.

A few weeks passed and Annie was thinking that maybe something paranormal was going on in the house. The loud pounding noises may be the pipes, but how can they explain the voices. Annie felt alone, she was the only one who heard voices, so when she realised that, she decided to keep it to her self, she didn't want to sound crazy; hearing voices.

She got obsessed with the subject and searched for the homes plans, and she got them form the Cities Building Department. And there is where she found what seemed like a tiny room, maybe a closet in Sam's bedroom. She went to look for Sam and explained about the plans, and show her the closet she was referring to. But they both noticed there was no door, no closet, just a plain wall. They were both intrigued, but wondered what can they do to find out if there is really a hidden closet. 

They came up with idea to use a hammer to make a small hole and agreed to pay for the damage together. And so they made a hole on the wall, and in deed, there was a space there, but they could see nothing, they had to make the bigger hole in order to see how deep the space is. 

They decided to do want until the weekend to work on that project and temporarily covered the hole with a cardboard. They called Ed, as he was a very handy friend and he could help them fix the wall afterwards. Ed thought this was crazy, but, he was curious too and for what he could see, it would be easy to fix the wall. So they took the wood panel off carefully. It was a wood panel placed on the door arch. The closet was dark and smelled terrible, a mixture between humidity and rotten plants. 

They had lamps and masks, and went in. It was a small space in deed, and very dark. Annie went in first. They found some kind of words on the walls and floor, and what looked like branches. Then Sam noticed, the words made no sense and the branches, were actually small bones, like chicken bones. They took pictures and got the bones out, cleaned a little bit and covered the entrance with a large piece of cardboard. 

Sam slept in Annies room that night. They told Sylvie and Danielle what they found, none of them could imagine why this space was covered. Annie felt different, she thought it was not a mistake, she thought this space served a purpose once, other than storing clothes. 

The next day, they decided to clean the space. Annie searched further and realised that there were some symbols on those "words" they found on the wall. But she then  noticed that there is a labyrinth printed on the floor, like a map. Some words were written inside the labyrinth as if they were pointing to something. At first the maze looked no different from others, but then they all came together to analyse it and realised it was a map of part of the city, which in fact, streets run like a maze. And there were names pointing homes and buildings. But why?

TO BE CONTINUED...