[ WP ] Today , you went into the room your parents told you to never go in .

Why was my father never there when I needed him? 
 
 I remember so many nights I would run to his bedroom, scared of a thunderstorm, or of the “ monsters ” in my closet, only to find his bed neatly made, and the television switched on to the news. It was upsetting, but I got used to it. 
 
 Some nights when I could not sleep I would wander through our massive house, it seemed as though the hallways never ended, and there was always something new to discover. One night, when it was especially late, I found myself sneaking around my father ’ s study. The room was exquisite, decorated with fine art, and bookshelves populated with large volumes of encyclopedias, the books I could only imagine to be centuries old. 
 I was staring at one of the only pictures my father had of the two of us. It was sitting on one of the bookshelves in front of some book so large it would take years to read... 
 
 And that ’ s when the bookshelf moved. 
 
 It sunk into the wall and swiftly slid to the right. What I saw before me in the opening the moving bookshelf created was my father. 
 I froze… I could n't say a word, I had been caught… 
 To my surprise he smiled at me, sat me down and told me it was important that I respect his privacy, and never enter the room behind the bookshelf. And that was all. There was no explanation as to why he spent his nights in that room. There was only an order, do not enter! 
 
 Of course being young and curious I did n't listen. 
 
 The following night, after making sure my father was n't in his room, I tried to get the shelf in the study to slide open like it had the first time I discovered it. I pushed it, pulled it, tried moving books off the shelf like I had seen in movies one after the other…nothing. My last chance was the massive book behind the picture of my father and I. I reached to pull the book from its place, and ended up almost knocking the picture in front of it off the shelf… only it didn ’ t fall. 
 The picture tilted backwards and clicked. 
 Just as before, the bookshelf slid into the wall, revealing the opening. The air blowing from the opening was cool and damp, and as I approached, I could see steps carved into the stone entry way leading me down into darkness. 
 I took my first step, and the decent began. It seemed like forever, I was so nervous, so excited, so curious... I would finally know my father ’ s secret. Finally the stairs came to an end and I was standing on a very large platform in a very large room. I couldn ’ t see the ceiling, or anything to either side, but I could see a light in front of me, it seemed to be coming from some sort of glass case. I walked closer, mindful of my every step, focused on what was inside of that case. As I approached, and the details of the cases contents became clear, so did the details of my father ’ s life. Finally, standing right in front of the case admiring its contents, I realized that what I thought about my father was wrong. He was always there when I needed him, he was always protecting me from the monsters in my closet, and the things that scared me in the night. I smiled, and gazed upon the contents of the glass case. Displayed in front of me was a body of black armor, the symbol of a bat residing on the center of the chest-plate. 

