[ WP ] A hidden elevator is found behind a fake wall in a basement .

The wall crumbled. Stone and debris fell from the entrance way. The rats followed soon after. They scaled the limestone in drones, skittering and speaking in a language no man wanted to learn. They were not interested in the children cowering beneath the stairs. Their preoccupation was with escape. They leapt over each other, hordes of rodents, biting and clawing in a blind frenzy to find the way out. Bloody corpses of the beasts were left behind, gouged and twitching in the filth. It took minutes for the last of them to find the way out. It took longer still for the house to regain its silence. 
 
 The boy slipped from his sanctuary and approached the elevator. Those rats that remained, spines broken and skin torn, tried desperately to pull away. He kicked one of the broken things into the machine. The rat squealed, and the doors shut. It dinged appreciatively at the small child and began its descent. Pullies and winches squealed as the room dropped beneath the surface. The girl went up to the boy and held his hand. She started to pull. She started to wail. He stood still and waited. He watched. His eyes were fixed forward, staring at the hole in the wall. The cable tensed, and the counterweight began to drop. 
 
 The machine's system pulsed and groaned, and the elevator climbed. The boy could hear the music as it got closer. Sweet and soft it drifted through his ears. He smiled and hummed. And he stared. The girl kept pulling at his arms. He watched the doors open. Where once was rat, now there was music. The elevator dinged. He smiled. The girl screamed. The doors closed. And the boy watched. 
 
 The boy watched. And the boy listened. Where once there was girl, now there was music. He could hear. It was lovely. He sat in the dark. He tossed rats in the box. The piano shifted tempo. It added more keys. It grew and the music pulsed. The boy listened. And the boy learned. 
 
 He began to sing to the box, and the box sang back. It had such a lovely voice. The man heard the song. The man descended to the basement and grabbed the boy. He had such an upsetting voice. So coarse, unmeasured. The man shook the boy. And the boy pointed to the elevator. The elevator dinged, and descended. 
 
 The boy sat. And the boy listened. And the boy sang.
