The Hole

   “Why hadn’t they left like the others?”  Jake wondered from his hiding place where he hid still waiting for his mother.  Sitting with his legs folded under him in the hidden crawl space only accessible through his closet the voices drew closer once again.  As they neared he shot out from is hole screaming
“Get out; leave us alone, LEAVE US ALONE!”
 He then punctuated this by throwing a rather heavy looking text book from the nightstand by the closet at the three men who had entered the room.  The newest one, wearing the odd black suit was struck in the forehead and all three turned and fled from the room.  Jake likewise returned to his hole and cried to quietly for his mother who was starting to believe may never return. 
  
   Only twelve years old, Jake had heard stories of home invasions but didn’t truly know anything about them.  He thought that generally the invaders would enter, take what they wanted, and leave.  This had been going on for God knows how long.  Hours?  Days?  No, it wasn’t possible but it was surely not nearly so long as it seemed.  Looking back now, he had no idea whatsoever as to how long it had been.  When the four men had entered wearing masks and armed with guns his mother had hidden him in this cubby hole and vowed to return from her own hiding place quick.  With all the excitement of that evening he should have some clear memory, but he didn’t.  Now more and more people came and went, but none were his mother, or had news of her for him. 
  
   He stirred at the sounds of men entering the room.  Peeking out he saw the same three from earlier with the tall suited man now wearing a square strip of gauze taped to his forehead, in one outstretched hand a cross, and in the other a book.  The Bible?  What was this? 
“In the name of God the father and his son Jesus Christ I command you to leave this home at once!”  The tall man bellowed.
“In the name of God the father and his son Jesus Christ I banish you from this world forever!”
  
   A mix of emotions nearly overtook Jake at this.  Wanting to laugh at how preposterous it was for some man to break into his family’s home only to perform some bizarre ceremony.  Also a dim awareness began to dawn on him.  It was the cross mans words that fed this.  Was he?  Could he be?
  
   Jake felt a vacuum to his back and turned quickly to find the cause.  The cinder blocks had vanished leaving only blackness haloing a white tunnel full of a depth impossible to comprehend.  His mother then filled the light smiling and reaching to with one outstretched hand. 
“Come on baby, you needn’t wait any longer.” She told him in her always soothing voice
He reached to her, held onto her hand, and joined her on the other side. 

   There were some popping sounds from within the wall, then nothing silence.
“Was that it?”  Brian Daigle asked nervously from behind the preacher. 
Lowering his cross and bible, “Yes, I believe it was.”  Reverend Cunningham replied working very hard to hide his own surprise. 
“Three owners in four years, and that was all it took.”  Brian’s brother Doug said, the sarcastically add “Imagine that.” 
After a moment of silence the preacher relented “Sometimes they are just ready to move on, they only need direction.” “May I look in the closet?  That seemed the center of it.  Did it not?”
“Be my Guest.”  Brian replied in a voice that seemed to say ‘I owe you big’
   The two men entered the walk in with Doug waiting behind them.  They looked around and the preacher began feeling along the walls.  He found a kind of catch on the backside, pushed, thought better of it, then pulled.  There was a sucking sound as the panel opened up like a garage door.  Revealed behind it was  the body of a child perhaps of eleven or twelve, that had been almost completely preserved. 
“Jesus save us!” the reverend exclaimed quietly to himself as Brian gasped and covered his mouth.
  Doug, ever the cynic chuckled and speculated on the situation,
“Shit man, the poor kid never had a chance.  I mean, look at this room; it’s air fucking tight.  The poor kid suffocated in relative safety, as his mother was passed around like a party favor before they snuffed her out. Had to of.”
  
   Looking embarrassed as to how his brother was talking, especially in front of a holy man, he shot his brother a look that should have told him to leave it alone.
“Look!”  Doug  continued”  They used plastic garbage bags and, what is that?  Caulk?  To seal the room.  It wasn’t a panic room, it was a death trap!” he ended laughing again.

   Angry now, the preacher gave his stern reply.  “It isn’t for you to judge!  Don’t you know the dead suffer as much, if not more than the living?  By the grace of God, you will find out!”  He finished as he let the door close once more in the boy.