Time Keeper

         With a slight hesitation Helen took the torch from Hepzibah and stepped inside into what she thought was a priest hole. Helen shone the torch around and found that she had come to a small dark area. It was just as well that she had the torch since just in front of her was a flight of stairs going down. With one look behind her Helen knew that she had to go down. It was a spiral staircase, quite steep and with many cobwebs. The spiral staircase was also very narrow, Helen had never been down such a narrow staircase. Helen gave a bit of a shudder as she went down and was glad that she did not have a fear of spiders as she knew many people had. Just before she went down Helen put her head back into Hepzibah`s room. “There is a spiral staircase just in front of me” described Helen. “I am going to go down the stairs to see where they lead, probably just down to an old cellar.” “Do be careful” pleaded Hepzibah. “I will only be ten minutes at the most, if I am any longer, please do not follow me.” With that Helen set off down the stairs. 

      The staircase went down much further then Helen would have thought. She seemed to be descending for ever. Helen tried to imagine  where she was in relation to the rest of Gibson Manor. She knew that she would by now be somewhere underneath the ground floor of the building. Helen was not sure if Gibson Manor had a cellar or not and was now wondering if she really was going to end up in a cellar. Helen made her way cautiously down quite well aware that this flight of stairs would be much too hazardous for Hepzibah to manage. It seemed to get cooler as Helen went down, Helen just had on a short sleeved tunic top with cotton trousers. She was wishing that she had her cardigan on but  had not expected to be exploring priest holes when she had popped in to see Hepzibah. Helen felt that she must have come down the equivalent of at least two flights of stairs. She was just wondering if and when she would reach the bottom of these stairs when she discovered that in actual fact she had. At the bottom of the stairs there was a small room. Helen stepped into this room.  It was not a very big room, it appeared to be all stone, ceiling, floor and walls and felt quite cold. Helen shuddered, she did not know though if she was shivering through cold or more through fear of the unknown. Helen swept the rather inadequate torch round this room. Leading from this room was a passage.

       Helen was very tempted to carry on exploring along this passage but common sense took over. She did not know if she was putting herself at any risk, though what from she did not know. Also she did have a big responsibility to the rest of the nursing home. Helen felt that she had spent quite a lot of time talking to Hepzibah and then coming down here, the other members of staff would by now be wondering where she was. Helen had no option but to return.  She turned towards the stairs and was just about to start to go up them. Helen paused though, she strained her ears but yes she was sure that she could hear something. There was a sound that she could hear coming along the passageway the one that Helen knew she did not have time to explore. As Helen stood routed to the spot she could hear in the distant the sound of chanting. Helen could not be sure what this sound was but she could imagine that this is what it would have sounded like hearing a large gathering of people at prayer. Helen knew though that this was not possible, not down here.  Helen could not afford to linger any more but had to go back up to Hepzibah`s room and then into the rest of Gibson Manor. Helen started to climb up the stairs, as she climbed the strange sound that she had heard was now receding into the distance.