Tina was always a strange kid. Her parents hoped she was just eccentric. It freaked her parents out that she seemed drawn to the basement, but it really freaked them out to either find her down there in a weird trance, or they would find the lock on the ground and the door opened a crack with the lock laying next to the door on the floor.

They normally kept the basement locked because they didnt want Tina going down there, obviously. As soon as she had mobility as an infant, that’s the direction she always went. Tina never failed to once again find herself in or near the basement. Her prents would have had to of been blind not to notice her obsession, which they couldn’t for the life of them figure out. They both decided on installing a lock, at the very top where she coudnt reach. They were nervous about her falling, or even getting into things that she shouldn’t. Thing that icluded but not limited to, chemical cleaners, tools, hunting gear and like any other family, stacked boxes of all varieties of things.

Sometimes unbeknownst to her parents, she would awake down there, not sure how she got there or how the door even got unlocked for her. There were only 2 keys, and each of them were far out of her reach. One her father had on his keyring in his bedside table, and the other her mother had for repair men to be able to let in, should the need arise. Tina had no idea where that one was kept, and that was obviously intentional. Tina couldn’t reach the lock if she were stand on a chair, not that she ever once intentionally chose to go there. She thought it was dark and spooky, but thats where she woke up several times a year since she was able to leave her room in the middle of the night.

The worst and scary part was that Tina couldn’t figure out, “Why?” either. She hated that she couldnt answer that question for herself or her parents. When she awoke in the basement, she would just run back up to her bed. She worried that her parents would be upset with her. When the next day came, her parents would find the lock laying on the floor next to the basement door wide open. Tina was worried about telling her parents, she was afraid they would lock her inside her bedroom door at night. That idea terrified her, and so she never took the risk. Every few months, this would repeat seemingly without anything else going wrong. even though Tina’s parents couldnt explain it, they just shrugged it off.

Over the years, Tina still randomly awoke downstairs. She was 16 now and she had still never told her parents that each time they found the lock on the floor next to the basement, she had sleepwalked down there the night before. Her parents were sure something weird was going on in their house, and thought their daugther’s connection to the basement had something to do with it. Lately, they had been keeping an eye on Tina at night. Several sleepless nights paid off and he woke his wife quietly and motioned for her to follow behind him.

They followed behind her watching intently. She was in a sleepwalk trance, but any sudden sound could wake her, and then they wouldnt get their answers. they wanted to know how she was getting past the padlock. They peered around her once they got to the bottom of the stairs just as she was reaching the door. To their surprise, the lock was already laying on the ground. They looked at each other bewildered and held up both their hands with each of their keys in them.

Her parents followed Tina down the steps so, they could see where she was headed. An old TV lay by the wall, long broken. It wasn’t plugged in, and yet the screen still glowed with static. Tina was mumbling reaching out and touching the screen when suddenly she dropped both her arms to her sides, and the screen went black. She turned her head and looked directly at her parents and said “They’ve been waiting a long time to speak to you,”

“Who’s they?” Her mother said

“They need… they.. they” and just then she looked confused. Tina looked at her parents and said “I’m scared”