While cleaning out the old house they bought for an unbelievably low price, Kara and Aaron, a young couple, stumble upon a mysterious door in the basement. This discovery seemed like the solution to all their problems at first. But their optimism quickly fades when their house is broken into, revealing just how mistaken they were.
Kara and Aaron descended into the basement of their newly acquired house. The room was filled with old boxes carelessly piled up, and broken pieces of furniture were scattered along the walls. It was even more cluttered and disorganized than the upper level.
“Do you ever wonder if that old lady sold us the house so cheaply because she knew we’d be stuck cleaning up her leftovers?” Aaron wrinkled his nose as he examined a box with chewed corners. “We might have a rodent problem, sweetheart.”
“That’s what exterminators are for.” Kara shrugged. “A good deal is still a good deal. Besides, some of this stuff might have value. You could transform that rocking chair into something beautiful if you fix it up.”
“I suppose so.” Aaron ran his fingers along the arm of the mentioned chair. “But let’s focus on cleaning first. We can turn this dump into our dream home.”
After hours of dusty labor, Aaron moved a large box, revealing something peculiar. He crouched down and tapped on the small wooden door embedded in the basement wall, producing a hollow sound.
“Kara, come take a look at this!” he shouted. “I’ve found something!”
Kara looked over Aaron’s shoulder as he hooked his fingers through the plain brass handle. The door didn’t budge when he pulled gently. It took a hard jerk to open it.
“Hello, anybody home?” Aaron said as he peered into the dark recess behind the door.
“Stop joking around.” Kara braced herself against Aaron’s shoulder as she leaned forward. “What if there’s a bunch of bones in there?”
Aaron shivered. Kara switched on her torch and shone it into the darkness. A large wooden chest sat in the middle of the room, surrounded by cobwebs and dust.
“Ooh, a treasure chest,” Aaron joked. He reached in, grabbed the sides of the chest and pulled it out.
“What do you think is in there?”
“Only one way to find out.” Kara grinned at Aaron as she knelt beside him. “Let’s crack it open.”
There was no lock on the lid, but the hinges were stiff and squeaked as Aaron forced the chest open. Inside he found some oddly shaped objects wrapped in paper. He carefully removed the paper from one of them and let out a disappointed sigh.
“I think we found Granny’s figurine collection,” he remarked.
“Oh my God.”
Kara took the figurine from Aaron with trembling fingers and held it up to the light. Aaron watched in confusion as she examined it, her face turning pale and her eyes widening as she examined the base.
“What is it, darling?” Aaron asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Aaron, we need to see what else is in there,” Kara said in a shaky voice. “And be careful… if I’m right, this really is a treasure chest.”
“Nymphenburg… Meissen… and, oh, look at that Dresden lace.” Kara sighed. “I want to keep them all. They’re so pretty.”
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea.” Aaron stared at the search results on his phone.
“These figurines could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, honey… and I’m starting to have doubts about how they ended up in this basement.”
Kara shifted her attention from the unwrapped figurines to frown at him. “Do you think they were stolen?”
“This collection is too valuable to have been the property of the woman from whom we bought the house.” Aaron shrugged. “It’s the kind of collection that would be on display and someone clearly hid them here for a reason. If they’ve been stolen, it’s probably not a good idea to sell them in town either.”
“It’s not far to Pennsylvania,” Kara replied. “We should be OK selling them in another state, right?”
“I guess so.” Aaron grinned at his wife. “How does it feel to know that we’re about to get enough money to pay off all our debts?”
“It feels so good,” Kara replied with a smile as she leaned down to give Aaron a kiss.
With the decision made, Aaron and Kara packed up the figurines and loaded them into Aaron’s car. Kara wanted to work on tidying up the bedroom and kitchen, so Aaron headed out on the highway alone. He’d just passed Lake Milton when he got a call from his wife.
“Aaron, there was a thief in the house,” Kara cried. “I heard glass breaking and thumping from the basement. I took your rifle and went down there…”
Kara burst into sobs and Aaron’s heart pounded in his chest. He pulled to the side of the road.
“Take a deep breath, sweetheart,” Aaron said. “You’re all right, aren’t you? The thief’s gone?”
Kara sniffed. “Yes. He ran towards me and I fired the gun. I missed, but it scared him enough that he ran back out the window. But, baby, he was scratching around in the exact spot where we found those figurines.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can, Kara,” Aaron replied. “Lock up tight, will you?”
Aaron hurried home as fear threatened to overwhelm him. He was right… there was something fishy about these characters. And the couple might not be so lucky the next time these people came looking for them.
Aaron hugged Kara tightly as he returned home. Her eyes were red from crying and she was clearly shaken. When he felt her relax in his arms, Aaron looked into her eyes and asked her an important question.
“Kara, what do you want to do next? Because we could leave these figurines somewhere for the humans to retrieve, but…”
“We’d be giving back a small fortune to those crooks,” Kara finished his thought. Kara pressed her lips into a thin line.
“I refuse to help them in any way after the fright that man gave you. We bought this house and everything in it belongs to us. These are our treasures now,” Aaron said confidently.
Kara nodded in agreement.
“And I think I know a way to keep them, but you might not like it.”
Kara tilted her head and frowned at him curiously. “Spit it out.”
“This is going to sound really dramatic, okay, but hear me out…”
Kara’s eyes widened as Aaron explained his plan.
“You’re right,” she said, whistling softly. “This is dramatic, and a whole lot of crazy. Aaron, I don’t know about this.”
Aaron shrugged. “It’s the only way I can think of to make sure these people never come looking for the figurines or us again. We’ll move to a new town and start over with the money we make from selling the figurines.”
“And the plan will only work if these bastards believe the figurines have been destroyed.” Kara sighed. She looked away from him to scan the old furniture in the living room, still hidden under dust covers. “I was looking forward to making a home here.”
“I know, but we’ll find another place. It doesn’t matter where we live, if it’s a box under a flyover or a mansion in the hills, as long as we’re together.”
The corners of Kara’s mouth curved into a slight smile. “Okay, Mr Charming. I’ll start a fire in the old coal stove in the kitchen.”
“And I’ll swap the figurines in the chest with our plates and cups. Once the fire has done its job, it will be impossible to tell that the broken and charred pottery in there did not come from those figurines.”
Kara and Aaron worked quickly but methodically as they went from room to room, dousing the furniture with whatever flammable liquids they had. They packed a few essentials, but left everything else behind. They decided to try and make it look as if they had gone out for the evening when the fire broke out.
When the couple were satisfied with their preparations, they pushed the tins of paint, a sack of flour and several aerosol cans near the coal stove. Aaron had soaked a length of rope in petrol and was now running it from the stove into the last bottle of paint thinner. He ran out of the kitchen as the fire licked along the rope.
“I wish we didn’t have to do this,” Kara said as Aaron started the car.
“It’s for the best, honey. Look, it’s already spreading.” Aaron pointed at the house.
Tall tongues of orange flames were licking up the faded curtains hanging in the nearest window. Beyond that, Aaron could see the fire engulfing the armchair by the fireplace and crawling up the walls on either side of the door.
Several objects exploded at once somewhere in the house. A window pane in the kitchen burst outwards with a spray of shattered glass. It was soon followed by a plume of flame. Moments later, the fire was climbing up the siding on the outside of the house.
“We’ve got to get out of here.” Aaron pulled away and sped through the suburbs. As their old dreams burned with the house, their hope for a better future rose like a phoenix from the fire.
Kara and Aaron drove around until they found a motel close to the highway, but not close enough to be full of guests. They checked in, left their bags in the room, then sat around a campfire in a fire pit in the motel courtyard. After all the crazy things they’d been through the previous day, it was nice to look up at the stars and relax.
“Everything’s going to be all right now,” Aaron said.
“I don’t know, baby, I’ve been thinking… have we crossed the line? Are we bad people now?”
Aaron looked down at Kara nestled against his side and shook his head. “I don’t think so. We’re just looking out for ourselves, that’s all.”
“But it’s not like these figures are really ours.” Kara looked up at him. “They must have been stolen. Maybe we should turn them in to the police.”
Aaron sighed and looked at the fire. He thought of the house they’d just burnt, the man who’d broken in looking for the statues and all the money they’d make selling them.
“We have come too far to turn back now, Kara. And just think, with this money we’ll be able to buy the perfect little house, a place that doesn’t require hours of dusting and scrubbing to make it livable. We’ll be able to think about starting a family.
Kara grinned, her eyes gleaming with joy. “I want a girl and a boy. And a dog… and a cat. A goldfish too.”
Aaron chuckled. “See? We can start making our dreams come true.”
Kara’s smile faded. “We could… but it’s a slippery slope, don’t you think? We burn down a house today, but what happens tomorrow? It’s not like we need all those things to be happy, baby. We’re happy right now, in this moment, and we don’t even have a house anymore”.
“Sure, but don’t you want all those things anyway?” Aaron rubbed Kara’s arm. “I definitely want to give them to you.”
“Of course I want nice things, I’m just saying maybe we should stop everything we’ve been doing before it’s too late.” Kara looked deep into Aaron’s eyes.
“It’s better to stop in time so we don’t have to worry about doing something we might regret later.”
“I hear you, but we’re almost done with this business.” Aaron kissed the top of Kara’s head. “I’m going to sell these figurines tomorrow and as soon as I get back we’re going to start our new lives.”
“Okay, baby, as long as we’re together, I know everything will work out.”
Aaron didn’t want to risk leaving Kara alone for too long after what happened last time, so he took the figurines to an antique dealer in town. He placed the box on the counter and watched as Mr Finch, the shop owner, took several pieces out and examined them.
“How did you come by these ceramic figurines?” Mr Finch asked as he studied the details on a figurine of some children.
“They are part of a collection that belonged to my late grandmother,” Aaron replied.
“Hmm.” Mr Finch carefully placed the piece on the glass counter. He tapped his fingers on the glass and looked around at the other figurines lined up on the counter. “I’ll give you 200 dollars for the figurines you brought to show me now and 10,000 dollars for the whole collection.”
“What? You can’t be serious.” Aaron shook his head and started to put the figurines back in their box. “I’ll have to find another buyer for this collection if you’re not willing to pay the hundreds of thousands it’s worth.”
“It’s not an offer.” Mr Finch put his hand over Aaron’s, blocking him as he lifted one of the pieces. “Think of it more as a condition. I know for a fact that these pieces were stolen, and if you don’t sell them to me for the $10,000 I’ve offered, I’ll go straight to the police and report you.”
“You’re wrong.” Aaron forced a smile on his face, even though his heart was pounding like thunder in his chest as he stared down at Mr Finch.
Mr Finch grinned at him. “I’m not, so there’s no point in continuing this pretence. I’ve laid out my terms and the ball is in your court now.” Mr Finch withdrew his hand.
“I’ll give you until tonight to decide.”
Aaron didn’t answer. He hurriedly put the figures back in their box, stormed out of the shop and hurried back to the motel. Damn it all! He should’ve trusted his first instinct not to sell these things in town. If Mr Finch was working with the thieves, he’d just tipped them off that the figurines hadn’t been destroyed in the fire.
He and Kara would have to leave town immediately. They could sell the figurines on the road. Maybe they could stop in Pittsburgh on their way to wherever and sell them there.
Aaron rushed into the motel room to tell Kara his plan, but she wasn’t there. Her clothes were strewn across the floor, and the mattress and pillows had been slashed open, spilling their contents onto the carpet. There was a note taped to the television on the wall.
‘Do exactly as we say if you want your lady back alive.
‘Bring the figurines to the abandoned warehouse on Elm Street at midnight. Come alone, don’t try to be a hero, and don’t involve the police.
Kara will pay for your disobedience if you don’t follow these instructions to the letter. I’ll give you 25% of the figurines’ value.’
Aaron sank to the floor, the note shaking in his hands as he read it again. He never should have left Kara alone. He should have listened to her doubts when she said they should stop, because now this thing was like a boulder rolling downhill.
Aaron crumpled the note and put it in his pocket. He wouldn’t let anyone hurt Kara. He’d do what these slimeballs wanted and then, once she was safe, they’d get out of this godforsaken town and never come back.
Aaron checked the time on his mobile. It was 4 p.m. He had 8 hours to get Kara back from the kidnappers.
Aaron pulled up outside the antique shop just as Mr Finch was about to lock up. The man looked around as Aaron approached, holding the box of ceramic figurines carefully in his arms, and smiled at him. He put one hand in his pocket as he turned to face Aaron.
“I see you made a wise decision,” the shopkeeper said.
“I made the only decision I could make,” Aaron replied. He shifted uncomfortably as he stared at Mr Finch.
“Now give me the money.”
Mr Finch unlocked the wooden doors to his shop and beckoned Aaron inside. The shopkeeper walked around to the other side of the counter and tapped lightly on the glass to indicate that Aaron should put the box down.
Once Aaron had placed the box on the counter, Mr Finch opened the cardboard flaps and looked inside. He removed each ceramic figurine one by one, inspecting every inch of the figurines. He gave a small nod when he’d finished and wrote out a cheque for $10,000. Aaron slipped it into his pocket and turned to leave.
“It was a pleasure doing business with you,” Mr Finch called after him as he headed for the door.
Aaron glanced back over his shoulder at the smug shopkeeper. He longed to lunge back across the room and punch the man, but he couldn’t resort to violence. Aaron had a plan and he had to see it through if he wanted to save Kara. Without answering, Aaron marched out of the shop and drove away. He still had an appointment at Elm Street and time was running out for Kara.
Except for the flicker of fluorescent lights in the small windows set high on the walls, the abandoned warehouse was dark. Loose sheets of steel cladding on the outside rattled in the wind as Aaron approached the entrance. He peered inside and the first thing he saw was Kara, surrounded by several tough-looking men.
“Aaron!” Kara started towards him, but one of the rough-looking men surrounding her stepped forward and blocked her, putting his arm in front of her.
“Not so fast, lady.” The man scowled at Aaron. “Where are the goods?”
“I left them in my car,” Aaron lied. He squared his shoulders and took a deep breath. “I had to see Kara first.”
“Well, you’ve seen her now.” The man walked to the front of the group, his boots shuffling on the dusty concrete as he moved. “Get our stuff!”
The man’s shout still echoed through the open space as police sirens blared outside. Everyone in the room looked up at the windows, where the flash of red lights was visible through the glass.
“Attention!” A commanding voice said over a loudspeaker. “This is the police! We have you surrounded. Throw down your weapons and get on the ground.”
Kara sighed and frowned at Aaron. They were standing in the police station, waiting for news while the cops questioned the thugs from the warehouse.
“I’m so confused,” she muttered.
“‘It’s better to stop in time,’ remember? That’s what you told me by the fire that night.”
Aaron smiled and put his arm around Kara, holding her close. “When I went back to the motel room and you were gone… I’ve never been so scared in my life, Kara.”
“But I remembered your words and realised that this was exactly the situation you’d wanted to avoid,” Aaron continued. “I wondered what you would do, and then I called the police. I told them everything and insisted on playing a part in their operation to catch these scumbags.”
Kara smiled. “So you came to rescue me with the police right behind you?”
“More or less. I had to make a stop first to make sure the antique dealer didn’t miss his jail time.”
Some time later, a police officer called Aaron and Kara into an office. The officer took Kara’s statement and then dropped a bombshell on the couple.
“It seems that the ringleader of this operation is a relative of the old lady you bought the house from. He didn’t realise she was planning to sell the place until it was too late for him to recover his stash of stolen goods.”
“So the figurines were stolen!” Kara exclaimed.
The policeman nodded. “They were on loan from a private collector and were being displayed as part of an exhibition of ceramics at a local museum. Well,” the policeman continued. “We have an arson charge to discuss, don’t we?”
Aaron and Kara exchanged glances.
“You see, no matter what you may have seen in the movies, it’s not that easy to cover it up when dishonest people use accelerants to set their house on fire. The inspectors immediately realised that the house fire on your property was the result of arson.” The officer glared at the young couple. “Charges will have to be pressed.”
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