I press on, in the darkness, throwing out my hands to navigate via the walls, stepping carefully as I track the contours.

I reach a more traditional doorway and find a knob.

I turn it, gently. It opens.

There is light behind this door. I peer through the jamb.

A hidden room of grey slate.

As the truth of its contents opens, the muscles in my iris open wider, dilating to let in more light, to increase my sensitivity and expand my field of vision to identify the dangers that clearly lurk here.

Emotions filter our reality, they say, as I try to make sense of the messages my body is relaying, as to why there is a secret room here, and an iron bed with chains moulded to the wall.

Though the light is subdued, there are puddles of water spotted about, and trailing to a small room, where steam fills a corner, and water seeps out along the floor.

An ensuite shower, a bed designed for kinky sex…all hidden away behind a wall.

As though the ironies of the world combine, I get my answer…and what I see, scares the living daylights out of me…