Going back.

I've had enough of lying upstairs listening to the house.

I keep coming back to the footsteps. I was half asleep when I felt something touch me, but I heard somebody running after I'd switched the light on. If there's a person down there, he must know another way through. He must have somewhere to sleep, something to eat.

I went into town and bought a gun. The man in the shop recommended one after I told him I lived alone outside town. I let him talk. I didn't tell him about the basement.

I bought some flares as well. There are places down there where the flashlight barely shows me anything. I'd like to see how large those rooms really are.

I'm taking a smaller bag this time. Food, water, lights, batteries, the camera and my notebook. Enough to get to the supplies I left behind. I know what the staircase and that narrow tunnel are like now. I can't carry another load like the last one through them.

I've also been reading about labyrinths. Started with the layouts, then found myself reading the old stories.

Some of the drawings have only one path. It winds around and around, but eventually takes you to the center. You can spend most of the walk close to where you began without getting there. I traced one with a pencil several times.

Then there's the story of Daedalus building the labyrinth to imprison the Minotaur. In one version, the builder ends up trapped there himself and has to escape through the air. Even knowing how the place was made doesn't get him out through the passages.

I used to read things like that without giving the buildings much thought.

A few of the things I found described the journey to the center as a kind of ordeal, something you come back from changed. I copied that into the notebook, then felt foolish having it beside the measurements and junction numbers. I've left it there anyway.

I want to get back to the passage where I woke up. I want to find whoever was there and ask him how he got in. If he's gone, I want to find where he stays.

There has to be something I've missed. I've got the bag packed by the stairs.