Subterranean Gate

Crept right up to the house foundation where damp brick met cold stone! Angled against the wall was a pair of heavy iron cellar doors, locked tight with a thick steel sliding drop-bar. Ha! You think a slab of rusty plate can lock me out? I scampered up the corrugated metal slope, claws digging into flaking paint, and jammed the tip of my kitchen knife under the heavy iron bar. With a savage heave—*CLANG-THUMP!*—the bar rattled against its bracket, echoing like hollow thunder down into the pitch-black stairwell below! *Snicker!* A draft of musty basement air hissed through the center seam. The underworld gate is rattled and ready!