The old lady next door was going to burn me alive

As a kid, I lived next door to an older lady (I'll call her Ms. Marvel). She was always very nice to my family, and even baked for us (me and my siblings). She had cats, and I was allergic, but I would feed them sometimes, because I was an animal lover (still am).<br><br>Now, I'm not sure what part of this story was real, so I'll include the things that I think may have been dreams.<br><br>When I was 8 or 9, I was snooping around her house (It was a big, old house, so I was exploring, all innocent). I saw a picture of a cat on the wall, as she had tons of cat pictures everywhere. I reached up to touch it, and saw that it was hiding a latch, which I clicked.<br><br>The wall swung open, and there were stairs leading down into darkness. I thought that I was in a kid's adventure movie, and this was Ms. Marvel's top secret room. At the bottom of the stairs, there was a hallway with cells. Like regular prison cells with bars. I was so confused, but I was so excited to explore. In my stupid 8-year-old brain, I was thinking that maybe she had been a spy, or something.<br><br>I wandered around until I found a cell with a woman in it. She was dirty, and looked like she had been beaten. She had burn marks on her face and arms, and was almost unrecognizable. She told me that they called her Jane Smith (I don't know if that was real), and that she was a cat lady that lived in the house across the street. One day, she had come over to complain that Ms. Marvel's cats were coming into her yard and pooping, and killing her plants. Ms. Marvel and her son (I'll call him Mr. Marvel, I don't know if it was her son, but it's what the woman told me) had captured her, and were keeping her there.<br><br>I don't know where I went after that, or how long I was exploring, because it's very blurry now, but I remember that I keep walking until I found food. It was meat in a bowl, and it smelled bad, but I was so hungry that I didn't care. As soon as I started eating, I realized that it was cats. I was eating her cats, and she probably figured it out by the look on my face. I don't know if this was a dream, because it feels too surreal, but I'm sure that the rest of this story is real.<br><br>Ms. Marvel's house caught on fire one night. Not long after my exploration, but I don't think that Ms. Marvel knew about it, because I never told anyone. I was afraid that I would get in trouble for being in her house.<br><br>Anyway, I can't remember the time of day or night that the fire seemed to start, but I woke up to yelling. When I came outside, there were a bunch of people, including Ms. Marvel, trying to save her house. I didn't notice Mr. Marvel, but I didn't really care about him either.<br><br>As people were trying to get Ms. Marvel out of the house, she kept saying "get Mr. Marvel!" and "save my son!" and the firefighters were telling her that they couldn't find him. I saw her trying to go back into the burning house, and someone grabbed me and put their hand over my mouth. It was Mr. Marvel, and he was holding a knife to my face. He whispered in my ear, "they're going to think that it was an accident. Ms. Marvel is going to die, and so is everyone here. If I'm caught, I'll tell them about you, and what you saw."<br><br>No one noticed him, and he ran away. The house burned down, and Ms. Marvel died. A lot of people were injured, and I never saw Mr. Marvel again.<br><br>When my parents were talking about the fire the next day, I told them everything. They didn't believe me, and they thought that I had been reading too many books, and that my story was a work of fiction that I had created to get attention. When I told them about Ms. Marvel and Mr. Marvel keeping Ms. Smith in the basement, they said that I was lying, because there was no basement.<br><br>There's a house built on the lot where Ms. Marvel used to live. It's the only house on the block without a basement.