The Secret Trapdoor

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Joseph. He was about four feet, five inches tall, and had dark brown hair.
Joseph always did everything his mom told him to do except for when it came to cleaning his room. It was about two years since he had ever cleaned his room.
It was one special autumn day when Joseph couldn’t get out of his room. There were too many toys in the way. He tried to move the toys out of the way of the door, but they just come sliding back down. Finally, he realized that he had to clean his room.
After awhile, Joseph found something metal. “Hmmmmm,” Joseph thought, “I don’t remember having a metal toy.” He tried to pull it up. He pulled as hard as he could. “...creak...” A basketball, his favorite toy, rolled down the steps that were uncovered by his opening the trapdoor. “Oh, no”, Joseph moaned, “my favorite basketball.” He stared at the steps leading down into blackness. “Hello?” he called. He heard nothing but the sound of his own heartbeat thumping in his chest. He tentatively put a foot on the first step. He stood there for a few moments, waiting for something terrible to happen, but nothing did. He walked down the secret steps