by Liz Botts
I laugh. “No, probably not.”
Justin shoves his hands in his pockets, his shoulders slump. “I guess that means you’re out too.”
The unspoken reason hangs between us. Logically I should say, “Yes! I’m out too because we haven’t really even talked over the past year. Sure, we see each other. We have the same friends, but the two of us haven’t been alone.”
Yet something holds me back from pointing out the obvious. Instead, I decide that I’m in. Something tells me that tonight will be the night we finally find the door.
“No way,” I say. “I’m in ‘til the end.”
Surprise and shock mingle on Justin’s face with such intense joy, I have to look away. He better not think that this changes anything between us. He made his choices and I made mine. That doesn’t mean we can’t work together, though. And heck, the simple fact that I was able to surprise Justin makes me glow a little.
“Okay then,” Justin says.
We set off again toward one of the oldest buildings on campus. The structure used to house the college gymnasium, back when they had that sort of thing. Now the building is home to some sort of engineering program. Whenever you pass by, the big garage-type doors are open and students (mainly guys) are working on bizarre robotics and animatronics projects.
This is one place we have never thoroughly searched mainly because there aren’t many options. But maybe Justin knows something new. A sudden thought stops me in my tracks. What if Justin has been searching this past year without me? I look at him where he has stopped a few feet ahead of me on the sidewalk.
“Daph? What’s wrong? Having second thoughts?” He tries to smile, but the corners of his mouth droop immediately.
I force myself to shake my head. The motion feels robotic as my mind swirls around the feeling of betrayal welling up in my chest. “No second thoughts,” I say, my mouth feels dry and cottony.
“What’s wrong? Come on, Daphne, I know you. Something’s wrong,” Justin says, taking a step closer.
The world spins around me. Apparently Justin has the same thought at the same moment because he practically leaps at me, closing the distance between us in no time flat. He steadies me in the strong circle of his arms, and for some reason I let myself sink into his embrace. Lifting a hand gingerly along my spine, Justin calms me.
Then I remember what brought on this dizzy spell in the first place. I push Justin away. He curses under his breath but I don’t stop to demand a replay. Instead I stomp several feet down the sidewalk, trying to find my equilibrium.
“What was that?” I say, cringing at my demanding tone.
Justin runs a hand through his dark hair, ruffling it into disarray. He exhales, looking up at the dark night sky, then back at me. “You tell me,” he says, his voice hard and resolute. The challenge is clear. We can’t dance around our past forever.
“Have you been searching for the Hidden Door without me?” I ask. The question tumbles out of my mouth before I can stop it. I’m ashamed of the burst of tears that wells up in my eyes. An arctic wind blasts against us, and I pull my hands up into my sweater sleeves, balling them up in my palm to get even a tiny bit warmer.
Narrowing his eyes, Justin watches me for awhile. Finally he says, “No. I haven’t been to look for the Hidden Door in over a year.”
We step closer as a group of already drunk college students, probably fraternity guys, amble by us. I can’t tear my eyes away from his green-eyed gaze. We stand regarding one another until I say, “Oh.”
I can hear all the unspoken things Justin wants to say and I feel both curious and annoyed. Turning away I take a steadying breath and say, “Let’s get started.”
Wild excitement lights up Justin’s eyes. He loves this search. I wonder how he’ll feel when we actually find the door. Will he be fulfilled? Or disappointed? I think I’ll feel a little bit of both.
“Remember the first time we searched?” Justin asks, his hands buried in his jacket pockets. He seems more relaxed.
My heart starts to race. “How could I forget?”
I’m about to say more when someone steps into our path. At first I think it’s just some drunken college student, but then I see the flash of silver…nails? He has on a black cape and a Phantom of the Opera style mask with his face painted in white makeup. When he sneers at us I see fake, but awfully realistic looking fangs jutting out from his teeth.
That’s when I realize that this is him, The Vampire. My throat constricts, my brain screams to run. I want to yell out, to make a fuss, to do something. But I’m frozen, rooted to the ground, completely motionless. Thankfully Justin reacts. He grabs me quickly then shoves himself in front of me.
The grab breaks the spell. I start to scream, the shrill sound filling the air around us. The Vampire lets out a terrifying growl, and says, “I know what you are looking for and I will stop you.”
I don’t realize that I still am clutching Justin’s arm until The Vampire has retreated into the shadows and several people have run over to us to make sure we are okay. After multiple reassurances, Justin grabs my hand. We dash to the building we were headed toward in the first place. The warm glow of fluorescent lights greets us as we burst into a deserted hallway. At first I feel creeped out, thinking we are alone with some psycho chasing us. But then I hear the familiar banging from the engineering wing. Ah! Even on Halloween the engineering students can be counted on to be here, working.
Breathing a sigh of relief, I look up at Justin for the first time since the incident. “Are you okay?” he asks, his voice full of such concern that for the first time in a long time I can’t remember why we aren’t best friends anymore.
I don’t say anything, though. I just nod. But I slip my hand through Justin’s pretending I don’t notice his surprise. From the way his lips tug up into a smile, I think maybe he’s pleased. With our fingers laced together we head down the bright hallway to the original structure. This part is an addition built sometime in the 1950s. There is no way the door is here.
“Do you want to talk about what happened back there?” Justin’s voice is quiet. He traces the knuckles on the back of my hand with his thumb.
A shiver races along my spine. I’m not sure whether it’s because of the mention of The Vampire or if it’s because of the physical contact. I’m not sure what to say. “It’s just…what the heck? You know?”
“I do,” Justin says, tugging me to a stop. I force myself to be calm as I look into his eyes. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Annoyed, I pull my hand away. “I can take care of myself,” I snap. Justin stays quiet as we continue down a side hallway that leads to the gymnasium. I trail my hand along the exposed brick wall, enjoying the scratchy feeling on the pads of my fingers.
The fear I felt looking at The Vampire was very real, but now I’m feeling more irritated and…unsettled than anything else. Something about the way the guy stood or the way he pitched his voice…I can’t put my finger on it. I just know, though, that he has something to do with the Hidden Door.
I stop, causing Justin to run into me. As he steadies us, I spin around on him. “What are we going to do when we find the door?” I ask.
Justin’s eyes twinkle and he looks really happy for the first time all night. “We’re going to try my key.”
“Wait, what key?” I say, narrowing my eyes, doing my best to look suspicious. But really my heart races with excitement. He has a key? The key?
The smug smile that curls his lips upward says it all. He thinks he has the key but where did he get it? “I never got around to that part of my story tonight, did I?”
I hit his arm. “Tell me. Now.”
Despite feeling creeped-out still, my curiosity over this new development makes me more than willing to slip down a darkened corridor and sink down onto the cold tile floor to listen to what he has to say. Justin positions himself on the outside in a protective gesture that isn’t lost on me.
“So you know the part of the stor
y where the fraternity guys get back together after all the horrific stuff happens. We always wondered what they did with the key after they locked up the head, right? Well, last year around Thanksgiving my dad started telling me about this rumor that those guys slipped the key into the time capsule that was sealed that year.”
“Wait, how did we never hear that part of the story before?” I ask, frowning.
Justin takes my hand and starts drumming out a staccato rhythm with his fingertips. “I have no idea. Don’t think I didn’t ask my dad. We even had a fight about it.”
I stare at Justin’s fingers on my hand. My mind goes blank. I struggle to connect the dots of this information. Justin and his dad don’t have the warmest relationship, especially after his mom left. Still to fight over something as trivial as a key doesn’t make sense. He trails the tip of his finger along my palm. I shiver and draw closer to him.
Forcing myself to focus, I ask, “So? What do you know about the key?”
“Plenty,” Justin says, grinning, his teeth flashing in the dim light from the emergency light on the wall. When he doesn’t say anything else, I pull my hand away and land a good slug on his arm. He chuckles but still doesn’t say anything. I realize that he is enjoying this way too much. My curiosity eats at me.
Suddenly the past year does not exist. All I want is to find the Hidden Door…with Justin. I kneel, placing my hands on his knees. “Please tell me,” I say as calmly as possible. Who am I kidding? My voice shakes with excitement and there is a slight pleading tone.
All pretense drops from Justin’s face and his smile softens. “Okay, okay. So my dad has gotten really weird this last year. He took a sabbatical to study regional lore, and he got totally wrapped up in the Hidden Door legend. I mean, I think he surpassed me.”
I giggle. “How is that possible? No one is more obsessed with the Hidden Door than you.”
“And you,” he says, his voice soft and full of intense emotion. I meet his gaze and have to sit back down on the floor. Suddenly we are too close, this space too confining.
Swallowing against my dry throat I ask, “So what does that have to do with the key?”
Just over a year ago, Justin kissed me—my first—in a situation similar to this. We had been searching for the Hidden Door and had stopped to rest. I had come prepared with snacks so we hid in a little alcove and chowed down. After we ate, we had gotten into a deep conversation about what had happened to the original fraternity guys. Thanks to Justin’s dad’s connections at the university we had information on three of the seven. We liked to speculate about the other four.
Anyway, I don’t know if it was the darkness or the closeness but out of nowhere Justin leaned over and kissed me.
And then he didn’t talk to me for a week.
And then he up and got himself a girlfriend.
We have never talked about that night. And as much as my heart aches right now, I am not going to bring it up. I am not going to give Justin the chance to break my heart again, which he still has the power to do. I’d be an idiot if I didn’t acknowledge that fact.
He notices the change in my mood. Clearing his throat he continues, “So, um, my dad got a little drunk one night just after Christmas and he started rambling about things that didn’t make a lot of sense to me at the start.”
A noise from down the hall makes us both jump.
“Who’s there? Hey, what’re you kids doing in here at this time of night?” A night janitor rounds the corner with a push cart full of cleaning supplies.
We scramble to our feet. Even though the buildings are open we really aren’t supposed to be skulking around darkened hallways.
“Just taking a study break,” Justin says, picking up my back pack as evidence.
The janitor doesn’t care, which he makes apparent by spitting into his garbage can before entering the office door we were just sitting in front of.
After he’s gone, Justin and I continue walking toward the gym. With every step I feel certain that the door can’t be in here. Back in 1927 this place would have been either super busy or locked up tight. There wasn’t the freedom that there is today. Plus there were only ten or so buildings on campus, including the three dorms. We decided a long time ago, after an initial perusal of many of the buildings, that the fraternity guys hid the gargoyle’s head in one of the buildings surrounding the castle or the castle itself.
“The head can’t be in here,” I say, stopping mid-stride. We can’t waste anymore time chasing false leads. We need a plan. When I share my thoughts with Justin he looks suitably impressed that I have thought this through.
“Let’s go back to the law library,” Justin says, reaching over then taking my backpack from me. With the weight gone I feel so light, like I can fly. The adrenaline rushing through my veins ever since our run-in with The Vampire is starting to settle, and mellowness settles over me.
As soon as we step outside I regret my choice. The wind has picked up and the temperature has definitely dropped. I shiver. “Let’s cut through The Hun. It’s too cold out here.”
Justin shrugs and we cut through the courtyard containing the body of the headless gargoyle. The area is now surrounded by a low hedge, but Justin jumps over with ease, my backpack thumping against his back. Sidling up to the statue, he gazes at it almost reverently.
“We’ll find your head and bring it back,” he whispers. He makes this promise to the statue every time we search. One of these days we’ll deliver.
He rejoins me, and we hurry into the entry way of the castle through a revolving door. The bisected grand stairway sweeps up to the concert hall where the Mission Impossible theme song resonates loudly. At least I’m in the same building as the concert so my story to my parents isn’t a total lie. I hate lying to them, but telling them about our quest for the Hidden Door would only garner laughter and denials of permission. Better for them to think I am doing something completely wholesome and not vaguely criminal. I mean, to be honest, Justin and I have done our fair share of slipping unnoticed into numerous restricted areas on campus. We’ve never been caught.
Knock on wood.
We head away from the music toward the hallway that will take us back outside near the law library. Our heavy footsteps on the polished tile floor echo around us. Neither of us speaks. Passing into the hallway near the art museum we stop to look at the display cases.
“Looks like stuff from the anthropology museum,” Justin says, tapping the glass to indicate the jars of animals suspended in formaldehyde.
I wrinkle my nose. This is not my type of stuff. I prefer actual art, like paint-on-canvas type art. I also prefer things that I can recognize in art—sailboats and tacos…that kind of thing. Abstraction messes with my mind.
A placard catches my eye in another case. “Oh, look. This is some of the stuff from the 1927 time capsule.”
Justin joins me and we gaze at photographs and worn textbooks. “I heard the anthro museum is planning a whole exhibit on the time capsule. Probably so they can display the bigger stuff.”
“Makes sense,” I say, nodding.
With a deep breath, Justin catches my hand again. “But when they do their appraisal they won’t find everything there.”
“Why not?” My heart starts hammering and my breath hitches.
With his other hand, Justin reaches in to the interior pocket of his jacket and pulls out a handkerchief. He opens his hand and waits for me to unwrap it. Lying at the center of Justin’s palm is a weathered key. A smug smile tugs at his lips.
I gasp. I can barely speak from excitement. My words tumble over one another. I have to clutch Justin’s arm to keep from trembling too much. “Where did you get it?”
Justin’s voice drops to a low whisper. “I swiped it from my dad. I know, I know. But come on, you would’ve done it too. My dad has been drinking more and more lately. When he drinks he says stuff. Most of the time it’s all lies, but every now and then he says something I pay attention to.”
No
dding, I inch closer to him. “That doesn’t explain how he got the key.”
“Patience, Daph, I’m getting there,” Justin says with a chuckle. He pulls me closer to the wall. I love the way he says my name. In my excitement I don’t care about the past. All I care about is this moment. He continues, “So one night my dad was ranting away about the Hidden Door Legend and how he couldn’t figure it out. Then he pulled out this box and told me that when he was a young professor here at the university, he attended the opening of the 1927 time capsule.”
I’m starting to put the pieces together now. “Okay. So he would have seen the unveiling, which included the key. But how’d he get it?”
“From what he said he had a special viewing because he was part of the faculty. I guess he took it then when no one was looking. All these years the key has been right under my nose. So when he passed out from his rant, I took it. He won’t ever notice. He’s too drunk most of the time anyway.” Justin’s hand closes around the key.
“Why would he take the key in the first place?” I put my hand over his. “He’s always been the biggest naysayer.”
“Naysayer?” Justin asks, his eyes crinkling.
I swat his arm. “You know what I mean. He always said we were wasting our time.”
“Yeah, I know, but I think it’s because he wanted to find the door himself. I wish…” He trails off. “It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we have the key now.”
I take a step back to give myself some breathing room—some thinking room. Being close to Justin clouds my judgment. He doesn’t seem to notice my distance. Maybe because I am only a step away, but probably because he is staring at the key still clenched in his hand.
Picking at a stray piece of yarn on the sleeve of my sweater, I think about tonight. In the span of two or three hours I have been reunited with Justin, been threatened by the freakiest faux vampire ever, and been shocked to learn about the actual physical existence of the mythical key to the legendary door.
“So, um, has your dad said anything else that would be helpful?”
