by Chris Ward
Back inside, he pulled in deep, desperate breaths as the shadow creature battered against the glass a few times then rose and disappeared into the sky.
‘Too close,’ he muttered under his breath.
Now, the idea of returning to the dorms really appealed. He wasn’t quite sure how to get there, but up the stairs to the concourse, then left in the direction of the headland, seemed the right way to go. Benjamin moved at a gentle jog, looking over his shoulder every few seconds in case the sinister creature followed.
Voices from up ahead came like a sudden downpour after a long drought. Unable to help himself, he started into a run, calling out to them.
He didn’t see what tripped him, but he felt the hard stone floor as it cracked against his forehead, then felt strong hands wrap around his mouth and pull him back into the shadows.
16
Setup
‘Hello again, mophead. I bet you thought you’d seen the last of me, didn’t you?’
Benjamin struggled in Godfrey’s arms. ‘Let go of me!’
‘Not so fast. I just wanted to let you know that I’m watching you.’
‘And Captain Roche is watching you. You’ll end up in the Locker Room if you don’t let me go!’
‘Captain Roche is a fool. Didn’t you hear the alarm? All it took was a little deanimation spray to put his eye to sleep for a while.’ Godfrey held up a little drawstring bag similar to the one Benjamin kept marbles in at home. ‘Easy.’
‘He’ll find out.’
‘Not while they’re having one of their little councils of wizards. They sit in there all night.’
‘Wizards?’
‘Or whatever those freaks are. Who cares?’ Godfrey pushed Benjamin back against the wall. ‘Look, all you need to know is that I’m the boss around here. You do what I say, or I’ll make life difficult for you.’
Godfrey was a head taller, but Benjamin was tired of being pushed around. As Godfrey tried to put the little bag back into his pocket while holding Benjamin still with his other hand, Benjamin swung a knee up into his stomach.
Godfrey grunted and bent double, letting go of both Benjamin and the bag containing Captain Roche’s eye. Darting forward, Benjamin kicked the bag away down the corridor.
‘No!’
Godfrey’s scream reminded Benjamin of when one of his classmates, a prudish type called Melissa, had found a frog in her lunchbox. Despite all of his bluster, Godfrey was clearly terrified of Captain Roche. He dashed after the little bag as it rolled over the top of a flight of stairs, and while Godfrey’s cronies watched dumbly, Benjamin sprinted toward the other voices.
At the end of the corridor, lights were on by the doors leading to the dormitory path. Several dozen pupils stood around, talking animatedly in voices thick with frustration. Benjamin spotted Wilhelm standing near the edge of the group, and he ran over, tapping his friend on the back.
‘Hey! Where did you go? You’ll never guess what I saw—’
Wilhelm turned to him with a borderline look of anger. ‘Benjamin. Please tell me it wasn’t you who left the bathroom window open.’
Benjamin opened his mouth to reply as several other pupils turned to follow the conversation. He remembered brushing his teeth and combing his hair, then opening the window to toss out a piece of scatlock from his hair. He’d definitely shut it again … hadn’t he?
Doubts rushed in like a thick, black tide. He must have. But what did it matter anyway?
‘Scatlocks,’ Wilhelm said in a tone that made the flying plastic bags sound like disease-ridden vermin. ‘Someone left the bathroom window open and they got in. Dozens of them. We’re lucky Gubbledon found the window and shut it before an entire colony got inside.’
‘It wasn’t me….’ Benjamin muttered, though he wasn’t so sure now.
‘Some cleaners are in there shooing them out,’ Wilhelm said, ‘but it could take a while. They get everywhere. It says on the first page of your handbook: “Never, ever, ever leave doors or windows open.”’
‘My handbook got wet,’ Benjamin protested.
Wilhelm looked down at his feet and sighed. For the first time, he looked like a little kid rather than a twelve-year-old troublemaker. Benjamin lifted a hand to put it around Wilhelm’s shoulders in a gesture of comfort, when a clacking of hooves behind him was followed by the whinnying voice of Gubbledon Longface: ‘There you are!’
Benjamin turned as the reanimated horse reached him. The housemaster wore a red satin nightshirt and a grey woolly cap perched between the remains of his ears.
‘You were the last person seen using the bathroom,’ Gubbledon said, shaking his big, zombified head back and forth. ‘You must have left the window open. Perhaps it was an honest mistake, but that’s one of the worst things you can do with all of those pesky scatlocks about. I’m afraid it carries a set punishment of a thousand cleans down in the Locker Room. Have you been acquainted with that place?’
‘Who saw me?’ Benjamin shouted, anger boiling up. He wasn’t stupid. He would never have left the window open. Someone must have set him up. He looked around the assembled sets of eyes as if daring someone to own up to it.
‘You were seen by Simon,’ Gubbledon said, pointing to a large, dopey-looking boy with an upturned nose. ‘And, of course, by Godfrey.’
Benjamin turned. Godfrey was walking up the corridor toward them with a wide grin on his face. He gave his pocket a surreptitious little pat, then cocked his head and said to Benjamin, ‘We felt really bad saying anything, but we don’t want you to repeat your mistake. It’s the only way we can all get along here.’
Benjamin scowled, and while the urge to cuff the smirk off of Godfrey’s face was overwhelming, there was nothing he could do. This time, they had gotten one over on him. Someone must have sneaked into the bathroom after he’d left and opened the window. It was the only possible answer.
‘So sorry to hear your handbook got wet,’ Godfrey added. ‘You can borrow mine if you like, when you get back from the Locker Room. Assuming you don’t clean yourself to death.’
Benjamin lifted a hand to strike him, but Wilhelm stepped between them. ‘Just forget it,’ he whispered, leaning close. ‘Don’t make him worse.’
‘Are you familiar with the way down to the Locker Rooms, Benjamin?’ Gubbledon said. ‘There’s no point sitting around. You might as well get started. Perhaps Godfrey here would be kind enough to instruct you on the quickest way.’
Benjamin scowled again. ‘I can find it myself.’
He turned to leave, when what he had seen earlier returned to his thoughts. ‘Wilhelm,’ he hissed as he passed the smaller boy, ‘I saw something wandering about downstairs. Something with metal eyes that glowed orange, and a skull for a face.’
Wilhelm turned pale. ‘You’re joking right?’
‘No. I wish I was. What is it?’
Wilhelm opened his mouth as if about to divulge some great secret, then snapped it shut again.
‘What?’
Again, Wilhelm opened his mouth to answer, but whatever he was about to say was drowned out by a collective cheer from the kids standing by the doors.
‘Okay,’ Gubbledon announced in a loud voice. ‘We’re all clear. Capes on, everyone.’
‘Don’t say anything to anyone else,’ Wilhelm said. ‘We need to find a teacher.’
‘Can’t we just tell Gubbledon?’
Wilhelm glanced over his shoulder at the housemaster, who was struggling to get his hooves into his own oversized scatlock cape. Godfrey and Simon were trying to hold it open for him while suppressing a series of sniggers.
‘Do I even need to answer that?’
Benjamin nodded. ‘Let’s go find a teacher. Where will they be?’
Wilhelm gave an involuntary shiver. ‘Teachers’ block.’
‘Which direction is that?’
Wilhelm grimaced, and he lifted a finger to point up at the ceiling. ‘The tower,’ he said.
17
Trap
‘It can’t be that difficult to get to,’ Benjamin said. ‘There’s a staircase, right?’
‘There’s another gatekeeper. The teachers’ tower is strictly off-limits to the pupils at all times. Even I’ve never been up there.’ He shrugged. ‘Not officially, anyway.’
‘Then how do you know where to go?’
Wilhelm grinned. ‘I didn’t say I didn’t know the way, did I? At least, I know a special way.’
They edged to the side of the group, and as soon as no one was paying attention, they made their escape back through the corridors, where Gubbledon’s frustrated commands to form an orderly queue gradually faded out.
‘It probably won’t attack if there’re two of us,’ Wilhelm said. ‘But best to stick to the lit areas if we can, just in case.’
‘What was it? What did I see?’
‘A ghoul.’
‘A what? Aren’t ghouls a kind of ghost?’
‘Not this kind. That’s just what they’re called. You know how you see all those dead people wandering around the school?’
‘Yeah, the cleaners, right?’
‘That’s them. And you know how machines and stuff come to life if they’re not sprayed by chamomile?’
‘The reanimates.’
‘Well, sometimes they get mixed.’ Wilhelm wiped sweat off his brow. ‘Ghouls are part corpse, part machine. Most of them come out of the Haunted Forest—hence the name—but they sometimes show up in or around the school. If someone knows why, they’re not telling.’
‘How exactly do you know this?’
Wilhelm grinned, even though his eyes held no humour. ‘I was bored up in the dorms while everyone else was in class and I found some storybooks in the common room. One or two of them featured ghouls.’
Benjamin scoffed. ‘All you know about these things comes from storybooks?’
‘The pictures were exactly as you describe. And the book said they were based on true legends.’
‘That’s a load of rubbish.’
Wilhelm smirked. ‘I haven’t let you down yet, have I?’
‘Well, if you’d waited for me, I might not have bumped into one.’
‘And then no one else might know what danger we’re in.’
‘If we’re in any danger at all. Perhaps it, you know, lives here? Not like this place isn’t full of other strange things, is it?’
‘Let’s put it this way: was it scary? Was it the scariest thing you’ve seen so far, out of a lot of scary things?’
Benjamin shuddered as he remembered the skull and the glowing orange eyes. ‘It was terrifying.’
Wilhelm gave a satisfied nod. ‘There you go, then.’
They had reached the balcony that overlooked the lobby. Both of them peered into the dark around the closed admissions office, but there was no sign of the creature.
‘Which way did it go?’
‘I didn’t see for sure, but I thought it went right.’
Wilhelm gave a frustrated grunt. ‘That’s the same way to the teachers’ tower, unless we circle around through the basements. That would take longer, and we might run into it anyway. Or we could go outside. There’s a path.’
‘No way am I going out there again. I got attacked by this black thing, like a giant scatlock.’
‘A haulock.’ Wilhelm nodded. ‘They’re reanimated refuse sacks. You’re not having much luck, are you? You’ve certainly made things interesting since you showed up.’
‘It wasn’t intentional.’
‘Don’t worry, once you’ve been here for a few days, you’ll get the hang of how to avoid things like that. Haulocks are quite rare around the school, and they’re nocturnal. You were lucky, though, because they’re big enough to drag you off the top of the cliff.’
‘I don’t think—’
‘Shh! Do you hear that?’
Wilhelm pulled Benjamin down into a crouch as footsteps echoed up from the lobby below.
‘It’s come back!’ Wilhelm hissed. ‘Let’s catch it. Then no one will be able to call us liars.’
‘You’re crazy! How?’
Wilhelm held up a scrunched up scatlock cape. ‘You go to the bottom of the stairs and hide behind that rail there. When it appears under the balcony, I’ll drop the cape. You grab it while I run down to help. Zip it up if you can. These capes are pretty solid.’
‘Why can’t I drop the cape?’
‘Because it’s my plan so I get to choose who does what. Go on.’
Benjamin grimaced, but tried to take comfort in Wilhelm’s confidence. He skipped down the steps and ducked behind the railings where the stairs opened out on to the lobby floor. From here he couldn’t see who was approaching, but the footsteps grew louder as someone emerged from one of the central downstairs corridors.
From the balcony, Wilhelm grinned and gave him a thumbs-up. ‘Get ready,’ he said.
Off to Benjamin’s left, the school office windows reflected a couple of dim night-lights back in the corridors beneath the concourse. Something bobbed as it moved toward him, little more than a wavering shadow. He tried to stick his head out and peer round as it came level with the bottom of the stairs, but Wilhelm screamed ‘Attack!’ and the scatlock cape came billowing down.
As the cape fell over the creature’s head, Benjamin jumped out of his hiding place and wrestled the shape to the ground, quickly zipping up the opening at the back. He was just wrapping his arms around it to hold it tight, when a hard, lumpy object struck him between the eyes, making his head spin. Someone roared in anger. Then he was tumbling over and over as if blown by a strong wind. He struck the edge of the lowest wooden step, and he sat up, dazed, rubbing his forehead.
Miranda stood in front of him, face like a thundercloud, the scatlock cape in pieces around her feet.
‘You!’ she shouted. ‘What were you thinking of? You brainless twit!’
‘I was trying to catch a ghoul,’ Benjamin protested as Miranda came forward, hands bunched into fists. Benjamin put up his own hand to protect himself as a warm wind struck his face. He winced as an ache flared where the cat statue had scratched him.
‘What ghoul? What are you talking about?’
Wilhelm came running down the stairs. He stopped a couple of steps from the bottom, but Miranda still towered over him, her flaming hair like a fire at the top of a tall building. One strand stuck straight up like the nearly invisible wire of a puppeteer’s controls.
Miranda glanced from one boy to the other. ‘Benjamin? You two were in on this together? What did I tell you about hanging around with him?’
Benjamin wanted to tell her that she had no right to pick his friends for him and that he agreed with her, but her expression forbade him to open his mouth.
‘What’s going on?’
‘I saw a ghoul. We were on the way to see the teachers when we heard a noise—’
‘Storybook rubbish.’
Wilhelm bent down and picked up a piece of the destroyed scatlock cape. He held it out to Miranda, eyes wide, while a wisp of smoke rose from a charred corner of the blanket.
‘So is magic,’ he said in a small, frightened voice.
18
The Teachers’ Apartments
‘I have no intention of forgiving you,’ Miranda said, glaring at Wilhelm, who was at least a head shorter and looked significantly younger. ‘And you’—she turned to Benjamin—‘you’ve disappointed me. I thought you would choose better company.’
‘Hang on a minute! You can’t talk, running off and leaving me!’
‘I had a good reason.’
‘What?’
Miranda turned on Wilhelm. ‘You be quiet. And don’t let me hear you say the “M” word again. If someone hears you, we’ll both get tossed over the edge of the world.’
‘So you did use it, didn’t you?’
Miranda gave a vehement shake of her head. ‘I don’t know what it is, only that it happens … sometimes. When I’m angry, usually.’
‘Well, make sure you use it if we run into a
nother ghoul.’
‘What ghoul? What are you talking about?’
Benjamin explained what had happened to him after he had left the Locker Room. He decided not to mention the phone call, and instead, told them he had seen the ghoul while looking at the sky through the window.
When he was finished, Miranda gave a frustrated sigh. ‘So what if you did see a ghoul? What are you going to do now?’
‘We’re going to tell a teacher.’
‘They won’t believe you. And they won’t appreciate being woken up at this time of night. It’s nearly midnight.’
Benjamin stifled a yawn. ‘I know.’
‘Didn’t you hear that alarm call?’ Wilhelm said. ‘They’re all in a special meeting right now. They might be talking about the ghoul. We have to tell them we saw it.’
‘Benjamin saw it.’
Wilhelm shrugged. ‘Guilty by association. Look, we might get a reward or something. If you want in on it, you can come with us. You can protect us with your magic.’
‘Don’t say that word! Remember the Oath!’
‘The Oath is a load of rubbish. I had my fingers crossed the whole time.’
Miranda looked from one to the other. Wilhelm winked at her, provoking a scowl. Benjamin just shrugged.
‘Just for the record,’ she said, ‘I hate you, and I’ve begun to go off you, too.’ She glared first at Wilhelm, and then at Benjamin. ‘But it’s better if we stick together. Just in case. We’ll go and tell the teachers what Benjamin saw, then go back to the dorms together. Deal?’
‘Sounds good,’ Benjamin said. ‘Except that I’m supposed to go to the Locker Room to do a thousand cleans for leaving the bathroom window open. Even though I’m sure I didn’t.’
‘Don’t worry,’ Miranda said. ‘The teachers will probably let you off after this.’ Wilhelm grinned and held up a hand, looking for a high-five. Miranda ignored him. ‘No more stupid surprise attacks, though.’
Before either Benjamin or Wilhelm could reply, she strode off toward the middle corridor, head held high.
