by Gabby Fawkes
Kian grabbed me. “Seriously – even if we can make it through, once we’re inside we’ll have no clue about our bearings.”
“And how do we know Cody wasn’t just screwing with us?” Demi said.
I paused. They both had a point. Cody having us break into the abandoned section just for shits and giggles wouldn’t be beneath him.
The abandoned section also took up a whole half of the third floor, so going in directionless was dicey. But we didn’t have time to regroup or come up with a better idea.
“This is the only way,” I said, crouching down on my stomach.
The hole near the ground looked maybe big enough. Maybe.
“Tala,” Kian said sharply.
“I’m fine,” I said, wriggling myself in deeper, my eyes still not adjusted to the gloom. Venturing further into the near-opaque black, I could hit anything – or anyone. But next second I was through, and whispering to the others, “C’mon.”
“Fine,” Kian said, in the pained tones of someone very put-upon. “But I swear, if we see or hear any sketchy shit, I’m outta here. I love Jer, but not enough to die.”
“Chill,” I said, straightening up as I got the compact mirror out of my pocket. Only when I snapped it open and the pale light glanced on my surroundings did my heart stop smacking into my chest. I exhaled. “There’s nothing here.”
Nothing, unless you counted prolific specimens of spider webs and dust bunnies.
Behind me, Kian was clambering with much grumbling. She let out a final triumphant sigh once she was through. Demi was quick after her: on hands and knees, squeezing her body into the gap. She rose, giving us a smiled thumbs-up. Now it was the three of us, staring at the two possible ways we could go – left or right.
Kian huffed, while Demi said, “Don’t say it.”
“Splitting up is the fastest way to find Jer,” I confirmed.
Demi was looking down the left hallway. “What about Cody’s directions?”
“This is on the opposite side of the school,” I said, peering through the gloom beside her. “Can you figure it out?”
“No,” she admitted.
A pause, in which there was no denying it. We’d have to split up.
“You two go together then,” I told them. “I’ll take the left hallway. We can meet back here – either with Jeremy or without.”
“Okay,” Demi and Kian chorused, clearly relieved not to be alone.
“Just be careful, all right?” Demi said.
“Yeah, yeah,” I said. “You guys too.”
Already I’d set off, before I had a chance to second-guess myself.
Just a few steps and I realized I’d made a very stupid mistake. What if I got caught? My friends would never know, could even get caught themselves. Even if this was faster, at what cost?
A glance back found no sign of them – the dark had swallowed them as completely as if they were never there.
And ahead of me…
The shadows had engorged, taken on shapes. To my left was a crumple that could’ve been anything – man, beast, monster. The tall, thick shadow further away was a half-living something, just waiting for me to stumble near…
I tried to open my mouth to call out, but nothing happened. I was frozen. Speechless. Shaking overtook me.
I was alone. Sweat swelled on my nape, danced down my back.
Shit. If anything happened to me, would they ever know?
My hand darted in my pocket, before remembering. Nothing. Nothing but me and…
Fear not, I shall allow nothing to harm us!
Great, me and my psycho burn-happy voice.
I resent that.
I took out the lit-up compact mirror and opened it. The light spilling ahead of me revealed that the crumple was a slumped garbage bag, whose contents I was more than happy to stay ignorant of. The tall, thick shadow was a rolled-up carpet.
I took another breath, then a step forward.
There, that wasn’t so bad.
I took another step, then another, and walked further into the dark depths.
I didn’t need to look back to know that I’d missed my chance to call out to my friends and change my mind. After my mini panic attack, they were long gone by now, and it would waste too much time trying to go after them. There was no turning back.
Walking along, I closed the compact mirror since there was some meager illumination from the moonlight peering through rags of curtains. It lit up chairs on their sides, peeled-paint walls, doors, nothing.
Questions buzzed around my head. How would I even know if I came to the Room? It wasn’t like there’d be a sign identifying it. Would it even be lit up like Cody said?
When the first door came into view, trying its knob got me nothing.
My teeth ground together. This could be the Room for all I knew – it wasn’t like there was a window or anything for me to see what the hell was inside.
Looking at my hand, I found my fingertips edged with dust. Whatever was in that room, no one had been in there for a long while. That couldn’t be it.
As I continued on, some scrabble-shuttered windows came into view, sending more moonlight glinting on something. Some metallic thing that was contorted in ways that didn’t make sense. In some places it was blackened and, as I ran my fingers along it, a shiver went through me.
Hello, old friend, the voice inside me purred.
Something was twisting in me, something almost like recognition or worse – memory. But before it could settle into a form, I speed-walked away.
Screw that – there was no point in seeing that maybe Cody had been right, that whatever this weirdo metallic thing was, the charred part seemed familiar somehow.
Even as I hurried on with my gaze fixed ahead, though, there was no avoiding glimpses of the other things I passed. Chairs reduced to splinters, desks with horrific gashes in them, an armchair fractured so badly it was hardly recognizable. Obviously, the furniture hadn’t been created like this… which begged the question, what had done this to them?
Another shiver. What if, in the Room there was…
I shook my head. Nope, not thinking about that.
Thankfully, by now my attention was on something at once promising and troubling.
Light.
Not a lot, but since it seemed to be from further off, that made sense.
Forcing my feet on was becoming increasingly difficult. What was I going to find there – would it really be the Room or something else? And if there was some creature inside, how was I going to get past it to Jeremy?
I rubbed my hands over my goose bump-studded arms. For some reason, touching my birthmarks always comforted me. The red three lines on either forearm looked far from comforting, but they were all I had of where I’d come from.
By now, the destroyed furniture had dwindled down, while the illumination was swollen onto the ceiling. It was grated, almost like trap doors that could open…
My mind clicked through options of what rooms were on the floor above: the Latin classroom, some of the younger kids’ classrooms and… the Sleep Room.
A shiver went through me. No one ever remembered what went on in there, although some kids claimed to hear roaring and screaming coming from it. Admin told us it was just sleep tests, tests to see how we were progressing, how our brains lit up on screens, stuff like that.
I approached the source of the illumination. A lit-up rectangle in a door that had to be it.
I sucked in a breath, my fingers settling around the cool metal of the knob. So, this was the Room…
Trying to twist it didn’t budge it. It was locked, of course.
A “shit” escaped my lips. Why hadn’t I thought to ask for one of Kian’s bobby pins? That was how she worked her door-opening magic. And while replicating it would’ve been tricky, doing it without bobby pins was impossible.
Fire eats door for breakfast, ah? the voice said helpfully.
Ignoring it, I stood on tiptoe to see through the plated glass. W
hat was there made my breath leave me. What wasn’t there, rather. In the middle of its hyper-lit mint-green walls was a single chair.
An empty one.
11
Running back, I found Kian and Demi fast. Back at out meeting place.
“Anything?” Demi said. “All we found was a trove of textbooks from the ‘60s and a nasty bathroom that looks like it was from then, too.”
I swallowed. “I found the Room. Jeremy’s not there.”
“No,” Kian groaned.
“Yes. The room had green walls and a single chair, just how Cody said.”
I decided not to mention all the contorted furniture I’d seen on the way – right now we had enough to worry about with Jeremy still missing.
“If he’s not there,” Kian said slowly, rotating the closed compact mirror in her hand, “that means…”
“He must’ve been transferred,” I said.
As that sunk in, I could barely breathe. Part of me wanted the others to argue with me more, demand to see the Room themselves, blurt out what we had to do.
But they said nothing.
“We have to get out of here,” I whispered. “We’re next.”
“Tonight?” Demi said dubiously.
“Right now,” I said.
She opened her mouth, then closed it.
“Carthago delenda est,” Kian said. “I’m in.”
“Corvus oculum corvi non eruit,” Demi declared, and, as we eyed her blankly, explained, “’A crow will not pull out the eye of another crow.’ Been waiting for a while to use that one.”
“Is that one from Mildred’s personal Latin supply or what?” Kian retorted.
“Not the time, guys,” I said. “We’ve gotta go. Back entrance?”
“Considering only Jarvis uses it and loves me, that’s our best bet,” Kian agreed.
“That one time you gave him a cookie and he actually smiled, and now he loves you?” I said dubiously.
“C’mon,” Demi urged us, setting out ahead of us.
I tried not to think about how the back entrance was the one with the cracked glass door – the one we were supposed to meet Aerwyna at if things had gone according to her original escape plan.
Once we slid out the plank-door way we’d come, we raced down several flights of stairs and hallways until we were nearly there. Within a hallway of it, when Kian grabbed my arm and yanked me back around the corner.
“Look,” she hissed.
I peered around to see something that had me jolting my head back as fast as possible. There, in the back-entrance hallway, were what looked to be the Headmistress’ cats. All ten of them.
I chanced a look around the corner again. Silhouetted in the door window was a head.
We took off. It was obvious where we were headed – the front doors were the only other way out. And they usually kept them open, as far as I knew.
I knew wrong. Slamming into the doors seconds later, I yanked – and the sigh bottled up in my throat burst free.
“No!” I said, slapping both palms onto it.
“No, no, no!” Kian wailed, giving it a kick too.
“Guys,” Demi said franticly, “We have to…”
And that was when we heard the clop-clop-clop.
We ran. Our feet pounded into the floor as we booked it into the atrium and up a flight of steps. Saying “hurry – she’ll catch us” would’ve been pointless, it was obvious from the cheerful clop of the Headmistress’s stupid shoes, never far behind.
Damnit, and we’d been so close! We maybe could’ve even headed to the back entrance, whose doors I was pretty sure were open.
But it was too late now. We’d panicked and gone for the second floor. We‘d have to head to our room.
We ran up another flight of stairs and countless hallways, not daring to look back. We barreled into our room and flung ourselves into our beds.
Half a minute later, the clops stopped outside our doorway. The door creaked a bit, then caught. A pause that seemed to stretch forever. I hardly dared breathe.
Until, finally, the clops sounded, growing fainter.
Only once there was complete silence did Kian whisper, “I wedged my Latin textbook in the door.”
“Thank John,” I murmured, frowning.
This was his fault, in a roundabout way. John was the one who’d created this shitacular school in the first place, been pompous enough to think that it would be some kind of sanctuary for unwanted orphans. When it was actually a weird, screwed-up prison.
“What are we going to do?” Demi said.
“We should’ve just run away right then and there,” Kian said, shaking her head.
“Crap, you had that idea too?” I said. “I thought if I rerouted us…”
Kian groaned.
“It’s okay,” Demi said, then, more firmly, “But what are we going to do?”
“The only thing we can,” I said. “Wait until tomorrow.”
“But–” Kian began.
“Tala’s right,” Demi said, her normally breathy voice oddly sharp. “She Who Does Not Wish to be Named suspects us already – she chased us to our freaking door, Kian. Now, she’ll have guards patrolling the hallway, may even be lingering nearby herself.”
Kian let out another groan, but said nothing. There was no arguing with facts. And the fact was, we’d already had a close shave tonight – there was no way we’d get away with another one.
“Goodnight then,” Demi said quietly after a minute.
“Goodnight,” Kian and I chorused dully.
I lay on my side, staring at the wall. There was no point in stating the obvious. That we’d only put off the inevitable. Bought ourselves some time to figure out how to escape without getting caught.
The next morning passed eerily uneventfully. I kept expecting to be called in or hear an announcement about Jeremy, but none came. No, it wasn’t until Latin class that the double bomb dropped.
“Hello all, this is your Headmistress speaking. This announcement is to inform all students that Jeremy Renfrew has been transferred to another facility. Also, will Tala Highwater, Kian Garcia and Demi John please come to the office immediately. Thank you.”
I sat there, rooted to the spot. All of us to the office?
Jenna’s musical laughter broke me out of my trance.
Kill me now, this was it. Whenever people got called to the office they had one thing in common–they were in deep, deep shit. The kind that made you disappear.
LET THEM TRY AND MOVE US, the voice roared in my head, LET THEM USE THEIR PUNY MIGHT TO ATTEMPT WHAT THEY MAY, I’LL…
Demi’s and Kian’s faces were bloodless, blinking. But it was Miss Mildred’s glittering skinny-toothed smile that was the most damning of all. “You heard the Headmistress. To the office with you.”
As I got up, I couldn’t stop my gaze from straying to my classmates. Timmy was fascinated with a bald patch on the wood grain of his desk, while Marley was tracing a circle round and round on her sheet. It was same with the others. No one would look at us. Probably since they were thinking what we were – this was the last time we’d be here.
Out in the hallway, my friends and I stopped. I headed down the opposite direction.
Kian grabbed me. “What are you doing?” she said. “Her office is that way.”
“Exactly,” I said, starting at a run the opposite way. “This is our last chance to make it out.”
I wasn’t about to get shipped off to who-knew-where without a fight.
I was running for the back entrance we’d tried to escape from yesterday. As unlikely as it was, our only chance was if they weren’t guarding it now.
Rounding the corner, we shrieked to a halt. A troop of six guards strode toward us purposefully. Even though their faces were expressionless, there was no doubt why they’d been sent – to stop us from escaping.
“Run!” Demi cried, as if we needed any more encouragement.
12
We couldn’t run down the hallway to
the Headmistress’ office – that way was a dead end. The only place left to go was back where we’d been.
“Tala, what are you-!” Kian yelled, but raced after me into the classroom nonetheless.
“Ladies – did you not hear the announcement?” Miss Mildred was shrieking, coming at us with hands like claws. “To the office!”
I didn’t wait around to see if she’d forcibly grab us; I raced past the desks for the windows.
One was open, showing a nice day. Although it still had a screen between us and outside.
A look back found the guards at the door, advancing fast.
Cody leapt up. “We’ll hold them off. Go!”
He lifted his desk and chucked it at the oncoming guards.
Next second, the room was chaos. Every student was on their feet shouting. Hulda picked up two desks at once and hurled them, while Owen chucked one chair after the next at the oncoming guards.
My brain didn’t have time to process all this. Whirling back to the window, I kicked in the screen, then stepped out onto the ledge outside.
I swallowed as my gaze fell. Yep, that was a loooong way down – leg-breakingly long.
“Tala,” Demi shrilled.
I stepped to the next window’s ledge, giving her space to get out. I crouched, looking down. The next floor’s window ledges were close enough – had to be. Steading myself with my hand, I dipped my foot down and – Thank John – my foot made contact on the next ledge.
In this level’s classroom was a science class, with one small girl with pigtails who goggled at me.
The wind whipped through my hair. Don’t fall, don’t you dare fall.
May I remind you that if your blockheaded self dies, I perish too.
I continued the perilous descent, calling up to Demi and Kian, “You can do this, guys – we’re so close!”
If only I could believe it myself. But I tensed all my concentration on what I was doing, and, next thing I knew, my foot was connecting with blessed ground. Demi and Kian were quick to join me.
“C’mon!” I yelled, my feet gaining traction on the grass as I sprinted for the forest.
