“What are you doing here?” Scottie asked, wishing he could see the girl’s face.
“I could ask you the same thing, but I won’t. Do you know what happened?”
“Uh, the power went out?” He couldn’t let her know what he’d done – bragging was the quickest way to get caught. He’d learned that the hard way once or twice. Because of this, he was a master at playing dumb. He could tell the truth, no problem, but the whole truth was a different story. It was honest, except that it wasn’t. It was brilliant.
“You’re a bright one, eh? Do you know why?”
“Do you?” He still hadn’t lied, something he was very careful about doing.
“No. I heard a girl singing and a soon as I stepped out of the studio the light got cut. Wow, listen to her. She’s still going. That’s incredible.”
“Damn, who is that?”
“Let’s go see.”
And so, the two of them stumbled down the pitch-black hallway together in search of this mysterious girl and her piano player. She was in a small classroom near the end of the hall, in a group of rooms situated on a sort of island. Two classrooms, three offices, a storage room, and the women’s restrooms were on the island, such that they didn’t touch the outside in any way. It also so happened that they were unaffected by the security system, which only locked doors which had a means, through an emergency exit, to the outside.
Just outside the door to the classroom, Scottie and Cedar ran into a third person: Sabrina. She still hadn’t recovered from the lights going out, though she had somehow made it out of the bathroom. She was going towards the voice, just as the other two were. When she saw them, or rather, saw their eyes, she screamed, a high-pitched ear-piercer that made the others jump and Joy stop singing.
“Todd, what was that?” Joy opened her eyes, but realized that it made no difference. She couldn’t see anything.
“The power went out. Somebody was screaming.”
“How long ago did it go out?”
“Two or three minutes, I’m not sure. I don’t count when I’m playing.” What he meant, though, was that he couldn’t focus on anything else when she was singing. It was like his whole world revolved around her for those few moments, and nothing else existed.
“Why didn’t you say something?”
“Should we see who screamed? Nobody’s supposed to be in here.” He changed the subject as smoothly as possible, which wasn’t very. They opened the door and he placed his hand on her shoulder, hoping she wouldn’t pull away. She didn’t, surprisingly. Three pairs of eyes stared back at them.
“Who’s out there?” The five quickly exchanged names, but without being able to see one another, names were pointless.
“The generator should have kicked on by now. These buildings have emergency lights,” Todd said, trying to reassure everyone. He was the calm one, the solid rock, as Joy described him. But she wasn’t looking for a solid rock. She’d made that clear enough in the past.
“They would have come on by now,” Sabrina said, her voice shaking with fear.
“She’s right, actually,” Scottie said, smirking to himself. He just had to find his way to the door and he’d be out of here, on his way to a beach party with more beer than even he’d know what to do with. And with beer, there were always hot girls. And with hot girls, there were always less hot, more desperate friends. It was his kind of party.
“Which way is out?” Sabrina asked, not knowing which direction to turn. It was so dark she couldn’t even see her hands shaking in front of her face.
“Just walk along the edges and start trying doors. The ones to the outside will open.” Todd said.
The five split up and walked the whole perimeter, but no doors opened. They were all locked from the outside and wouldn’t budge. Scottie said a few choice things that made Joy cringe. Sabrina would have said something rude about how immature he was, but she wasn’t thinking clearly. All she wanted was to get out of this building. She knew she hated Thursdays for a reason.
“Why won’t the doors open?” Cedar asked, but no one had answer.
“I have a master key,” Sabrina whispered, and the others yelled at her in frustration.
“Why didn’t you say something before?” Todd asked, his voice level.
“I don’t know…”
“Hand it to me.”
He tried it in all the doors along the perimeter, but nothing happened. He found that he could open the doors on the island, and they crowded into the storage room, which was closer to a closet than anything else.
“I think I found…Yes, I did.” Todd clicked on a flashlight, and everyone sighed in relief. He flashed it over everyone’s faces slowly, getting a good look at everyone.
“Hey,” Sabrina said, pointing at Scottie. “I know you. You’re one of those kids in my religion class that always pisses the teacher off. Do you have any idea how incredibly frustrating you are?”
He shrugged, noticing that she was the annoying assistant that he was supposed to be keeping out of the theater. He’d obviously done his job. And you know what? She wasn’t too bad looking, if she loosened up a little.
They left the store room, trying to find other ways out of the building. They heard something crash, and Sabrina screamed again.
“What was that?”
“What, haven’t you ever heard of the Pengilly ghost before?” Scottie asked, smiling to himself. He was going to enjoy scaring her.
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