It was impossible for them to be completely silent as they approached. There was no real security. No fence, no gate. Just wooden boards plastered on the windows. To avoid being spotted by anyone on the main road, they made their way around to the back of the building, across the overgrown grass that scratched against their ankles.
Once they were no longer visible to anyone on the main road, they switched on their flashlights. Two between the four of them. The beams of light revealed wood on the floor, torn away from one of the windows. As far as Piper was concerned, it was a dark portal to hell. Nothing good stood on the other side of the wall.
"So... who wants to go first? Any takers?" asked Kristen, hoping to elicit at least a chuckle, but she was met with silence before Martin finally stepped forward.
"Good man." Kristen waited for him to squeeze through and got the all clear. She put her hands on the old, cracked window frame and hoisted herself through the gap. She watched as Aadesh wriggled through and fell ungracefully onto the floor. For some reason, she almost burst out laughing, but managed to suppress it. She peered out at Piper, who shuffled on the grass.
"Are you coming? You could always keep watch?" Kristen suggested before she realized that she didn't think it was a good idea to leave her alone. Although, if someone watched the exit, she might be able to see Connor if he tried to escape.
"No way are you leaving me out here on my own. I'll take my chances in there," she whispered and maneuvered herself through the space. It was that inky kind of blackness that seemed to move and shift in front of your eyes. It was a darkness that seemed alive. The flashlight illuminated a mural on the wall of people playing instruments and dust particles danced in the beam of light like tiny little flies.
A damp, musty smell plagued the air around them and Kristen covered her mouth with a thin scarf when she noticed the black mold that crept from one corner to another. A constant drip, drip, drip, persisted in the background like a light drumbeat, a sound so light that every now and then, they had to ask themselves if they were imagining it.
"Left or right? We need to make sure we search the whole place from top to bottom."
"We could flip a coin?" Aadesh offered.
"Right. Let's go right." Kristen took the lead, unable to take her eyes off of the painted people on the mural. Most people found children's paintings endearing, but this one looked like something Hieronymus Bosch would have come up with. They passed a wall lined with empty, half-open lockers, and the sound of their footsteps drifted down the empty hallway. If someone else was there, it is likely that they would be able to hear the footsteps.
What if it was a trap, leading them to their demise? How would she feel being responsible for the death of three innocent people? For all they knew, his step-sister could have been in on it somehow. Every single doubt pelted her in the gut at full velocity. "Maybe we shouldn't be doing this," she said in a shaky voice.
"We have come this far. We can't back out now." Martin tried to keep the fear from his own voice, as from what he knew of fear, it was contagious. The half blue and half yellow walls looked bright under the flashlight but just two shades of gray without. With each new room they passed, one of them would open the door, slowly and cautiously. No matter how gently they opened them, the doors would creak with lack of use.
They shined their flashlights into the rooms, scanning them from one end to the other. Desk chairs littered the classrooms. Some upright, some tipped over with the legs pointing into the air like the limbs of a beetle stuck on its back. Aadesh jumped back as something crunched under his foot.
"What was that?" In her panic, Kristen's voice came out as a hiss. The flashlight revealed it was just a striplight that had fallen down the ceiling and laid in fragments on the floor. As they continued, they reached a set of stairs. It was not time to go up yet, not until they had searched the entire ground floor. Besides, it felt safer when they could be sure of the nearest exit, and the further they strayed from it, the more nervous they became. As they walked past the stairwell, a noise traveled through the air like a shock wave, and they froze.
"Shit." Martin whispered. "This is it."
"Not necessarily. It could be teenagers messing around, it could be a homeless person," Aadesh suggested.
None of them found Aadesh's words particularly comforting, and they started ascending the steps, slowly at first, as if trying to resist whatever awaited them. Martin couldn't handle it anymore: the not knowing, the anticipation. He picked up his pace. Whatever the noise was, he wanted to know now and to get it over with. For all he knew, it could have just been a squirrel or some other harmless animal.
When he got to the top of the stairs, he flattened himself against the wall. There was still a noise, something, or someone, shuffling about. The sound was coming from his right and he took short sideways steps and urged the others to do the same. He wasn't taking any chances. Kristen passed him the
