Night of the Living Bacteria [Old version]

Chapter Eleven (Part Two)

(Ashley POV) 

Olivia found an old, chewed piece of gum under the water fountain and swabbed that instead. Soon after we return, the bell chimes, indicating the end of the school day. I grab my bag and run up the stairs, pretending to walk away, but hiding outside the door. I wait for what seems like an hour until everyone leaves. Then, I walk back down the stairs, groping through the darkness for a light switch. Soon, the room is flooded with white light. I spot a flashlight on the desk at the front of the room and grab it; thinking I might need it for this 'little adventure.' Then, I walk to the back wall panel and find the indented part of the wall. I press my hand against the cool white paint, watching as the wall sinks inward, replacing itself with the door handle. This time, I flick on the flashlight and cautiously step into the darkness. The door closes behind me, sending a cloud of dust up from the floor. The flashlight casts an eerie glow over the tunnel I'm in. I walk down the steps into a tall-ceiling-ed tunnel, leading straight ahead of me. My footsteps echo, creating a strange sound. I look up at the ceiling, noticing the blue marks, red ones too. Some kind of inscription. I think. I walk for a few minutes; I have no idea which direction I'm heading in, but soon, I come into another wide room, more tunnels leading into it. The floor is dusty, but I notice tiles, an unusual pure white color. A circular skylight at the top feeds strange sunlight, almost like it's passing through two sheets of glass, casts slivers of sunlight into the dark room, each one landing in front of a different tunnel. Darkness suddenly flashes over the skylight, and I realize that it's the circular 'mystery mineral' in the main entrance. Someone's standing over it. When they walk away, I look at the positions of the tunnels. This must lead to a different part around the school campus. I think. My phone makes a small chiming noise. Someone must have texted me. I ignore it, walking down one of the other tunnels, plunging into total darkness again. I walk for a long time before I see a trapdoor up ahead, an old, wooden ladder leading up to it. Carefully, I climb up the ladder, pressing my ear to the trapdoor, listening to make sure nobody's around. It's silent. I think. I slide the large metal lock aside and push the trapdoor open. A small pile of leaves rains down on me. When I shake the leaves off of myself and look around, I'm in the middle of the woods, on a trail the teachers showed us earlier this month. I clamber over the trapdoor and shut it firmly, covering it with leaves again. All this time, I was this far under the ground?! I think. Strangely, the thought excites me. The trees sway and more leaves rain down around me. I should head back. I think. If I'm gone too long, I'll get in trouble. I get down on my hands and knees, opening the trapdoor carefully, and I'm halfway into it when I hear crunching leaves. Hurrying, I slide all the way in and close the latch to it. Sighing, I turn on the flashlight again. That was close. I make my way back through the tunnels, being careful to remember the position that each one was following the sunlight. Soon, I notice numbers over them. 1-12. 12 tunnels. Strange. I walk down the one marked 4. The familiar stairs leading to the secluded basement tell me that I'm back where I started. I walk up to the door, finding the handle is missing, and the piece of wall from the outside of the room is where the handle should be. Commotion floats in from the doorway; I can't go out the way I came in. I tear back through the tunnel, my footsteps echoing against the walls. I find the tunnel across from tunnel 4, the one I'd run into earlier. Tunnel 8. I make my way a bit slower through the tunnel, but I stop. My flashlight's battery is running out. The only light left is in the main room. I'll have to go back there. I think, turning around. As I walk back, I hear voices, I can't tell who they are, but they're getting closer. Then, I run straight into someone, no, two people? and topple to the stone floor. Then, a brighter beam of light cascades over my face. I cover my eyes, attempting to see who it is, but the glare of the light prevents me from seeing their faces.

"Ashley?" Olivia's voice comes from one of the silhouettes I see in front of me. "What are you....did you know about these?"

"N-no, I just found them today and I wanted to see where they led," I say, struggling to my feet. "There wasn't any signal down here and I almost got caught by another student so I couldn't text you guys. I was about to head back, but I thought I heard other people's voices outside the door."

"Well, what is this place?"

"I don't-wait," I say, unzipping my book bag and grabbing the spellbook. I open to a page marked "cuniculos-The Tunnels" There's a picture showing the exact shape of the main room; a dodecagon. Twelve doors branch out on each side, the same as in the drawing. Though, another thing catches my eye. There's a drawing of some sort in the central room, almost like a circle. Wait. I've read about these before. "It's a magic circle."

"What are those?" Jayden asks.

"They're used to cast spells in witchcraft," I reply, a slight excitement gnawing at me. "We've wandered into a sacred land; witches used to live here," I say. 

"And, judging by how this looks, there were quite a lot of them."