Red Sky

Chapter 3: John

Chapter 3: John

The lobby of the abandoned building greatly contrasted the exterior; the floors were made of extravagant marble, and stone columns lined up on both sides. These columns extended high up to the elegant arched roof over us and led to two massive wooden doors. These doors reached up to the arch; there was a bolt that ran through the doors that made it obvious that whatever was behind them was restricted.

            “Welcome to your new home, boys.” Ms. Wilson said as she turned around to face us. She had a smile on her face; it wasn’t the warm happy smile that regular people displayed. It seemed more like a sneer, I saw Will shiver next to me. She didn’t scare me though, her eyes gave it away. There was coldness in her eyes but I could tell it wasn’t malevolent, it was sadness. I wondered what was making her so sad and why she was pretending, I didn’t dare ask her.

Ms. Wilson led us to the end of the lobby in front of the large doors, there were two elaborate stairways on either side of the doors that inclined upwards and disappeared into corridors behind the tall doors.

“Up there is where your dorm room will be,” Ms. Wilson pointed towards one of the stairways. “Now, both these stairways lead to the same place, they lead to the elevators. The dorms are on various levels of this building, you two will be on the 7th floor.”

“Um… Ms. Wilson?” I hesitantly put up a weak hand.

“What is it Jonathan?” There was that glare again, it was frightening but there was something else there.

“What’s behind those doors?” I asked getting a little nervous now; maybe I had overstepped my bounds. Will was giving me a look of fear as if I had just said my last words before an execution.

“You don’t need to worry about that yet Jonathan, it’ll be alright.” I was surprised at the soft tone she used and the warm expression on her face; I was expecting one of her usual heartless responses. “Come on now, this way.” She quickly hardened her expression and started up one of the stairways. Will and I followed right behind her.

“What do you think is behind those doors Will?” I was speaking in a low voice so Ms. Wilson wouldn’t hear.

“It’s restricted, don’t do anything foolish mate. We just got here.”

“Don’t worry, I’m just curious.”

We finally reached the top of the stairs and were faced with dozens of elevators lined up along an extremely large circular corridor most of which disappeared into the distance.

“Now this is where I part, your room number is 707. Your packs and clothes have already been delivered there.” Ms. Wilson handed us two keys, one for each of us. “Remember, orientation begins in one hour. Everyone will be meeting at the lobby, don’t be late.” With those words and a stern stare, Ms. Wilson left in a hurry back towards the lobby.

When we reached the seventh floor, we had to walk through a tunnel after we got off the elevator. It led to a heavy automatic door that swished open to the side when we approached it. It was very odd. The demeanour of this floor was dramatically different from the lobby; somehow it didn’t feel like it was part of the same building. It was really bright in here but yet there were no windows anywhere. The floors and ceiling were bright white, it all looked so clean despite the fact that they all were made of metal. Our feet clunked as we made our way to room 707.

Our dorm wasn’t too hard to find, we just followed a sign from the elevator. There were a lot of elevators and corridors on this floor. I wondered how many children like us are here, there must be a lot since this is such a large building. After passing many elevators and children running around, we finally reached the corridor where our room was. Will was walking in front of me; he could barely contain his excitement as we reached our door.