Aerie's Fallen Immortal

Chapter 21

"Hey." Aerie said softly, "My stomach been hurting a little."

"What?" Brian said, "Now? Is it the really bad kind or...?"

"Not really that bad, guess I am simply over worried." Aerie said, "I have— a bad feeling. A very bad one."

Brian laughed, "Don't worry. We have done this before more times than you could ever imagine. There won't be any physical dangers."

"Still—" Aerie said, "we aren't one hundred percent certain."

"It'll be fun and you won't regret after its done." Lily said, opening the door that leads them to the vent that they can fit one by one. "And you know, now that we have a larger campus than before, that means that the run would be sooo much more thrilling!"

Aerie laughed as she ran out of stuff to say. She darted at the figure that she saw the moment before, and it was gone already. Aerie looked around for the figure that was the size of her index finger— a black shadow wandering behind them. But she could not find anything suspicious. "Maybe its only me."

"Hey, the vent's open." Lily said, "you'll be taking the lead, Brian. You're the one who have the map."

"Great." Brian said, and dug his head into the tunnel first, and then his whole body went in shortly afterwards. Lily went next, throwing her screw aside. Aerie went last. She cautiously closed the door and kicked the ladder under them to make it fall, and was relieved when it did not make a big noise and caught unwanted attention.

When the window was closed and was made sure that the screws weren't tightened, they made their way down the tunnel. It was pretty narrow at first, just like they expected. Only one could fit squeezing through at a time, and occasionally there would be dust falling onto their heads. If they were lucky enough, Aerie thought. The might actually not meet any cockroaches on their way.

But the situation soon got a to better when they were in the heart of the vents. They could stand properly now, and the way was much easier to walk through. They could even chat and laugh and hear their echos echoing around the metal walls as they went.

They knew they were near the exit when the vent was narrow once again, and a cold breeze, which should be the air conditioning, blew onto their faces and made Aerie held tight onto her clothes.

"Hey." Lily said softly, "there's nobody there. We can go now."

"But we are fifteen minutes early," Aerie said, "don't you think that they might have a chance to come back in any case."

"So we are going to wait here for fifteen minutes?" Brian said, "No way! Its cold in here and we would be ice sticks before we know."

"Exactly." Aerie said, "the air conditioning is on. That means that someone would be here, right? We are risking ourselves."

"I'm gonna take the risk." Brian said, and took a screw from his pocket. He started with the nails on the left, slowing unscrewing one by one and put them into his pocket, "I can't wait anymore."

Aerie watched Brian wrecking the vent window, fascinated. And all of a sudden, Aerie didn't feel the cold anymore. Her worry was boiling inside her. Even with the cold, the freezing air that came from the vents, she sweated.

"Let's go." Brian said, "I'll search in the storage room first. Its always the place that had the most electricity lines that had the most mysterious stuff. You know, those can make compasses go wrong?"

"Yeah yeah." Aerie said, "But I don't feel good about it."

"You will be missing so much fun!" Brian said, and leaped into the room, landing on the concrete ground with a big crash. "You can stay there if you want Aerie."