Lana talked in low tones to Meeks and Pitts in the dorm hall as the evening parade of prebedtime activity occurred around them. Boys moved about the hallway in pyjamas and carried pillows under one arm and books under the other. Lana pulled her dry toothbrush from her mouth, said goodbye to Meeks and Pitts and then headed back down the hallway and to her dorm room where the noise was beginning to fade. She quickly tidied the mess she had made that week, grabbed a book from the pile and then sat on her bed, ready to read until she had to pretend to be asleep.
It was a black leather-bound book, with scratches and faded patches covering the spine and cover, and the red lettering across the spine read; 'The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe'. She had contemplated picking up 'Leaves of Grass' by Walt Whitman, but she didn't want her feelings hurt tonight, she wanted to indulge in the supernatural (and possibly use some things from Poe's stories to scare Charlie).
She stretched out on her bed and began reading the thin yellowed pages of the old text. She read for about an hour, vaguely aware of the hallway sounds falling silent, doors no longer slamming shut. There goes Dr Hager; he's still up, Lana thought, hearing the resident dorm marshal shuffling up and down the hallway, making sure everyone was quiet.
Several hours later, certain that everyone was deep in sleep, the boys met Lana outside of her dorm room, deep in their coats and a pair of gloves, unsure of how cold the basement was going to be, and Meeks had found flashlights to guide the way.
"Lala!" Charlie whispered as he jogged down the hallway with a taller boy behind him. Lana ignored the newfound nickname Charlie had given her.
"This is Knox Overstreet. He's coming with us."
"Shouldn't we discuss this first?" Pitts questioned Meeks, still worried that they might get caught, but Lana was more than happy to introduce herself with a firm handshake.
"Hi. Lana Paradis. This is Steven Meeks and Gerard Pitts." Lana spoke as she took a flashlight off Meeks and flicked it on the make sure it worked.
They followed her blindly down long corridors and into an old classroom which looked like to be an art room, but it hadn't been touched in a while. They tracked down a long spiral staircase and then walked down a never-ending tunnel with concrete walls and one electricity lightbulb hanging from a wire that looked like it could break at any moment.
"How did you find this place, Lana?" Knox asked, more intrigued than he thought he would be. He looked around.
"I've been on some adventures recently." She replied back, holding her flashlight by her side.
"Where did you find the time?" Meeks asked, amazed.
"I snuck out a lot. Being alone in a dust-filled room does weird things to your brain." She joked with a soft chuckle.
"This place is really creepy, Lana."
"You're not scared, are you, Charlie?"
"Of course not!"
"Good, because I read that someone died down here when Welton Academy was first built. Supposedly, while it was still under construction, someone went rogue and murdered half of the guys on his team, some bodies were found, and some bodies weren't. A lot of them were found in the basement." She lied.
"Are you serious?"
Lana turned around and shone the flashlight at Charlie as she continued walking backwards and smiled at him. "Dead serious."
"You're a horrible person, Lana." Charlie pushed her arm down and stayed close to her side as they continued walking, Meeks and Pitts hanging back and now pretending to have sword fights with the beams of their flashlights as Knox exaggerated a narration.
"I know, it helps me sleep at night." She grabbed Charlie's hand and pulled him along.
Turning toward a large wooden door, Lana pulled a pin from the lapel of her pale brown cardigan, straightened it out and began picking the lock with ease.
"You can pick locks?" Meeks questioned in disbelief as he held the flashlight steady on the lock.
"Pick locks -- pickpockets... it's like riding a bike." The lock clicked a few times and the door swung open as Lana twisted the door handle and rose from her crouched position.
She allowed the boys to enter first before she turned to the lightbox mantled to the wall and pressed each button at a time, flicking on the dim lights that buzzed loudly above them. The lights revealed a large room, around the same side as the gymnasium. It was filled with old instruments, board games, sheets covered in paint, a couch with a white canvas draped over it, and a scratched-up brown leather chair.
"You've really made yourself at home, haven't you?"
"It's where I come when I have nightmares."
"Is that a dart board?" Charlie asked rhetorically. "It is!" He rushed over to the dartboard with Knox following while Lana grabbed ahold of a brown soccer ball and rolled it against the small soccer goal that was pressed against one wall, another one parallel to it. Pitts chased after the ball and Meeks followed him.
Lana sat down on the torn-up chair and watched as Meeks and Pitts kicked the ball into the goal, each taking turns, and Charlie and Knox threw sets of darts at the board, occasionally kicking the ball back to Meeks and Pitts and observing their one-on-one game. The boys spent an hour in the basement, playing different board games and attempting to play the out-of-tune instruments. Lana was happy to watch.
"We'd better get going," Charlie said. "Before you know it, we'll have to be in class." He looked at Lana, waiting for a nod of approval or shake of the head of a dismissal. She nodded as she shivered.
She led them back through the hallways, doors, and spiral staircase and rushed back to their dorms, eager to fall asleep.
"Back to Hellton." Lana mumbled as they climbed the stairs to their dorms, and parted ways.
YOU ARE READING
Wretched Power | 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐏𝐎𝐄𝐓𝐒 𝐒𝐎𝐂𝐈𝐄𝐓𝐘 (BOOK ONE)
Fanfiction(BOOK ONE) Death can cause people to do the unpredictable. Welton Academy didn't house girls. There were no exceptions. Generation after generation after generation of grade-hypnotised men and their sons walked the halls, slept in the beds, and a...
