Tunnel Vision

Chapter 7- Trapped

"Listen, I've had a thought," Gray said as he walked back into his room around nine o'clock. It had taken the day forever to end and Gray had been itching to get some of the questions that kept formulating in his head answered. "Why don't we check the principal's office first and then head to the Confiscation Room? Just to be safe."
"Okay," Rowan smirked.
"What?" Gray said.
"I think you want to play it safe because you're scared."
"Me? Scared? What is there to fear?"
"Oh, I don't know. The dark maybe?"
"I'm not afraid of the dark. I'll prove it too. I'll lead the way."
"Are you sure you're not just leading the way because you think I don't know where I'm going? You know, I've been studying that map all day."
"Just shut up and come on," Gray said as he watched the corners of Rowan's mouth turn up and listed to her laugh softly. He was still confused by what this meant or was, but he found himself liking it. He enjoyed the thought that he might know and understand what it meant shortly after he gave Rowan her music.
The hallway leading to the principal's office was black and empty. Dark shadows wandered in and out of the corridor where Rowan and Gray walked. Gray pressed his thumb on the scanner at the door to the office and it clicked open. He pushed it just wide enough for him and Rowan to slide through. Gray immediately went over to open the drawer in which the principal had placed Rowan's phone. To his disappointment, though, when he slid it back, all he could see was a small box of little black pins.
"Is it there?" Gray looked up at the sound of Rowan's voice, a soothing whisper in a room full of blackness.
"No," Gray responded, knowing he had to take her to the Confiscation Room. "Let's go."
The walk to the Confiscation Room was more confusing than Rowan had expected and she was glad to have Gray as her guide, as she would never have been able to find the way herself. They finally stopped at a large iron door that was three flights of steps below the main school building. Next to the door, there was a small screen that asked for a four digit passcode.
"Don't look," Gray said as he positioned himself in front of the screen. Rowan rolled her eyes impatiently as he typed in the passcode and opened the door. He held it and told her, "There you go, you can find your phone now."
Rowan looked at him blankly. "You want me to go in there alone?"
"Are you scared?"
"No."
"Okay then. There should be a candle stick in there somewhere."
"Thanks a lot," Rowan replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Gray stood with his foot in the door and waited for Rowan. He wanted to leave soon because of the way the Confiscation Room made him feel with its mockery, full of treasures he would never understand. Did it scare him? No. It just made him feel uneasy. Gray crossed his arms as he listened to Rowan moving about the dark room. Suddenly he heard a loud crash, followed by a thud and a spewing of profane words. Then the strangest thing happened. Gray felt the corners of his lips tug his face and turn upward. I'm doing what Rowan did! I have to tell her!
"Rowan!" Gray ran into the room. Rowan was kneeling on the floor by a small wooden table, striking a match to light a candle.
"It's alright, I'm okay," she said.
"No, it's not that," Gray said. "When I heard you fall, the corners of my mouth went up. What does that mean?"
"You smiled when you heard me fall because you thought it was funny," Rowan muttered as she rose to her feet.
"Is that bad?"
"No smiling is a good thing."
"Oh, good," Gray said. "Smiling. I like the sound of that," he grinned. Then he caught Rowan looking at him intently. "What?" he asked, still smiling.
"Nothing," Rowan said as she blushed. "You just have a very... captivating smile."
"I can say the same about you," Gray responded quietly. He looked around the room, averting his gaze from Rowan who giggled quietly. Then he felt his newly found smile drop to the floor as he remembered where he was. "Do you have your music?" Gray asked quickly. Rowan held it up and nodded in reply. "Good, let's go," he said as he walked over to the door. He pushed it once, twice, and it wouldn't budge. Oh no.
"Gray, what's wrong?" Gray turned to Rowan at the sound of his name, his heart beginning to beat rapidly.
"We're trapped!" he stated frantically. "I must have accidentally closed and locked the door when I ran in here! It doesn't unlock from the inside."
"Calm down," Rowan said. "We'll just have to stay in here until someone lets us out."
"That could take centuries."
"Well, at least until we find some way out. Help me find more candles. And besides, can you think of a better place to be trapped?"