Tower Of Bones

Part 1: Chapter 1: Voices

Max

The early morning sun was orange on the horizon as I ran through the nearly abandoned streets of Dagfinn City, with my backpack slung over my right shoulder and my old, dirty sneakers scuffing the ground below me. The school bell was going to ring any minute now, and I knew I was going to be late. The sweat that trickled off of my brow and made its way down my cheek kept me in constant discomfort, and I hastily reached up to wipe away the droplet as I practically toppled over the curb.

Outside of the school, nobody was in sight, which meant everyone was likely inside, heading to class. The first bell that rung was a reminder of what a failure I was when I ran up the sidewalk, passing by the windows of the classrooms on my way. I didn't miss the snickers of students and the turning heads as I passed.

But there was no time for being embarrassed when your car stalls on you because you stupidly decided to leave your goddamn headlights on all night.

My Mom was going to give me such a long ass lecture about responsibility. And my Dad would probably just nod along, even though his eyes were always on the television when he was home. God knows how little we actually spoke to each other when we were home, except for times when I, Maxanen Lane, was a huge fucking screw up.

I grabbed the front door handle, and pulled, and almost ripped my hair clean out of my skull when it didn't want to budge. The doors locked after 7:30. Of course they did.

Dammit, I thought angrily and took a step back, to examine my options. Little as they may be, I knew my way around Dagfinn High, and I knew of the secret passageways to get inside, for confidential reasons of course.

So with that in mind, I recalled a broken lock in the girls locker room around the back of the building. Nobody was ever in there and if I was lucky, I'd manage to make it in time for role call. Mr. Spenzowski was always late in the mornings of his first class of the day, something about not being a morning person.

Please let this morning be no different.

I rush around back, with my heart set on my idea, ducking under the windows so as not to attract any attention from the teachers or my fellow classmates. The less people saw me getting locked out of my own school, the less my popularity will suffer. Not that it was in stellar condition in the first place, but I had somehow managed to avoid getting pulverized by the ruthless rich kids that seemed to swarm Dagfinn High.

Because of my incredible ability to blend in with the crowd, I was flawlessly evading getting picked on at school.

Which is why it was prudent that I maintain that persona here at school, and stay the fuck under the goddamn windows when I'm trying to sneak back in.

I make my way around the building, keeping to the shadow under the windows and ducking under bushes as I pass the poor saps that have gym at the very start of the day, and get stuck playing kickball out on the football field at 8 in the morning.

Sneaking in was a piece of cake and wasn't anything I had worried about in the first place.

The back door to the locker room was entirely unlocked. Which was something I really needed to bring up to faculty at some point, considering anyone could walk in if they were brave enough to approach a high school and try to sneak in through the girls locker room door.

Who in their right mind would want to do something like that? I thought, sarcastically and managed to slip my way inside.

The lights were off inside, meaning nobody was here, thank god. But it was also pitch black, and I couldn't see 2 inches in front of my face, which was a problem.