Mary Poppins: Practically Perfect

Chapter Four: Perfection, A Plan and A Problem

"Come on you two, don't dally in the doorway! Let's explore!" Tilly grabbed a torch which sat in its holster next to the candle, lit it and broke into a run down the hallway, closely followed by Tina.

I heard her footsteps die away, echoing down the corridor and turned to Belinda, whispering in a panicked voice, "Quick, if we leave now they won't even know we've gone." I pulled Belinda towards the doorway but she resisted.

"Oh, Mary," she whined. "Just for a while. Exploring, Mary! Just a little bit." I glared at her, sceptically. "It's a secret room!"

"Belinda it's our first night here! What will the teachers say if they find out?"

"But they won't find out!" She replied, leaning on the bookcase behind her, which gave an unnerving groan as she did so. "We're at least two floors below anyone else in the school, this is the last place they would expect students to be."

I sighed. "I-I don't know. I don't like it down here. It's... creepy."

Belinda looked at me pointedly. "There's that stubborn and suspicious coming out in you."

Even though I could tell she was joking, it still felt like a sharp knife in the back. I was not stubborn and I was hardly suspicious, only when suspicion was necessary. I was sure of that.

Just as I was thinking this, Tilly and Tina appeared at the end of the corridor, they're faces lit by the light of the torch. "Are you guys coming?"

Belinda turned to me, questioningly.

I am not stubborn and suspicious. I am not stubborn and suspicious. I am not -

"Yes," I said. "We're coming."Belinda grinned at me and took my hand as we walked to where the twins stood waiting.

"So," Belinda giggled, happily. "Where to first?"

The twins exchanged glances. "Well," started Tina. "We were thinking..."

"Have you ever heard of the Lost Ode of Perfection?"

Belinda and I shook our heads.

Tina gave the torch to Tilly, who cleared her throat and recited: "It is said that long ago, before this school was built, a young woman of one-and-twenty years had a dream of a perfect society, where wickedness and cruelty were expelled and naivety and childish mannerisms were extinguished."

As Belinda and I listened in awe, Tilly continued. "She devised a poem, a long text, which she called 'Ode of Perfection For many months she worked on ensuring it fitted its title and eventually... she got it right. In her eyes, she had created a masterpiece."

"Here's the special part," Tina whispered. "The legend says that whoever reads it will become the emblem of a perfect human being. They will not have to be corrected for wrongdoings, they'll not be shamed or tarnished. They will be..."

Both girls leaned towards us and spoke as one in the flickering torchlight. "Perfection."

I held my breath. What I had just heard, however nonsensical it sounded, could prove to all those people who thought I was so "stubborn and suspicious" how perfect I could be. I could be a model student, everyone would want to be my friend. My mother would be so proud.

"So," I started, breaking the silence. "How do we find it?"

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"Okay, so does everyone know the plan?"

"Mary and I take the left side, you take the  right and we'll call if we find something," Belinda beamed. "Got it."

"Okay, well we'll see you later then," said Tina.

After almost an hour of searching and nothing to show for it but a couple of books with dusty covers, the twins, Belinda and I regrouped by the archway.

"Face it, guys," Belinda yawned, rubbing her eyes. "There's nothing here, it's just a silly story."

"No," I snapped suddenly. "Sorry, I... I'm sure we must have missed something."

But before any of us had time to contemplate what that 'something' might be, a horrible, frightening sound echoed though the hallway, which made my stomach drop to the floor.

Clip. Clop. Clip. Clop.

Those were those sounds of footsteps on cold, hard stone. And they were close.

"Run!" I hissed and immediately the four of us dispersed, hiding ourselves amongst statues and books and old relics. As I climbed through old paper files to find somewhere to conceal myself, I saw Tina smuggle the torch behind a roll of carpet, where the light could barely be seen. From my crouched position inside an old wooden cupboard, covered in cobwebs, I heard the muffled footsteps drawing nearer.

Clip. Clop. Clip. Clop. Clip.

And then nothing. For a few seconds  there was complete silence. Then, I heard the voices of two people, one man and a woman. I caught snippets of their conversation.

"It's impossible..."

"No one else knows..."

"How could they have got in?"

"Not one of the girls..."

I didn't dare to breathe, let alone attempt to see through the gaps in the door. I didn't recognise the voices but from what I could tell they sounded relatively old, possibly in their mid-fifties. But no matter what they sounded like, their next statement was audible to all who were listening.

"I suppose we better close it up. Anyone who is in here will simply freeze to death during the night."

My heart tensed. I heard stone meeting stone (presumably some kind of button had been pressed) and then the steady rise of the knight as it slid back into place and left us in darkness.