Behind Familiar Faces

Chapter Five

I popped my feet onto the dash, my boots making a loud clunking sound as they moved. I snagged a cigarette from the worn altoids tin that sat in the cup holder between us. The lighter sat next to it and I used to to ignite the cigarette. I inhaled deep and rolled the window down.

"The science building? now?" I asked.

Harrison had the right side of his face pressed against the headrest, staring at me.

"please? I just want to go have a look." He replied.

"It's past 11:00 pm. The building has been closed for hours." I remarked.

He chuckled.
"You underestimate me darlin'" He spoke lowly and looked at me with a lazy grin.

I sighed.
"we're still eating?" I asked annoyed.

"Yes Harper, 15 minutes, come on" he nudged me.

I kept eye contact with him as I took a long drag and filled the car with smoke.

"Let's go" I said with a shrug.

Harrison ran his fingers through his hair and sat up excitedly. He turned up the music as we pulled out of the library lot and drove down a few roads to get to the science building.

Street lamps were the only source of light in the area. A few windows on the building showed a soft glow behind curtains but not the fluorescent shine like daytime. I put my cigarette out and zipped up my jacket.

"Do you even have a plan?" I asked honestly.

"Well no." He said plainly.

I rolled my eyes and got out of the car after he parked in the staff lot.

"Come on then" I said with a hand on my hip.

Harrison shrugged and got out of the car too. We stood there motionless for a moment before he put his hand on the small of my back and urged me forward.

"No lagging, keep walking" He whispered in my ear from beside me.

"Harrison seriously how do you plan to get in there?" I asked as we walked swiftly with our heads low.

We made it to the side door that didn't face the road and I felt a little better. A dirty yellow light above the door lightly flowed upon us. I watched as Harrison reached into the pocket of his jeans and fished out a pair of gold keys. He held them up in front of my face with a smile and a wink.

"no. seriously?" I asked hushed.

"what were you expecting?" He replied as he slipped one of the little worn keys into the lock and turned it slowly. I knew I shouldn't be but I was still surprised when the lock instantly unlocked. Harrison raised an eyebrow at me.

Although pretty harmless so far, my gut told me to protest. There was no time though so I followed Harrison as he opened the door a bit and crept in. The heavy door shut behind us and we were left in the dark. The only guidance was the tiny shine of the red exit sign. We exchanged a glance. We slowly made our way forward, following the far hallway until it opened up to the hub of the big building.

I stood in the center and spun around. There were a few lights on down some hallways that illuminated enough to understand the layout. I've been in this building before but it felt like an entirely different place in the middle of the night, in the blackness.

Harrison was laughing as he scurried around, peeking into corners and through windows.

"I have an idea" He remarked.

I slowly shuffled his way and sat myself on a bench against the wall.

"what is it?" I asked.

"Let's split up. You check out the bottom floor and i'll check out the top." He started.