Belle stood up, angry and resolved. That Daphne girl would not overshadow her. No way. She would make sure that Daphne did not last the night at Neverland Academy.
Belle flung her side table across her bed, the sound muffled by her thick comforter, and disappeared into the tunnel in her wall.
***
“Psst . . . in here!” Finn whispered to Daphne, who was caught behind the hydrangea. It wasn’t that it was too dark, Daphne could see just fine in the moonlight. But she’d only been through the garden once and she remembered how complicated the layout was. She didn’t want to get her pajamas caught in a tangle of rose thorns.
“I’m coming,” she whispered back. Daphne thought she had found her way back onto the cleared path between the foliage, but launched forward when she tripped on some vines that had scurried across the path. Before she hit the ground she felt herself lifted. Warmth spread around her midsection, warmth that found its way deep into Daphne’s chest. She rose up to find Finn standing behind her, his arm still clasping her waist, so close she could feel his heart beating against her back. She caught her breath. The feeling of Finn holding her against him made Daphne nervous, frightened even, and yet, she didn’t want him to let go.
“You okay?” Finn whispered against her ear. Daphne shivered and nodded. He took her hand and after a few steps, squatted by a hole in the ground. Next to it was a large, flat stepping stone that had been pulled aside.
“You want me to go down there?” Daphne’s jaw dropped in disbelief. In fact, she nearly shouted at him for playing this cruel joke on her.
“Well, yeah. Don’t worry—it’s not just a hole in the ground. I’ll explain further, but not out here. It’s too dangerous.”
Daphne looked around at the buildings with windows that seemed to be staring at her like monstrous beasts with hundreds of eyes. Somebody could be in one of those windows watching right now. What was she to do? Finn wouldn’t take her home and there was no way she’d find her way back by herself. Besides, she didn’t want to go home. But she really didn’t want to go down that black hole either.
“Daphne. Trust me. I would never do anything to hurt you. We’re friends, right?”
Daphne stared at his outstretched hand and, knowing she didn’t really have a choice anymore, she took it and lowered herself into the hole. As she dangled, her foot caught hold of something—a ladder rung—and she continued climbing down on her own until her feet touched the hard surface below.
Daphne shut her eyes and then opened them again, confirming that there was no light at all down here, not like the moonlight, which illuminated the ground above. She couldn’t even see her own hand in front of her face. She closed her eyes again, trying to shut out the horrifying images her imagination was conjuring up: huge spiders crawling along the root infested walls, roaches and rats racing across the floor, slime dripping from above. She opened her eyes again and eagerly waited for her companion. “Finn?” she called out.
A brilliant white light flashed in front of her, blinding her. She fell back, raising her arms to shield her eyes, but it was too late. Now she was seeing bright red spots in her vision.
“Sorry.” Finn laughed. “I didn’t want to turn it on until we were well out of sight and the hole was covered.” Finn held the flashlight away and took Daphne’s hand in his. “Come with me.”
Daphne rubbed her eyes vigorously to remove the spots, but they would remain, slowly fading as they followed the brick-lined tunnel ahead. As her vision began to return to normal, Daphne took in her surroundings, which were simple, yet dismal, and not entirely the horror she’d imagined. The walls were barely wide enough to cater her and Finn side by side. The ceiling was low enough she could reach her hand up and touch it. Along all the surfaces grew cobwebs and every now and then Daphne swore she could see some tiny creature scurry away from the light. The air felt damp and musty and though she would never admit it, she was too scared to reach out and touch the walls to see if they were wet.
“What is this place?” she wondered aloud.
“Old slave tunnel,” Finn said matter-of-factly. “Back when this place was built, the owners were sympathizers with abolitionists. They owned slaves themselves of course, being the south, but it was more for appearance and social pressure than anything else. They actually built tunnels under the property to house runaway slaves. You know the Underground Railroad, right?”
Daphne nodded. When Finn remained silent she realized he couldn’t see her and said, “Yes.”
“This was a major thoroughfare along several routes. James Tanner knew that if he hadn’t owned slaves, his surrounding neighbors would be suspicious of him. To own such a large plantation and not own slaves was unheard of back then. So since he had to have slaves, he put them to good use and hired them to help the others hide and escape. Believe it or not, most of the staff here are descended from Tanner’s original slaves.”
“He sounds like he was a good man,” Daphne mused.
“Yeah,” Finn sighed. “Apparently he was the last ‘good’ one of Trappe’s ancestors to have existed. It all went downhill from there.”
“What do you mean?” Daphne asked. She knew there was something disturbing about the current headmaster, and that one of his ancestors was a little crazy, but that’s it.
“James Tanner lived a long life. Long enough to see slavery abolished. Since he was so good to them, his ‘slaves’ even chose to stay here and work for him when he opened the academy, rather than try their luck up north. After all, it’s not like things were all that great for them once they were freed, right? When he finally passed, his own son, Tucker, took over the academy. For the first few years, everything remained the same. But then he started seeing things, having strange visions.”
“He’s the one who built the church, right?” Daphne asked.
“Yeah. He . . . um . . . thought he was the Son of God. One morning his wife woke up and found him naked and nailed to a cross. Nobody knew how he had done it, but it ended up in all the local papers. He died shortly after that. Now you can only imagine how a boy who was raised by such a lunatic would turn out.”
Finn and Daphne had come to an intersection and turned right. She was following his lead and, being so engrossed by the story, had paid no heed to where they were going.
“Walter Trappe wasn’t crazy like his father. In fact he took his grandmother’s maiden name to distance himself from Tucker’s memory. But he was pretty sick and twisted. There’s not much information on him, but it’s believed that he tortured students and fathered several children with the staff.”
Daphne and Finn turned again.
“Vernon Trappe, our headmaster’s own father, didn’t actually grow up here like the others. He had been sent away for most of his youth, probably because Walter wanted him out of the way to perform his nasty deeds. He came back and took over the academy when Walter died. He knew very little of the plantation’s history and when he had discovered the old slave tunnels, he had the entrance sealed in concrete.”
“But, we just came in the entrance,” Daphne noted, “didn’t we?”
In the faded light that reflected off the walls she could see a dimple appear on Finn’s face. He smirked.
“Like I said, he didn’t grow up here. So he didn’t know that there are many entrances to the tunnels. The one he sealed up was in the former slave quarters. You saw that house behind the church, right?”
Daphne shook her head. She hadn’t seen it on the way to the academy because of the darkness, and that hadn’t been part of the tour that Trappe gave.
“The slave quarters were rebuilt and now it houses the staff.”
“Wait.” Daphne stopped and looked at Finn. “You said there are many entrances. Where are the others?”
“There’s one out in the woods to the east and another one in the old cotton field.”
“So why did we use the one that’s right in the middle of the academy where we could be seen? Isn’t that unnecessarily dangero
us?”
Finn laughed. “Of course! That’s what makes it so fun!”
Daphne wanted to shove him. It’s not that she didn’t like taking risks—she did it all the time. But on a night like tonight when she was already on edge, he was pushing her to her limits. She had her hands drawn out, ready to push, when a cracking noise startled her.
“What was that?” she whispered.
Finn stopped laughing and listened. “Stay here,” he said, handing her the flashlight. “I’ll go check it out.” Daphne watched him until he disappeared into the darkness of the tunnel. She was alone.
Daphne’s legs were achy and her soles pulsed with the pain of walking for the past two hours straight. She wanted to sit down or even lean against the wall. But when she flashed the light over the bricks she’d thought twice. A spider the size of a small gerbil, three times bigger than any she’d ever seen before, scampered up the wall to its web near the ceiling. In the intricate lacework were what looked like little, round, white balls of cotton. Daphne knew they weren’t cotton, though. They were eggs. She stood like a statue in the middle of the tunnel, unmoving except for the rise and fall of her chest.
Nearby, she heard a scraping sound. Then a pulsing. Footsteps. And they were getting closer.
Daphne swung the flashlight around in both directions, settling on the one that the sound seemed to be coming from.
“Finn?” Her voice sounded like a squeak of a tiny mouse, barely escaping her lips. She took a tentative step forward and then stopped. “Finn, is that you?”
The scraping got louder. It sounded eerily like the sharpened blade of a knife against concrete. Daphne heard a musical laugh echo over the walls and felt instant relief. Even though she’d just met him, it seemed typical of Finn to frighten her and then be so amused about it. But the laugh was joined by another and she knew neither of the laughs belonged to the boy who brought her here.
“There she is! Get her!” a brassy voice rang out like a thunder crack.
Daphne had enough time to see three shadowed faces and a glint of light reflection off a huge dagger before she turned and bolted back the way she and Finn had come. The ache in her legs and feet disappeared under the adrenaline forced through her veins. She saw a wall rising up to meet her and quickly dashed to the right before slamming face first into the bricks.
Behind her, Daphne could still hear the cackling of the boys. Were they the boys Finn had told her about? His friends? Maybe she should stop and talk to them, explain why she was here. But she kept picturing that dagger that one of the boys clutched. What if they wouldn’t wait for her to explain? What if they were the types to act first, ask questions later? These weren’t the mature, responsible types—that she was sure of.
Daphne approached an intersection. Which way had Finn led her? She would berate herself later for not paying attention, if she made it out of here alive. Right now she had to keep moving. Daphne turned right.
She kept running, trying to pick up the pace, but fatigue was setting in quickly. Daphne had never been very athletic, apart from the handful of fistfights she’d gotten into on a weekly basis. She hadn’t even attended her P.E. class in the last two years, opting to skip it to hang out with her friends in the school parking lot where they smoked weed and drank Schnapps out of emptied juice boxes. She would never admit that her parents were right about her friends, but at this moment she did wish she’d used that P.E. time more wisely.
Daphne came upon another intersection. This time she turned left and followed the tunnel until she came upon another wall. The tunnel veered right. At the end of the tunnel was a rope ladder, dangling from darkness above. Daphne knew this was not the ladder she had come down. But Finn said there were other entrances to the tunnels. Maybe this was one of them.
By the time she’d placed her left hand on the ladder, the boys had caught up with her. She fumbled on the ladder trying to gain her footing, but every time she lifted her foot, the rope swung to the side and she’d miss the rung. Finally, she’d caught hold and flew up the ladder at lightning speed. Just when her eyes crossed the threshold into the ceiling she could go no further. Her foot was stuck on something. She flashed the light down and saw a hand grasping her ankle. She pulled and kicked violently, but instead of kicking it away, she felt herself yanked downward. She hit the ground with a thud and pain radiated from her backside up her spine.
Still breathless from running, Daphne was too tired to even stand up. She huddled in the corner, staring through her hair at the boys who were watching her. They had lights glowing from the foreheads that hurt Daphne’s eyes, but she could still see their faces. There were five of them altogether. And they looked like starving lions. And she was a fresh carcass.
Chapter Eight
Welcome To Neverland
The tip of the razor-sharp dagger held by the thick boy with shaggy brown hair grazed Daphne’s chest, just below her neck. He pulled away quickly, but not before breaking the skin. A small bead of blood hung to the surface of her skin.
“She doesn’t look like a cop,” Shag said, looking back toward the others. The girl was frozen in the corner, small as a rag doll, and visibly shaken.
“She could be one of those under-whatevers,” said Trick.
“Undercover cop?” said Hangman. “Nah, she’s too young. Look at her.”
“But Belle said—”
“I know what Belle said. But she must have been wrong.”
“Is she hurt?” Toot wondered aloud.
“Of course she’s not you idiot,” Kevin grumbled. “It’s not like she fell off the bell tower. It was just a few feet.”
Toot, being the smallest and least intimidating of the five, stepped forward and nudged her with his foot. The girl kicked him away.
“Don’t touch me!” she screamed. Daphne shot up to her feet and hooked her fists in front of her face in an exaggerated boxer’s stance. She was small and outnumbered, but she wouldn’t go down without a fight. Every time one of the boys neared her, she swung her fist out. They played this game for several minutes, the boys cackling with laughter at her display of false courage. She probably would have laughed too, had she witnessed this scene from anybody’s perspective but her own.
“Daff?” A voice tumbled down the tunnel. “Daffy? Where are you?”
As Trick stepped forward to taunt her he lost his focus and she slugged him across the chin. “Ow!” he cried, jumping back.
“Finn?” she murmured. Louder, she cried, “Finn! Over here!”
All at once the boys turned their backs to Daphne. As their lights met the end of the tunnel, Finn had just rounded the corner. “Daffy, I told you to stay—oh.” His eyebrows shot up, a little surprised to see the crowd that was waiting for him. “What’s up, guys? Start the party without me?” Finn grinned.
Daphne pushed her way through the boys and ran toward Finn. Just before he caught her, he noticed a flash of red on her chest and pushed her back to examine it.
“What’s this?” he murmured as he dipped his finger in the drop of blood and rubbed it against his thumb. Finn stood stiff and his eyebrows furrowed.
“What happened?” Finn’s voice no longer sounded like a high school dropout, but as a commander, firm and resolute. The boys cowered in his presence.
“We didn’t know,” Toot hollered.
“They chased me,” Daphne squeaked. She felt that childish need to cry, but held it in. She couldn’t let these boys see how vulnerable she felt. “They had a knife. Finn I was lost; I couldn’t find my way out! Why did you leave me there all alone?”
Finn wrapped one arm around Daphne’s shoulders and turned her to face his band of boys. “I bring you an ally and you try to kill her? What the hell!” Finn was fuming now. Even in the darkness Daphne could see his fair skin flush red.
“It was a misunderstanding Finn,” Kevin called out. “Belle told us a cop was snooping around the grounds.”
“She said she saw the cop go down the tunnel,” Trick added.
Finn seemed to calm down. He scratched his head thoughtfully. “Now why would Belle go and tell you that? No cops come around here. If they did Trappe would be shittin’ his pants. And besides Belle knew where I was tonight. If she saw anyone go into the tunnel she would have known it was Daffy and me.”
“It’s Daphne,” she clarified, placing a hard emphasis on the ‘ne.’
“No. As long as you’re with us, it’s Daffy.”
“But—”
“Don’t worry Daffy,” Hangman said. “We all have nicknames here. None of us uses our real name anymore.”
“But why?” she asked.
“Tell me something, did you give yourself that name?” Finn asked, turning her so that they could return down the tunnel.
“Of course not. My parents named me.”
“Exactly! You didn’t get to choose your name. They did. You’re free now, Daffy. You can have any name you want.”
“But I like Daphne.”
“Okay,” Finn challenged. “Let’s try a different scenario. When your parents wake up tomorrow and find you missing they are going to alert the police. There’ll be news bulletins, amber alerts, countywide searches. Hell, they’ll probably even dredge the lakes for you. Your picture and name will be plastered everywhere. Now, we’re running down the tunnels and to keep you from impending danger I call out your name.” Finn cupped his hands around his mouth and pretended to yell, though he kept his voice low, “’Daphne!’ Somebody above, say somebody in the administrative offices, hears your name being called through the ventilation ducts. Think about it. How many boys here do you think are named Daphne?”
“Okay, I get your point,” Daphne sighed.
Neverland Academy Page 6