‘Get real,’ Cora told her.
‘Well, it’s possible.'
‘Sure didn’t stop our friendly Peeping Tom,’ Vivian said.
‘If this place was in California,’ Finley said, ‘it’d be a shambles. Every door’d be broken open. There’d be bums living here.’
Cora tried the knob again.
‘Why don’t you go out and fetch your trusty credit card?’ Finley said.
Helen giggled.
‘There isn’t even a transom for you to climb through,’ Abilene said.
Cora gave her a smirk. ‘We could always kick it open.’
‘Might piss off the ghosts,’ Finley said.
Vivian shook her head. ‘We’re not here to damage the place.’
‘Let’s keep looking around,’ Abilene said. ‘I’d be real surprised if all the guest rooms are locked. Some of them are bound to be open.’
‘Might as well find out.’
They returned to the top of the stairway. From there, a corridor led straight to the rear of the building. Its only light came from the windowed door at the far end. Except for the small area brightened by daylight, the length of the corridor was hidden in darkness.
Cora switched on her flashlight.
Abilene watched its beam slide along the floor, the walls. The hardwood floor looked clear. The walls seemed to have no doorways. But the light reached far enough to reveal openings on both sides of the corridor, about halfway down.
They started forward.
The floor creaked under their footsteps.
‘Is this spooky enough for you?’ Vivian asked.
‘Neat,’ Helen whispered.
‘Hot,’ Abilene said. The trapped, stuffy air wrapped her like an old blanket. She felt sweat popping from her skin, trickling down her face and neck, sliding between her breasts and down between her buttocks. It made her blouse cling. It made her panties stick to her rump. And it smelled heavy with the same sweetness of ancient wood that had bothered her in the lobby. There, the odor had been subtle. Here, it clogged her nostrils. She felt as if she were breathing mummy dust. ‘Can’t wait to get out of here,’ she muttered.
‘We’re having fun,’ Finley reminded her.
They halted at the intersection of the corridors. To the right and left, hallways led into total darkness.
Cora’s flashlight probed to the left. She followed its beam, and the others went after her.
They came to closed doors on each side of the hallway. Numbers 26 and 27. Cora tried the knobs, then went on, leading everyone deeper into the suffocating heat. They came to rooms 28 and 29. Neither door was open. Both were locked. The hallway beyond those doors stopped at a wall.
‘We’ll try the other way,’ Cora said.
They turned around, walked back to the center corridor, and crossed it into another tunnel of darkness.
This one’ll go on forever, Abilene thought.
This one ran parallel to the balcony, and had to be a third again as long as the hallway they’d just explored.
She was tempted to drop back and wait at the juncture where at least there was light at the end and the air was slightly better. But she didn’t want to be alone. And she wanted to be with the others in case they should happen to find something.
So she stayed with them.
She was sticky and dripping. Her clothes felt glued to her skin. She decided that Cora had been smart, after all, to come in wearing nothing but a T-shirt.
When they stopped at the first pair of doors, she lifted the front of her blouse and mopped her face.
The door on the right was numbered 20. Just as she had expected, it was a rear door to the first room on the balcony.
Cora found it locked. The door on the left, 21, also failed to open. She muttered, ‘Shit.’
‘Is anybody else dying?’ Abilene asked.
‘Pussy,’ Finley said.
‘Getting a lot of good footage?’
‘Bite me.’
‘I don’t think we’re gonna find any of these unlocked,’ Cora said, walking on. She stopped at the next set of doors, 22 and 23. She rattled their knobs.
‘Try knocking,’ Finley suggested.
‘Don’t,’ Vivian whispered.
Chuckling, Cora rapped on the door of room 23.
A low, husky voice said, ‘Who is it?’ The voice came from Finley.
‘Very cute,’ Vivian said. ‘You gals are a riot.’
Then from behind the door came a quick scratchy scurrying sound that sent cold prickles up Abilene’s spine.
Silence.
‘What was it?’ Helen whispered.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ Vivian said.
‘Probably just a rat,’ Finley said.
‘Oh, shit.’
‘It sounded awfully big,’ Helen said.
‘I told you not to knock on the door.’
‘Good thing it is locked,’ Abilene said.
‘You know,’ Finley said, ‘rats are like nuns. They never travel alone.’
‘Probably some right here in the hallway.’
‘Ouch! What was that?’
‘Piranha,’ Cora muttered, sounding disgusted. ‘You two oughta take your show on the road. Come on, let’s check the rest of the doors.’
‘Watch your step,’ Finley suggested.
‘It sounded too big for a rat,’ Helen said, as if worried that they had missed her observation the first time around.
‘Drop it, huh?’ Cora stopped at the final pair of doors. She shone her flashlight on 24. But didn’t reach for the knob.
Finley did. The door didn’t open. Neither did 25.
‘We’re in luck,’ Abilene said. ‘Now, let’s go find some fresh air.’
They hurried back to the center corridor and walked to the light of the door. Cora snapped back a bolt. She twisted the knob and jerked the door. It creaked, crackled, and popped open with a squeal, fanning fresh air into the corridor.
‘Careful,’ Vivian warned.
Cora kept a foot on the threshold, held onto the jamb, and shoved her other foot against the floor of the balcony as if testing the safety of a frozen river. Satisfied that the floor was stable, she stepped out.
The others followed. Abilene stood motionless for a moment, relishing the soft breeze. She scanned the rear grounds. The entire area was now in shadow. Sunlight didn’t even brush the tops of the trees. She looked for the kid, but didn’t see him.
Then she went after Finley, who was sneaking along the balcony toward the window of room 23. The window was broken. ‘See what made that noise,’ Finley said. She leaned forward, peered into the room, then lurched back. ‘Oh my God! ’
‘What?’ Helen asked, looking as shocked as Finley.
‘It’s… too horrible!’
Abilene gazed through the window. Resting on its haunches near the center of the room, bushy tail curled in a question mark, sat a gray squirrel munching on a nut.
‘What is it?’ Helen asked.
Abilene shook her head. ‘Don’t look. It’s hideous!’
Cora kept her distance and watched them, arms folded across her chest, legs tight together, face pale.
Vivian glanced into the room. ‘Jesus!’ she blurted. ‘Thank God it didn’t get us!’
Cora and Helen looked at each other. Helen sighed. Cora smirked.
‘Yeah, right,’ she said. ‘Must be something monstrous like a kitten.’
‘Close but no cigar,’ Finley said.
Cora stepped up to the window, bent forward and peered in. ‘Oh, he’s darling. Look at those tiny feet. Isn’t he cute?’ Reaching up through the jagged opening, she released the window’s lock.
‘What are you doing?’ Vivian asked.
‘We want to explore a room, don’t we?’
‘Not that one,’ Abilene said. ‘The squirrel might be cute, but he probably isn’t above biting someone.’ As she spoke, she wandered farther along the balcony. The window of the next room was also broken. ‘We can try here.�
�
She looked through the shattered glass. The room was bare. She could see its decor. On both sides of the door were enclosures: a closet and a bathroom, she supposed.
‘Any visitors?’ Finley asked, coming up beside her.
‘Looks okay.’ She reached in and snapped the lock open. Then she shoved upward on a sash bar. The window didn’t budge, so she pounded it with the heels of her hands. It skidded up. When it was open all the way, she swung up a foot and used the sole of her shoe to sweep away the shards of glass littering the inside sill. They clinked and shattered on the floor. And crunched under her shoes when she climbed into the room.
‘Why don’t you check around before we come in?’ Cora said from the window.
‘Alone?’
‘Don’t be a woos,’ Finley called.
Abilene walked across the room. On her left was a sliding door. She rolled it open and found a shallow closet with a shelf and clothes bar. Nothing inside. Turning around, she stepped to the other door and opened it.
She saw a tile floor, a sink with a mirror above it, and nothing else but darkness.
‘You can come in now, ladies. No boogeyman, rats, or other surprises.’
CHAPTER NINE
BELMORE GIRLS
After their close brush with Hardin, Helen wanted to wash her foot. Abilene wouldn’t let her, fearing that the sound of the faucet might carry through the building. So the girl merely dried her sneaker and sock as best she could with paper towels.
Then they returned to the student bookstore. Abilene twisted the lock button to secure the entrance. They hid among shelves near the back, and waited.
Nearly an hour passed before they heard the distant sound of a door thudding shut.
‘Think that was Hardin?’ Helen asked.
‘Might’ve been the custodians showing up. Or just her poor victim leaving.’ They waited longer. They heard no more sounds from anywhere in the building. At a quarter till ten, Abilene said, ‘We’d better go out and scout around, make sure nobody’s here.’
She led the way to the door, unlocked it in case they might need to return, then inched it open and looked into the dark hallway. ‘Coast is clear,’ she whispered, and stepped out.
On her way to the center staircase, she felt terribly exposed and vulnerable. She wanted to run. She walked slowly, instead, listening, setting her feet down softly. At last, she reached the stairs. Helen stayed close behind her as she climbed.
‘What if Hardin hasn’t left?’ Helen whispered.
‘Shhhhh.’
From the landing, Abilene could see that the second floor hallway was dark. She continued to the top, and peered around a corner to the right. Hardin’s office was the third one down. No light came from under its door or shone through the open glass transom.
Stepping forward, she checked all the offices along the corridor. They were dark.
‘Looks like we’re in business,’ she said.
Helen followed her to the door of Hardin’s office.
Abilene tried the knob. ‘Locked.’
‘What did you expect?’
‘I just hope she’s not sitting in there, meditating in the dark.’
‘Don’t say that.’
‘Go on down the hall.’
‘Huh?’
‘Go to the stairs. Get ready to make a run for it.’
‘What’re you gonna do?’
‘Go.’
Helen hurried to the far end of the hall. When she stopped at the head of the stairs, Abilene knocked on Hardin’s door.
No harsh voice demanded to know who was there.
Abilene willed herself to hear the slightest sound from inside the office: the creak of a chair, a footstep, breathing, a stir of fabric. She heard nothing. In spite of the silence, she half expected the door to fly open in front of her face, Hardin to reach out and grab her. She ached to bolt.
She wondered what she was doing here in the first place.
Risking expulsion - or worse.
She could’ve been safe, right now, back at the dorm. Even better, she could’ve been in the park making out with Robbie.
Instead, she was on this crazy mission. Not really to avenge Barbara, though that was part of it. The real purpose was simply to do something wild for the fun of it.
This is the last time I get myself into something like this, she told herself. I don’t care if the others think I’m a chicken. I don’t care who dares who.
Madness.
Then she realized that nothing had happened in response to her knock.
She hurried down the hall and joined Helen at the top of the stairs.
‘Are you out of your gourd?’ Helen asked.
‘We both are. But I had to make sure she wasn’t there, didn’t I? Come on.’ They trotted downstairs and stopped at the double doors leading outside. Abilene checked her wristwatch. Five till ten. ‘Maybe they’re early,’ she said. She pushed one of the horizontal bars and eased the door open.
Finley, sitting on a bench in the darkness under an oak tree, raised a hand in greeting. She stood and picked up her video camera. A few strides took her to the end of the bench. Facing the wooded lawn that bordered the campus, she swung an arm overhead.
Moments later, Cora and Vivian appeared on one of the walkways. They were each carrying a grocery sack. They met up with Finley and the three of them, glancing this way and that, hurried to the stoop of the administration building. They rushed up the concrete stairs. The moment they were inside, Abilene pulled the door shut.
‘How’d it go?’ Cora whispered.
‘Hardin showed up.’
‘Christ,’ Vivian muttered.
‘Yeah, we were…’
‘Tell us later,’ Cora said. ‘Let’s get into her office first. Nobody’s in the building, I take it?’
‘We don’t think so. The custodians never did show up.’ Turning to Finley, she said, ‘They were supposed to be in and out by ten, remember?’
‘I’m not an expert on their schedule. But they’re in Waller right now.’
Waller Hall was the science building on the other side of the campus.
‘As long as they aren’t here,’ Cora said, and started up the stairs. '
‘We’d better keep an eye out for them,’ Abilene warned.
‘How many are there?’ Helen asked.
‘Just two who come here.’
‘That’s not so bad,’ Cora said.
‘It only takes one to spot us and we’re dead,’ Abilene said. They stopped in front of Hardin’s office door. Cora set her bag on the floor. ‘Give me some light.’
Abilene switched on her flashlight and aimed it into the sack. Cora’s denim purse was there among bottles and plastic bags of snacks. Crouching, the girl opened it. She took out a credit card. ‘This oughta be good,’ Finley said.
Card in hand, Cora tried to loid the lock. After a while, she muttered, ‘Shit. It always works in the movies.’
‘This ain’t the movies,’ Finley pointed out.
‘How’ll we get in?’ Helen asked.
‘Maybe this is our cue to quit,’ Vivian suggested.
‘No way,’ Cora said. ‘I had to shell out twenty bucks to get that guy to buy the booze.’
‘We could always drink it in the comfort and safety of the dorm,’ Abilene said.
‘We’re gonna get in if I have to kick the fucking door down.’
‘One of us might be able to climb in through that,’ Finley said, pointing at the open transom above the door.
Cora stared at it. ‘Yeah. You’re the smallest.’
‘You’re the jock.’
‘Cora’s ass might get stuck,’ Vivian said.
‘Screw you.’ With that, Cora put away her credit card and purse. ‘Give me a boost.’
Abilene and Helen made stirrups of their hands. They squatted. Cora stepped aboard. They lifted while Vivian and Finley shoved at her rump. Cora pulled herself up by the sill. In seconds, her head and arms were through the gap. S
he squirmed. The girls thrust her higher. ‘Yeeow!’
‘What?’ Abilene asked.
‘My tits. Finley, you bitch, you could’ve gotten through easy.’
‘Me, too,’ Vivian said. ‘But you’re the fearless leader.’
‘Everyone let go of me.’
The girls stepped back. Kicking, writhing, groaning, Cora squeezed her torso through the space beneath the window. Then she went motionless, apparently resting before the final assault. Her legs were bent, knees braced against the top of the door, feet up. Her rump did look larger than the gap.
‘Here comes the hard part,’ Vivian said.
‘Screw all of ya,’ came Cora’s muffled voice.
She kicked her legs, twisted, squirmed, lurched, growled. Her rump made it through the transom. Her shorts didn’t. As she fell out of sight behind the door, the gym shorts travelled down to her ankles where they were snagged by a latch at the bottom of the transom and plucked from her disappearing shoes.
Helen giggled.
Inside the office, Cora thudded.
Vivian jumped. She grabbed the shorts, gave them a flip, and freed them.
Muttering a string of curses, Cora opened the door.
‘Lost something,’ Vivian said, and handed over the shorts.
Cora put them on. She and Vivian picked up the grocery bags, and everyone entered the office. Abilene shut the door after them.
They walked past the secretary’s desk, through a doorway into Hardin’s office. Abilene shut that door, too. Cora flicked a light switch, and overhead fluorescents blinked on.
‘Hey!’ Helen protested.
‘It’s okay,’ Cora said, nodding toward the closed blinds.
‘Light’ll still get through,’ Abilene said.
‘Not much. Besides, we’re on the second floor. Nobody’ll notice.’
‘And I can’t record the event for posterity if we don’t have the lights on,’ Finley said. She lifted her camera and began to tape.
‘That better not fall into the wrong hands,’ Cora warned.
‘Nobody’ll ever see it but us.’
Cora and Vivian set their sacks on Hardin’s desk. They removed bags of potato chips and com chips, a stack of plastic glasses, two bottles of tequila, two cartons of lemonade, and a clear plastic bag full of ice cubes. As they began to prepare drinks, Abilene looked around the office.
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