by Sarah Swan
“That’s the only way you could have gotten to the island this early,” he explained. “It’s quite a journey with him, isn’t it?”
“You don’t even know half of it,” I replied in a tone that said I did not want to talk about it. “Anyway, I take it we’re only on the first floor, now?” The first door I could see down the hall was marked with a large 10 right above the peephole. Chris nodded. “That means we’ve got two more flights of stairs to go?” He nodded again. “Let’s go do it then. I’m getting anxious to see my room and have a chance to unpack.” Then, noticing the hopeful way Chris was eyeing the bag I was carrying, quickly added, “Not that I’m complaining about the stairs, of course.”
“Of course,” Chris replied, and tilted his head to the left. “It’s this way. Believe it or not, your room is on the same floor as mine.”
“Really?” For some reason, I had been under the impression that the floors were arranged by gender.
“Yup. What are the odds, huh?”
“No kidding. Is it nice?”
“What?”
“The room.”
“Oh… well, you’ll see,” he said mysteriously. And before I could decode the meaning of that, he jumped forward. “This time, I’m not letting you beat me to the top.”
“Hey!” I protested, but he was already racing down the hall. I ran after him, laughing at the pure craziness of it all. He took the first flight of stairs two at a time. When I tried to do the same, I nearly fell flat on my face. Unwavering, I pressed on, but I could already see Chris turning the corner that led to the last flight of stairs. And so, by the time I got all the way to the third floor, red-faced and huffing, Chris was the one staring triumphantly at me in front of a small door marked 34.
“Home sweet home,” he announced, cheerfully smiling at me, tapping the door behind him. “This is where you’re going to be spending the year.”
“I’m excited,” I said genuinely, pushing a stray bit of hair out of my face.
“Well, come on then,” he urged. “Get your key! I want to see your first impression of the room.”
I eyed him curiously. Did he mean that the rooms were bad, or that they were good? He stared blankly at me, his expression inscrutable.
I knew I wasn’t going to get anything out of him. Not that it really mattered, since I was literally a foot away from the door. If the way the lobby and interior of this building were set up was any guide, my room should be very nice. But then again, sometimes lavish outside appearances were there only to cover up lackluster interiors. Taking a deep breath in, I turned the key in the lock.
The door slowly opened. Before me lay the single most amazing room I had ever seen.
“Oh… my god!” I exclaimed, running inside. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The room was absolutely huge—preposterously monstrous. And it was fully furnished. In the middle of the room was a brand new, circular rug, still in its plastic packaging. Beyond it, by the far window, was a dark oak desk with a lavish office chair. Off to one side was an enormous queen-sized bed. I noted with delight that the mattress was also brand new. Beside the bed, installed right into the wall, was a full-length mirror and a nightstand. I turned around. On the other side of the room, standing along the wall, was a sturdy shelf and a beautiful antique cabinet. There was another door right by the shelf. When I opened it, I found a private bathroom, complete with a sink, toilet, and extra-large tub. I couldn’t believe my eyes. At any other school, there would be at least six kids stuffed into a space this size. But here, it was all for me.
“Does everyone have rooms like this?” I asked Chris. He had diligently brought both suitcases inside while I had been admiring my new living quarters.
“Freshman year they’re really crappy,” he replied. “Sophomore year they’re a little better. This year, they become really nice. And when you’re a senior, they’re even better.”
“I can’t even imagine how you could do better than this…” I said wonderingly.
“Private kitchens,” Chris explained, “within a room about twice this size. Separated into a living room – TV included – and a bedroom.”
“Wow,” I breathed. “Still, this is amazing. I guess I lucked out coming here junior year, huh?”
“You wouldn’t believe the horror stories about freshman housing,” Chris said. “Well, I’m going to let you get settled. I’ll be nearby– Room 39. Just bang on my door when you’re ready to go out, and I’ll show you the lay of the land. And we can get you your student card, as well, so you don’t walk around like a babe in the woods anymore.”
“Hey!” I protested, but he was already halfway out the room.
“Oh yeah,” he added just before closing the door, “don’t forget to ask me about storm season.”
Chapter Four – A Bit of History
Getting settled into the room was easy enough. After the first rush of excitement faded, I set out to check my room out quickly before heading out. After all, I still had an entire campus to explore.
Still, I was amazed at the luxury of it all. My room was fully furnished, and about as big as an entire floor of my three-storey house back home. There were no roommates to share it with, nor a need to fight for a common shower. Everything I needed was already in the room, more or less.
The first thing I did was collapse on my bed, and discovered that it was soft as a cloud. I had to fight the urge to fall asleep right there. Pushing myself up, I went over to peel away the plastic cover of the rug, and tossed the packaging to one side. I went through the drawers of the wardrobe, making mental notes of where I wanted to unpack my things later that night. I rolled both pieces of luggage into the closet, opening one quickly only to pull out my laptop, and set it up and its charger on the desk. Then, satisfied that everything was in good enough shape for now, I inspected myself in front of the mirror.
My hair was a bit frizzy from the race up the stairs, and I didn’t have any makeup on, but overall the girl staring back at me didn’t look too bad. Definitely good enough to go out without the need for any more preparation.
I started to the door, but then realized that in my excitement, I hadn’t even looked out the windows to check out the view. I went across the room quickly, and smiled when I saw what was outside. Sure enough, just as I’d hoped, my room overlooked the courtyard. Farther down, I could see all the buildings of the main campus, along with the open area of the town square. I also noticed a tall tower in the distance, away from that main cluster of buildings. In fact, its peak edged out over a thick row of evergreens. From what I could see, there wasn’t a direct path to it. I wondered absently what it was.
A knock at the door interrupted my thoughts. Before I could open it, I heard Chris’s voice through the wall.
“Tracy!” he called out. “Tracy, you ready?”
I opened the door. “I thought you said you’d give me enough time,” I said.
He laughed. “That was the plan at first, but I just checked with the security guard, and he said that the administrative office is closing in half an hour.”
“And… what does that have to do with me?”
“You need your student card. Remember?” He looked at me as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “You won’t be able to get in or out anywhere without it. And the only place to get it is there.”
“Oh! Well, where is it?”
“Not far from here. It’s in the main yard.”
“The main yard?”
“Yeah. That’s what the group of all those different buildings is called.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Now you do. Anyway, we’ve got to hurry if you want to get your card today.”
“But it’s not that far…?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he added, “but they have to take your picture and do a bunch of other stuff. Unless we get there quickly, they won’t even do it today.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. Let me get my shoes and I’ll be right out.”
A few minu
tes later, I was walking down the path away from the dorms with Chris. The day had started to warm up, and a light breeze had brought the salty air from the sea right to us. I walked slightly behind him, admiring the pristine serenity of the island. Chris kept trying to hurry me forward to make sure we got there in time.
“So, what’s the school really like?” I asked suddenly.
Chris looked back and frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, this place is absolutely beautiful. Our dorm is amazing. The rooms are extravagant. Everything looks so well maintained. But… there’s got to be a reason for all that. Right? I mean, not everything can be that perfect here, can it?”
“Actually, what you see is pretty much what you get. A few years back – ten or so, I think – an alum gave a crazy large donation to the school, and told them to spend it on renovating the place. What you see is what they ended up doing with the money.”
“Lucky for us,” I replied.
Chris smiled slyly at me. “You’ll see that there’s more to it than initial appearances, though. Not everything is going to be as rosy as it might seem this first week.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, everything might seem fresh and exciting to you. But after a few months here, things start to become pretty monotonous. You might say a lot of the kids get pretty tired of the island, fast.”
“How can you ever get tired of something so pretty?” I asked.
Chris laughed. “Hard to believe, right? But stay in one place long enough, and things start to become mundane. Ordinary.”
“Is that how you feel about this place?”
“I did, before we met,” he laughed.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s always good to meet somebody new,” he smiled. Inexplicably, I found myself smiling back. My original assessment of Chris still stood. He wasn’t very attractive, but that smile was absolutely disarming. I was happy to have met someone like him this early in my stay. He seemed like he could be a good friend.
“So, what’s the social life like?” I asked after a few moments of silence. To my surprise, his smile quickly faded. He frowned at me.
“I wouldn’t really know,” he said slowly. “To be honest, I’m not the most popular kid here.”
“Really?” I said, surprised. He seemed friendly enough, and I thought he had a good grounding of where things were and what was going on.
“Yeah. I’m just not that into the whole party scene that everybody else seems to dig here.”
“Is it a big part of the culture at the school?”
“There’s something going on almost every night of the week,” he admitted. “Although, I rarely know what or where it is. Like I said, it’s just not my scene.”
“I mean, I’m sure there’s a lot more to do here than just party,” I offered, trying to console him somewhat. From the way his voice dropped and became sapped of energy, I could tell this wasn’t a particularly comfortable topic for him.
“You’d be surprised,” he said with a weak chuckle. “Sometimes it seems like that’s all there is to do here.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what,” I began, trying to perk him up, “if I’m going to be totally honest with you, the party scene isn’t my favorite thing in the world, either. So if you’re interested, I’m sure the two of us can find other things to do.”
His entire face lit up. “Really? I mean yeah, sure. I’d love to do that.” He glanced at me from the corner of one eye. “Thanks, Tracy. I don’t have that many friends here.”
“Well, neither do I,” I said with a laugh. “Looks like we’re both in the same boat.”
“Hah,” he laughed. Then, glancing at his watch, he immediately hastened his step. “Whoa! It’s later than I thought. We’ve got to get going if you’re going to get your student card today!” And with that, he took off at a half-jog down the path, leaving me to follow.
We got down to the main yard in a few minutes. I was surprised to find it a lot busier than before. Almost everywhere around me, walking along the small cobblestone streets and in front of the buildings, were bunches of sharply dressed middle-aged men and women.
“Professors and administrators,” Chris explained over his shoulder to me. “Mostly on their lunch break. The only places to get food on this whole island are around here, which is why it’s so busy now.”
“I’m surprised there’s nobody else our age,” I said to him.
“Most kids try to make the most of their summer. It’s the only time they get away from Traven Island, other than winter break. And to be honest, the school doesn’t really like having to open its doors earlier than needed.”
“They told me that I could arrive any time between a week ago and now,” I said quizzically.
“I guess that’s for the new kids,” he shrugged. “And the transfers.”
“But I haven’t seen anybody else yet,” I commented.
“You could be the only one this year.”
“Really?” I didn’t know what to make of that. I had assumed that Oliver Academy had at least a few students join their ranks every year. If I had known I’d be the only new kid in the entire school… well, maybe I would have been slightly more apprehensive about coming. Suddenly, I was a lot more thankful for having met Chris.
“Admission is mostly offered to freshmen,” he explained. “To be honest, I was pretty surprised when I found you in front of our dorm.”
“You mean when you spied on me using the camera,” I countered. He laughed.
“Yeah. Exactly that. I didn’t know who to expect when the guard told me to keep watch.”
“Well, why are you here, then?” I asked.
“Oh. That’s a… long story,” he replied vaguely.
“I’ve got time,” I said. “In fact, I’ve got all day.”
Chris glanced at his watch, and again seemed startled by what he saw. “Uh, no you don’t! Not now, anyway. Quick, we’ve got to run if we’re going to make it.” With that, he dropped into a dead gallop down the street. “Come on!” he hollered over one shoulder. “We’re not far, but they’re closing soon!”
I had no choice but to run after him. Looking around to make sure nobody was watching – I was always self-conscious about my running – I started off after him. I followed as he led us down a long, narrow side street which then turned into a small alley. From there, we popped back out onto a main walkway, went left, and a few hundred yards later stopped in front of a dark building.
“Here we are,” Chris said in between breaths. He was huffing from the run, and so was I. “In there is where you’ll want to go.”
I looked at the building, really seeing it for the first time. It was a monstrosity. It looked as if the architect responsible for it had a prison in mind when he designed it. It stood three stories tall and was all dark, gray concrete. Four tiny windows showed on each level. The door at the bottom was carved into a foreboding enclave that was cloaked in shadows. Just knowing that I would be going inside sent shivers down my spine.
“Great stuff, huh?” Chris offered at my side. “It’s probably the ugliest building on campus, and the most ominous. It’s the only piece of architecture that remains on the island from before this place was converted into a school.”
“I didn’t know there was anything here before,” I said.
“Really?” Chris looked at me, again in surprise. “It’s a wonder nobody told you.”
“Well, you’re the first person I’ve really met here,” I said, purposefully omitting Dr. Frame. “What was here before?”
“You really don’t know?”
I shook my head.
“Wow. Well, the school’s only been here maybe fifty years or so. Before then, Traven Island was a prison.”
“A prison?”
“That’s right. But not just any prison. For more than two hundred years, the most criminally dangerous and insane inmates were sent here to serve their life sentences. The only way on the island was via b
oat, and the only way off? Well, I don’t think there was such a thing. Everybody who came here was here for life. It was a way to separate the criminals from the rest of society. But there are stories you might hear…” he trailed off, looking at me strangely.
“Stories? What stories?”
“I mean, they’re more like myths and ghost stories than anything else, told to keep freshmen in line.”
“What are you talking about?”
Chris looked both ways, and then again at me, before lowering his voice. “They say Traven Island wasn’t just a prison. It was an insane asylum, a place where certain… liberties… were taken with the prisoners. A place where the most horrendous and horrible psychological experiments took place. They say the wardens and those in charge were just as deranged as the criminals. Every once in a while, kids might stumble upon certain, uh, remains from that time out in the woods, and most often it isn’t pretty.”
“What do you mean?”
“Misshapen skulls, old twisted bones,” he started slowly. “Strange, completely inexplicable torture devices. That sort of thing. That’s why the north part of the island is off limits.”
“What’s up there?”
“When the prison shut down, the island was put up for sale by the government for pennies an acre. It was tainted land, or so everyone said, and there weren’t any takers. Eventually, however, a foreign businessman, Jacob Oliver, thought it was a great idea to buy the land and convert it into a school. That’s where the place gets its name. After he bought it, he made a point of tearing everything down and rebuilding the whole place from scratch. The main parts of the prison system were down here, on the southern half of the island. And there was nothing in the north save for untamed land… or so they thought. After the school was up and running, people began to… find things… in the north.”
“Like what?”
“Well, apparently there are a bunch of cliffs there along the coast. I’ve never been, but I know some kids who have. The cliffs are said to open into a network of caves, and that’s where the worst experiments took place. Up there, far away from the rest of the island, where nobody could hear the screams.”