Void

by D Haltinner

  “I don’t know, but I’m sure she won’t be told the truth.”

  “Without a doubt.”

  Darren opened his backpack and began to rummage around through it. “I also did a little searching on the internet about the tunnel or about something similar that might have happened in the past.”

  “Find anything?”

  Darren located the article he got from the New York Times and handed it to Jack. “About sixty-seven years ago, a half dozen students disappeared, but there is nothing really linking them to what happened to Troy.”

  Jack took the article and began to read it, squinting hard enough that his entire face shifted forward.

  “I found nothing else besides that,” Darren said. “And I don’t think that there is anything in common between them.”

  Jack finished the article and handed it back to Darren. “Did they ever find the six?”

  “I didn’t even bother trying to find out.”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if there was something in common between what happened to them and what happened to Troy.”

  “How so? They weren’t even seen near the library. They probably ventured off campus and something happened to them elsewhere.”

  “But still, students disappearing.”

  “Back in the forties though.”

  Jack shrugged. “Still,” he said. “How old is the campus?”

  “I think most of it was built in the twenties or thirties if I remember right from hearing it on the freshman tour.”

  “The tunnel could have been built back then.”

  “The tunnel I saw wasn’t eighty years old,” Darren said. “The cement walls would be falling apart, but they weren’t as bad as I would expect.”

  “Someone could have been taking care of the tunnel,” Jack said. “Keeping it from collapsing.”

  “For eighty years?”

  Jack shrugged. “It might not be that old,” Jack said. “I’m just trying to get the point across that looks can be deceiving. There really is no way to be sure how old the tunnel is.”

  “I suppose, but why would someone bother to take care of a tunnel below the library anyways since we know it isn’t some sort of maintenance area?”

  “It has to have some sort of use, why else would it exist?”

  “They did just cover the entrance.”

  “Maybe they don’t use it all that often.”

  “Maybe they don’t use it at all.”

  Jack hesitated, looking at the floor. “I think I know a way we could answer all of our questions.”

  “How?”

  Jack looked up at Darren, and Darren saw the answer in his eyes.

  “No.” Darren said.

  Jack nodded, “It’s the only way.”

  “I am not going down there. Not after what happened to Troy.”

  “You don’t have to, I’ll go alone.”

  “They’ll catch you just like they did Troy.”

  “I think I can handle it better than Troy did.”

  “How’s that?”

  “I’m going to have you cover it back up when I get inside.”

  “What?”

  “No one will know I’m down there if the hatch is closed and covered by the bookcase.”

  “But how will you get out?” Darren found he had slid to the edge of the seat and slid himself back.

  “You can hang out around there, and when I’m ready to come out, I’ll knock on the hatch,” Jack said. “As soon as it’s clear, you can let me out.”

  Darren shook his head. “It isn’t worth the risk.”

  “But I’m taking all of the risk.”

  “But they also knew I was there when Troy was caught,” Darren said. “The professor knew who I was, he knew I was involved.”

  “Then I’ll get someone else to keep watch.”

  Darren felt his anger rising. “Did you tell someone else about the tunnel?”

  “No, but if you’re afraid to keep watch, I can get someone else to do it.”

  “We agreed that no one else would know about the hatch besides us. No one.”

  “Then we won’t be found out, no one will know what we’re doing. And if I even did get caught, I’ll tell them you tried to stop me, that you had nothing to do with it.”

  Darren shook his head. “It isn’t worth the risk.”

  “I think it is.”

  “Come on man, you can’t do this.”

  “It’s the only way to figure out what’s going on.”

  Darren sighed. He knew Jack was right, but was it really worth the risk? Darren didn’t want to meet the same end that Troy did. He couldn’t risk being kicked out of school, nor could he risk being taken from Audrey so soon.

  “It isn’t worth the risk,” Darren said.

  “Then like I said, I’ll get someone else to keep watch, because I’m going down there no matter what you say.”

  Darren shot to his feet, hands clenched in fists at his sides, his face contorted into a tense mass of flesh. “You aren’t telling anyone!”

  Jack flinched at Darren’s sudden movement, but didn’t move from the chair. “Then keep watch for me because I’m going in there.”

  Darren felt his entire body being covered in a still tremor and his teeth ground together. “No one can know about it!”

  “Then come with me.”

  Which was more important: keeping the hatch’s existence secret, or staying at UW-Redfern? Darren closed his eyes for a second and tried to calm his body down. When he opened his eyes, his body was just as tense. “Fine, I’ll go with you.”

  Jack nodded.

  “But you never tell anyone about what’s down there, or even that it exists. That’s the deal.”

  Jack nodded. “It's a deal.”

  Darren felt the heat leaving his body and after a few seconds he was able to open his hands again. “When did you intend on doing this? Tomorrow night?”

  Jack shook his head. “Now.”

  “What?”

  “The library doesn’t close for a few more hours.”

  “But we have class in the morning. I have to pick up Au-”

  Jack frowned. “Pick up? "

  “A little breakfast. Why can’t we just wait until tomorrow?”

  “So neither of us can chicken out,” Jack said. “I’ll just go down there, see what’s up, and come out. That’s it. No exploring, just a look-see.”

  Darren sighed. “Fine,” he said. “But this will be a rush job, agreed?”

  “Sure, no problem,” Jack said. “After we figure out what’s down there, we can do some more extended exploring another day.”

  “I’m not going down there.”

  “Okay, I will do a little exploring another time.”

  “Not without me.”

  Jack nodded, “No one knows besides us. No one.”

  “And it stays that way.”

  Jack nodded.

  Daren collapsed back into his chair. “I don’t know why you want to do this.”

  “I want to know what’s down there.”

  “So do I, but I don’t want to go down there and get caught.”

  Jack shrugged. “It’s worth the risk. I doubt I’ll get caught. I’m not as careless as Troy is.”

  “Plus you have a dad that can get you out of trouble.”

  Jack nodded. “I doubt that,” he said. “You forget that he’s somehow involved.”

  “Is that why you want to know so bad?”

  “Yeah, in part.”

  “Because your dad is somehow a part of this?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You can’t just sit down and talk to him about this?”

  “You don’t know my dad.”

  “He doesn’t seem like a bad guy.”

  “He’s not.”

  “He wouldn’t tell you though?”

  Jack shook his head. “He’s damn good with secrets to begin with, but after being screamed at for asking about Troy, I don’t think I have a chance in hell of g
etting it out of him.”

  “I wouldn’t know.”

  “I'm telling you, it ain’t gunna happen.”

  Darren nodded. “But we have to go tonight?”

  “We’ve already wasted too much time.”

  “But how are you going to see down there? There wasn’t any light down there last I saw.”

  Jack slid away from his desk, opened a drawer, and began to rummage around in it. A moment later he came out with a what looked like a marker.

  “How’s a sharpie going to help?” Darren asked.

  Jack twisted the marker along it’s middle and a bright white light blazed out of the bottom. He pointed it at Darren, forcing him to cover his eyes and turn away.

  “Okay, I see it,” Darren said.

  Jack shut off the light.

  “I can’t see those little batteries lasting too long though,” Darren said.

  “It’s LED,” Jack said. “It’ll go for a week without dimming if I left it on. I’ve actually done that on accident before.”

  “How old are the batteries?”

  “Just about brand new. I haven't used it since I put them in.”

  “Okay, you’ll be able to see, but what if you hurt yourself?”

  Jack twisted in his chair to access his pocket, and slipped the marker sized flashlight in. “I’ll just have to be careful.”

  Darren sighed. “Your ass is cooked if you get hurt,” he said. “There’s going to be no way in hell I’ll be able to help you out through that hatch.”

  “I assumed as much.”

  “And speaking of the hatch, how are you going to get to it with the carpet sewed over it now?”

  Jack reached back into the drawer and pulled out a pair of scissors. Long blades and steel handles, they appeared just strong enough to cut through the carpet.

  “Any more questions?” Jack asked.

  Darren sighed. “I guess not,” he said. “You seem to have put some thought into it.”

  “Enough, I suppose.” Jack closed his drawer and stood up. “We should go now before it gets too late.”

  “We really have to do this tonight?”

  “I have to.”

  “Fine,” Darren said with a sigh. He stood back up. “Then let’s go get this over with.”

  Chapter 16

  Darren and Jack flanked the area around the hatch to make sure no other students or school employees were around, then re-congregated in front of the bookshelf that sat on top of the hatch. Both of them stared at the base of the shelf where a stray thread of carpet stood out above the others.

  “Ready?” Jack asked.

  “As ready as I’ll ever be,” Darren said.

  Jack moved to the side of the bookcase. “Here, help me move them.”

  Darren joined Jack at the side and together they hefted it out of the way.

  “Are you going to be able to move it back over the hatch by yourself?”

  “I’ll manage.”

  Jack bent down to the carpet and pulled the scissors out of his pocket. He felt with his fingers for the union of carpet, and once he found it, he shoved the scissors through the seam and began to cut the threads holding the sections together. The cutting went smooth. A moment later Jack was flipping back the square of carpet to reveal the rusted hatch.

  Jack let out a laugh of excitement as he ran a hand over the hatch’s surface.

  “What?” Darren asked.

  “It’s actually here.”

  “You knew it was.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t get to see it before.”

  “Well, it’s real.”

  Jack handed Darren the scissors and Darren set them on the bookcase in front of the biographies on George Washington. Jack took hold of the handle, fought it loose, and hefted the hatch as he stood back up.

  Flakes of rust fell off the door, disappearing into the blackness revealed beneath like snowflakes drifting down through the night. The door didn’t squeal this time, thanks to the hatch’s recent use breaking away the rust on the hinges. In its place was a light groan of metal, but it wasn’t loud enough to drift past the aisle they huddled in.

  When the hatch stopped moving and hung most of the way open, Jack let go of it and looked down into the shaft, Darren moved along side his roommate to get a better view as Jack pulled out his flashlight and twisted it until the white light blazed out and pointed it into the hole.

  It looked no different to Darren than when he saw it less then forty eight hours earlier, but he didn’t know why the thought there would be anything changed. The same cement walls stretching down to the floor with a spider web of cracks ruling in every direction. The floor’s layer of dust was disturbed at the base of the shaft, but heading into the tunnel was single line of footprints.

  One set of footprints. Facing away from the hatch.

  “Jack?” Darren asked.

  “Yeah?” Jack said without lifting his eyes from the hole.

  “How many pairs of footprints do you see?”

  “One, why?”

  “Shouldn’t we see a second set heading back to the hatch?”

  Jack hesitated. “I would think so.”

  “He had to come out this way. Didn’t he?”

  “I would have thought that.”

  “Maybe there’s another way out.”

  “Could be.”

  “I don’t know how else he could have gotten out.”

  “Me either.”

  Darren and Jack stood in silence for a moment, looking down into the hatch. “Okay, wish me luck,” Jack said, tucking his light into his pocket, letting the shaft fall dark.

  “Good luck,” Darren said.

  Jack bent down, and seated himself before the shaft, dangling his legs into the hole. He gripped the edge, slid himself forward, and then disappeared into the hole.

  A light thud echoed up the shaft a moment later. Darren bent down over the hatch and called into it. “You okay?”

  Jack’s light clicked on. “Yeah.”

  Darren couldn’t see more then Jack’s shape in the darkness behind his flashlight, but where the light did fall lit up as bright as the world above the ground in full sunlight. The cracks in the walls swarmed in every direction, vanishing into the floor or into the tunnel where Darren couldn’t see.

  “Close it up,” Jack said.

  “You sure?” Darren asked.

  “Yeah, I’ll jump up and pound on it when I’m ready to come out.”

  “Okay.”

  Darren stood back up as the light moved forward into the tunnel and became a dim glow as it disappeared out of Darren’s sight. He lowered the hatch with as gentle of a hand as he could, then bent over to lay the carpet back over the hatch.

  “Darren?” A voice said from behind him.

  Darren jumped up straight. He spun around, knowing that he had been caught, but found himself speechless when he saw who was behind him.

  A smile grew on Audrey’s face as their eyes locked, but her eyes never betrayed the curiosity on her face. “What are you doing?”

  Darren’s mouth moved, but no words came out at first. What could he say? “It’s a long story,” he said. “Why’d you come back?”

  “I thought I forgot something in the library,” she said. “It wasn’t at the tables we sat at, so I thought I’d check the bookshelves we were at.”

  “Did you find it?” Darren looked around him. “I don’t think it’s here.”

  “I’m not so worried about it anymore,” she said. “What in the world are you doing? I thought you were going back to your room?”

  “I did,” Darren said. “My roommate dragged me back here.”

  Audrey looked up and down the aisles and stepped closer as her eyes turned to the carpet only half covering the hatch. “I don’t see anyone else.”

  “I…uh, it’s... I mean.”

  Audrey stepped up to Darren and took his hand in hers. “You can tell me.”

  Darren knew he could. If he could trust only one person in the w
orld with a secret, he somehow knew it was Audrey. Darren sighed and nodded his head. “Okay.”

  He told her about the night Troy ventured down into the hatch, about how he never came back, what Jack’s dad did and said, the architecture professor, even about calling Troy’s mother. Through the entire schpeel, Audrey said nothing. She only looked at Darren with her relaxed eyes, and held his hands tighter as his palms began to sweat.

  “-and now my roommate is down there, trying to find some answers.”

  Audrey nodded. “That’s quite the story.”

  Darren sighed. “I know,” he said. “But it’s all true.”

  “I know it is.”

  “You do?”

  “I believe you. I don’t think you could lie to me even if you tried.”

  “Probably not.”

  “But how is your roommate going to get out if you cover the hatch back up?”

  “He was just going to signal to me when he was ready to come out,” Darren said. “Today was only going to be a quick perusal, not any lengthy exploration.”

  “How would he signal you from down there?”

  A thud, followed by a loud bang came from down the aisle.

  “Like that?” Audrey asked.

  “Not quite,” Darren said.

  Darren rushed to the side of the bookcase, gripped the sides and lifted it, trying to twist it back into position. Audrey kicked the piece of carpet over the hatch and then moved to Darren’s side to try and help him move the shelf back into position. The bookcase was heavy and full of books, and lifting it caused a tight ball to grow in the middle of Darren’s spine, but he was able to juggle it back into position with Audrey helping him.

  The sound of a door opening and closing drifted down the aisle just as Darren and Audrey set the shelf back down. Darren did a few shoves and yanks to get it back into the groves it’s weight created in the carpet, and then stood back along side of Audrey, his arms feeling like mush with a line of sweat dripping beneath each one.

  Audrey patted Darren on the back. “I think I got a new name for you.”

  “A new name?”

  “Darin’ Darren.”

  Darren let out a chuckle. “I suppose I’m a very daring man today.”

  “Especially after what happened to Troy.”

  “About that,” Darren said, turning to her. “You can’t repeat anything I told you about this hatch or Troy.”