Void

by D Haltinner

  “There’s something there,” Darren said.

  “But what?” Audrey asked.

  “I think that is one question I don’t want to know the answer to.”

  Audrey took a step back from the darkness, “Maybe we should go.”

  “Leave?” Jack said. “Now? Just when we found this?”

  “We don’t know what it is,” Darren said. “And I don’t want to know what’s behind that... whatever it is.”

  “Come on, don’t chicken out.”

  “You do whatever you want, but if Audrey wants to leave, we’re leaving.”

  “Jeez guys, it’s not going to hurt us.”

  “How do you know?” Audrey said. “There’s no telling what’s back there.”

  “Troy went that way, and he didn’t get hurt,” Jack said.

  “How do you know?” Darren said, “No one’s seen him since he was down here, not even his family has heard from him.”

  “I’m sure you’ll have time to come back here,” Audrey said.

  “We don’t have to go far, just a little ways,” Jack said.

  “No one’s stopping you. The two of us just aren’t going to go with you,” Darren said.

  Jack looked into the darkness, then back to the path behind them. “Jeez man.”

  Darren shook his head.

  “Fine,” Jack said. “We’ll go. But I intend to find out what’s back there sooner or later.”

  “No one’s stopping you,”

  “Yeah, yeah. Let’s just go before I change my mind.”

  Jack and Darren turned to leave, but Audrey stayed facing the black wall, shining her light into it without any success.

  “You coming?” Darren asked.

  Audrey’s throat bobbed as she swallowed. “I think I hear something.”

  Jack and Darren both spun around. “I don’t hear anything,” Darren said.

  “I do,” Audrey said. “Like a hissing noise.”

  Darren shook his head. “I still don’t he-”

  Then he heard it. The same hissing noise he had heard when Troy first opened the hatch. Following the hiss was a dull thud, then more hissing, then another thud, working in a repeating loop.

  “That’s the sound,” Jack said.

  “It’s getting louder,” Darren said.

  “What is it?” Audrey asked.

  “We have no idea, but whatever it is, it sounds big,” Darren said.

  “And it sounds like it’s getting closer,” Jack said.

  The sound stopped, being replaced by what sounded like an alarm with its repeating whoop! whoop! whoop! ca-chunk!

  Audrey took a step back. “Maybe we should get moving.”

  Darren had to raise his voice to be sure that he was heard over the growing sounds. “I think that’s a pretty good idea.”

  Audrey put her fingers up to her ears, wrestling with the penlight to keep it pointed ahead of her and out of her face. Darren put a hand on her hip and led her away from the void, not bothering to check and see if Jack was coming. He led Audrey back the way they came, picking up the pace to a jog when the volume of the sound coming from behind them neared the point of unbearable.

  Audrey turned to look at Darren when they reached the hatch they presumed was below the theatre, and spoke something that Darren had no hope of hearing. He tried to read her lips, but that proved just as futile. He shook his head to try and let her know that he couldn’t tell what she was trying to say, then looked back to see Jack jogging up behind them.

  Darren’s ears began to burn inside of his head from the volume of the sounds coming from south of them, and he had to resist the urge to clamp his hands over his ears so that he could open the hatch. He climbed up the steps molded into the wall below the hatch and braced himself against the cement as he pushed up on the rusted hatch.

  The hatch resisted at first, but with a stronger effort, Darren was able to push it open and climb up into a darkened room. He didn’t waste time trying to determine where he was, the sound was still deafening up here and growing louder. Darren reached down for Audrey’s arm, helping her out of the shaft. Jack clambered out behind her on his own, collapsing onto the floor, panting for air.

  Darren slammed the hatch shut, deadening the growing sound, but not silencing it. The sound of his own breathing came to him over the repeating sound below him, and then he heard another noise coming from outside the room they were in. Their flashlights were all still on, pointing in random directions across the dark room, revealing metal shelves full of boxes and random stage props. An overflowing box of fabrics loomed over Audrey’s head, with a stack of guns piled on the floor beside Darren and the hatch.

  Darren climbed to his feet, letting his flashlight explore a shelf of jewelry, glasses, fake beards and moles. “The prop room.”

  Audrey looked around her with the penlight. She focused on the wall, illuminating a switch beside a wooden door. She moved for it and flicked it on, squinting at Darren when the overheads lights blared into life. Her hair lost its previous part and fell around her head in random clumps, and she had a smear of dust on her left cheek, but otherwise she seemed okay.

  “Well, that was fun,” Jack said, climbing to his knees, his breathing back under control.

  “Yeah, I’d say,” Darren said.

  Audrey looked across the room, then back to the hatch on the floor. “Let’s go,” she said. “I don’t want to stay here right now.”

  “Why not?” Jack asked.

  Audrey said nothing, staring at the hatch.

  “I don’t want to sit here either with that noise beneath us,” Darren said.

  Jack sighed and climbed to his feet. “Fine, let’s go.”

  Audrey opened the door and stepped out into the hall after glancing in both directions. Jack stepped out after her, and Darren came last, turning off the light before closing the door behind him.

  The sound from below the hatch died once Darren shut the door, its place being taken over by the sound of a musical duet floating down the hall. It took a moment to get used to the heated air after coming out of the stale crypt below the ground, but Darren’s lungs welcomed every breath.

  “Hasn’t anyone noticed the hatch in there before?” Jack asked.

  Darren jiggled the door handle, showing that it was locked. “It’s locked, just in case the Faculty Only sign on the door didn’t mean anything to you.”

  “Smart ass,” Jack said, turning to look down the hall toward the glass doors of the exit.

  A single student approached, her sneakers scuffing the floor with each step as she walked past the three. They all watched her every move, but she never lifted her eyes off the floor.

  “I think that room’s just for overflow anyways,” Audrey said, raising her finger to point to a door a dozen feet away. “That’s the one labeled prop room.”

  “Still, it’s surprising no one noticed it,” Jack said.

  “I’m sure they have,” Darren said. “But they probably assumed it was just a maintenance hatch like I thought at first. And being locked out, they never had a way to check.”

  “Sometimes the best way to hide something is in plain sight,” Audrey said. “They didn’t try to hide the one in Rosch Hall either, just put a lock on it and painted it. The lock looked just as old as the building.”

  “I guess there is some truth to that,” Jack said. He looked down the hall. “I just want to be sure that no one else finds it.”

  “I think the odds of that are pretty slim,” Darren said.

  “You found one of the hatches beneath a book shelf.”

  “On accident.”

  “Someone else could find one on accident.”

  “It’s possible, but probably not likely.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Darren said. “No one will find out about it.”

  “Can we get going?” Audrey said. “I feel filthy.”

  “Of course,” Darren said. “I’m ready.”

>   “We are going back tomorrow, right?” Jack asked.

  Audrey and Darren both nodded.

  “When?”

  Darren shrugged.

  “Why not after breakfast?” Audrey said. “That will give us plenty of time.”

  “Fine with me,” Jack said.

  “I guess it’s okay with me too,” Darren said.

  “Good,” Jack said. “I’ll have everything we need ready by then.”

  “Fine by me,” Darren said.

  “Let’s get out of here then,” Audrey said, pulling her backpack straps tighter. “I need to get in the shower before we go out.”

  Darren stepped in front of Audrey. “Where are we going to go?”

  Audrey reached out and took his hands. “That’s for you to surprise me with.”

  “I don’t have a car.”

  Audrey shrugged a single shoulder. “I’m not afraid of a little walk.”

  “It’s cold out.”

  “Won't you keep me warm?”

  A tingle spread through the inside of Darren. “I’ll try.”

  “Why don’t I give you two some privacy,” Jack said.

  Audrey laughed. “We’re done. We can go.”

  “Then let’s get out of here.”

  Chapter 26

  Darren waited outside of Audrey’s dorm at the edge of the path with his hands as deep in his pockets as they would go. The temperature was dropping as the sun fell below the horizon, and now that the sun was gone from view, the cold was swarming in faster than a cloud of locusts.

  Though Darren kept his eyes on the entrance to Audrey’s dorm, his mind was lost in a maze of cement tunnels. The image of the black wall blocking the path wouldn’t leave the front of his mind, and he swore that he could hear the hiss and thunking noises growing out of the darkness in his mind’s eye.

  Whatever the hell was done there, it was bigger than Darren ever could imagine. It was something that the faculty of the school was trying to keep quiet. But what was it? What was back in that darkness?

  Darren’s mind snapped back into consciousness when he saw Audrey step out of the dorm’s front door. Her hair must have still been damp, because steam was rising off of it toward the streetlamp she walked underneath. Her perma-smile grew as she closed into Darren, and turned into a kiss as she reached up for his lips.

  “It’s been too long,” Audrey said.

  “You just saw me a couple hours ago.”

  “Well, then I guess I’ll have to give you a second kiss to make up for it.”

  “Guess so.”

  Darren reached down and kissed her again. “You’re not too cold, are you?”

  She held her hair up in one hand. “My hair froze on me, but I’m fine.”

  “We don’t have too far to walk.”

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “You don’t want to be surprised?”

  “Nah, you can tell me.”

  “I’m not big on formal dining, so I thought I’d take you to that Italian cafe down by the church.”

  “Emilio’s?”

  “That’s the one.”

  “I always wanted to try that place.”

  “Now you will.”

  Audrey shot her hand into Darren’s pocket on top of his and grabbed his hand in hers. “Lead the way.”

  Darren started them down the path toward Washington Street. The wind had died off, but left in its place was a dry cold reminiscent of January, not October. Audrey’s hand seemed to be giving Darren all the warmth he needed to be comfortable in the cold, so he held on tight and did his best to provide his heat to her too.

  “I haven’t been able to get the tunnel out of my mind,” Audrey said as they turned toward the sidewalk of Washington.

  “Me either.”

  “It just made no sense. Light shouldn’t just disappear like that.”

  “In black holes it does.”

  “If that was a black hole, we’d all be dead.”

  “I know, but what else absorbs light like that?”

  “Pure, unadultered darkness. I don’t know.”

  “Neither do I.”

  “We should have seen at least the hint of a reflection.”

  “I didn’t see anything.”

  “But there must be something solid back there.”

  “Yeah, but who knows how far away.”

  “What do you mean by ‘how far away’?”

  “If that was a drop off, there’s no telling how far away the other side was.”

  “A drop off? Like a cave?”

  “Cave, pit, sinkhole.”

  A car with a rattling muffler sped by when Audrey and Darren stepped onto the sidewalk bordering Washington. Traffic was light, but there wasn’t a lot of reasons for people to be near campus on a Friday night. Most people left campus and headed toward downtown. At least those with cars. People like Darren were stuck taking their dates to the more usual student hangouts-but at least she hasn’t been there yet. No other date of hers had taken her there yet.

  How many dates has she been on? She was attractive enough that she could have a date every night of the week. Did she go out with a different guy each weekend? Was Darren just this weekend’s guy? Was she one of those girls that dated more than one guy at a time?

  She better not be. Darren just dumped Rachel today so he could be with Audrey. He made a sacrifice for her, and if she was seeing other guys, she better be making a similar sacrifice. Darren knew he couldn’t stand a chance in competing with another guy-not being an Arab in America. It wouldn’t even be worth the effort, he’d only end up making a fool out of himself.

  But how could he ask her? That wasn’t something that he could just bring up. He could ask her about her dating history, but most girls always seemed to avoid talking about their-or their date’s-past. All girls regretted their past.

  All pasts used to be the present though.

  “You okay?” Audrey asked.

  “Yeah, why?”

  “You seemed out of it for a moment.”

  “Just distracted.”

  “I was trying to ask you why you though it was a cave or a pit or whatever,” she said. “Troy obviously walked into the darkness, and he must not have fallen if he got caught.”

  “We don’t know if he came out unhurt though.”

  “But he must have come out on the other side of that...” She shrugged. “That, because there were no footprints coming back out.”

  “I don’t have any interest in walking into that.”

  “I don’t want to either, but I can’t help but to want to know what’s back there.”

  A pickup drove by, sending a gust of exhaust toward Darren and Audrey. Audrey held her breath and turned away, hiding her face into Darren’s shoulder until the plume passed by them.

  “I don’t think that little bit of exhaust will kill you,” Darren said.

  “I just don’t like the stench of it.”

  “It’s really no worse than that stale air down in the tunnel.”

  “I guess.”

  “You know, there’s a thought that’s been kind of haunting me about the tunnel.”

  “What?”

  “What if Troy never did come out?”

  “He got caught, didn’t he?” she said. “Are you saying that you think they trapped him down there as punishment?”

  “No, I’m saying that maybe they found the hatch open, found out it was Troy down there on surveillance video or saw his backpack there after closing, and just left him.”

  “Then where would he be?”

  Darren hesitated. “Maybe he’s in that black void.”

  Audrey frowned, but her eyebrows relaxed a moment later. “You mean he’s still down there?”

  “Abandoned. I don’t think they had any intention of finding him.”

  “Just left him there? Hoping what? That he’d get lost and never find his way out?”

  Darren shrugged. “That, or maybe because they know what’s down there. They kno
w what’s behind that darkness.”

  “You think there’s something down there?”

  “I don’t know, I’m just saying that anything is possible.”

  “Well, we did hear something.”

  “Maybe whatever it is, is dangerous.”

  “It sounded like a machine.”

  “Maybe Troy got caught in it and hurt.”

  “Maybe they knew he’d get caught and hurt.”

  “I’m not ruling anything out,” Darren said. “Not after today.”

  Audrey let a shiver swarm over her body. Darren pulled her closer and put his arm over her shoulders, leaving her hand in his pocket.

  “Tomorrow’s going to be an interesting day,” Audrey said.

  “I’d say so.”

  “I’m kind of nervous.”

  “Me too.”

  “Who knows what’s down there?”

  “Exactly.”

  “But I want to know, I need to know what’s behind that door.”

  “I’m curious, but you make it sound like an addiction.”

  “It almost feels that way.”

  Darren didn’t understand how someone could be that curious. Yeah, he wanted to know what was down there, but he wasn’t that out of control, was he? He did think about it a lot of the time. More than he was thinking about Audrey even.

  Even now, walking with Audrey in his arms, all they talked about was the tunnel. Maybe there was something more than a simple curiosity. He was willing to go back down there, knowing it could be dangerous. And he did go down there despite the possibility of being caught. It wasn’t like him to risk so much like that-he’s never even bought a raffle ticket before.

  But he couldn’t be addicted to a curiosity, could he?

  “Maybe tomorrow will tell us everything we need to know,” Audrey said.

  “That’s what we were hoping about today.”

  “Look how well that turned out. I have more questions now than I did when we opened the hatch up and jumped in.”

  “I hope we don’t end up with more tomorrow.”

  “I think our hopes might be a bit premature.”

  “Might be.”

  Darren saw the glowing sign on the front of the Italian Cafe approaching across the street. There was a light beat of a rock song coming from the bar next door, illuminated only by a line of neon signs in it’s window. On the opposite side of the cafe was a large parking lot bordering a large church, it’s steeple climbing three stories into the sky.