by D Haltinner
“Right, like that would work,” Darren said.
“Just an idea.”
“And a bad one at that.”
“We should get going before someone sees us though,” Jack said.
“I suppose,” Darren said. “But why do you think no one’s noticed it yet?”
“Maybe they have.”
“Don't you think someone would be here trying to figure out what it is?”
“The way it’s here one second and then gone the next? Most people probably think their eyes are playing tricks on them. It is night after all, and it’s supposed to be dark.”
The black dome vanished again in one swift wave.
“Let’s just go before this thing drives me nuts,” Darren said.
Jack stepped back into the doorway, and after one last look at the theatre under the moon’s blue light, Darren followed him into the building.
The hallway was silent at night-an awkward contrast to the bustle of the building during the day. The sound of their shoes on the hard tiles echoed back to them from the empty classrooms they passed, but it wasn’t as loud as the sound of Darren’s heart beat in his own ears.
He couldn’t believe he just became an accomplice in breaking into the building. True, no one would ever know that he was here because even if the campus police decide to take a stroll through the barren corridors of Rosch Hall, Darren was going to be safe below ground in the tunnels.
But even knowing that the risk of being caught was non-existent, Darren still felt a shot of adrenaline flowing through his eyes and exiting out through his armpits in the form of perspiration.
Jack led the way into the main corridor stretching out to the front entrance and stopped outside of the women’s restroom, looking up and down along the open doors of the classroom.
“What is it?” Darren asked.
“Nothing, just thinking,” Jack said.
“Thinking about what?”
“It’s nothing,” Jack said, and he pushed into the bathroom.
Darren followed Jack into the pitch black room and let the door close behind him before feeling around for the light switch and turning it on. Only a sliver of light from the room could sneak under the door and into the hallway, so Darren didn’t worry that someone would see the light. He’d shut it off when they climbed into the hatch, but for now it would make things easier to use the room’s own light instead of a flashlight.
“You ever going to tell me how you got into the building anyways?” Darren asked.
Jack walked to the painted over hatch and dropped to his knees as he slid his backpack off his shoulder. “Are you sure you want to know?”
“I don’t know, do I?”
Jack opened his backpack, reached in, and took out a rock twice as big as his fist, setting it on the floor beside him.
“I thought you said you weren’t going to ‘break in’?” Darren said. “You said you knew a way in.”
“Yeah, through a window.”
“Bloody hell, you’re just trying to get yourself a police record, aren’t you?”
“That’s why I kept the rock. No prints,” Jack said. “Look, it worked, and it’s necessary, you know that. If we really only have until Tuesday to figure out what’s going on, then we might have to do some things that, under normal circumstances, might be frowned upon.”
Darren sighed. Jack was right, but breaking into a building was no small matter. Jack put the rock back into his backpack and pulled out the sawzall. “Any more concerns before I cut the lock off this thing?”
“I need to learn to keep my mouth shut sometimes,” Darren said. “I think that would solve so many problems.”
“Probably,” Jack said. “Can I cut now?”
“Go ahead.”
Jack lined the blade up with the hasp of the lock holding the hatch shut and began to cut into it. The noise was loud in the bathroom, and Darren knew that if there was someone in the building with all the open doors, they would hear it. He cringed as the whine of the motor turned into a sharp squeal of metal on metal, and then all the noise stopped.
“That was easy,” Jack said. “Must be a pretty old lock.”
“I’m sure it was.”
Jack shoved the sawzall back into the backpack and took out a screwdriver. He started to scrape away flakes of paint from the handle until he was able to lift it, then he braced himself beside the hatch and tried to pull it open.
His face turned red and his arms began to shake, and then he relaxed with a sigh. “That paint’s almost as strong as the lock itself.”
“Need help?” Darren asked, stepping away from the door and toward Jack.
“I think I got an idea.”
Jack took the hammer from his bag, jammed the screwdriver into the space between the hatch and its frame, and began to hit the screwdriver, slicing through the paint around the entire border. Chunks of paint shot out from the crack, creating a border of flakes around the seam. A minute later, Jack had made it around the entire hatch and put the tools back into his bag.
“Let’s try this again,” Jack said as he positioned himself over the hatch.
With a grunt, Jack yanked on the handle and the hatch began to open. It moved hard, but Jack was able to pull it all the way open before letting go of the hatch.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Jack said.
“Good, but let’s get moving,” Darren said. “I don't want to stay here any longer than we have to, especially now that I know how you got into the building in the first place.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Jack said. “I’m moving.”
Jack pulled the pair of Barney flashlights out and held one out to Darren. Darren stepped to Jack, took it and flicked it on. The dimming light of the dying batteries was replaced by a bright-almost blinding-light.
“I changed the batteries out,” Jack said. He zipped his backpack shut and leaned over the hole in the floor and dropped the bag inside. “I’ll pick some new batteries up in the morning, we might need them tomorrow.”
“Probably,” Darren said, flicking it off.
“Go on ahead,” Jack said. “I’ll follow you down and close the hatch behind us.”
“What about the overhead lights?”
“I’ll get those too.”
Darren went to the hatch and looked down at the concrete floor below. It was his third trip down into the tunnels, but his armpits were sweating just as much as they did the first time.
With a sigh, Darren tucked the Barney flashlight into his pocket and sat down with his legs dangling into the hole. He slid as close to the edge as he could and then gave himself a shove, falling into the shaft and landing with a light thud.
“Alright?” Jack yelled down.
“Yeah.”
“Kay, here I come.”
Darren took his flashlight, turned it on, and stepped out from below the opening, dragging Jack’s backpack with him. He glanced both ways down the tunnel, eyes open for any sounds, but heard and saw nothing. The light coming down the shaft blinked out and Darren turned his light back to the opening as a pair of legs dropped into view.
Jack fumbled with the hatch, lowering it half of the way until it was held up by his hand, and then dropped himself into the tunnel. The hatch slammed shut at the moment Jack landed on his feet, sending a loud thud into the thick air of the tunnel that died a moment later.
“You okay?” Darren asked.
“Yeah,” Jack said, straightening himself back up. He took the flashlight out of his own pocket, flicked it on, and looked both ways.
“Let’s get moving then,” Darren said. “I don’t want to spend all night down here if we don’t have to.”
Jack nodded and stepped past Darren and the backpack, heading toward the theatre.
“Don't you want to bring the backpack?” Darren asked.
“Nah, leave it. I’ll pick it up on the way out, I don’t think we’ll need anything out of it.”
Darren shrugged and followed Jack deeper into the tunnel.
Chapter 43
“It should still be another minute away I think,” Jack said. “It’s hard to gauge any sort of distance down here, but the hatch we escaped out of should be here any second.”
“I thought we would have found the hatch by now,” Darren said.
Jack pointed his flashlight toward the ceiling and walked with his chin up. “I haven’t seen us pass it yet.”
Darren raised his light and pointed it down the concrete corridor, watching the area in front of them for anything that would help them figure out their position.
“It’s got to be here somewhere,” Jack said, watching the ceiling.
“I don’t know,” Darren said. “Something’s not feeling right.”
“What do you mean?”
“My gut says something is wrong.” The feeling that Audrey told him to trust. His neglected instinct.
“Nothing seems odd to me.”
“I didn’t say it seemed odd, just felt odd.”
“Well, it all appears normal.”
Darren laughed. “Nothing about this is normal.”
“Well, no, but that wasn’t wha-”
“We’re here.”
Darren’s flashlight beam vanished a few yards in front of them. A black wall spanned across the tunnel from wall to wall, floor to ceiling, absorbing every bit of light that Darren’s cheap plastic Barney light could put out. It was pure darkness, blacker than any cellar ever could be. Blacker than any manhole could be.
“Already?” Jack said as the two came to a stop. “We didn’t pass the hatch yet.”
“I’m starting to think we aren’t going to be seeing the hatch,” Darren said.
“What do you mean?”
“I think the hatch is in there.”
“In the void?”
Darren nodded.
“That’s not possible, the hatch was before we reached the void.”
“I don’t think it is anymore.”
“You mean-”
“I think the void has grown.”
“But how could that be possible?”
Jack shined his light back up to the ceiling and spun around, looking at the expanse behind them.
“You’re not going to find that hatch,” Darren said.
“What makes you so sure the hatch is behind that thing now?” Jack said.
“Did you see us pass it?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t.”
“Think what you want, but that thing,” Darren pointed at the black wall. “Isn’t where it was before.”
Jack shook his head.
“Look, there’s no point in arguing about it anyways,” Darren said. “You wanted to go into that thing, so why are we just standing here?”
“You’re right,” Jack said. “We came here to figure out what’s in there.”
“Then get going.”
“Aren’t you coming?”
Darren closed his eyes and let out a sigh. The answers to what was going on were probably waiting for them in the center of that darkness, but something just wasn’t right. Maybe it’s because the void may have expanded, but it felt like more than that. It felt a lot worse than that.
Darren knew that he was going to have to take risks in order to stop what was going to happen on Tuesday, and to keep Audrey safe, so why shouldn’t he take a risk now and go into that void with Jack? Audrey was safe in bed, she was in no danger, and if Darren and Jack didn’t go in there now, they might have to later when she was with them. He couldn’t let Audrey be put in danger like that.
“Yeah, fine, I’ll go,” Darren said. “But if I say to turn back, we turn back, okay?”
Jack nodded. “Got it, no problem.”
Darren closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He couldn’t shake the feeling turning in his guts, but at least it hasn’t grown any stronger. “Then let’s go before I change my mind.”
Jack turned toward the void and walked toward it with Darren following behind. He stopped at the edge of the blackness and reached into it with his hand.
“Getting nervous?” Darren asked. He was, but he wasn’t about to vocalize that.
“No,” Jack said. “I just never tried to reach into the void last time.”
“Well, it doesn’t feel weird.”
Jack pulled his hand out and looked at it. “No, it doesn’t.”
“So, are we going?”
“Yeah.” Jack reached out and put his hand on the wall, “I’ll walk in front, and I’ll keep my hand on the wall in front of us in case there is something unexpected in front of us.”
“Fine by me.” Darren didn’t mind letting Jack take the majority of the risk. It was his idea anyways.
“Okay, let’s go,” Jack said, flicking off his flashlight. “No point in wasting the batteries.” Jack stepped into the void, his body vanishing inch by inch as he pulled himself forward.
Darren kept expecting him to come popping back out, but it never happened.
“Can you see me?” Darren asked.
“No,” Jack’s voice said in reply.
Darren shook his head at himself, and stepped into the void.
There was no sensation as his body passed into the darkness. It was no different than walking through the thick air in the rest of the tunnels. It didn’t smell any different, sound any different, even taste any different. What was not the same was what he saw, which was nothing.
Blackness, darkness, even thicker that that he ever found playing hide and seek as a kid. Darker than the manhole that still haunted his thoughts. He lifted his flashlight, saw no evidence of its beam, and placed it right up against his eye, but there was no light escaping from its bulb. The front of it was hot like it always was when being used, but the light wasn’t being allowed to escape.
“You back there?” Jack yelled.
“Yeah, I’m coming,” Darren said. He turned off his flashlight to conserve the batteries and shoved it into his pocket before reaching out to the wall to give himself some sort of sensation to feel.
"This is so weird,” Jack said from somewhere ahead of Darren.
“It is.”
“I mean, it’s like walking in the bowels of the earth or something.”
“We are.”
“Yeah, I guess we are.”
And somewhere in the bowels of this place was what they needed to stop. Stop from doing what, Darren had no idea. But this void was hiding something and if those sounds from the other day were any sign, it was big.
What if those sounds came back today while they were down there? Darren was positive that those sounds were coming after them, and now that they were moving closer themselves, would they be able to get away this time? How did it even know they were down here? Did it sense them? Could it see through the blackness? Did it hear them talking and arguing?
“Hey, Jack,” Darren said, keeping his voice low. “I think we should keep it dow-”
“What the hell?” Jack said from ahead of Darren.
Darren stopped, wiping the sweat from his palms onto his pants. “What is it?”
A moment of silence passed before Jack spoke again. “I felt an impression in the wall,” he said. “It’s the steps leading up to a hatch.”
“Believe me now?”
“I suppose I have to.”
Darren walked forward, toward Jack’s voice. “It’s expanding, and I think that has to do with Tuesday.”
“Why would it be getting bigger though?”
Darren shrugged, then realized it was a worthless gesture in the void. “I have no idea, but isn’t that why we’re in here right now? To figure that out?”
“I suppose we are.”
A sudden tingling sensation passed through Darren’s body from front to back. As if his leg was waking up after falling asleep beneath him, but it covered his entire body as it passed through him.
“Whoa, I got quite a chill,” Jack said.
“So did I,” Darren said.
“Really? Odd that we both
did at the same time.”
“A change in temperature maybe?”
“Didn’t feel like that kind of chill.”
“No, it didn’t, did it?”
“Let’s keep moving,” Jack said.
Darren moved along the wall, leaving his hand out on the cool concrete surface as he walked. The wall was pitted and crumbling beneath his fingers in places, but most of it was rough but still strong and solid. He passed his hands over the foot holds Jack had found and kept moving.
“What were you trying to say before?” Jack said from further ahead than Darren thought he was.
Darren picked up his pace. “I was saying that I think we need to keep our voices down.”
“Why’s that?”
“I was just thinking that it was possible that our voices was what caused that thing to come after us on Friday.”
“You mean those noises? The hiss, clunk thing?”
“Yeah, that.”
“You think it was us talking that caused it to come after us?”
“It’s possible. It seemed to know we were here, and unless it can see through this blackness better than we can, I don’t know how else it could know we were here.”
“Wouldn’t it have heard us by now?”
Darren swallowed hard. “Maybe it already has.”
“Then why isn’t it coming for us this time?”
“There’s no need. We’re going to it this time.”
“I think you’re getting a bit paranoid this time.”
“Maybe, but you can’t ignore the possibility.”
“I suppose not. No yelling to see if it echoes then.”
They walked in silence now. They should have passed the previous border of the void by now, so every step they took was into new territory. It wasn’t going to be long until they reached the edge of the theatre, and he had no idea if the tunnel continued under the parking lot just past the building. Even if it did pass under the theatre’s parking lot, Main Ave was just past that and that meant the tunnel would either end or dip below the street like it did last time.
Somehow, Darren doubted either of those options was right.
The sound of Jack’s foot scuffing the cement floor jerked Darren’s mind back to the present. He was stupid to be risking himself like this. They couldn’t see anything, they had no idea what was down here, and they had nowhere to run if something went wrong.