Aidene
"Are you done yet?" I drawled. Anne was taking ages to complete her homework. The dining hall was filled with students even if breakfast was finished an hour ago.
"Done?"
"Dooooooooone?" I dragged the word out.
"Oh! For the love of all that is good and pure will you just SHUT UP!" Anne said her patience was clearly running out.
She slammed her books shut and put them in her bag. She got up reminding me she was an inch taller than me but looked the same height because of her lazy posture. She didn't straighten her back to look confident and energetic like I did.
"For the first time you don't look like you're trying to be a canvas," Anne observed.
I had to search for the darkest clothing I could find for the search since I like to be dramatic. A black hoodie with '#Trouble' written in glitch effect along with my favorite boots. It took me ages to find that black hoodie, I have too many colorful clothes. And to be even more goth I didn't color my hair, leaving it in its natural coffee- bean- almost -black-brown color.
"Almost.." she added. Once she caught sight of my faded blue jeans with paint splattered on it.
Anne wore the same grey coat as last time, and the day before and before that, but this time she wore black jeans and a plain tan shirt. This girl really needed to brighten up her wardrobe a little.
"And you look exactly the same my dear Anne" I complimented.
Her sneakers dragged with a feeling of weariness and utter annoyance. I briskly walked towards the classroom that the literature club uses after school. I slowed down near the entrance and peeked in to make sure that it was empty. I ran back to fetch Anne since she was still walking like a turtle and got distracted by the 'Join the Ghostbusters of the School Club' (people who believed the school is haunted) posters on the boards.
Finally managing to push her into the classroom. I took out my phone and showed her a picture of the map. She looked over my shoulder to see it.
"I managed to get a picture of the map. There should be four entrances to that floor but.."
"One of them is a trap door, like an emergency exit, yes I know, saw the map too you know"
Anne's face fell into a frown. Contrasting against my personality as usual. I decided to keep quiet about her more tired than usual behavior.
"There are three ways we could go in right? So as a knowledgeable show, Scooby-doo once said, "Let's split Gang!"."
"You take the one on the north side of the school and I will take the other two since you don't really seem to have much energy today."
"What about the trap door?"
"We both will check that out together. We will be updating our mission status through texts." I said as I opened the classroom door for her to walk out.
"Text me when you reach the trap door after checking out the one in the north side" I exclaimed as I walked the opposite direction.
"Update our mission status ....Who says that?" was the last thing I heard her mutter.
I looked at the map on my phone. If I wasn't wrong the door in front of me was the one I had trouble believing it was the one mostly because it was at the back of the supplies closet, a room I had walked by so often I barely noticed it. I had to move a good amount of mops and dustpans to see it. This was my second door; the first one had a cement wall behind it and my hopes for the same result was high for this one too. I looked at the message Anne had sent me and she had the same result. I noticed that this door was not entirely closed off, the only thing stopping me was a metal door with a rusty lock. How hard could it be to break it?
I rammed into the door. I knew it was 'pull', not 'push' from my past experiences but I also knew that the latch and the lock were rusted. I banged again. I then started pulling as hard as possible trying my best to break the lock. When I was tired of doing that I looked around for a better idea. I took a mop from the side and started hitting the lock with the end of its handle, which was made of some hard metal, unlike the rest which was made of plastic.
The dull metal thud sound was heard when the lock fell to the floor -It's rusted ends broken and turning to powder. I leaned against the wall catching a breath, which was hard seeing that the whole room smelt like a gutter. I cradled my arm. It really wasn't worth ramming myself shoulder first into a door. I quickly messaged Anne saying the doors I checked were blocked.
"The door has lost the battle against the brave Aidene Rayners but the war is coming," I said to myself. With my head hung low, I headed towards the door which was now swinging open slowly by itself. I kicked it open, being too lazy to use my hands. And...well I couldn't say I was disappointed. There was a hastily cemented wall just like the previous door.
"The courageous Aidene Rayners may have won the battle but the cement wall has won the war" I sighed. Did I mention how my shoulder was hurting?
My phone started ringing. A call from Anne. I picked it up.
"I am not sure if I am in the right room, I mean I can't see a trap door." her voice broke from the horrible mobile service.
"Wait. I'm coming" I told her.
I walked into a room and was slightly overwhelmed by the labyrinth of shelves. A thin layer of dust covered what appeared to be official files. Some sort of record room I guessed and it was supposed to be the one with the trap door.
"ACHOOOOOOOOOOO!" The sneeze scared the hell out of me.
"Anne? Is that you?" I yelled.
"Yeah over here!"
I found her at the corner of the room next to what looked like the oldest records. Observing the dust for absolutely no reason.
"It's supposed to be here, at least the map says so " What appeared to be a mocking, almost smug look crossed her face, which left me confused. Why would she have that look?
"Anne it's a trap door it's supposed to be on the floor," I said as a matter of factly.
"Yes! I am not dumb I know what a trap door is. And I ... Oh" She had started with an irritated voice but the last few syllables were almost a whisper when she realized what I meant.
"There are thousands of shelves. How are we supposed to know which one has a trapdoor under it?" The weariness was evident in her voice. I raised an eyebrow and opened the map on my phone. After a quick look, I got down and looked under the shelves surrounding us and got up when I saw a metal handle poking up.
"You are already in the right location, you just need to look under the shelves," I said.
I got to one side of a shelf and started pushing it with my already tired body.
"Help me! It's under this shelf." A strained voice escaped my throat.
Anne stood beside me and helped push the shelf out of the way. The screeching noise of the metal shelf against the floor tore my ears apart. And when it stopped an eerie silence filled the room.
Half of the door peeked out from under the shelf. I walked over and knocked on it.
"It's hollow! I mean there is no wall behind it" I almost yelled out what I thought was good news until Anne spoke.
"You what?" Her disappointed voice reached my ears.
"The lock is not rusted like the others, we can get Penelope. I bet she has something.." I trailed on ignoring her.
"Therefore, we can get in." I stopped and looked at her with excitement running through me. The feeling was soon gone the moment I saw Anne's face.