Aidene
The building was warm, but not in a good way, it was dank and smelt like mould but honestly anything from the stinging cold outside was welcome. It was dingy to say the least and I couldn't tell the difference if I walked with my eyes closed.
"I don't remember the school smelling like this," I said.
"It's only this corridor, no one visits it much, even the janitors. The further we go the better and less dank it gets," Penelope informed.
"Are there rats?" fear laced in Valentina's voice.
"Maybe," Anne said with a shrug.
I slowly stepped behind Valentina.
"OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH! I AM A GHOST RAT," I said, varying my pitch every few seconds.
"Aidene, stop that you are being really annoying," Valentina pushed me away.
"Awww! Thank you," I said, making my voice sickly sweet.
"Guys keep it down, we don't want to get in trouble for this" said Anne from behind us.
"Why is someone gonna rat on us?" Penelope said laughing at her own joke.
"That was a horrible pun," Valentina dead panned.
"All puns are horrible," I informed helpfully.
"Make another one and we're leaving you here" Anne said.
The next few moments were spent in silence. As we entered the main corridors of the school, the mouldiness started to disappear. I started to grow excited. I occasionally hopped, skipped or broke into a run, earning a glare and an occasional scolding from Anne and Penelope.
The walk probably took no longer than a few minutes, but it felt like a hundred years to me. I was walking backwards now and Anne and Penelope were tired of shushing me so Aidene for the Win.
I started humming 'Legends Never Die', I liked the song even if I never played the game. I don't play games. More of a reader.
Suddenly Valentina looked up from the ground at me and said "WATCH OUT-"
My horrible moonwalking was put to a sudden stop by something blocking our way. Something that I had crashed into.
I turned around rubbing my head. I walked into a wall. That's an all time low...
"Okay so we're here?" Penelope said fishing for her torch just in case we need it.
"Where is here?" Valentina asked spinning to look around our bleak environment.
Anne walked up and put her hand on the wall. No, it was a wooden door similar to all the classrooms, just rarely used.
It didn't have a handle but its hinges might as well have been a fine powder.
"This is the one," Anne said.
"What is what one? Where even are we?" Valentina continued to ask, growing increasingly anxious.
"Aren't we supposed to be in some dusty old library?"
Anne gently creaked the door open.
"Oh so we are here." Valentina said quietly.
The record room was pitch black not a thing visible. The sound of Penelope's torch being switched on seemed like a lion's roar in the silence. She pointed it into the room.
The records room was exactly the same since I had visited. Metal shelves created a gigantic maze, making the room seem bigger than it was. The air was dank and suffocating and the dust threatened to make us burst into wheezes every second. The darkness made it eerie and made us over conscious of every step we took. I cupped a hand over my mouth to at least try to muffle my coughs.
The part of the room we were in was blocked off from the rest of the maze by a few empty racks haphazardly stacked and cobbled together.
Penelope walked around the small clearing, "So we have 3 ways into the rest of this place, one, we could move this shelf right here," She said pointing to the upright shelf in front of us,
"Or two, climb over the shelf, or three, lift one of the broken shelves and go under it."
"I vote for climbing over the shelf," I said, it just seemed more practical than the rest of the options.
"I can't climb to save my life," Valentina said laughing sarcastically.
"Didn't you just climb a tree?" Anne pointed out.
"I kinda just fell off it to be fair."
"We don't want to risk knocking over a shelf by any chance. So that crosses out climbing and moving the giant creaky shelf." said Penelope.
"How did you guys get in here last time?" asked Valentina, clearly losing her interest in Penelope's deduction or explanation or whatever it was.
"Oh we just went through that small gap," said Anne, pointing in the general direction.
"THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL PENELOPE BEFORE SHE STARTED THAT WHOLE....," Valentina said, throwing her hands in the air and then quickly cupping her mouth realizing she had started raising her voice.
"Cause it was fun watching you," I said, keeping a straight face solely to annoy Valentina.
Valentina sighed and walked off to help Penelope. Another spectacular Win from Aidene Rayners.
Penelope and Valentina lifted the empty shelf together slowly, revealing the trap door. I looked at Anne. She waved towards the opening in a sort of 'ladies first' gesture, except we were all ladies but whatever. I was basically our meat shield for whatever was coming up front, but all I can say is, it was an honour going down and making the world a better place (if you consider annoying people making the world better).
Penelope handed me the keys. Kneeling down I unlocked the door and opened it with a slight creek. I knelt forward carefully, as not to fall over to see what's inside.
My stomach dropped. I was not expecting us to be on a raised platform several feet above the floor without guardrails keeping me from becoming a small splodge on the floor. The strong smell of mildew hit me and the sudden flow of humidity from the room made me nauseous. The place was worse than the records room.
"We are going to need a ladder," I said, pulling myself away from the trap door.
"A really really really really. A Lot of reallys, huge one," I added as an afterthought.
"Where on earth do we find a ladder? It's not like the cleaning staff just leave it out for free use..." Valentina said, shooting me a What-the-heck-are-we-going-to-do smile (which by the way looked extremely comical on her face).
"Why do we need a ladder?" said Penelope as she poked her head through the trapdoor.
"Okay I see why we need a ladder,"
"So are we going to get one or do we push Aidene in first and use her to break our fall?" Anne said.
"It would be the greatest honour to be used as a meat cushion," I said with an over dramatic bow.
"No we will not be using Aidene as our meat cushion," said Penelope "But, I know where they keep their ladders..." she said twirling the keys.