Chapter Sixteen

Aidene

I found myself walking beside Penelope through the dark corridors. There was apparently a shed, where we could find a ladder on the school grounds. It was only me and Penelope. Both of us were equally fast and I could lift heavy stuff as she observed during detention when I was moving the broken furniture across the room.

Valentina decided she was too tired and would slow us down and Anne stayed behind with her to scout the area and make sure it was safe for us and our hypothetical ginormous ladder to come back.

All of the lights were now turned off. After a few minutes of blindly following Penelope (Pun not intended) through the school's corridors, we were now at the school's grounds.

The grounds were fairly uniform, nothing out of the ordinary. I scanned the area for a big fat ladder; bleachers, beat-up boxes used to temporarily store balls, someone's lone knee-high sock, and a relatively small shed that could not have possibly fit a ladder of the size we were hoping for. Penelope took a second and walked towards the shed, motioning me to follow.

"Hey, just wanted to point out that we're gonna need something at least double the size of that shack, what are we going to do there?," I said, making my voice as low as possible just in case there was someone around we didn't see.

Penelope put a finger to her lips, the universal sign for 'shush'. There was no point in asking so, on we marched forward.

Penelope walked up to the door of the wooden shed and took our stolen keys out of her pocket and unlocked the lock (there wasn't really a point in having a lock, we could've just as much as breathed on it and had it fall down). The inside of the shack wasn't particularly better than the outside. The sharp smell of cleaning products lingered around us. Penelope switched on the torch on her phone and covered it, just leaving barely enough light for us to see. Lo and behold there was a ladder… but it was only half a foot taller than us.

"We're going to use… that?"

"It's a folding ladder,"

That made a lot more sense now that I think of it.

The ladder was still heavy enough to have both Penny and me lift it and still feel a little wobbly in the knees. Penelope did a quick scan outside the shed and turned off the light and put the phone back in her pocket. She motioned for me to go forward with her free hand. We walked outside like little hunched goblins through the freezing cold. The darkness and the ladder blocked my view, I was relying on Penelope to be my eyes, if she wasn't slowly dying of hypothermia.

We walked towards the school, my body getting used to the cold, my hands had turned numb ages ago. As Penelope started slowing down so did I. We were back at the school building now. I tried my best to keep my footsteps light and quiet, which was hard considering my joints felt like pudding.

Just as we were about to turn our last corner, Penelope froze (Pun unintended, again). I heard muffled voices much further down the hallway. My throat went dry.

We slowly put down the ladder and looked over the corner. Two men were talking to each other. A small fat one and a taller one. Features were hard to make out since the only lighting we had was the moonlight streaming in from the huge ornate windows. I strained my ears to catch what they were saying. I caught a few words. Something about a scream, stolen keys and students out of bed.

I knew about the stolen keys and students out of bed, but the scream? I pushed the thought to the back of my head. The lights of the corridor suddenly flashed on. I was blinded. Blinking several times and trying to adjust to the sudden brightness, I heard footsteps coming towards us.

"Run!" Penelope whispered.

We ran with the ladder on our shoulders, forgetting about our frozen joints. Penelope led me up a stairway, and stopped at the top.

"I swear I heard someone," a voice said.

"Probably trying to steal the question papers or something, that's why they stole the keys," another voice, this one sounding like he used his nose to speak and not his mouth.

"Damn it! It's Hughes and whoever screamed must have woken the other teacher," Penelope said. I guessed Hughes was the guy who they stole the keys from. I forgot how to breathe.

"I think the scream came from the records room," the unidentified teacher said.

Oh no no no no no.

"I have a plan," Penelope said.

"What?,"

"How creepy can you be?," She asked.

I smiled and replied with "Very."

Penelope started heading towards the stairs on the other side of the building she had to get back to the first floor. She went alone with the ladder, staggering under its weight.

I waited on the stairs and then suddenly screamed my throat out and ran up the stairs and away from the teachers.

Their heads snapped towards me and with yells of "CATCH HER!" they followed me (Them catching me wasn't a Threat, they weren't exactly agile) I ran into a classroom before they could reach me. I opened the window facing outside and was met with a tree just like Penelope said. I did what I was amazing at; I climbed it to the next floor. Opening the window above the one I climbed out of with the keys Penelope had given me I went in.

When I was sure the teachers were searching the classroom below. I started stomping and jumping. It was quiet enough that I could hear their small confused noises as to how I got above them.

I ripped open a drawer in the teachers desk and pulled out a chalk box. Quickly drawing a demonic pentagram, I sat in the center of it, facing away from the door, pulled my hood on and turned on the torch in my phone placing it beside me. I heard footsteps outside the class. I started chanting weird shit.

"Aami Tomake Khay Nobo. Chand Ar Surjo Nash Hoye Jabbe. Shobai More Jabbe."

"Aami Tomake Khay Nobo. Aami Tomake Khay Nobo. Chand Ar Surjo Nash Hoye Jabbe. Chand Ar Surjo Nash Hoye Jabbe. Shobai More Jabbe. Shobai More Jabbe," I chanted rhythmically, keeping my voice flat and dead. I could hear the teacher's confused remarks when they opened the door and saw me doing this. Frozen, they were frozen. Unsure how to react to this situation.

After chanting the weird shit at least five times, I got up. Locked my hands behind my back and pulled it over my head without unlocking them. I don't know how I did that., but that would have hurt. They were even more confused now. I raised my hands over my head and fell in a backbend. My face now facing them I did a pennywise smile. The light from my phone giving it an eerie look but not giving away any distinct features of my face.

After they were thoroughly weirded out, I got up and screamed again. I ran towards the window and jumped out. I could hear them yelling in shock. I grabbed the tree which was luckily extremely close to the window. I climbed back down to the ground and ran into the school. Once I was back in again. I started singing a twisted version 'Hickory Dickory Dock' loudly in a deranged voice. The echo created by the huge hallways helping me to carry it through the school and confuse them about my location.

"Hickory Dickory Dock the ghost went in the house,

The clock struck one and the ghost killed one Hickory Dickory Dock

Tic toc, tic toc," I sang.

I ran towards the record room, hoping I had confused the teachers enough.

"I am back," I said breathily, throwing my hands in the air when I had reached the room. My voice was hoarse and my throat felt raw, and hurt from the excessive screaming.

My companions stopped adjusting the ladder and turned towards me.

"Was that you singing," Penelope asked. She had gotten back safely.

"Yeah, Why?"

"Nothing, you just did a really good job scaring us with the screams and singing," Anne hissed.

"Oh and by the way, It was Valentina's scream which woke up the teachers," Penelope informed, clearly irritated.

"I saw a rat," she complained.

"Well Aidene Ready to go down," Penelope said, looking down at the trapdoor which now had a ladder sticking out of it.

"The descent into hell is easy," I said, referring to the shadow world created by Cassandra Clare. Taking a deep breath I climbed down the ladder.