Chapter 14 – The Underground – Holly Hayfield

I awoke to immense pain throbbing throughout my body. I could hardly move a muscle. It hurt just to turn my head to discover my new surroundings. I couldn’t see the walls. The underground room was pitch-black. The only light coming into the room was from above, where a crater-like rupture was torn into the wood.

Chips of wood debris were still falling down into the darkness around me. Dust was falling like rain. Sam and Naomi were looking down from above. Their lips were moving but I couldn’t make out the sounds. The only thing I could hear was a high pitch whine ringing deafeningly in my ears.

As I came to my senses I began assessing the situation. The first and main problem was that Lilith had landed on top of me. She was still out cold. I wanted to touch her head to see if she was bleeding. I couldn’t manage to move that much. Both my arms were immobile. My right arm felt burdened, like it was caught beneath something.

I was able to wiggle it loose with some painful shuffling. I pulled it out slowly. Sharp wood scratched against my arm as I did so. Once it was free of the debris I began petting Lilith’s head. She wasn’t waking up. I searched her body for any signs of bleeding. There were no wounds I could find. That was a relief.

The same couldn’t be said of me. The warm flow of blood was trickling somewhere down on my lower leg. It felt like I had been cut by some wood as we landed. My back was in pain, but luckily there were no stab wounds I could feel. Both my arms had scrapes and bruises across them. Two weeks ago I would’ve been crying like a baby in this situation. It looked like I owed Valentina some thanks after all.

With both my arms now free of debris I tried to sit up. Lilith slumped into me as I managed to sit up. Naturally I reached for the cut on my leg and held it. The cut wasn’t deep, but it was long. It seemed to stretch across my entire lower leg. Now that I was sitting up-right Naomi and Sam focused on yelling my name.

“Holly…! Holly…! Can you hear me?!” Sam shouted.

“I hear you.” I said and coughed.

It was only as I spoke that I realized how full of dust my lungs had become. It started off as a small cough but quickly turned into a coughing fit.

“How are you? Did you break anything?” Sam asked.

“I’m alright! I’ve got a cut on my leg, nothing too serious!”

“What about Lilith?” Naomi asked.

“She’s not awake yet. The shock of the landing must’ve got her pretty bad.” I said.

“What does it look like down there?” Sam asked.

“I can’t see a thing.” I said.

Naomi pointed downwards.

“Lilith is still holding onto my flashlight. Pick it up.” Naomi said.

The mere act of reaching for the flashlight barely outside of reach was painful. Reaching it required me to shimmy my upper body in that direction to grab it by the butt of the handle. Doing all this with Lilith still on me was a serious athletic feat. She wasn’t heavy, but my body was just that sore. With a grimace and a thrust of my arm I forced myself to grab the flashlight.

Once I had the flashlight in my hand I turned it on and lit up the room. It was a lobby. It had tiled flooring, painted concrete walls, metal benches, ceramic plant vases, and much more. This place was thoughtfully decorated. The more I shined my light across the room the more bewildered I was.

“What do you see?” Sam asked.

“I…”

Before I could answer I noticed something on the wall that caught my attention. There was a painting of Judith Meredith hanging on the wall. There was not a single painting of her anywhere else inside the school. That was noteworthy. This painting was based on the picture from her biography.

Another flashlight scan across the room revealed something even more amazing just behind me. I could hardly believe it when I laid eyes on it. To get a better look at it I broke loose of Lilith’s grasp. Lilith was just now starting to wake up. She wiped her eyes and strained to focus in on what the flashlight was pointed at.

“You’ve got to be kidding me….” I said.

“What is it?” Sam asked.

“It’s… It’s one of those old fashioned elevators.”

“What…?” Sam asked like she couldn’t believe me.

“There’s an elevator down here. This room is a giant lobby.”

I swung the flashlight back around to the other side of the room. The dark red double-doors on the other side of the room were well decorated and featured plant vases on either side.

“There’s more stuff down here.” I realized.

Sam put her hand on her head and closed her eyes. She was having as much difficulty processing this as I was.

“Wait, back up… You said there’s an elevator down there? Where does it go?” Sam asked.

I pointed the flashlight at the elevator. The light from the flashlight was blocked before I could give Sam an answer. Lilith was already up, stepping in front of the light. She was so quick that I didn’t notice her get up. Her curiosity seemed to be carrying her more than her weakened body.

Lilith limped towards the elevator. Then, just in front of it, she made a slight turn. For a moment I had no idea what she was doing. Then I saw the object on the wall she was heading for. It was a red lever. As she approached it I put the flashlight on it. She grabbed the lever and pulled it down without as much as a word.

Suddenly lights flickered on through the lobby. The sound of electronics whirring and spinning up filled the room as the area came to life. Even the lights in the Discipline Hall room above came on. Sam and Naomi both looked up in surprise, then down back at me. Lilith and I both looked at each other in stark amazement.

This was a totally hidden part of the school we had just stumbled upon. This area wasn’t even listed on the map that Lilith had. I turned off the flashlight and stood up to join Lilith. Now that the electricity was on at full power the metallic elevator gate opened up with a ‘DING’ as if to greet us. Lilith and I just looked at each other.

Lilith pressed a button beside the switch that triggered the elevator shutter door. Lilith took the first step into the elevator. She looked at me, waiting for me to enter as well. I looked around. I didn’t want to stay in the lobby room alone. I hesitantly stepped inside with her.

She pressed a button inside the elevator that began to close the shutter door. The shutters were so old that they practically screamed as the rusty metal contacts drew towards the center. Once both sides of the shutters had met, the elevator began to rumble loudly. The hazy yellow lightbulb above us flickered as the elevator began to ascend. My question was where were we ascending to?

My question was soon answered as the elevator came to a stop not long after starting. The shutter doors squealed as they opened. A wall of what looked to be glass-wool insulation was revealed. Lilith and I looked at each other, perplexed. There was nothing there but a wall. We were standing behind the wall.

Lilith seemed to realize this and took a step closer to it. She tore off some of the insulation and left it scattered across the elevator floor. The insulation peeled off easily with its old age. Once the unpainted back of the drywall was in front of us Lilith raised a fist up to it. She knocked a musical tone. Someone knocked back from the other side.

“Hello…?” Sam’s muffled voice asked from the other side.

Lilith and I looked at each other once more. We tried to kick the wall in with little success. It was deforming, but not enough to break in. An idea popped into my head. Luckily I was still wearing my backpack. I took it off and began searching through it. Lilith watched me as I searched the bottom of my backpack frantically. Once I found it, I pulled out the switchblade that Angelica had given me the day before. I pressed the activation button on it.

“What are you carrying that around for?” Lilith asked.

“It’s a long story. I didn’t want it. Someone gave it to me. I never thought I’d actually need to use it so soon. Here I go. Stand clear.” I said.

I drove the knife in the area of the wall we had been kicking. It went all the way through to the other side. When I pulled the knife back I could see the light coming from the other room. Lilith saw it too and smiled. I began carving a hole into the wall near the bottom. I wanted it to be low enough that we could expand the size of the hole by kicking it in. The only problem was that it was taking quite a long time. The drywall was old and decaying, but it was still difficult to cut with a meager pocket knife.

“This might take a while.” I said.

“Do you want me to try?” Lilith asked.

“No, I think I can do it. Give me a few minutes.”

“Okay, take your time.”

As she said that, I drew my hand back to wipe the sweat coming from my forehead. Instead of carving the wall like a vegetable I decided to stab it. My new goal wasn’t to make an entire hole. I wanted to weaken the structure enough so that we could viably kick through.

“You know…” I said while stabbing the wall, “I didn’t plan for things to be like this.”

“What are you talking about?” Lilith asked.

I sighed and stopped for a moment to catch my breath.

“I’m talking about this whole trip. Truthfully, I just wanted to spend some time with you.”

“Why?”

“It was about the student council.” I said as I resumed my labor, “I was planning to ask you to join us in forming a group. I realized you seemed interested in the legend of the Killing Cat and was hoping I could use that to talk to you alone.”

“Pfft,” Lilith said and smirked, “You could’ve just asked me back in the library. I don’t think coming here would change my answer.”

“I was afraid you might say that.”

“Who’s in your group so far? Are you going to be the Student Council President?”

“No. I’m supposedly going to be the vice president. Val’s going to be the president.”

“Oh god…”

“I know! I know what you might be thinking. She says that things will be different once she’s president.”

“And you think you can trust what she says?”

“Normally I don’t. In this case I do.”

“Why should I join your student council group if that psychopath is there?”

“Because it’ll be my head if you don’t. Valentina made it very clear that there would be consequences if I couldn’t convince you to join. Also…” I ceased my work to look up at her, “I really would like to be your friend.”

Lilith looked to be weighing my words. She folded her arms, closed her eyes, and sighed.

“I…”

There was knocking at the wall.

“Look out!” Sam said from the other side.

Sam violently kicked through the area of the wall that I had been cutting up. I managed to move out of the way just in time to avoid being hit. She kicked it over and over again until the whole lower half of the wall blocking the elevator came crumbling down. Sam ducked her head and made her way into the elevator. Naomi followed her in. They both kicked insulation and wood debris out of the elevator and back into the empty classroom.

“So we’re really going back down there?” I asked.

“It’s up to you.” Sam said.

“I want to see what’s down there.” Lilith said.

Naomi waved her phone around.

“I’ve still got to take a picture of the Killing Cat.”

With that being their answer I pressed the down button on the elevator. The rickety doors closed once more and we began to descend.

The rumbling of the elevator was so loud that we couldn’t even talk to each other as the elevator was in motion. The flickering light didn’t help either. The horrible fear in the back of my mind was that the electricity might go out and leave us stranded. How long would it take for help to get here? Would they even find us in time? I held my breath until we reached the bottom floor.

When the elevator doors opened up they walked out ahead of me. I stumbled out and nearly fell. Sam was vigilant enough to catch me. She looked down at my leg.

“You’re bleeding. Let’s see if we can find something around here to cover that up with.”

“Oh! Oh! I have something!” Naomi said as she took off her backpack.

Sam helped me walk over to one of the lobby benches. Sam looked around at the lobby as we made our way over. The place was surreal. The interior was a far cry from the Discipline Hall or any other part of the school. This lobby’s décor looked warmer and more welcoming than most of the school. That was saying something considering this was a hidden facility beneath the Discipline Hall.

Sam laid me down on the bench overdramatically. It was like being put onto a hospital bed. It was totally unnecessary. Still, I couldn’t help being charmed a little. She then pointed at the large painting on the wall.

“Who’s that woman?” Sam asked.

“That’s my great grandmother, Judith Meredith.” Lilith said.

Naomi pulled a bandage roll out of her backpack along with some cut-and-bruise treatment ointment. She used a cloth from her backpack to wipe the blood away before getting started.

“This is my first time seeing her.” Naomi said.

Once Naomi cleared wiped the blood away from the cut she began applying the ointment. It actually stung quite a bit. Sam sat down near my head and rested a hand on my shoulder.

“That isn’t by accident.” Lilith said, “The school doesn’t put up décor of her anywhere else. I’m surprised to see that it’s even here.”

“Why?” Sam asked Lilith.

“The school has had missing students, legal troubles, financial troubles, and serious enrollment problems in the past. They felt that the mysteriousness about my family’s curse and the Killing Cat was discouraging parents from enrolling their students here. They wanted to distance themselves from rumors.”

Naomi turned her vision towards Lilith as she started rolling the bandage around my leg.

“What do you mean your family’s curse?” Naomi asked.

Lilith averted her eyes from us as we awaited her answer. She looked up at the painting of Judith Meredith and exhaled.

“My family’s cursed. Even since my great grandmother’s days. Of course I never believed in stupid things like the Killing Cat, but I do believe in my family curse.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked.

“Everyone in my family has a habit of dying under unpredictable circumstances. My great grandmother died in a sudden suicide. My grandfather died in a freak accident. My parents died in a car wreck where I was the sole survivor.” Lilith said.

Her voice was cold and distant as she spoke, but her eyes were glistening. Val had mentioned not to bring up her parents. Perhaps she meant not to bring up the curse? I wanted to get up to hug Lilith but I was stopped by Naomi.

“Hold on, I’m almost finished.” Naomi said to me.

“I’m so sorry Lilith. I didn’t know.” I said.

“I figure it’ll happen to me too someday unless I can break the curse. I’ve always felt like it had something to do with this school. Both of my parents worked here before they died. My grandfather helped build it. My great grandmother founded it.”

“Maybe your family isn’t what’s cursed.” Sam said, “Maybe it’s the school that’s cursed.”

“Maybe…” Lilith said, “Maybe the secret lies down here. No one has been down here in decades. This is the only part of the school that I’m unfamiliar with.” Lilith said.

“Maybe…” I said, “But that’s a massive thing to wish for. I wouldn’t get my hopes up.”

Lilith pointed at the dark red double-doors.

“I want to keep searching. Can we keep going?” Lilith asked.

Naomi shrugged.

“Holly should probably take it easy, you know? This bandage is just temporary. My picture of the Killing Cat can wait I guess.” Naomi said.

Sam nodded in agreement.

“We could always come back, right?” Sam asked.

Lilith looked at me, wide-eyed.

“Holly…? You said you wanted me to consider your request, right? Please consider mine.” She said.

That was a low blow. It was just my luck that I was the one to get hurt and not the miniature-explorer-extraordinaire. The way she looked at me in combination with the story she told us was a hard play. She was playing up the sympathy card. It wasn’t like my cut was that serious, but rest sounded nice.

Not to mention our current situation. We fell down into a hidden passage and she wanted to just waltz into the unknown? Lilith was turning out to be something more than I imagined. She was turning out to be more than I could handle. However if she was seriously going to consider my student council request then I’d take hers seriously also.

I sighed.

“I’ll consider that our deal.” I said, “Let’s see what’s on the other side of those doors.”