“I don’t know,” Dani said, “It’s the thought
that matters, not whether or not it’s, like, true. And they think you’re great
and I’m awful, even though I’ve proved it’s actually the reverse. You say that
you just don’t try in school but I’m starting to think that you’ve stopped
trying for so long that you’re actually just awful at it and you don’t know how
to, like, get good again. You’ve pretended to be dumb so long that it’s actually made you dumb.”
“Ok,” Will said, “Whatever. I’m so sick of
hearing you complain all the time when it’s me that should be complaining.” He
crossed his arms and put on his mightiest pouty face. It was actually closer to
a scowl.
“You? What do you have to complain about? You¸like,
get away with it. They hardly ever yell at you anymore. It’s me they’re yelling at. I’m the surprise; I’m the one they
didn’t, like, expect to do well. You get along just fine.”
“Ok,” Will said, “Go in there. You’ll see
that I was telling the truth. About yesterday. I was the hero, Dani, I was what
mom and dad are always telling me to be. And it sucks, because I won’t get any
recognition for it. None at all.”
“Fine,” Dani said. She tried the front
doors.
“They’re locked,” Will said.
“Yeah, dickbutt, I figured it out when they,
like, didn’t open, duuuuh,” she said. She walked around to the side door and
found the knob. Her hand hesitated. What if Will was telling the truth? What if
whatever was in there could kill her? There was a tunnel in the woods that was
longer underground than above ground, and a quiet shy girl who could read
minds. What if there really were psychic girls that ate people?
She turned and saw that Will was gone. He wasn’t
watching anymore.
That was what pushed her to open the door.
She turned the knob, and pulled.
The whole area lit by windows on the sides
of the building. There were a few dark pockets along the walls, equidistant
from the glass panes. The overhead lights were off. The warehouse was empty. It
wasn’t as large as she’d been expecting; only about thirty feet across and
maybe three times as long. The floor was marked here and there, and there was a
strange odor in the air.
Something about the room made her feel
uncomfortable, but she couldn’t tell what. The tunnel had given her a similar
feeling, but it’d been exciting. This felt like… like sneaking into the bedroom
of someone you knew while they slept. Sneaking in and peering through what they
owned.
Dani told herself that she was just in a bad
mood. She forced herself to walk further inside, further away from the door. Or, she thought I should run now and get out while I still can.
She walked towards the desk, as it was the
only thing in the room she could see.
That’s
what’s getting me,
Dani thought There’s, like, all this
space in here and just the desk. It’s… Weird.
When she finally reached the desk she was
sure hours had passed, but it’d only been minutes. She checked her phone clock
and confirmed it. “Come on,” she told herself, “There’s nothing to be afraid of
in here. It’s just a stupid desk. There isn’t even a briefcase.”
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