Schoolgirl Secrets

Chapter Eight: A Close Shave

Jenifer felt all the air leave her body as she slammed down onto hard ground, lying flat on her back. Gasping and choking; the two girls attempted to stand up but cracked their heads into the low stone ceiling. They both winced.

"We'd better crawl," said Jane, rubbing her head.

"But which way do we go?" said Jenifer, twisting her head from side to side.

The tunnel they had landed in had two separate passageways leading off it from either side. One went left and the other went right.

"Let's split up," said Jane, with a defiant tone to her voice. "I'll go left, you go right."

"Ok," said Jenifer. "But how will we contact each other? Neither of us have phones."

They both sat and puzzled over this for several minutes.

"I've got it!" exclaimed Jane, jumping up in excitement and bashing her shoulders hard on the walls. "Ouch, sorry. We can use our games consoles!"

"Our what?" asked Jenifer, frowning.

"You did bring your Nintendo DS in your pocket didn't you?" said Jane.

"Naturally," answered Jenifer. "What else gets us through history class?"

"Well, we can use the chat function!"

And suddenly Jenifer clicked.

"Of course! Great idea Jane!" she exclaimed. "Now let's solve this thing!"

 They turned their backs on each other and walked slowly along the dark tunnel.

As Jenifer walked; her surroundings became darker and more cramped. Eventually she was feeling her way through blackness, bumping into the side of the wall which was becoming increasingly narrower and dustier.

Crash! Jenifer staggered and felt a blinding pain in the top of her head. Rubbing it hard she squinted up at the ceiling. All she could see was an impenetrable darkness. She lifted the hand that wasn't on her throbbing head and felt around in front of her. Her wrist knocked into something hard and spiky. As her eyes adjusted to the gloom; she could just make out a dip in the stony ceiling. Jenifer now proceeded to crawl down the remainder of the passage, her hands scraping on the rough floor. After several minutes; she started to see light at the end of the tunnel. As she moved excitedly towards it the ceiling suddenly dipped and Jenifer had to lie flat on her front and shimmy and inch towards the ever growing light at the end of the passage.

When she was only feet away; the cramped space became so small that Jenifer physically could not force her body out of the end of it! She struggled and squirmed and kicked her legs wildly behind her but it was no good. She simply couldn't move. Pushing with all her might, she tried to go backwards. But just as Jenifer managed to shift herself; the tunnel behind her caved in completely. She quickly stifled a panicked yell and hurriedly pulled her feet and legs out of harm's way. Now Jenifer moved forwards again just far enough to be able to see what was going on in the room at the other end of the passageway. She squinted her eyes and strained to see and, eventually, a tall woman and a cowering child came into the room.

"Get up," snapped the woman. It was Miss Brightlight.

She stormed across the room and wrenched open a cupboard door. After rummaging around in it for a minute she closed the door and carried a large box across the room to the whimpering child. Katie!

Miss Brightlight opened the lid of the box and lifted something out of it; so tightly bound up in ropes that Jenifer could not make out what it was. It was large, the height of a small child and twice as thick. Suddenly Jenifer realised, with a spasm of horror, that it was a small child! Two small children! Alice Daffodil and Benjy Quarters! Two of the children who had been on the list of 'testers'. And now they were joined by Katie Finch, a third. The tied up children were not visibly moving.

Miss Brightlight pulled on one end of the rope and the children fell limply onto the floor. They were both dead.

Jenifer almost screamed. She covered her face with her dusty hands and breathed heavily feeling terrified. Katie did scream. She screamed and screamed and screamed. Miss Brightlight smirked and walked out of Jenifer's range of vision. Poor Katie continued to yell with fright, standing there; staring at the two bodies as if petrified.

Miss Brightlight walked back into the centre of the room. She was holding a hypodermic syringe in her left hand. Katie wheeled around and backed away from the advancing teacher.

"Stay still you little pest," hissed Miss Brightlight.

Katie scurried backwards for some time until she crashed into Benjy Quarters and fell over howling. She tried to hurry to her feet but Miss Brightlight was too quick for her. She grabbed a handful of the little girl's hair and dragged her towards the syringe. Katie was screaming and thrashing madly, kicking out at Miss Brightlight's swirling black skirts.

The moment the needle pierced Katie's skin she went limp. Her limbs stopped moving, her voice cut off suddenly and she fell gracefully to the floor. She seemed to land with a slight bounce, as if she was weightless. As she fell; her hair flicked out like a sheet behind her and when she finally crumpled softly into the dust; her pale, ghostly face turned to Jenifer, with wide glassy eyes, her mouth opening and closing hopelessly, like a goldfish out of water. She lay there gulping for a little while longer and then, with one last heave, she stopped moving and was dead.

Jenifer was standing, transfixed, gazing at the scene worthy of a five star horror movie happening in front of her. Suddenly; her pocket started vibrating and playing a fancy tune. Quickly, she fished out her Nintendo DS and muted it before the evil hag holding the deadly needle noticed it and came to investigate. Jenifer opened her console and looked at the screen. There was a message from Jane there, in block capitals, which either indicated amusement, anger or an urgency for help. The message said:

HELP!

STUCK IN CHAMBER OFF TO SECOND RIGHT

PEOPLE IN WHITE SUITS APPROCHING

KNOW I'M THERE

DRUGS!

Jenifer began to sweat in panic. She had to go and help her friend pronto because, by the sound of it, she was in deep and dangerous trouble. Ramming the Nintendo back into her inside pocket; she started to crawl and shimmy backwards as fast as she could. Her skirts rolled up and her knees started to rub red and raw but she didn't care. All she cared about was getting to Jane, before the people with the weapons did.