The Intruder: The Hidden Mystery

Chapter 9

Hours passed by and it was the next day. Cindy and I slept on a mat the size of a door. Of course we slept far away from each other as we drifted off to sleep. Zoe slept on another mat across from us with her glasses laying on an old desk.
Cindy laid her head on her backpack as a pillow while I cooped up in my sweatshirt. It was very cold so I had my hood up the entire night. I sat up to power on my cell phone and read the time. It was seven- forty in the morning. As Cindy was sleeping peacefully, I rubbed Zoe's shoulder to wake her. She woke up right away and squinted at me with her eyes half opened.
"Good morning Leah. Where's Cindy?" Zoe searches the room until she spotted Cindy passed out on her backpack, with her long black hair sticking out of her hood. I couldn't see her face.
"I think we should wake her." Zoe said as she reached on the desk for her glasses and quickly stood up. I rolled my eyes and turned away from her to pick up my backpack, in the wide open. Zoe takes a few steps towards Cindy and taps her shoulder. Cindy flinched and took her hood down to look at us. She looked at us with confusion but took a deep breath. "Hey, you should get up. We're going to look around, if you wanna come with us." Zoe explained to Cindy with her eyes half shut as well. She looked exhausted. Her eyes were dark and puffy, and her hands rested in her lap. I don't know why but Cindy looked miserable for some reason. Maybe she was just very tired.
All of us decided to get up and roam around the school, and search for more papers about the school. The three of us stopped in a very dim hallway with old lockers on the left side. I spotted a tinted door behind a smartboard which appears to be a ladder inside.
When I pointed across the classroom to the smartboard, Cindy took four steps past us to the door. She shoves the smartboard off the door from blocking our way. Cindy took a deep breath and gave Zoe and I a dirty look. "You think I'd wanna climb up there!? It looks dark." Cindy points up the ladder with her thumb. Zoe and I glared at each other in agreement. "Yes, Cindy. I think we should see what's up there. I bet there's things that we missed or didn't discover yet." Zoe looked at me and shrugged her shoulders while Cindy just stood there with her arms crossed.
"You don't have to go up there, but you could stay down here with Zoe, or alone if you can handle that." I offered to Cindy but she backed away from me."You can't do it. Can you?" Zoe stared at Cindy to answer her. Cindy was speechless. I walked towards the ladder with Cindy blocking my way. "Here. Move. I'll do it." I accidentally bump into her and she flinches.
"Hey, don't touch me!" She says without moving her lips. Zoe gave Cindy a smirk and it looked like Cindy got irritated. As I tried to climb the ladder, I slipped on a step. I hear Cindy chuckle behind me so I look back, giving her a look. "What? Why're you looking at me?" Cindy stopped and crossed her arms like a little child. I took another step on the ladder, leaving dust prints on each step behind me. I struggled to reach the next step. But I reached for a handle up above the ceiling, gripping it tight.
When I took the last step, I appeared to be in a storage room. There were a lot of white and gray drywall, cleaning products, and a tinted window with a broken screen protector over it. I realized Cindy and Zoe were still down there, so I took an inch carefully to yell to Zoe down the ladder. "Zoe! You need to see this!"
With that, only Zoe climbs up each step in a hurry. She looks around and there's more things as we go. I turn around and realize that Cindy is still down there, probably waiting for us.
"Wow, this is so cool. Cindy, you should come see this!" Zoe yelled down the ladder for Cindy, but no reply. I took another step towards the window and heard creaky footsteps down the ladder. For a second I thought it was Cindy trying to come up, but she is sitting down in one of the desks in the classroom, with her head down and her hood up.
I hear more footsteps approaching towards us, but I couldn't tell if Cindy or Zoe could hear what I'm hearing.
"Uh, girls, I hear footsteps. They're getting closer!" I told the girls hoping they heard me, but every thought of someone hear, startled me. I got goosebumps running down my neck and to my spine. I felt like we were being followed, or someone was watching us.