The Carter Hollow Murders

Ariadne Rane - Challenge One

User: infinitywordlover

I glanced at the clock my lips twisting into a smile. At last, the school day would be over. As usual, the first day of school was filled with rules and regulations, not actual classwork, and most of the rules I had already heard before in the previous nine years of my schooling. Some however were more unique, which I supposed had to do with Carter Hollow being a boarding school.

"And for homework," Professor Knightgale droned on. My head snapped up. Homework?! On the first day of school? "You have to complete this worksheet which I will use to complete the seating chart. If you would like a good seat, I suggest you complete it well. Also, your first pop quiz will be on Friday." He handed the large sheaf of paper to the boy in the corner seat, and sat back down at his desk staring coldly at us.

As the boy in front of me passed me the homework, a shrill metallic ringing filled the room signalling the end of class, and more importantly the end of the school day. I handed the rest of the pile to the girl behind me, and shrugged my bag onto my shoulder.

Joining the waterfall of chattering teens out into the main hallway, I scanned the worksheet biting my lip. The questions varied from random things such as "What's your favorite color"(Grass Green) to more intellectual ones such as "Which one of Shakespeare's plays contains the famous line, 'to be or not to be'?" (The answer's Hamlet).

I sighed heavily stuffing the paper into the bag and headed out onto the lawn. Students were scattered everywhere, most of them looking relieved at the end of the day. I stepped out into the middle, squinting around trying to decide what to do next.Of course I could do my homework, but that clearly was not the most appealing thing to do.

In the end, I decided to just walk around and explore. My steps took me away from the main center of campus and out into the outer rings of it where it blended into the surrounding wilderness. The sea breeze battered my face pulling strands of hair loose, and I sank down onto the grass staring out at the ocean.

Quiet footsteps sounded behind me, and instinctively I ducked low into the grass. The figure stalked past me, and straight towards the building that was the library.However, instead of walking around to the main entrance like I had expected him to do, he strode straight to the side of the building.

He glanced around surreptitiously, but still didn't see me, and he pushed against a brick until it flipped ninety degrees. There was a grinding noise, and the wall, the solid brick wall moved. I let out a breath in shock, and blinked quickly. No way was I not dreaming. This stuff did not happen in real life. At least, I didn't think it did.

The wall had stopped moving and now gap about a foot wide had opened up. With one last glance behind him he stepped into the darkness, and a few seconds later the wall ground back into place.

"No way," I breathed. I pinched myself just to make sure that I wasn't dreaming, and sure enough the scene did not change.

I walked over to the wall pushing at the brick the same way the man had. Like with the man, it flipped until the long end was sticking out of the wall. A slight vibration shuddered through the wall and a panel of the wall sunk backwards before sliding out of the way revealing a flight of stairs descending into darkness.

Glancing around, I hesitantly took the first step down. Instantly, the wall slid shut behind me with an ominous thud plunging me into darkness. A pang of fear thrilled through me. Desperately, I fumbled the wall but no matter where I pressed, it did not yield an opening. I was trapped.

Cursing myself for my stupidity, I continued downwards figuring that it was my best option at this point. I put my foot down heavily at the bottom of the stairs expecting another step, and a loud slapping noise echoed down the hallway.