What happens at dusk

The story of Katherines ass and the ventilation system

"Stop freaking out, Mike. You're making me freak out and I'm the level headed one of this group," Hayley stressed.
"C'mon, you have to see things positive: it's a nice change of scenery," Brooke argued.
"It's a prison cell. We are in a prison cell," Hayley freaked.
"Well to be precise, it isn't really a change of scenery as last week we were in a prison cell as well," James only threw fuel on the fire.

"Silence!" A voice (and a word) that resembled miss McCracken all to much put an end to the arguing. Only this time the voice was male and to the extent possible even scarier then the teachers.
"Um, I don't think what you are doing is legal so if you could just let us go, that would be great," Brooke tried but failed.

"Be silent! We have to wait for boss to arrive to decide your faith," it was only then that Mike noticed the strong Russian accent.
With those words still warm in the cold winter air, he left.
The four decided that the best possible thing to do in this emergency scenario was to continue their arguing.
"Damnit, I knew we should have brought the others," James cursed.
"Well then we'd be all stuck here," Brooke said.

"I see I see what you can't see and it starts with an F," Mike said.
"Fungus! It's always fungus. Everything here is fungus!" James answered theatrically. Although he wasn't for from the truth the cellar was a great place for fungus. It was wet and abandoned and hot in the summer.
"We are not in a got damn Edgar Allen Poe story for gods sake! What's gonna happened next. Creepy miss McCracken guy is going to build a wall around us and leave us with a bottle of amontillado?!" James complained.
"Guys, will you stop with that game you are seriously getting on my nerves," Hayley complained.
"Well, if it wasn't for you we wouldn't be here in the first place, would we," Brooke suddenly said toxically.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Hayley immediately went in the defence.
"I'm just saying... I think you overreacted with your brother and the whole drugs deal," Brooke shrugged.
"What else was I supposed to do?! Leave him in his misery like you did with you brother? Maybe if you would have taken better care of him he wouldn't have been to prison."
Brooke cringed at that last comment. Hayley had really struck a nerve with that one but before she could apologise Brooke verbally attached her like a lioness.
"He is my older brother, not my freakin' son. He isn't my responsibility. Otherwise he would never learn. Just like you brother. He has been in the industry for a very long time and guess what the only time he tells you is when it gets hot under his feet. He is just seeing you as a quick ticket out of hell. He's shoving all the problems and responsibilities your way and you are to dumb to realise it!" Brooke was yelling at this point.
"Wait what?! How long had he been in the industry? You knew about this?!"
Brooke was dead silent and eyeing everything in the room besides Hayley.
"I can't believe it. All this time you knew and you let my brother drown in his misery.
I though we were a team..."
"Guys! I mean girls! This is not how we are going to get out. We have to fin-"
"The ventilation system!" James suddenly interrupted Mike.
"Oh my god! Yeah!" Brooke yelled.
Hayley climbed on James' shoulders and reached for the lid as she was the handiest and the most likely one to get the system open.
"Errr, it's sealed shut with nails. Mike, give me that sharp piece of metal conveniently placed just outside the cage," she ordered. With a lot of effort the nail bulged about a millimetre. She turned twisted and pulled the nail until her hands were raw and she was about three quarters through.
"Ehm, Hayley, don't you think it would be more convenient to use my pocketknife for that?" James asked.
"Pocketknife?! Why didn't you tell me that earlier?!" She practically yelled.
"You didn't ask..." Was her dry answer.
"How long have you had that thing?"
"I decided to ask my dad for one after all the trouble we have been in lately," the blond boy explained calmly while the dark haired girl on his shoulders was fuming.
She was about to stab him with his own pocketknife but knew she'd go down with his if she did that.
She inspected the knife for a second. It looked really expensive. James' initials were even engraved into the thing.
J K C F
"What are your other names?"Hayley asked while removing the nails.
James turned fifty shades of red underneath her and asked with a high voice:"what other names?"
"Don't even bother denying it... c'mon, spill!"
Hayley pressed.
"Ok. Ok. It's James Katherine Charles Fletcher," he confessed.
"Katherine?! I think I just found you new nickname, Katie," Mike teased him and Hayley almost fell off off his shoulders.
With a satisfying squeak the lid popped off.
Hayley was the first one to climb in as she was strong enough to pull herself in and then Brooke. The girl pulled Mike in together and then it was James. Of course our lovely little miss Katherine got stuck in the opening. Not cooperating and only begging Hayley to help her and exclaiming it were muscles, he was not really helping the situation.
Eventually they somehow got him inside and their journey through the ventilation system began. What they didn't know however was that their absence would be noticed in about twenty minutes and that they had exactly twenty four minutes and 44 seconds left before a poisonous gas was released though the main fan...