The Secret Room - Chapter 8

Hayden slipped into the room before Sam and I knew what was happening. He grabbed my arm and I automatically grabbed Sam's as we were pulled into the dusty office-type setting. There was little light other than what came in from a small window on the top of the wall, but we were still nervous and tried to keep as quiet as possible. It seemed that everyone had left the building, except for the few faculty members walking down the hall discussing the thermodynamics of modern space crafts.

      “You know, they usually use the S-Timeducts for importation purposes only.” The voice was unfamiliar so we decided to creep towards the door to gauge which direction the faculty members were walking.

      “I know. I heard about them,” Dean cut in nervously. I could've sworn I heard him stutter at the beginning of that sentence.

      “Do you think it's safe to take a look outside?” I channelled my question to Hayden as I was holding onto his arm softly. I looked up at him as he shook his head with well directed concentration to what was happening out in the hallway.             

     “Shhhh,” he whispered softly. I felt my heart warm with the noise and I only wished we could stay in the room a little while longer. Hayden broke away from me and listened in.

     “Do they sound like they are coming this way?” Sam interjected.

     “Shhh!” Hayden and I were simultaneous in hushing her, but she made another noise by knocking an eraser off one of the shelves. The eraser was followed by a pen and then the metal container which clanked the side of the wooden desk before making it's way to the hard tiled floor.

      “No!” I whispered in panic. The men outside got quiet, and it sounded like Dr. Alexis was making his way to the office to check out what happened. We ducked into a closet and pulled the door towards us enough so that we were hidden. I jumped when the lights went on soothed by the feel of Hayden's hand around my shoulder in a firm grip. My heart began to pound and I could have almost fainted if it weren't for the book I saw on the desk through the small vents in the door. Dr. Alexis was inspecting the floor for what might have fallen when I noticed a hard bound copy of a book which was all too familiar. There it was, as plain as day and we couldn't get our hands on it. There was the book we needed. There was “The Lily on the Table”.

      “Oh, no,” I whispered when it happened. As Dr. Alexis turned around at my feint noise, the floor in the closet began to move. “No,” I mouthed to myself in an almost unaudiable tone. As the floor pulled us back, I heard Dean's nervous voice.

      “Is everything okay?” I barely saw his nervous eyes dart around and then the lights went off.

      “Yeah, let's go.” Off Dr. Alexis went grabbing the book and putting it in his briefcase once Dean had darted out.

The floor took us slowly and Hayden clenched my hand the whole way.

      “Are you guys okay?” Hayden asked in a very low whisper as we were pulled along. The floor stopped abruptly and I shook, my knees almost buckling under.

      “Yes,” I answered quickly. I knew my palms were getting sweaty, but I didn't care. The fear of getting caught, amongst other things, was a lot for me to handle.

      “Oh, my Go....” Sam couldn't get everything out, but she sounded down right terrified to me. There was a gliding dip before we wound up being pulled the rest of the way underground. The floor was hard and there were lots of different tunnels which seemed to go in all different directions. The floor that was pulling us became a flat kind of trolley which continued in the same straight direction. Being the curious one, Sam stepped of the trolley and proceeded down one of the interesting little hallways.

      “C'mon, guys,” she encouraged in a soft tone.

      “No, Sam....” Hayden started to call her back, but it was too late. Sam had hopped away into one of the open rooms on the side. Hayden sighed impatiently.

      “Ah, geez.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me down. “Let's go get 'er.” The twang in his accent was stronger then usual and he pulled me along as we followed Sam into the room.

      “Look at this!” Sam hopped around with her arms outstretched. The room was glorious.

      “This room looks like a place for entertaining diplomats, more than a place on a college campus,” Sam giggled. She bounced towards the cabinet which had all kinds of glamourously shaped bottles and held the cabinet door open wide.

      “Hmmm,” she pondered out loud. “What should mama drink tonight?”

      “Are you crazy?” Hayden's inflection was obviously panicky.     

     “That's illegal! We're not supposed to be in possession those kinds of drinks! Do you wanna get kicked outta school?” I'd never seen Hayden snap at Sam like that. “Pshaw,” he hissed under his breath.

      “We're here. We may as well enjoy it. Don't you think?” Sam bouced around on the balls of her feet.

      “Sam, what if we are found in here?” I asked quietly, half hiding behind Hayden, still holding onto his arm.

      “Don't hide, Leanne.” Sam walked over to me. “One of my missions this year is to show you how to party.” Her bright, dark eyes widened with the word 'party' and I felt a small tremor of addrenaline at the idea of taking the risk in front of people I didn't know so well.

“I know how to party,” I said softly in a low voice. I remembered some of the parties James used to take me to with all his football buddies who would drink fermented roogah and get really drunk. I tried it a few times, with James by my side to make sure I got home safely without my parents finding out. Before I could recover my thoughts, Sam had taken one of the bottles off the shelf and was happily doling out the drinks in the fine crystal glasses sent up on the shelf.

      “Sam,” Hayden sighed and put his face in his hands. I could tell he was frustrated and a little scared, and so was I.

      “Sam, what are you doing?” I asked. I felt my narrow, green eyes bulge out at the tension from what she was doing. “Sam, please,” I begged. She let out a giggle and proceeded on.

      “Leanne.” She stood her slender body up straight with a joyful smile on her face. Her slender arms were bent and slightly extended to her sides. Held within one of her slim, elegant fingers was an exquisite looking drinking glass made of some kind of fine, sapphire colored material. A jug-type bottle of hard drink. The neck of the jug was secure in her slim palm and dark, red jug had a label with some kind of foreign writing. I timidly walked towards Sam and examined the label more closely. My eyes bulged out again when I red what the jug contained.

      “Timrage!” Just as I had suspected. “This stuff is very hard, Sam!” I quickly looked up at her and then finished reading the rest of the bottle. “We're going to get so messed up on this,” I whispered.

      “Yeah, man.” Hayden came over to see the bottle. “This stuff is from Hendar!” He held his body back as if refraining from a fragile piece of some kind. “This stuff is expensive.” He let out a gallos laugh and then Sam poured the drink.

      “Here you go, Leanne. Bottoms up.” The mischievious look on her face made my heart pound fiercely. I bravely took the glass and drank as my friends watched with intense interest. The taste was hot and peppery. The tip of my tongue felt like it was on fire for a few seconds and then I felt a cool sensation as the rest of the sweet liquid went down smoothly. My sinuses cleared and my head felt a bit tingly from the bite.

      “Ahhhh.” I let out a noise from the aftermath and then smacked my lips lightly. I shook my head once to the side and said, “Nice.” I felt my cheeks and lips warm in a strange sensation.

      “Hayden?” Sam passed Hayden his drink and he downed it in seconds flat letting out a satisfied noise at the end. I suppose we all got seduced into doing what we knew we should not do and enjoyed it.

An hour or so must have passed as we were now starting on a new bottle of timerage. This one was in an eleganly curved, grey bottle with a slim, long neck. Twisted the cap with no finesse and poured three glasses before placing the bottle down heavily onto the table. The noise made us all jump and then I burst out in rasberry sounding laughter. My two friends followed before Sam laughed herself onto the floor sitting with her long, slim legs crossed leaning her wirey frame over them. She was laughing away before Hayden started merrily poking around the dimly lit room. There was enough light to see that the walls were a light shade of what seemed to be white and everything was fancy, neat and in it's place. Then it occurred to me that there was lighting in this underground room, which seemed to be an off-shoot of a maze-like underground tunnel.

      “Hey, looky here.” Hayden skipped a couple times on the same foot and then bounced over to a row of lavishly carved ornate chairs. They were wide and plush with velvet cushions fit for those of a higher nature. Hayden carelessly plopped into the chair on the far left as he gripped the arms with his boney fingers.

      “Whoa, I didn't see those before.” I wandered over next to him and sat gently easing myself into the plush center where I could feel myself sink deep. I gently leaned back and observed the room in my drunken state. It was surreal. It was like nothing I would ever expect to find on a college campus, yet it was here. The sturdy crystals chandeliers on the ceiling hung quietly and the light colored marble was hard under our feet. There were ornate glass top side tables lined up along the walls next to the door. The room had another door which Sam charged into only to find that it led to it's own little kitchen. There were a few more doors, which she opened as she skipped around wildly, but none of them were any more than storage closets. I was starting to get drowsy and leaned my head upon Hayden's boney shoulder. I could feel his chin on my cheek as he looked over my head. His breath was warm and tickled over my ear as he sighed deeply.

      “Wait a minute.” Hayden liften my head and popped up out of the chair leaving me to tip my head back in drunken exhaustion. He walked over to one of the doors and took a look inside. He pulled out a cardboard box and began sifting through it quietly as he gently placed items on the floor beside it. I watched him inspecting the items he pulled of the box with curiousity while he pursed his lips. Sam skipped towards me giggling and then jumped into my lap.

      “This is so cool!” I can't believe we found this place. You've gotta check out this kitchen. She was eating some sort of bread and started shoving a piece into my mouth. I turned my head a couple times to try to get away, but she was persistant.

      “No, Sam.” I felt sick and I didn't have the energy to fight her. Eventually I buckled and took a bite of the soft, sweet bread. It had a unique taste of teala berries mixed with an exotic type of spice I could not identify. She gleefully took another bite and then shoved the rest in my mouth before hopping off my lap and attempting to stand on one of the exquisite plush chairs. It seemed to take Hayden seconds to dash over to her and stop her from making a grave mistake. He grabbed one wispy arm strongly enough to keep her stable on the ground. In the other hand he held a gold statue of the Timeranz mascot. The statue was coupled with a pamphlet outlining the Timarantz football games of the season.

      “Fine, then.” Sam didn't notice what Hayden was holding, but instead turned around and headed back to the kitchen to get more of the bread. I leaned up out of the big chair and walked up to Hayden.

      “What's that?” I pointed to all of the objects he was holding and he held them up and shrugged.

      “It's the Timerantz mascot and out football schedule. There's more college football gear in that box, but it's mostly Timerantz.” Hayden looked bewildered, curious, and enthusiastic even though the buzz from the timrage was wearing off. I walked over to the box to and knelt beside it sifting through the loose pamphlets. I picked up a handful of pamphlets and looked up at Hayden who was standing over me.

      “These are the gaming schedules for all the university games to come this year.” I put them down and picked up another pack of pamphlets, which were bound together by a rubber band.         

     “And these were from last year!” My voice was starting to get excited as I stared to my side thinking for a moment. If the football schedules were kept in this closet in a fancy room underground, were there more college sports schedules in other boxes? Why was this gear kept in a room that looked like it was designed for diplomats? I felt my heart start to pound and a shot of addrenaline pump through my body from the thoughts I was now having. My narrow eyes widened and I quickly placed everything back in the box. I popped back up onto my feet and snapped my fingers to Hayden, who looked bewildered by the sense of urgency.

      “Start cleaning up,” I ordered calmly. His head followed me as I diligently moved towards the table with the timrage bottles I put the half full bottle back on the shelf neatly so that no one could know it was touched. There were other partially full bottles and I hoped nobody was keeping tabs. I stuffed the empty bottle into Hayden's backpack and then ran in the kitchen to make it look like nobody had even been there.

      “What are you doing, Leanne?” Sam giggled. She had cut the bread into surprisingly neat slices and placed them on a big glass plate next to some dips and condiments she must have found in the fridge. She licked her slight fingers as she looked at me with wondering eyes and her head held back.

      “What?” she asked with the same bewilderment as Hayden. Her glassy eyes were hard to mistake and I could only hope she could comprehend what I was about to say.

      “We need to clear out fast!” My eyes were wide again and I spoke in slow, well-defined words.

      “Why?” she whispered back mocking my tone.

      “Because I think this room is used to entertain the high level politicians that control the ESPNU,” I whispered back with the same flipant sarcasm. “I think that, if we get caught in here, we will get in a lot of trouble. I don't know how much, but they may even press charges. If we're lucky.” I was still whispering in the same sarcastic tone. Sam's eyes were still glazed over and she was just staring at me with a shocked expression.

      “I wasn't expecting that.” She was phasing into a daze still holding a piece of bread between her slim, dainty fingers. I don't think she fully comprehended what I was telling her so I cleaned the mess around the kitchen while she stared ahead in confusion. I was so frantic that I forgot about the bread and dips presented so lovely on the platter. I grabbed Sam's hand and dragged her out of the kitchen. Hayden had pieced everything together and had his backpack and was ready to dart out the door. We were just about to dart out the door when we heard what sounded like the quick footsteps of two or three people getting louder and louder. We froze in our tracks and couldn't think.

      “Oh, no,” I whispered. Hayden gasped with his arm around both of us and Sam stood in place bewildered. Without thinking, Hayden tugged us both into one of the closets and we carefully fit ourselves in trying not to damage any of the items packed inside. Hayden shoved us in so quickly that we were squashed into the corner of a roomy closet. I was next to Sam at the far right corner and Hayden squashed himself in front of us. I could smell the timrage on his clothes from when Sam splashed one shot's worth of the drink onto both of us as a joke. We could hear two men talking and they sounded like Dean and Dr. Alexis.

“Here is the room I was telling you about, Dean. This is where we will be meeting in about,” he paused for a moment and I imagined he was looking at his wristwatch, “20 minutes.”

      “Are we finished with classes for the day?” Dean asked.

      “Uh, no, no.” Dr. Alexis paused for a moment and then continued.

      “We'd better get this room set up for the big meeting this afternoon,” he directed. We could hear Dean darting around the room and Dr. Alexis moving the tables into their respective position.

      “Look over hear,” commented Dean. “Someone has come down to fix up the food, but I think we might need more.

      “Oh, yeah. Marion must've come down to do some of the preparations before hand. She's always one step ahead.” Dr. Alexis let out a soft chuckle and then continued moving the furniture around. I heard him walk into the kitchen and then back out.

      “I'd better see if she's done with the rest. The bread and dips looks pretty nice,” he commented.

      “Yeah, well the bread is made with a spice found on Kedwell. You can't get it here.” Dean bragged on a little longer.

      “I got it from the Timerantz coach. He is from Kedwell and brings me interesting things every now and again. I asked the chefs to mix it in for a nice touch.

      “Isn't it their college town's spice?” enquired Dr. Alexander.

      “Well, yeah. Now it is. But the source has long been imported from Kedwell and is now cultivated in Timerantz and Dulbell,” Dean defended. “It's still pretty rare.”

      “I see, Dean.” Dr. Alexis concluded the conversation. “You did well there, son.” I could hear ta few pats on the back before Dr. Alexis exited the room. We were all hoping that Dean would follow, but instead he stayed to prepare the furniture for the incoming guests. Before we knew it, Dr. Alexis and his secretary, Marion, were escorting a small group of college diplomats into the room. How high up they were, we didn't know. How many there were, we didn't know. Whether they would find us, and how much trouble we may be about to get into, we didn't know.

Author's Note

If you read this, please leave a review and tell me your experience. Constructive cristicism is always welcome. Thank you to anyone who reads my work and those who leave feedback. Please give as honest feedback as possible so that I may grow as a writer.

Reviews

[TL Boehm]

rule one. When in a strange place, don't imbibe the food and drink. Interesting chapter.

[Hatchling]

I love it!!