Chapter 1 - Part 2

Mr Khan cleared his throat loudly and the noise in the room gradually dissipated.

“Settle down, settle down,” he said gruffly. “Is everyone feeling alright?”

There was a general murmur of assent from the class, the collective mood quite cheerful at having done their good deed for the day.

Jonathan, sitting at the back of the room, nudged Adam. “What’s wrong with him?” he asked, nodding at the usually cheerful teacher.

Adam whispered back, “He’s probably annoyed that this far into the trip something’s already gone wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

"Well, if you send a bunch of students to go on a tour round the hospital and give blood, you don’t get them to donate blood first. That’s stupid. I bet someone screwed up.”

“How do you know?”

Adam shrugged. “It just makes sense.”

Thinking about it, Jonathan had to agree. Now Mr Khan had to escort a bunch of kids, all in a state of weakness, around the hospital, which was unwise at best and downright dangerous at worst. No wonder he looks annoyed, thought Jonathan to himself.

“Good,” continued the teacher, “now that we’re all rested we can begin our tour of the hospital. Unless anyone feels like they need more rest? Anyone who isn’t up to it can stay here, the nursing staff have kindly volunteered to keep an eye on you.”

A few students looked unsure, but the majority replied in the affirmative.

“Excellent,” said Mr Khan. His bushy dark eyebrows knitted together as he added to himself, “Though who at the office thought to schedule the donation before the tour…”

A young teacher, it had been his idea to combine the blood drive with the school trip. Since the hospital also housed one of the oldest mental asylums in the country as a government-sanctioned historical site, the trip stretched across various classes including history, chemistry, biology, and others. Thus they had managed to kill many birds with one stone.

“Anyway,” he continued loudly, “you’ve been split into groups, as you know, so we can visit the hospital and the asylum in an organised fashion that might bare some resemblance to calm and quiet. If group A could join Mr Hutchie at the back of the room you will shortly be shown around the hospital, while group B follows me to the asylum. Go.”

There was a lot of bustling and murmuring as the class split itself into two. Adam, Jonathan and Samantha moved through the crowd towards Mr Khan, only to have Adam knocked to the floor by a harsh, and rather wide, shoulder.

“Oops, sorry,” sneered the owner, a heavy boy with short brown hair, looking down on Adam with barely concealed malice. “Didn’t see you there.”

Samantha moved forward, a low growl escaping her throat. The thickset boy moved back a tiny fraction, not even realising he was doing it. His blue eyes narrowed as he considered the girl bearing down upon him. He turned, still smirking, and was swallowed by the confusion of the class still sorting itself.

Jonathan, who was helping Adam up, frowned. “Damn Brad,” he said through gritted teeth as he hoisted Adam to his feet, “think he’s ever gonna grow up?”

“Doubt it,” said Adam, perfectly calm, “but at least he didn’t stick around this time.”

“Typical of him. Without his idiot followers standing around and guffawing he’s suddenly not the big man anymore,” said Samantha angrily.

Adam shrugged.

Mr Khan shouted for order and the trio were shaken out of their little bubble. They hurried over to the teacher, who saw them and faked a groan.

“Ah, I’ve got you three, I forgot,” he said, without really suppressing his smile.

“Looks like you’ll just have to suffer along with us,” shot back Samantha, equally dramatic.

The man laughed, genuinely amused. Seeing that the whole group had assembled, he gestured for silence and did a quick head count. Satisfied, he led them down the stairs and into a main corridor, the echo of shoes squeaking against the plain linoleum floor following the group as they went.

“So, Mr Khan, what’s so special about this place anyway?” asked Jonathan.

“The hospital? Not all that much, but the asylum that the hospital grew from? Now that’s another matter. Amazingly it’s been here since medieval times. Although I’m astonished they even had asylums back then "“

“Actually, it was first built as a prison,” said a voice.