The hallways of St. Alexander Secondary School were quiet as a grave, along with every other cliché possible in the book, and quite probably some that weren’t. The second floor was empty, it was around 3 PM now, and the students who had “Braved” the journey to school had long since fled in fear, back to they’re safe suburban strongholds. The dust was settling, the bugs were coming out and the school was left to sleep. Or it would be had it not been for the heavy clacking of four sets of feet upon tiled floor.
The four boys were illuminated from behind by the light, something quite possibly intentional. Before them lay the hallways, far foreigner to them after hours, and yet they’re faces were adorned with dopey grins. This would be fun, thought Skinner Wayland.
The four boys began they’re trek down the hallway, at first wordlessly but growing uneasy due to the stillness in the air. It was spooky, Skinner finally admitted to himself. He had been trying to convince himself all day that sneaking into school after hours would be a piece of cake, hell, last year they’d be allowed to stay for clubs or whatnot. But now things were different, and clubs had been all but cancelled, with the low attendance at schools many classrooms lay empty, and rumors had been circulating that one of the teachers might get canned if things continued. Still this was HIS school; he’d walked it countless times in the daylight. Just because of “weird” happenings that were alleged to have occurred, that didn’t instantly make his school something else. Skinner wished this to be true, but now facing down the inky blackness of the second floor corridor he couldn’t bring himself to regard this as his school. Oh he wasn’t scared. Excited more like, but his metaphorical safe word “This is only the school” was already right out the window. It just went to show how much things had changed.
Last year he had no less then 10 people hovering around him at all times, cracking jokes, having a good time. They’d go to the café some days, mess around outside, play a game of tackle football or maybe just relax and play some video games. Skinner sometimes thought that the events around town were now reenacting a particularly bad Harry Potter-esque fan fic of some sort, the refusal to acknowledge the dark forces lurking from beyond and the social block incurring upon anyone mentioning the elephant in the room. Skinner was an odd one in this respect, his unique reaction to this situation would be to flip Voldemort the bird instead of cowering in fear. That would have made Skinner’s life, if Harry’d flipped Voldemort the bird and yelled out some epic one liner when the series reached its conclusion. Skinner prayed someone had thought the same and would decide to put it in as an alternate ending for the last film. Flipping Voldemort the bird. Fuckin’ A that was exactly what his little after hour’s excursion was all about thought Skinner. Minus the geeky wizard shit, flipping HARTLEY BAY the bird, and showing that in the face of the unknown Skinner Wayland was a happy go lucky magnificent son of a bitch who couldn’t and wouldn’t be fucked with. That’s what he was trying to say. Either that or he was just advertising his extreme stupidity. Skinner preferred the first option. It sounded far nobler and far deeper then simply saying it was for shits and giggles. That was just a bonus really, the shits and giggles. Skinner shook his head, if he kept thinking in deep symbolic and unreasonably geeky thoughts he might give himself a brain hemorrhage. Beer and pretzels, he was a beer and pretzels man…kid….teen…whatever.
The flashlight in his hand clicked on, and quickly Skinner turned to his friends and put it under his face, emitting a guttural growl from his throat. He isolated his best friend Tommy Conway at one end of the hall and quickly rammed him up against the lockers, Flashlight still under his chin.
“OOOOOO!!! Uuuuhhh! Tommy I am the ghost of Hartley Bayyyyy…. Bend over and feel my ghostly lovin’!” Skinner moaned as he shoved his friend up against the locker, electing snickers and laughter from the other three teens.
Tommy grinning shoved Skinner off and reached for his own flashlight. “Fuck off dude; you have the acting talent of Ed Wood.”
Skinner reeled playfully backwards farther than the actual shove was hard and crashed into his other two associates Aaron Harmon and Collin Beck. Collin laughing shoved Skinner a second time sending him reeling back again crashing into another locker on the opposite side of the hall, the crash echoing noisier than the foursome would wish, but breaking the silence was welcoming and Skinner was happy for it even if it did attract the attention of a living (and most likely rather angry) person instead of a dead one. Skinner righted himself again and looked over at the others, Tommy had already got his flashlight out and was shining it down the hall, Collin had his hands jammed in his pocket, Aaron was fumbling with his, and looked somewhat more on edge then the others but was still grinning from Skinner’s antics. Skinner shined his light down the hallway like Tommy was doing, it illuminated every shadow and things didn’t look quite so different anymore. A good start.
“So… what exactly are we doing?” Collin piped in filling the silence. The four began to steadily gravitate down the hallway.
“Hunting for ghosties.” Skinner replied, which pretty much summed it up. Skinner didn’t really possess any ghost hunting equipment (Or for that matter, he wasn’t even particularly convinced they’d find anything) but he’d made due, and with any luck they’re pointless trek around St. Alexander’s would turn up something interesting. And not angry. That wasn’t really to much to ask was it? Skinner wasn’t really a coward but the events had left his psyche somewhat on edg- beer and pretzels. BEER AND PRETZELS.
“….uhh how exactly are we doing that?” Collin said as they continued to slowly move down the hall in a close (but not too close, they were all 15 year old boys afterall...) group.
“Like, do we just shine our lights around and hope we find something disturbing?” He continued.
Skinner mumbled for a minute trying to think of a smart way to explain exactly what they were doing, but he somehow thought the metaphorical mumbo jumbo would fly right over Collin’s head.
“Yeah that’s pretty much it.” Skinner said which earned a snicker from Tommy. But the truth was, that WAS basically it.
Skinner was a doctor dammit, not a ghost tracker.
Wait….
Shit.
Keep with the beer and pretzels thoughts.
Football and girls.
Fuck Aristotle and Nietzsche and Darwin and….
Wait how did he know those guys?
BEER AND PRETZELS.
Reaching the end of the hallway Skinner rubbed his head with annoyance. Looking left and right at the T section the group shine they’re lights in confusion. Tommy grunted in annoyance and shone his light down the left hallway.
“Well what now? Science hall maybe?” Collin said looking back at the others.
Skinner paused and put his hand on his chin stroking it thoughtfully.
“I’d say something like, Let’s split up! But then we’d probably all die…. Alright science hal-“
A odd crashing noise suddenly exploded from the right hallway, Skinner spun around and with Tommy and Aaron shined they’re lights down the hall, Aaron jumped what seemed like three feet in the air and stumbled backwards. The crash continued, varying in size and sound and seeming to ricochet and emanate from the walls, Skinner frankly hadn’t heard anything quite like this. The noise was punctuated by a strange accompanying scraping noise, barely audible and carefully hidden underneath the crashing so that Skinner didn’t notice until it abruptly cut out. The group gingerly brought they’re flashlights up, shining it down the empty corridor, which once more took on its eerily serene state.
“…… English hall then!” Skinner announced, eyes wide with confusion.
“The fuck was that?” Aaron said, his voice nearly cracking.
“Dracula?” Tommy answered as he took a step forward towards the hallway.
“…..Dracula’s not loud! He can turn into a bat or… or mist, so why the FUCK would he be loud?” Skinner brazenly said as he joined Tommy in peering down the hallway.
“Maybe he’s PMSing.” Collin chipped in peering from behind Skinner.
“Dracula doesn’t have a period!” Skinner said trying to avoid smacking Collin in the face.
“How do you know? Did you ever ask him?”
Skinner face palmed himself, and spoke rather slowly. “No, Dracula’s a fuckin’ dude. Just because he drinks blood all the time doesn’t mean he has a period!”
Collin continued behind them staring down the hallway and blathering away. “Well what if the period blood like, mixed with the regular blood and made him all moody n’ shit so-“ He was cut off as Skinner reached behind him and smacked him in the head.
“Shut the FUCK up dude! Rice fucked with vampires enough, I don’t need you’re bullshit vampire analysis to retcon too! Not to mention its fuckin’ weird hearing you talk like that!” Skinner yelled. He stopped and both he and Collin stared back down the hallway. “Besides I don’t think that was a fuckin’ vampire! So why are we still talking!”
Behind the threesome, Aaron let out a groan and backed up. “Okay, y’know this has been fun guys. But it’s kinda pointless. I’m gonna go home.”
Skinner looked behind him, rather annoyed that Aaron chose this point to chicken out. But he supposed he didn’t want to force him, especially if anything actually DID occur. Which judging by the sound may be likely….
“Alright, take Collin n’ go chill or something.” Collin let out an incredulous yelp and looked at Skinner.
“Dude, I’m not going with the pussy.” Collin interjected.
“Collin, you stupid twat you didn’t bring a flashlight, so you’re basically useless. And also, it’d be lame to let Aaron walk home alone.” Skinner said shining the light in Collin’s face and he blocked this with his hand. Skinner looked him up and down. “Also you’ve been shaking nonstop for a few minutes now.”
Collin to his amazement looked down and saw Skinner was right, he was shaking. Looking up at the inky darkness, violently punctured by the beams of Tommy and Skinner’s flashlight, he gave a nervous laugh and Tommy snickered in the background.
“Uhm… okay I guess you’re right. Tell me if you get y’know. Raped or whatever.” He said, and with a lame wave he turned. “…….how is it late anyways? It’s fuckin’ 3 in the afternoon…” he mumbled as he and Aaron retreated down the hallway towards the exit.
Collin had a good point Skinner admitted. It WAS only three in the afternoon, but with all the lights out and lack of windows it seemed like anything but inside the school. Still, he was determined and he stared back into the inky blackness with Tommy by his side.
“Beer and Pretzels.” He said with a grin.
“Hm? The fuck?” Tommy said cocking his head. Skinner suddenly felt overcome with stupidity and looked away towards the wall. That statement didn’t have quite the symbolic meaning he was looking for.
“Uhh… I said you’re a fag.”
“Oh.” Said Tommy and he paused for a beat. “Well alright then, let’s go.” And with that the pair made they’re way into the inky darkness of the corridor.