Down World by Rebecca Phelps (beach read TXT) 📗

waiting for us. “They’re gone,” Kieren whispered. “It’s now or never.”

Piper and I came out, and saw that Scott was holding the map they had prepared earlier. And in his hands, sure enough, was a large ring of keys. The plan was actually working.

“It’s down the blue hall,” Scott said. “This way.”

We all tried to find a balance between walking quickly and walking naturally. At first, we were trying to go slow—just a few kids heading to their lockers or something. But soon we all began to realize that if we got caught, there was no longer any reasonable explanation for what we were doing in the hallway. The adrenaline of the ruse began to course through our blood, the impending fear of being seen. And before we knew it, we were all practically running down the blue hall.

At the end was the first door—one of those heavy metal doors that peppered the whole school and that we had all walked past hundreds of times without noticing. Kieren and Robbie faced out, practically blocking us with their bodies while Scott began trying keys.

I tried to breathe. I didn’t want to rush Scott, but I knew it was a matter of minutes before the guards would make their rounds this way. We were so quiet, I could hear the slightest scuff of someone’s shoe against the tile. I closed my lips so my breathing wouldn’t be audible.

Kieren reached his hand back behind him, looking for mine. I took it, and I could feel the dampness in his palm. He was as nervous as the rest of us, though he was trying not to show it.

Robbie saw our hands holding, and he turned away. He still hadn’t forgiven Kieren. Maybe once this dimension returned to normal they would have a chance to be friends again. I could only hope.

“Wrong one,” I heard Scott mutter.

“What?” I whispered, trying not to sound too stressed out. I didn’t want him to panic.

“Hold on,” he said, trying another one.

I swallowed down my nerves, and tried to keep a calm energy about me.

I thought I heard something down the hallway then. Some sort of footsteps. It might have been the guards, or it might have been someone else. Scott was still working next to me, and I wanted to cry from the tension.

The footsteps receded a bit, and I could make out muffled laughter from that direction. It wasn’t guards. Probably just some kids looking for a place to make out. I let out the faintest sigh, and then I heard the door click.

“Got it,” Scott said, not making any effort to mask his own relief. We all went through the door and closed it very gently behind us.

For a moment, I wondered if we had walked through a portal. Instead of the dark, long-abandoned hallway I had been expecting, it was a clean, brick-walled corridor with bright fluorescent lights hanging overhead. They made a very slight buzzing sound, like miniature bees hovering nearby, waiting to strike.

I looked around for surveillance cameras, but thankfully didn’t see any. Even if there were some, there was nothing we could do about it now. We simply had to get to the science room before anybody noticed.

“Walk quickly,” I instructed, and Kieren nodded.

“She’s right. It’s this way.”

We all began to walk, with Scott still holding the map out in front of him. “There should be another door on the right, with a stairwell.”

We made it another twenty feet or so without seeing anything, until I began to be convinced we had entered the wrong door. But then I spotted it.

“There,” I almost shouted, immediately covering my mouth. “Sorry.” I stepped back a bit to let Scott find the right key.

Once again, Kieren turned to face out, watching. I looked at Robbie, whose eyes revealed not a hint of emotion.

“Baby,” Piper whispered to him, and he looked at her. As always, her face was all he needed to wake up a bit, to become present once more. “I love you.”

Robbie smiled. “I love you too.”

The door opened, and before I knew it, we were making our way down a stairwell, deep into the bowels of the building. Soon we were connecting with another hallway, the doors to several empty offices popping up from time to time on either side. It took me a moment to realize we were in the hallway that led to the science lab with the portals. They had cleaned it up. And the offices had been bricked up before. Now they were clearly in use, even though for the moment nobody was in them.

We finally got to the science lab at the end of the hall. My heart was racing so fast, I thought I might pass out. I could feel the desire to run down that little spiral staircase, open up the Yesterday door, and bolt through it before anything could go wrong. But I knew I had to be patient for a few minutes more.

We tried the knob, and of course it was locked. “Just one more,” I whispered to Scott. “You’re doing great.”

Scott didn’t seem to care about my compliments, however, and got to work without acknowledging me. Soon he got the door open and we all filed inside. The room was very dark, and I searched the wall for the light. But I couldn’t find the switch.

As it turned out, I didn’t need to. The lights turned on by themselves, a fact that shocked me so much I almost screamed.

And that’s when we all froze. Because we weren’t alone in the room.

Every time I saw my mother in this world—this dark and twisted world—it took me a moment to register what I was seeing. She was her, of course, but she wasn’t her at all. In a way, it was like seeing the evil twin of a television character you had grown to love. And it was surprising how quickly your love of that character could turn to sheer hatred of the twin. Because