The Room

“It’s begun to snow again.”

“Astrid, it's Michigan; it's going to snow.”

“It's good to know, okay? I see nothing wrong with”

I shushed her and began to just stare at them while the both of them continued to bicker in almost silent voices. They’ve been friends since their first semester here, which was probably a year or maybe more ago. I honestly can't remember, at this point, how long it's really been.

“Astrid and Lewis, knock it off; we are only here to study, nothing more, and definitely shouldn't be messing with each other in a damned library."

Lewis waved his arms in the air and sighed, "I get that, but look at this voluminous room,” then looked at me with a judgmental glare. As if letting me know that I am the problem, he continues, “How could we not mess around? I can't even imagine anyone being able to actually study here."

I get that they both want to mess around; being in their early twenties, that is probably the only thing on their minds, but we have many other things that we could accomplish at this moment. Definitely anything instead of fighting in a library.

I came to Michigan not long before the first day of the semester on a full scholarship, and I do believe so did Astrid. But Joseph, on the other hand, has lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan, his whole life. The only reason he is even here is because of his “stuck-in-their-ways'' parents, or at least what he says they are; his father went here years ago, and at one point so did his father's dad as well, and so on. Lewis Wakefield is most certainly the most crass student in this library and, in general, at this college. Personally, I see nothing wrong with wanting to study for a midterm, but who am I to judge Tweedledee and Tweedledum?

Ya’ know, no one else is even here; we have this whole place to  ourselves."Lewis says this while puckering his lips in Astrid's direction. “You never know what could happen behind closed doors.”

Astrid laughed and started to cough while doing so. “There are many flaws in your plan. I like the fact that there are hundreds of small windows dispersed around, and the main flaw is that you are never getting anything from me.” And with that, Lewis starts to walk around, turning left and right, seemingly trying to pretend nothing happened. His usually olive-toned face was becoming a creamy shade of burgundy.

He is about twenty feet from us, pretending to read what looks to be an upside-down phone book at an orange wood-colored table. Of course, I walk towards him; he and Ash have been my closest friends since I moved here, and I don't plan to change that in any way.

“You do know that you have no chance with her, right?” I smile wryly, hoping to soften the mood. Lewis puts down the phone book and shoves it back into its original slot.

He chuckles. “You say that now, but..." He leans on a dusty book, which also looks to be a phone book, but of a much later date. It shifts and hits the back of the shelf with a thud. The bookshelf then started to move; there were clicking noises, and then the shelf made an unhooking sound. The left side swung open about an inch, while the right side was mounted in place.

I gasped, “What the hell?” I stare in disbelief. “What did you do, Lewis?”

Lewis looked at me as if I had five heads. “I didn't do anything." Astrid cut him off. “Lewis? What was that noise?”

She is still on the other side of the library, and the clicks and grinds echo through the giant room. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised that people outside of this room heard it, though I am surprised no one has come in to check to see what it was.

 "Okay, why are you both blaming me? I haven't done anything.” ”He goes on to say, "He never does anything wrong” and “we always blame him”. He starts to yell. I debate telling him not to yell at the library; instead, I sigh and begin trying to push the shelf back into place.

 "It won't move., Lewis, get over here and help me.” He says something under his breath and starts to walk towards me, going on the left side of me. He starts to push.

 “Um, Joe? It seems like there's a room back there.” Curiosity got the best of me. I looked behind the shelf; there was indeed a room behind the apparently heavy shelf; it was smaller than a bedroom but bigger than a closet, a contrast to the big, illuminated room we were already standing in. It was almost pitch black inside and had a trace of mildew.

"I don't know about you two, but I think we have an adventure-a-waiting.”

Astrid is now right next to us both, She hits the back of his head and says, “You can't even chew gum while walking, how are you going to go on an adventure? Stop talking nonsense and just try to close the  shelf." Ash began to walk away.

“Well fine then, you can walk away buzz-kill. But I…” Lewis picks up the thickest book from the shelf and drops it on the table next to us, and another, and another, until the shelf is almost completely bare and weightless. "I am going to start to explore.” Astrid stopped walking and started to watch. I am also watching this unfold. Lewis is known for being a little all over the place, but this is just weird, I might as well go along with it. 

“Looks like we're going on an adventure.” I tried to say this as enthusiastically as possible, but Astrid just nodded. 

“Now that we are all in agreement, let's go!” And with that, all three of us go into the unknown and shut the makeshift door behind us. It seems that it has gotten even darker, I wasn't even aware that was possible. Astrid takes out her phone and shines the light on the two of us, then starts to shine it on the rest of the room. It was even smaller now, a concrete brick that seemed to be engulfing us, the only thing that really seemed new, was there now seemed to be a hallway leading from our room to who knows what. “Can't believe this place is just inside of the college, wonder what it's been used for, or if at all.” 

“Look” I gesture towards the hall, “we have more to discover, we might find out.” They both look at me with a slight bit of nervousness. I can't say I'm not nervous, so I understand it. But I still walk on, pushing Astrid to the front since she has the light in hand. And since I'm not going to be caught dead going first.

We walk for about three minutes in silence. I feel Lewis holding on to my collared shirt; this will probably wrinkle it sadly. The silence is killing me. Any time a shoe scuffs or one of us breathes in a little too loudly, I can feel my heart completely stop beating. I'm not usually a scared person, but this is a little too much. I'm so focused on myself that I'm immune to my surroundings and can't even feel Lewis attached to me anymore. We walk for a little longer and then come to a full stop. 

“It's a dead end, what's the point of a long hallway if there's nothing at the end of it?” Astrid looks behind herself at me and sighs then her eyes go wide. I look behind myself, Lewis is no longer being me. 

"Lewis, Lewis, Lewis!” I continued to scream his name, but he did not respond. "Ash, let's just start walking back; he most likely chickened out and ran back. ” I say this more to calm my own nerves than hers. But I can see her hand shaking, moving the light slightly back and forth. “Here, I'll hold the light; stay behind me."

We started to walk back, faster this time. My nerves have subsided. But then I almost completely jump into the air, and Ash screams bloody murder. I turn back so fast that I've probably given myself whiplash. I flash the light; she's nowhere to be seen, though, not a trace. Her scream can be heard slowly traveling back down the hall. I can almost see her silhouette; at least I assume it's hers.

At this point, I'm completely shaking; I can't even move one foot in front of the other without falling on myself. I kept one hand on the wall to stabilize myself and begin to run. The air pressure drops, my head starts to feel dizzy, and everything is spinning. My hand starts to feel cold and almost wet. Without looking at the liquid, I whip it on my shirt and continue on, changing hands every now and then when the coldness becomes too much. 

After what seems like hours of running like a hamster on a wheel, I finally get back to the front room. Lewis is indeed there, in a seemingly new chair, blood running down his shirt. I'd scream if I wasn't so shocked. I look down at my hands and shirt, which are also completely soaked in blood.

I don't even care anymore; if I start trying to push the shelf, it won't budge. It's as heavy as it was earlier. I start to yell, “Help! Anybody, please, dammit-dammit-dammit!" Without thinking, I just started kicking the door. Astrid's phone drops out of my hand and completely shatters on the floor; the light goes out.

Darkness.