Boarding School - SBI

Chapter Twenty-One

Tommy had been hiding under a bench, with a hunter sat on a similar one down the hall, when his stopwatch rang. It was in his pocket. He rolled out of underneath the bench, and the hunters who had been looking for him just a minute before were startled by his sudden appearance.

Tommy fetched the stopwatch from his pocket, and turned it off.

He didn't have to worry about the hunters anymore. The kids, one boy and one girl, were about a year older than Tommy. They shared a few brief conversations in the past, although Tommy couldn't remember their names. The friends walked back to the secret library together, with Tommy a few steps behind, like he was being towed.

Tommy and the other two kids walked in the the library, out from a portrait, and saw Techno pointing to a bookshelf, and shouting at a kid.

You can't really say that Techno has much tone in his voice, but Tommy had grown up with him and could tell the differences between monotone sounding sentences that most people wouldn't notice, but to him, had always been there.

The Techno stopped yelling a the boy. The boy's shoulders sagged, and he dragged the ladder over to the bookshelf. On top of the bookshelf, there was a stopwatch. It's timer had gone off, but for some reason it's owner had thrown it all the way up there.

After the boy had dragged the ladder over to aproximatly the right spot, he started climbing up it. The timer was still ringing. It was annoying.

He reached the top at the same time the remaining hunters and hiders returned. Right as the last person walked in, and was closing the painting-door behind them, the boy lost his balance and fell.

"Are you okay?" Techno called from across the library. He clearly didn't expet the boy to fall.

He ansered with a shouted yes, and his face turned beet red. He was embarressed.

Tommy saw Techno sigh, most likely in relief. Tommy doubted that Techno wanted to have to take the boy to the imfermery.

Techno sat down on the chair he had been on earlier, and the boy who had fallen quietly went to sit at the back of the group. Techno recapped the rules for the next set of rounds, while Tommy thought about where he was going to hide.

"You're playing the second part of the game, so new rules. It's a jail round. That means when hiders are caught, they can be saved."

He could hide right next to the library, in one of the ajacent halls. That would let him free his teammates easier.

"They can be saved by another hider tagging them out of prison. No babysitting this room. If any does, their team is disqualified and they can't play again. Got it?"

Maybe he sould just stay far far away from the library so he didn't have to worry about the hunters at all. Wilbur had been out for him last time he was hunter, so he probably would be again.

"If you're put in jail and nobody saves you, then the hunters get a point."

He also wouldn't have to worry about his teammates if he hide as far away as possible. They could take care of themselves.

"Are there questions? And does anybody need help setting their stopwatch? If not, we'll start."

Nobody had any questions, so Techno helped a couple of people set up their tiemrs. Tommy did his on his own. He didn't get why people needed any help with it. They weren't hard to use, and Tommy knew that he was one of the youngest people there.

Techno started the round.

Tommy sprinted out the door the moment he heard Techno shout that the round had started. He could feel Wilburs eyes on his back, guessing where he would go.

Tommy ran as fast as he could, but after he had exited the secret halls, he was where a teacher could catch him, so he quieted his footsteps. He was positive that none of the techers were up at that hour, but he couldn't be too careful.

Tommy took anohter turn.

Then another.

He could here footsteps behind him, and he thought that he might be near the secret library, but wasn't sure. The halls wove together like a spider web, and there were always new ones to explore. Secret or not.

Then, Tommy saw a hall he hadn't seen before.

In it, paintings. And one thing he had learned, was that paintings ment passageways. Secret ones. Hidden ones.

So, Tommy went up to one, and pushed on its frame. He couldn't hear any hunters, and besides, he had found a new hall with all new paintings in it.

Tommy had noticed a while ago that if he pushed on a paintings frame, it would tilt in twords the ground if it was hanging, and wasn't on hinges. The ones that tilted twords either side, that ment that it might be on hinges, and might have a hall behind it.

He pushed on another painting. It tilted down.

Another, down.

Another, to the right. Tommy stopped his trek, and pulled the frame out, and towords himself. It didn't move. That's the thing about his statagy. It didn't always work.

The fith was tiny, so it probably didn't have anything behind it. Nevertheless, Tommy pushed on it.

That was a mistake.

It was a mistake because when he pushed on it, the stone behind it moved. Then the one below that, and again and again. The only thing that Tommy could think over the the grinding of the stones was that he was going to be caught by a hunter.

After a moment, the stones in the wall stopped moving. In a meter radius all around the tiny paining, the stones had moved themselves in.

Confused, Tommy pushed at the painting again.

Nothing.

He pulled on it.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Crash.

The stones beneath Tommy slid from under him and rammed themselves into the wall behind them, leaving Tommy suspended for a split second.

It felt like an eternity.

Then, he was falling.

an) this was unedited

~~Word Count 994~~