I should have known the boys were up to something based on how Scott grinned when he saw me come in to the great hall. There was also the moment when Eric hung back as we left. It looked like he was looking around, but when I asked him what he was doing, he said “nothing.”

They led me through the maze of their school, then stopped at the end of a short hall I’d never seen before. At the back of the stubby hall was a door set in the middle of the wall. The bright yellow tape running across it three times was about head high so you could easily read the words “CAUTION” and “DO NOT ENTER” that were printed on it.

I groaned and put a hand to my head.

“You’re all going to get expelled,” I said. “You’re going to get expelled, and it’ll be my fault.”

“Nah,” Wes said. “No one ever comes down here.”

“How do you know?”

“’Cause we’ve done this before.”

“Why does that not surprise me?”

Scott gestured to the tape. “With bait like that, what do they expect?”

I turned to Eric. “Is it dangerous?”

“Not really,” he said. “It’s pretty shabby, but I’ve been in worse places. If you’re careful, you should be fine.”

“Dustin?” Wes said.

Dustin had been peering behind us, to where the short hall met the longer hall. When he heard his name, he looked back.

“Huh?”

“You see something?” Wes asked.

Dustin shook his head.

“Any teachers?”

“No.”

Wes reached out and grabbed the handle. “Here we go.”

The tarnished brass knob squeaked as he turned it.

“It’s unlocked,” I noted.

“The lock’s broken,” Eric said.

I turned to him.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said. “It was like that when we found it. There’s something jammed in it.”

I wondered how many students had already discovered that fact. And how many teachers.

We ducked under the tape and went inside.

The hall continued beyond the door. Further in there were two more doors—one on the right and one on the left. A yard later, where the last of the hall light fell, the floor dropped away as a descending staircase. I could only see the first two steps before they were swallowed by the darkness.

“What are these?” I asked, stopping in front of one of the doors.

Wes said, “As far as we can tell, they’re old offices.”

“There’s some old-timey desks and empty file cabinets,” Scott added.

“I have to look around guys,” I said.

Scott grunted. “It’s your investigation.”

“Do you have a torch?” Eric asked.

“Um.” I pointed to the overhead light shining down on us.

“Not all of the lightbulbs work.”

The boys took turns holding my phone up as a flashlight while I searched the two rooms. The dust was thick enough, you could see where various explorers had disturbed it. There was no magic or any strange items hidden in a forgotten corner, but the longer I was there, the more the fossilized atmosphere got to me.

The desks were old and cheap, but not old enough to belong to the original manor house. The style was wrong. They were too industrial, and they sat perfectly square to the room. Someone had brought them in, set them down, and no one had moved them since. It felt like the desks were waiting—as if the rooms were waiting. A task had been interrupted, and at any moment, someone would walk in and resume working. If I turned around, who would I see coming in the door?

I jumped when I felt a hand on my arm.

“Are you all right, Emerra?”

It was Dustin. He was the one on flashlight duty.

I took a breath and turned back to the empty desk. “Yeah. It just seems weird to me. How long do you think that wall out in the hall has been there? The one with the door in it.”

“I don’t know,” he said. “If this is below stairs, it could be original.”

“We’re still on the ground floor.”

“Below stairs—where the servants worked. These might have been the housekeeper’s or butler’s rooms. The door would have been the divide between the working area and the main house.”

I shook my head. After another second of gazing at the desk, I said, “Dustin, would you put an office behind two closed doors?”

“I guess it depends on whose office it was.”

I turned. “Let’s go.”

He handed me my phone as I passed him.

I heard the other three goofing around in the hall, but by the time I got there, they were all waiting quietly for me. Scott looked suspiciously innocent. I pretended not to notice the newly drawn doodle of a male appendage on the wall.

“Ready?” I said.

Wes said, “Whenever you are.”

“I’ll go first,” Eric offered.

“Why?” I asked.

“The stairs aren’t that great. Watch your step. I’ll warn you if there’s a problem.”

I held my phone up high so Eric could have some light, and I held onto the railing with my other hand. Years of use had worn the wooden rail to a smooth finish. Neglect had added the matte coating of grime.

“Look out for this step,” Eric said.

When I put my foot down on the stair, it sunk into the carpet, as if something had degraded the wood underneath it.

“There’s a few more like that,” Eric said.

With each step down, the air grew colder. A soft scent teased my nose, but it was too subtle for me to tell what it was or where it was coming from. When we reached the bottom of the stairs, I searched the wall nearby for anything that looked like a light switch. There was a brass toggle. I flicked it up. A light at the far end of the room went on, sputtered, and died, giving us a glimpse of the area.

The room was roughly sixteen feet wide, and all of the walls were punctuated by doors. There were five evenly spaced doors on the wall to my left. To my right, there were two. There was only one door on the far wall, near the right corner. Near that door, bits of cracked ceiling had fallen, revealing the wooden ribs of the floor above and dusting the ground with plaster. Around the decay, covering the walls and ceiling, were clouds of brown-yellow water damage, flecked with mold. Dips in the carpet suggested more rotted flooring. Furniture was stacked along the wall at the back of the room, almost blocking off the fifth door on the left.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The one second of light had cast a mess of shadows off the furniture. My hand tightened around my phone.

I raised my light and glared at the shadows, daring them to be anything other than perfectly normal.

“Emerra?” Dustin said.

I moved my phone from side to side and watched the shadows humbly slide across the floor as directed.

“Did you see something?” Wes asked.

“No.” I took a breath. “We’re good.”

“If, by good, you mean we’re stuck with only one light source,” Scott pointed out.

“Two,” Wes said. He held up his hand and lit it on fire.

“Would you push that switch back down for me.” I motioned to the toggle behind them. “I don’t trust the wiring in this place.”

Eric leaned back and flipped the switch.

“I didn’t expect it to be so big,” I said.

“Where to, fair maiden?” Scott asked.

I debated asking which rooms were the least scary, but if they were already calling me “fair maiden,” I didn’t want to give them any more ammunition.

I motioned to the first door on my right.

Wes led us over and pulled the door open toward us. “Watch your step.”

His warning came a nanosecond too late. I stumbled over the step that was immediately inside the door but caught myself on the frame.

“What the heck is that?” I kicked at the obtrusion. “Who puts a step in the middle of a doorway?”

“Maybe they needed to level the floor,” Wes suggested.

“By four inches?”

He shrugged.

“Spare me from amateur home improvement projects,” I grumbled as I went inside.

I wandered into the center of the room and slowly turned around. Nothing. It was only a large, rectangular room.

But as my eyes moved over the blank walls, a faint pressure in my chest grew until the intensity of it made me stagger. The room started swimming around me.

I put my free hand on my thigh and leaned over, closing my eyes. The moment my eyes were closed, I noticed my breathing. I was taking in quick jerks of air, one after another. The sound of my panting almost drowned out my thudding heart.

What’s going on?

I opened my eyes again. No good. The lines on the flooring swirled. It made me dizzy to watch. A flow of nausea swept into my stomach.

“Oh, god,” I whispered.

Before I could close my eyes again, I saw someone move toward me. I lurched away, my heart buzzing even faster.

It’s only Wes, I told myself.

Wes. The boys. They were watching me. They were going to see me freaking out.

Tears started falling. I could feel them rolling down my face and dripping from my jaw—feel them like my skin was laced with nerves. My hand slid down to my knee; I could feel the texture of my jeans.

What’s happening? I screamed in my head.

The only sound that escaped my throat was a moan.

My phone dropped out of my hand. I felt that too. I didn’t hear it hit the floor. All I could hear were the thick murmurings which must have been my knights in shining armor, calling my name, trying to get me to talk to them, and a dull ringing sound that was growing louder and higher in pitch as eternity after eternity passed.

I lowered myself to my knees so I wouldn’t fall. Moving was hard. Every muscle in my body was clenched with tension, and I couldn’t stop trembling. It felt like someone was tightening an iron band around my ribs. My eyes fluttered between open and shut. I couldn’t focus on anything, and the sides of my vision were being eaten away by white fuzz.

My mouth formed the words—I don’t know if I even said them—“I can’t breathe.”

Two terrors had been winding their way through me. The first was the soul-breaking terror that came from not knowing what was going on. Now the second had a name.

I tried to yell. It might have come out as a whisper. “I can’t breathe.”

The saner part of me could feel my lungs heaving faster and faster, but the knowledge was powerless to touch my fear.

I’m going to die again.

More tears.

I felt a rough hand and a tickle of fur on my cheek. That smell. I knew that smell. A deep voice oozed through the ringing sounds to reach me.

“Mera!”

“Conrad,” I gasped. “Conrad, I can’t breathe! I’m drowning!”

Conrad put his arms under me. He stood up, dead-lifting me to his chest.

“Pick up her phone,” he said.

Wes dodged in to grab it.

The wolfman looked at Dustin. “Where’s the nearest door to the outside?”

“This way,” Dustin said.

Dustin and Wes went ahead to light the way. Conrad followed them. I felt the change in his stride as he took the stairs two at a time. I pressed my eyes shut and tried to focus on breathing.

It didn’t help.

“Conrad,” I murmured.

“We’re almost outside,” he said.

A few seconds later, Dustin said, “There. That one leads to the grounds.”

I heard the crack and groan of a door being opened. Conrad didn’t stop, and his pace never changed.

The moment we were outside, the touch of the cold air on my face, in my nose, in my mouth, made my heart swell with a desperate hope.

Air.

I gasped it in, crying now because of how relieved I felt.

Oh, god, it feels so good.

Conrad stopped when we were out of the shadow of the building. It only felt a few degrees warmer in the feeble sunlight, but I was glad for it. He lowered me to the ground and pulled his arms away. I could feel the prickle of grass on my hands, the side of my face, and poking through the sleeves of my hoodie. The touch of the grass and the press of the ground against my side were blessedly solid sensations—something to lean on while the clamor in my head slowed and died.

Conrad was still crouched beside me. He ran the back of his fingers over my back.

“Take your time,” he muttered. “You’ve got this. There’s no water around here. We’ve got you air, some grass, and as much sunshine as you can get in this damn country.”

My hysterical giggle blended in with my sob. I gripped the grass under my hand and drank in the smell of it.

Conrad went quiet and his hand left my back.

Several shadows moved along the grass nearby.

“What happened?” Wes asked.

I should sit up, I told myself. I should answer.

I was too tired to do either. All I wanted to do was lay there and breathe until my chest stopped hurting.

“She had a panic attack,” Conrad said.

“Has it happened before?”

“That’s something you ask her.”

I knew Conrad had said that to respect my privacy, but my psyche winced.

Wes said, “Is that why she fainted?”

“What part of ‘it’s not your business’ is giving you trouble?”

Conrad hadn’t raised his voice, and his tone was mellow, but the blunt answer seemed to hang in the air.

I turned my head so I could look at Wes. His face was red.

“How did you know what to do?” Scott’s voice was full of wonder.

“How did you know where to find us?” Eric demanded.

Conrad was still facing me. I saw his ears creep to a flatter position.

Screw being a fair maiden! Now was not a good moment to be helpless. I gulped a few times in yet another attempt to get my breathing under control. And the heart rate—that needed to slow down. A lot.

“Eric—” Scott whispered.

“No.” Eric’s hands shook as he crossed his arms. “Answer the question, wolfman. How did you find us?”

Conrad stood up and turned. Eric’s foot scooted back a few inches, but he stayed in line next to Wes and Dustin.

“My name is Conrad,” he growled.

“You were following us,” Dustin said.

The wolfman’s ears flattened further.

Wes raised his voice. “Were you following us or following her?”

Don’t, you idiot! I thought as loud as I could.

Scott stepped closer to the group. “You were following—does she know that you were following her?” He took his place next to Wes. “Hero or not, that’s messed up.”

Great. Leave it to the four musketeers to slam a wedge into my already tenuous relationship.

Conrad stood facing them, legs apart, arms crossed, motionless. I could see the musketeers' faces, and each one was set in some expression of anger or defiance.

“Are you going to ignore that question too, wolfman?” Eric asked.

And that musketeer had a death wish. I struggled to push myself up. If only I could stop shaking!

Conrad’s shoulders tensed. “You need to learn how to pick your fights, boy.”

“Conrad!” I shouted.

The wolfman turned to me. I was still breathing hard, but at least I could make myself heard.

“Please,” I gasped. “Just leave them alone.”

For a split second, Conrad frowned and his ears dipped back until they almost touched his head, then he suddenly turned, hissed out a stream of air, half-huff, half-snarl, and stalked away.

We watched him go.

Then I rounded on the boys.

“Eric!”

All four of them came toward me. When Eric was close enough, I latched on to his wrist and yanked him to the ground.

“Ow!”

My face was only a few inches away from his. I glared right into his eyes. I watched them widen as he focused on me.

“No picking on Conrad!” I ordered.

“Picking on him!”

I let go of his wrist and shoved his arm.

“Hey!” he said.

“Turn around,” I said.

“But—”

“I want to sit up. I need something to lean against. Please.”

With a troubled scowl, Eric turned and sat cross-legged on the grass. I scooted until I could sit with my back pressed up against his and my knees in the air. I let my head drop back on his shoulder and stared at the cloudy sky.

Eric said, “He was following you.”

Wes sat down beside us. Scott flopped on his back with no regard for his white dress shirt.

I knew that Wes, Scott, and Dustin were all watching me, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at any of them.

“Yeah,” I said. “I get that.”

Wes said, “Did you know he was following you?”

A laugh burbled out from my mouth. “Sorry. I can’t stop trembling. It’s so stupid.” I pressed my hands against my eyes to stop myself from crying again. Shame welled up through my body. “I’m sorry, guys. You shouldn’t have had to deal with that.”

Dustin sat down next to me, turned, and leaned back to help take some of the weight off Eric. When Wes saw what he was doing, he made himself the third support.

“We don’t mind,” Dustin said.

“Although it did scare the shit out of us at the time,” Scott admitted. He tore up a handful of grass, held it above his head, and let it dribble toward his face.

I giggled. The relief from having passed through the flood of emotions made me giddy. Yes, there was still shame, anxiety, and a displaced sense of sadness—but none of it—none of it—could compare with what had gripped me before.

“Yeah,” I said. “It scared me too.”

“Are you going to be okay?” Wes asked.

“It may take a while, but I should be fine.”

“Emerra,” Eric said, “did you know he was following you?”

I conked my head against his. “Hey! I said no picking on Conrad! It’s not his fault. And the wolfman is right, Mr. Reed—you really need to learn how to pick your fights.”

“Psssssh,” Scott said. “What are you talking about? You think we couldn’t take the guy just because he could bench press all of us with one arm? Our man Eric could have totally held his own for at least one second.”

“Don’t worry, Eric,” Wes said, “I’d have your back.”

“I know you would, Wes.”

There was a moment of silence.

“Well, that’s two seconds taken care of,” Dustin said.

Wes laughed first. The rest of us joined in.