“Hello?” I called out again as I stepped onto the landing at the top of the stairs. The basement acted like a storage and supply room for the whole school. It was dank and smelt musty, the air thick with dust. Old books were nicely stacked in corners and lots of old team uniforms were packaged up in boxes that were lined along the back wall. The supply cupboard was in between it all, containing the teacher’s stationary and an array of whiteboard markers in various colours.

More rustling sounds came from the other side of the room. I gulped and fought the urge to run. Moving down to the first step, I could hear Georgie breathing heavily behind me.

“Is someone there?” I yelled, gripping the railing tightly.

Nervous giggling was the reply. I looked across the room in the direction that it was coming from and saw two people emerge from the shadows. The familiar figures stepped into the dim light laughing awkwardly and looking slightly embarrassed.

Roderick and Reese. I breathed a sigh of relief.

“There are your ‘ghosts’ Georgie!” I laughed. “What are you two doing down here?!”

Roderick moved forward towards me looking sheepish and trying to fix his shirt.

“We’ve got a free period so we ah… thought we’d do some study.” Roderick replied, his cheeks reddening.

“The study of the human anatomy?” I laughed and Georgie sniggered behind me. I could feel the heat from their embarrassment from where we stood.

“Ah no, we were working on our science project.” Roderick stammered and tried to brush out his hair with his fingers, it was all mussed up and standing on end.

“In the basement? Why, Reese isn’t even in your science class!” I feigned mock horror, I enjoyed seeing him squirm. “Look we’re just here to get some markers for Mrs Newman then we’re out of here so… as you were.”

I made my way carefully down the stairs, then towards the supply cabinet with Georgie following behind. Roderick and Reese stood brushing themselves off from the dust that they had accumulated on their clothes.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang and the lights went out. I stumbled, tripping on the uneven concrete floor beneath my sneakers. Georgie walked into me in the dark and we both fell to the floor. The door at the top of the staircase slammed shut, giving us a fright as we tried to stand up.

Complete darkness engulfed us.

An ear-piercing screeching noise began to fill the air, it gnawed its way into the very recesses of my brain causing me to wince and cover my ears with my hands. After a few seconds the sound dissipated and the screaming started. I felt shivers run down my spine and Georgie whimpered next to me. Releasing the hold on my ears, I put my arms down and began to shake. My fists balled up in an attempt to control it and to calm myself.

“Ariah! Georgia! Are you two okay?” Reese called out.

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“Yes, I think so.” I said shakily. “Are you guys okay too?”

“What the hell is going on?” I heard Roderick say, then I saw him activate his phone. The screen lit up and I could see his and Reese’s worried faces.

Using the torch light on his device, he quickly made his way up the stairs and grabbed the door handle. He yelled out in pain upon touching it.

“The door handle is boiling hot!” He said as he shook his hand to try and ease the pain. Taking a breath, he carefully reached out and touched the wood of the door. He quickly pulled his hand back again.

“This is crazy! The wood is hot too?!” He stepped back in disbelief and stumbled backwards down a few steps before using the railing to catch himself.

The screeching noise started again, this time more intense than before. Outside the sound of people screaming got louder and louder. Roderick raced back down the stairs and using his torch light located Georgie and I. He quickly helped us off the ground and guided us over to where Reese was.

“I think we need to hide.” He put his arm over Reese’s shoulders and hugged her tightly. Grabbing his phone from his hand, I shone the torch towards the darkness. Looking around I saw a dark corner at the back of the room between some boxes.

“Let’s hide there!” I whispered hoarsely as I pointed to the corner. Everyone moved quickly to the position and huddled down, holding on to each other as we did so. All of us terrified at the thought of what was unfolding outside of the room.

“Do you think there’s been some kind of attack?” Georgie asked nervously.

“I really don’t know, that sound is so bizarre. Screeching? Sounds so alien.” I replied.

“Maybe it is aliens?” Georgie said, her voice shaking.

“Let’s not speculate too much, we just need to try and stay calm and figure a way out of this.” Reese said gently.

“Whatever it is it doesn’t sound good, did you see the sky this morning? Maybe it was an ominous sign.” Roderick asked.

“Yeah, it was different this morning. It was abnormally pink.” I whispered.

“I noticed that too," said Roderick. “I thought it was to do with the wildfires and the smoke.”

“Yeah, I think that's what everyone else thought too. I have this strong feeling that there is something else going on and maybe it’s connected to whatever this is.” I thought back to what had happened in the car park that morning, it all seemed too coincidental.

As I finished speaking the screaming coming from outside stopped and everything went eerily quiet. I stood up, needing to walk around to release some of the nervous energy that had built up in my muscles.

“Ariah, what are you doing?” Roderick whispered from the floor.

“I need to move otherwise I’m going to explode.” I answered gruffly back.

The lights flickered and came back on, dimly illuminating the room once more. Roderick jumped to his feet and began moving boxes away from the walls.

“Help me with these, I think there’s a small window to the outside here somewhere.” Roderick said as he pushed a cabinet to the side. We all went over to help him and moved a larger cabinet out of the way to reveal a tiny window high up on the wall.

Roderick moved a few boxes underneath it and climbed up, carefully holding the concrete walls as he did so. The window had been boarded shut so he ripped the old rotten wooden planks away with his hands, exposing the window underneath. Using the sleeve of his sweatshirt he wiped the dust and dirt off the glass.

“What can you see?” I asked as I moved towards him.

“Stay back," he said forcefully. I ignored him and tried to move forward to take a look too.

“I said stay back!” Roderick yelled. I stopped and my lip quivered, it was really unlike Roderick to get angry.

When he finally turned and looked at us he had tears in his eyes.