Gravity - By Abigail Boyd Page 0,93

so important he felt the need to stop the electricians or anyone else from going down there," Henry reasoned. "They were supposed to come on the following Monday, Wick told me."

We slipped out of the office, where Theo and Alex were still holding everyone's attention. It looked like they were running out of ideas. We skidded back around the corner, keeping fast to the wall, and then came back, walking as casually as we could.

"Oh my gosh, Theo! Are you okay?" I asked, rushing to her side. I hoped my acting skills were okay, as I hadn't needed to use them since the school play in seventh grade.

"I think I'm alright, I just got knocked down by this dummy and I thought I broke something," Theo said groggily. I caught Alex wrinkling his nose at her. I helped Theo up to her feet, where she immediately straightened.

"Yep, I think it passed," Theo said, striding away with her shoulders back.

Alex shrugged to the others left wondering what had happened, and trailed behind us. I especially hated tricking Nurse Callie since she had been so nice, but I felt like it couldn't be helped.

"Did you find anything?" Alex asked when we were out of earshot. Henry filled them in on the missing DVD.

"So now you're going into the basement?" Theo asked, looking concerned.

"We'll be careful," I assured her. I found I was just as curious as Henry to find out what McPherson had been hiding down there. I had a feeling little Alyssa had something to do with it, as much as that made me fearful. There was a reason she showed herself to me in the school.

The two of them headed back to class as the bell rang. Henry and I joined the crowd heading to their classrooms. When we reached the blocked off area, Henry and I waited until the hall cleared out. Making sure no one was around; we slipped through the traffic cones and into basement access.

The acrid smell of fire damage still clung heavily to the room. We entered onto a small platform, with a burnt circle in the center of the floor. Navigating around the burn mark, we began to descend the metal stairway.

Our steps echoed in the air, metallic tinks as we went further into Hawthorne's belly, the old foundation. The area in which we found ourselves had existed for a long time. The rooms were filthy, poorly lit, with grime on the drab gray walls.

"What are we looking for?" I asked Henry, putting my head on his shoulder without realizing I was doing it.

"Whatever it is that snake is hiding down here," Henry said. He pulled out his phone and lit the back light, casting a synthetic glow, which only illuminated the ugliness of our surroundings more. Barrels of some unknown substance slouched against the wall. He walked over and cracked the top of one; it was empty.

"This is disgusting," he commented. As if to prove his point, a trio of rats scurried along the wall. I jumped, while he remained in place.

"Does anything scare you?" I asked, checking the pulse in my neck.

"Of course," he said. "Just not the normal stuff. I guess I've immunized myself a little over the years."

We stopped when we heard noises beyond, like someone dragging a cumbersome object across the floor and struggling to do so. Exchanging a look, he shut his phone and we made our way to a closed door behind which the noise was coming from.

Henry jiggled the handle. It appeared locked.

"What do we do — "

I was cut off as Henry pulled out his wallet, retrieving his Visa and sliding it into the slit between the door and the frame. The lock popped easily.

"How do you know how to do that?" I wondered aloud.

"I told you everyone has secrets," Henry said.

Inside the room were rows of old supplies that had been there possibly for decades. It looked mostly like pool equipment — buckets of old chlorine, hoses, broken floaters.

We walked behind a shelf, and peering through the gap, saw the source of the noise. The bucket next to the man wafted the smell of strong chemicals our way. Two filthy sleeping bags were next to him on the floor. To my horror, I noticed human hair spilling out of them, and I had to jam my fist in my mouth to stop from screaming.

Mr. Warwick scrubbed the floor furiously. His throaty breathing was loud in the short-ceilinged chamber.

"We need to get out of here,"