Where No One Can Hear You Scream

Posted on Thu Nov 30th, 2023 @ 8:12 by Sarah Bright

Chapter: All Hallow's Eve
Location: Basement Sublevels, Avalon Institute
Timeline: Following 'All Night, But Not All Right'
1750 words - 3.5 OF Standard Post Measure

The basement of the Avalon Institute was not at all like what Sarah had been expecting. The imagery that came to mind when she considered what the depths of a centuries old castle might look like was pretty much all grim, like the tabletop game the students had been playing upstairs in the library—Dungeons & Dragons. There were no dungeons or dragons anywhere in sight, thankfully. Which was a good thing, because the narrow corridors of renovated stonework and heavy wooden doors were eerie enough for the bookish young librarian.

It was quiet, but if Sarah concentrated, she thought she could still almost hear the thunder from outside, like a distant battering ram laying siege to the front gates. It was very late… or rather, early in the morning now, but it sounded like one siege had replaced the other. It lurked in contrast behind the sharp, staccato clicking of her heeled shoes against the worn stone floor. There were other sounds, of course, like her measured breaths and the rustle of clothing, but in Sarah’s mind the aforementioned pair were the only sounds that stood out against a silence that felt ominous. She was so done with this night, but unfortunately it wasn’t yet done with her.

As she passed one doorway after another, Sarah inspected the modern placards for the name of the place she was seeking, and couldn’t help but wonder how much longer her journey would be. Much like its upper levels, the subterranean warrens of Avalon were much larger than what the outer façade suggested. She’d been in the basement before, but in those relatively carefree instances time had flown differently. Now, it felt like she’d been wandering them forever, and that the rest of the night had long passed, but a quick glance at her wristwatch showed that it had been only ten minutes since she’d left the library. She still had plenty of time to maybe get a couple hours sleep before a new day began.

The librarian sighed as she read the last placard. The corridor had run out of doorways, which meant she’d have to backtrack to the stairwell and move down to the next sublevel. As she did, she couldn’t help but wonder how far down the basement sublevels went. No one really talked to Sarah about the hidden workings of Avalon and she didn’t ask, but she’d still heard rumors about all sorts of things, like supercomputers and private jet hangars. Before tonight Sarah would’ve dismissed such claims, but now? She wasn’t so sure she knew what to believe.

Sarah was halfway down the stairs leading down to the next sublevel when she heard a dull boom from above—more thunder it sounded like. Then all the lights went out, and she was enveloped in a darkness so sudden and complete it was hard to feel anything but terrified.

“Eeep.” Sarah squeaked as she suddenly felt very disoriented and alone. She managed to keep the terror at bay, but only just; not because she was afraid of the dark, but more because she was now riding the darkness on stairs, perched atop four-inch heels. One might ask why she even wore them at all, what with how many close calls she’d narrowly evaded while losing her footing. But given that only hours ago she’d been fighting to get her boots off while drowning at the bottom of the loch, she’d come to the conclusion that if she was going die because of her choice of footwear—and she probably was—she might as well look stylish. But that didn’t mean she was ready to foolishly tempt fate right then and there, down where no one could hear her scream. Nope.

“The wizard Bright activates her wand of light.” Sarah murmured aloud in a dramatic tone as she plucked a small penlight out of her ever-present messenger bag and clicked it on, revealing the rest of the flight of stairs ahead. She would never admit to anyone, least of all the gamer kids, that she had played D&D… if not exactly willingly. As a teen she’d agreed to run a campaign for her younger pre-teen brother and his creepy friends, mostly in exchange for their silence while she attempted to engage in various acts of juvenile delinquency. It had been a somewhat short-lived arrangement (if blackmail could be considered that) as Sarah had managed to get herself grounded on all her own.

Now able to see at least a short distance in front of her, Sarah was able to will her feet forward. Her shoe heels sounded so much louder in the near-dark, and for some reason that made her feel like an intruder, not unlike the mutant thugs who’d attacked the school earlier. The librarian had no bad intentions, but she too had come to Avalon looking for something besides safety and acceptance.

And she was still looking for it.

“Arrgh. Where are you, Library Storage B?” Sarah said in a somewhat louder, exasperated tone as she spied the first few placards on this level. The stairs kept going down, but Sarah definitely hadn’t gone down that many flights during her initial tour of the grounds. She also half expected to eventually come across fancy, high tech key-card access doors if she explored far enough, and she’d definitely not been issued anything of that sort. This sublevel, however, was entirely mundane, and saw infrequent traffic, judging by the spider web that Sarah walked right into.

“Ewwwwweeee!” Sarah half-squealed as she cringed back, feeling not just the webs on her face and hair, but the spider now stuck under it, writhing about on her forehead. But instead of panicking and flailing about, or smooshing it against her forehead, she kept her cool, and simply brushed it aside with her sleeve. Part of her wished she was still wearing her Indiana Jones costume for this foray, as that would’ve made her feel extra in-character. She watched as the spider righted itself on her sweater sleeve, and scurried up onto her hand. It was a decent sized house spider, about the size of a large coin or watch face, legs included. But not large enough to harm her, so she moved her hand up against the wall and let it climb off and continue living its best life. Her wannabe vampire ex-girlfriend had thoroughly desensitized her to spiders, with her giant pet tarantula that had been ‘part of the package’ when they’d briefly moved in together. Sarah had had to take care of the thing on numerous occasions. She’d never had to pick it up, but she had let it crawl on her arm on a dare. This little spider was nothing compared to that.

Critters in general didn’t really bother Sarah, unless they were mean and liked to bite or sting. She half expected to see mice in a building this large and old, but she hadn’t seen a single one yet. That was all well and good with her, as though she wouldn’t freak out at the sight of one, she wasn’t keen on having them eating her food or pooping on her stuff.

Shining her penlight around the still-dark hallway, Sarah looked at the placards as she continued to pull bits of webbing out of her hair. It would’ve been best to head back upstairs, as obviously no one else was awake to reset the basement breakers and she couldn’t remember how old the batteries in her penlight were, but she felt she was getting close. And then suddenly, there it was… Library Storage A. She scurried down the next door—Library Storage B.

Reaching into her bag, Sarah pulled out her issued keyring and fumbled with the various keys while also holding the penlight. She made a mental note to get a set of colored key caps next time she was in town, as it took her four tries to get the right key, which was basically a total fail as she only had four school keys (main entrance, bedroom, library, and storage rooms). As she turned the key and unlocked the door she thought about what she might find, as well as what she expected to see.

There was the complete first edition three volume set of the Encylopedia Brittanica dating from 1771. A first edition On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. A very early printing of Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes. There were a number of other influential works, but perhaps the greatest treasure was an early King James Bible, which contained handwritten family records of the castle’s early occupants. It was perhaps as old as the castle itself.

Though perhaps not as old or as famous as the other aforementioned works, Sarah’s personal favorite find was a pristine first edition set of Wuthering Heights, by Ellis Bell, the pseudonym of Emily Bronte. Sarah had never read the book. She’d tried numerous times, but something always got in the way. Every reader had a book like that, but this particular copy called to her to finally complete the task. Emily had died only a year after publishing her first and only novel, and almost every subsequent edition contained a host of minor edits made by Emily’s elder sister Charlotte, the author of the more recognized Jane Eyre. However minor and well-intentioned the edits had been, they changed the author’s original words. This copy demanded to be read, even if… no, especially as it looked like it had never been read before.

Sarah had temporarily relocated these rare and valuable books to Storage Room B in a sturdy wooden chest that looked at least two hundred years old. But she had not personally made or even witnessed the transfer, and wanted to make sure they were ok. She’d moved them until she could be sure that they would survive the students, but had they survived this crazy night? The strange power surge, the attack, and the storm? She had to make sure.

Opening the door, Sarah shone the light inside, her face instantly greeted with a faint caress of wet mist. She aimed the light, and saw a spray of water coming from a pipe right above the chest… deep down in the basement, where no one heard Sarah scream.