Night School

The lights were turned off in the classroom wing, and she felt along the wall for a light switch. When she failed to find it, she walked quickly. Her footsteps echoed as she half-ran down the corridor past the doors opening onto vacant classrooms, where empty chairs and desks sat in ghostly rows and circles.

At the end of the hall, an unmarked door had a frosted glass window through which daylight poured.

That looks promising.

She pushed it open.

Behind it a narrow, utilitarian staircase climbed upward, brightly illuminated by windows on every floor. The first level she came to was a mezzanine between the ground and first floors. Stepping off the staircase she immediately entered a corridor where the low ceilings and linoleum floors contrasted with the soaring spaces and polished wood elsewhere in the building. On one side of the corridor a row of closed, white doors each had a frosted glass window subdivided by a neatly painted blue cross. The other wall was lined with windows through which light and fresh air streamed.

‘Hello?’ Allie called tentatively.

Her voice echoed in the empty hallway.

It was so quiet she felt unnerved as she walked down the sunny hallway. She knocked hesitantly on each door she passed and tried handles. Nobody answered, and the first three she tried were locked.

But the fourth opened.

The room was dark, all the curtains drawn. The room was tiny, with just one bed.

Allie could just see a bright puff of blonde hair on the pillow.

‘Jo?’ she whispered, taking a tentative step into the room. ‘Are you OK?’

There was no response, but something told her Jo was awake. Leaving the door open, she tiptoed across the room to crouch beside the bed. Jo’s eyes were closed, but her breathing was uneven.

‘Hey,’ Allie whispered, ‘are you all right?’

A tear escaped from Jo’s eye and trickled down the side of her face. She wiped it away with hands mummy-wrapped in bandages.

‘I don’t want to talk right now, Allie.’ Her voice was hoarse and dull.

Wounded, Allie thought about arguing, but instead she walked to the door. As she opened it, she looked back – Jo was lying on her back staring up at the ceiling as if she were already alone.

Back in the hallway, Allie tried the other doors. Two doors down from Jo’s room, she peeked in to see a sunny, white-painted space in which two rows of four hospital beds were separated by white curtains fluttering in a light breeze that whispered in through a half-open window. Only one bed was occupied.

Lying under a white duvet on a white bed against a white wall, Lisa was pale and her eyes were closed – her thick lashes made shadows like bruises on her skin. Her silky, long hair was strewn across the pillows, and a large bandage covered one side of her face. One arm was in a splint.

Allie was struck by how thin she was. Did she ever eat? She looked so … breakable.

As she sat down in a wooden chair at the edge of the bed, it made a faint creaking sound and Lisa opened her eyes.

She smiled drowsily. ‘Allie.’

Allie smiled back, but worry lines clustered between her eyes. ‘Hey. How are you? Are you OK? I heard you were awake.’

Lisa pushed herself back against the pillows. She had a plaster on her wrist where an IV had been connected at some point, and dark purple bruises stained her upper arms.

‘I’m OK. I’m pretty drugged up, I think. I just don’t know how long I’ve been here.’

Her fragility made her eyes look enormous and childlike, and Allie felt a surge of unexpected protectiveness.

‘Not long.’ Allie had to stop and think about it. ‘I mean, it’s … What day is it? Sunday, I think.’ She flushed at her own confusion, but Lisa seemed satisfied.

‘Good. I thought it was longer.’ She looked out the window and a shadow crossed her face. ‘But it’s going to get dark soon, isn’t it?’ She looked so fearful that Allie took her hand and squeezed it.

‘Don’t worry. You’re totally safe in here.’

Lisa didn’t look convinced, but the drugs seemed to affect her ability to hold onto a thought, and a moment later she seemed relaxed again.

‘Lisa, what happened to you?’ Allie asked. ‘Jo said she lost you when the lights went out, and she didn’t see you again until we found you … well, you know, in the entrance hall.’

Her eyes darkening, Lisa frowned with concentration. ‘It’s all really hazy. I remember dancing with Lucas. Then we decided to go for a walk and get some air. We were going to go out the front door because the back was crowded. But then the lights went out. At first it was no big deal – in fact it seemed kind of fun. The candles were lit in the entrance hall, so we could still see and everything. But then people started screaming.

‘Lucas told me to stay there, that he would come back for me. And he ran back to the great hall to see what was happening.’

She stopped and looked up at Allie with empty eyes. ‘And that’s it. I don’t remember anything else. It’s just a big, giant blank.’