It’s another day in the dorm...

It was just another “normal” Monday day at Sewall, the good-old dorm. White Mike was complaining about something as usual, my roommate, Steve, was sleeping, Sutton was out doing some crazy thing, and Philly was killing time like me playing video games. Natasha, our favorite Russian, came to the humble hall to see “what’s up.” She had the wry smile on her face that always worried me, but I didn’t let her get the best of me. “Do you always play that game, James?” she asked as she always did. I looked over briefly, frowned and responded as I always do, “Yes, so why do you keep asking?” She sat on my bed as she now found it normal to do, picking up random papers near her reach. Philly could be heard the room over yelling at the game he was currently frustrated with. After a while I broke the silence, “Let me guess, you’re bored?” Natasha didn’t respond for a while until I looked up, “Of course I am. I think I have an idea for what we can do to spice things up.” Steve roused from his sleep and made a curt comment, “Do it involve something naughty? Eh?” I rolled my eyes and tossed the Discipline Coupon-book, hitting my mark. Steve hissed in his mild pain and went back to bed. My game became rather boring and so I logged off and faced her. I smirked, “Okay, I’m interested, what trouble are you going to get us into today, Mrs. ASR?” She looked out towards the hall to be sure the area was safe, then saying, “Wait till tonight, I’ll be back.” I scowled sarcastically, “Oh, the suspense is killing me.”

Lowell showed up and declared it was lunchtime, as was tradition since the start of the semester. Steve, as always, demanded to stay in bed so it was just Lowell, Philly, White Mike, and myself. We grimaced at the selection of food as was our custom and found the daily dish that was most palatable. Lowell gave us the breakdown of his daily occurrences and we listened. The usual lunchtime procedures occured: some attractive girl would walk by and we would all gawk, the insults would be tossed around the table, and someone would bring up how good or bad the meal was that day. Sutton showed up late and joined us. I looked over towards Sutton, “Didn’t you get the memo?” Sutton gave me the usual “was that supposed to be funny?” look, “No, James. I didn’t.” We all were suffering from prolonged boredom for the day and returned dejectedly to our perspective rooms. Steve, as is his custom, was still asleep, so I got on the computer and turned on some light music. It was then that Natasha IM’ed me. “Hey what’s up?” “Nothing...absolutely nothing.” “Well, I’ll be over there in an hour or so.” “Great, hurry up, we’re slowly losing our sanity.” “You all were sane once?” “Shut up :P”

The hall remained pretty dead for the rest of the afternoon, only a visitor or two dropping in. We then partook in dinner all on our own, running into one another. Dinner was sufficient, though we all agreed that the dessert (pecan pie) was better than usual. As was custom, we all strolled up to see if anyone had any sort of mail. Steve flashed his newest Rolling Stone as the rest of us cursed under our tongues at how all we got was bills and ads. Sutton felt it appropriate to hit on one of the girls in the front desk as we all pretended not to know him as we headed back to the rooms.

Evening approaches

The sun was setting over the Flatirons as we had gotten back to our rooms. Natasha showed up on cue, declaring it was time for our escapade. Sutton made it known that he was passing this up for a frat thing and Easy had finished playing his guitar licks. We all assembled in the TV lounge and fidgeted while waiting. Natasha started, “Okay, so you all know the old stories about this building?” Lowell grinned, “You mean how this dorm was like a frat house and a sorority house combined?” Natasha smiled wanly and waited for another response. Mike became serious as he tried to sound deliberate and important, “I think Natasha means a little further back in he past.” We all glared at him and Philly did the honor of smacking him over te head. After the good laugh we became impatient just as Natasha wanted us to. She stood up and began, “Well, you’ve all heard how old this dorm is and some of its multiple uses, but have you heard it’s haunted?” I sighed and said callously, “Yes, we’ve all heard about the various ghost stories, want to tell us something we don’t know?” Natasha smiled, “Actually, there is something you don’t know. It just so happens I heard a good deal about a second basement here at Sewall...one below the current basement.” All of us were silent, not sure how to respond, somewhere in the distance...a dog barked. Finally, Sutton was the one to break the silence, “Basements don’t scare me, ghosts don’t scare me, and neither do any of your stories.” Easy, now with more confidence spoke out, “Yeah.”

The rest of us really didn’t feel very much against or for this venture. All we knew was we that were bored. Philly had a look of subtle discontent for this “story-time” and didn’t enjoy standing around doing nothing, so, as was his custom, he began to hum. “In the rain or in the snow...” I started to sing, trailing off as I usually do since I never remembered the rest. Natasha approved of her second deliberate pause and continued, “As you are aware, the stairs all only lead to the normal basement. Rumor has it that things of mystery lie in this old basement. There is nowhere in the dorm that is still open to enter that basement.” Lowell, loving to bring up the obvious, “So if we can’t get to it here, why bother even telling us about it?” Natasha loved the attentive eyes and mentioned casually, “Oh, well you see there’s some old storm doors on the side of the hill that leads down to the College Inn. The doors are covered with brush, but they are still there and it is rumored it’s still possible to open it up.” Steve grunted and spoke up, “You mean we have to dig up weeds and brush and bushes? That’s going to take effort...I don’t do effort.” Philly smiled and made his cut, “Didn’t you have to make an effort just to get here from your room, Steve?”

After much coaxing, Natasha was able to get us out of the dorm and head over to the hill behind the dorm. Steve moaned, “You’re lucky it isn’t cold out today or there would be no way I’d be out here.” Sutton flinched and commented, “Steve is there ever a day where you aren’t cold and tired?” We all trailed down the hill and finally got down to the street level, after 25 minutes of searching for these doors, we started to become rather irratable. Sutton and I had found some big sticks and proceeded to slash at anything in our path, including each other. Lowell found a bench and proceeded to sit in it and yell out new locations for us to look. The rest kicked around the bushes rather carelessly. Finally, Mike was the one to speak on behalf of us all, “Okay, Natasha, we’re sick and tired of this. I thought you said you knew where these doors where...do you?” Natasha stammered, “Well...I know it’s somewhere out here, we’re bound to find it soon.”

Mike gave his usual grunt of rage and we looked as it started to become darker. I chucked the stick and started picking up rocks to toss in the creek. Steve joined Lowell on the bench and started chat about hockey. Easy and Sutton joined up with Mike and started to make snowballs from the remaining snow on the ground. Natasha paused a second in her deep thought to ask, “Oh, where is Aaron?” Sutton replied simply, “Talking to his girlfriend on the phone.” There was a general sigh of understanding from all in the group at the response. We all started to find this ‘quest’ to be getting very boring. Finally from way deep in the bushes someone called out. It turned out to be Philly who had found the doors covered in mud and dirt. Amazingly, this was enough to jar Steve and Lowell from their seats up to where we all were. Mike took his leadership role as usual, “Well, I think we’re going to need some supplies before to tackle this problem.” Natasha agreed, “Yeah, I think some of us should go back to the dorm and get a flashlight and maybe some matches.”

Lowell and Steve objected to having to make any other effort, especially back up the hill. Sutton and I were really interested in getting in there now kept us there as well. Natasha was the one with a flashlight so she willingly volunteered to head back up. As for Mike and Philly, she threatened to take away her promises of future things in order to drag them along. Easy, being pretty care-free about the whole issue, made a judgement call that he was cold and needed a jacket.

Parting is such sweet sorrow

So we were now divided, Lowell professed his love to Natasha as she left with the rest, Steve got in one last Russian joke...and then they were out of sight. Sutton had one of those big smiles on his face as he looked at the old doors. I looked down at the doors as well and commented, “Well, let’s start to get this thing open.” Steve whined, “Shouldn’t we wait for the others to get back? Anyways, we can all share the load much better as eight than as four.” Lowell smiled and added on, “Yeah, anyways I don’t feel like digging today.” Sutton said gruffly, “Why, is it Lowell Doesn’t Dig Day?” Lowell smiled, “It is now.”

Steve scratched his back and tried to defend his case, “Anyways, we don’t have the right tools to do the job.” I glared at Steve but then smiled wanly, “We have some big sticks here, that will do the job just fine.” Steve grinned, “Heh, big sticks...” I proceeded to smack him.

Lowell shrugged and went looking for sticks, Sutton and I did the same, and Steve stood dejectedly at the door claiming that it needed guarding. It was while the three of us were gone that Steve became aware of some noises coming from within the doors, even whispers. As we returned he was shaking like he’d seen a ghost. Lowell punched Steve and remarked, “Come on Steve, stop trying to freak us out.” Steve didn’t respond at all, he just kept shaking and remained mute. Lowell peered at him for a while shivered himself. A cold breeze came up from the north just then, almost on cue. Sutton, now aware of a strange odor, looked up at the sky and said in his customary Irish accent, “I think I smell a storm coming our way.” I smirked, “Whew, Greely wreaks tonight, darn cows and their cow pies.” Steve then jarred from his state of death and responded, “Pie? I’m hungry now...” Lowell winced and said gruffly, “That’s sick, man...really sick.”

Easy pushed Grandpa Mike up the hill as his excitement level rose. Philly was humming a Ben Folds song to himself and Natasha paused and turned around, commenting, “Did I just here someone call out my voice?” The rest shrugged. The group got up back to the dorms and as they were at the door they ran into Natasha’s friend, Sarah. Philly did his usual line, Hello Sarah Larson.” Sarah seemed rather occupied with something, she feigned a smile and went on her way into the other side of the dorm. Philly looked at Mike who looked at Natasha who looked at the door as it closed. “Well that was odd,” Natasha said after a moment. Easy, feeling he needed to ease the confusion remarked, “Yeah...Mike what did you do?” Mike growled and replied, “For once, I did nothing...why am I always blamed for everything?” Natasha smirked, “It’s because you’re a Communist.” “...At least I’m not a Russian,” Mike said under his breath. Natasha turned and stared at Mike, “What was that?” Mike, switched to his overly jovial manner laughing and said, “Oh, nothing!” Philly had the customary ‘hey idiots’ look on his face as he signaled it would be a good idea to go in the door and stop standing out in the cold. Mike was still ranting about how nothing was his fault, while Natasha prodded him for juicy gossip. As for Easy, he looked for his keys to take the initiative and get them in the door. Easy grinned as he held the door open, “I bet Steve is dying out there of cold. Should we get him a jacket?” Philly, having to be the one to answer, “Yes, we’ll get him a jacket, might as well get the rest one as well.” As they traveled past the pool table they found Aaron studying in McKeenan. He looked rather consumed with his calculus book and only looked up a moment to see the group. Natasha made a signal for him to join them, he dodged the signal and looked back down at his book. Philly patted him on the back and they continued on their way.

The parting of day and greeting of night

“I’m cold, I’m tired, and I’m still hungry,” Steve grunted as he looked down at the doors Sutton and I had finally found some fairly large sticks and were working on prodding the door open. Lowell had taken up the task of being Steve’s therapist. Steve still looked dejected. “So how does that make little Steve feel?” Lowell said tenderly. Steve, not being in the mood, “Lowell, I swear...not now.” Lowell grinned, “How are you to overcome your problem if you can’t accept you have a problem?” Steve, now getting angry, “Lowell, I won’t be held accountable for what I’ll do in a second...” “Steve, let’s be open about our feelings, don’t shut them out!” Lowell said just as Steve threw him to the ground and tossed some old snow on Lowell’s face. I looked over at Sutton and sighed, “We brought them down for what purpose?” Sutton shrugged, “Comic relief?” We laughed and continued to try and pry the doors open. Lowell looked hurt at the response from Steve and remained on the ground to emphasize his hurt. Steve looked at Lowell and smiled, then remembered he was cold and returned to his look of uncomfort. Finally I got frustrated, “The sticks aren’t working...these doors are rusted shut.” Sutton looked back at the other two and mentioned, “We could have them work on it.” I gave him a look of, “Sure, they’ll make an effort to get the doors open.” Steve looked back up towards the dorm, “Maybe this would be more fun if we were stoned.” I paused, “Hey that’s it!” Lowell smiled, “You want to get stoned too?” I scowled, “No, we can get these doors open by breaking the hinges.” Steve commented, “And so we’re going to do that by getting stoned?” Sutton, frustrated with their ‘humor’ attempts, “No, we can use some big rocks to break these old hinges.” Steve got into a huddle with Lowell and after finishing, Steve announced on behalf of the two, “So does this mean we can still get high?”

Easy was still berating Mike about Sarah and found poking him along with verbally berating him helped to further Mike’s annoyance. Philly was talking to Natasha about what all of them should do tomorrow after Steve’s Hockey game. Mike stomped in front of the rest to get what he needed and Easy followed close behind. “I’m starting to get sick of pizza...” Natasha said after watching the two go out of sight. Philly nodded, “Yeah, I think we need to switch over to subs again.” Natasha checked behind her and continued, “What do you think that all is about with Sarah?” Philly shrugged, “I have no idea, I just hope this doesn’t turn into another dramatic night.” The two continued on and as reaching the stairs they heard a yell from Mike, “GO AWAY!” Followed by a slam of the door. Easy had a coy smile on his face and was seen going into his room. Philly waved at Natasha as she shook her head and went back to her room. Philly then stood at his locked door and knocked, hearing once more, “GO AWAY!” Philly stared at the door and called out, “...Mike, let me in.” After a moment the door opened slowly, with Mike’s head alone peering out to make sure the area was clear. Finally the over-dramatic scene dissipated and all suddenly went back to normal. As Philly entered the room he found someone sitting in the Steiner Recliner. “Version 4.0!” Philly cried out with joy. Todd, the silent giant looked up and smiled. Mike backed himself in the corner and howled in pain, asking to ‘make the bad man go away’. Todd was busy watching Comedy Central and looking through one of Philly’s magazines. Mike, finally acting a bit more mature, asked, “Hey Todd, want to come with us?” Todd, looking rather unconcerned, simply shrugged. Philly and Mike grabbed their jackets and jackets for the rest. Todd, noting their intentions to leave again shortly, turned off the T.V. and got up with the intention to join them. Philly smiled, “That’s my Perfect 4.0" As they passed by the bathroom Mike looked back and asked, “Todd...how did you get in our room? The door was locked...” Todd smiled, “Well that’s why I’m version 4.0.” As they met up with Natasha in the T.V. lounge they found a note sticking to the couch. Natasha was the first to notice it as coming in the door. Mike peered over her shoulder as she analyzed it. Todd and Philly went off to look for Easy and found him gone. Philly shrugged, “Well, Easy’s gone, shouldn’t we get going?” Natasha lifted her hand in protest, “Wait...what is this?” Mike read the top of the paper, “Answer this code if you can, the answer will remove your ban.” Todd looked around for other notes and came up dry and commented, “Huh, weird.”

After the ‘high’ jokes came to a halt, Sutton and I managed to find a fairly large rock to use to open up the doors. Steve and Lowell were busy being cold and found in pertinent to huddle together over by the stairs as if it was warmer there. After much effort of trying to lift the small boulder, we called out to the rest. “Hey guys, can you give us a hand here?” I called out in slight desperation. Lowell shrugged and miraculously, the two came over to us. Sutton glared at them and said, “Now help us lift this?” Both squatted down and helped us lift the boulder, as we slowly moved over to the doors, there was a noise from above us. I looked over at Sutton, “It’s just a bird, right?” Sutton looked up and around, “Yeah, or the rest are trying to freak us out.” Lowell looked at Steve who was busy pushing the rest of us to speed up and drop the boulder. We finally made it to the doors and stood there a moment. “Okay guys remember that–,” I was unable to finish. Sutton called out, “Drop it!” So, we dropped it. The doors held fast, the locks buckled, the hinges held as well, and the boulder rolled back down the hill, nearly rolling over Steve’s foot. Steve, of course felt it everyone else’s fault that his foot was the one placed in the most danger. We all had a general sigh of annoyance and looked down and watched the boulder come to a halt. Sutton, looked at me and said gruffly, “Don’t even say it...” I smiled wryly, “What? Told you so?” Sutton glared at me, smacking me over the head, “Yes, that.” Lowell looked at the hinges and commented, “Well, they bent a little.” Steve looked down and said weakly, “We’re going to do it again, aren’t we?” We all nodded in response. Sutton was the first to head back down the hill, with the three of us following behind only a moment later. Steve and Lowell looked back up at the dorms and whined about the temperature dropping. I couldn’t help but mutter under my breath my distaste for their ability to listen. We looked at the boulder that was now wedged in the dirt right in the stream. Sutton rubbed his head as if to cure a headache as he mentioned, “I hope you understand how cold that stream is...” Steve had a radical change of emotion and became rather angry suddenly, “I am NOT going into that water, you can sooner chop my arms off than have me go in there!” I sighed in agreement for once, “Yeah, I guess we need to look for another big boulder.” Lowell really didn’t like this idea and felt it appropriate to perform a “sit-in” in protest. Sutton took advantage of the opportunity and pushed him over, causing his hands to go into the water; on cue, Sutton was smiling like a madman as he dashed off to a safe distance from Lowell’s wrath. Steve stood stiff as a stick and began to complain aloud about how he was sick of this and just wanted to go to bed. I scowled as the rest were occupied, “What am I, a babysitter?”

After wasting 30 minutes of their time on the code, Natasha and the rest remembered they had something they needed to do. Natasha stashed the code into her pocket for later use. Todd extended a hand motioning that he wanted the code as well. Natasha ignored his extended hand and passed by him. Todd spoke up, “Can I get a copy of that?” Natasha smiled, “I’m going to break this before you do.” Todd shrugged and smiled, “We’ll see.” Philly watched the two stare each other down and then mentioned, “Where’s Mike?” The two looked up, noting that Mike was no where in the nearby vicinity. As Todd went to go look for him, Natasha stopped him in saying, “We need to go, the rest have been waiting too long. He most likely went ahead of us or went to go find Sarah.” Philly shrugged and replied, “Yeah, good idea, I bet Steve is dying out there right now.” Todd returned in vain, “I assume we’ll just run into both Mike and Eric later.” They grabbed the supplies and waved goodbye to Aaron, who of course was still on the phone. Nipples came out of the bathroom as the rest left, motioned a question, and gave up in trying to find out what was going on as the rest gave him the slip. The newly formed group took the supplies and headed out the door towards the bluff.

Steve had now fallen into a fetal position, on the ground, clutching himself and slowly rolling into a ball. Lowell had founds some rocks and were chucking them at Sutton. I stood over the door and muttered under my breath at it in a non-understandable fashion. All of us heard the call made from above us as the group came down. Natasha was the one calling out, “Hey, you guys want some jackets?” Steve nearly broke out in tears and Lowell putdown his rocks just long enough to charge towards Natasha to get the first pick in supplies. I smiled at the sight of the group and walked over to them as well. Sutton dashed off towards the water to grab a handful of cold water to greet the new faces. Todd smirked, “Maybe we should charge them for the supplies? We could make good on our effort.” Philly looked at us as a whole and said, “What are you idiots doing? Want some mints?” Lowell looked impatient and cried out, “Gimme, gimme gimme!” Philly’s eyes lowered and he said gruffly, “Nice to see you too, Lowell.” Sutton came up and failed to bring the brunt of the water in his hands and questioned, “Where is Eric and Mike?” The three shrugged and for the moment, we were okay with that. All of us took the jackets and flashlights, Natasha motioned for us to move over to the doors. “So, any luck?” Todd asked, having already understood the full situation. Steve, now a little better with a jacket on, replied, “Not really...we tried to use a small boulder to break the hinges.” Lowell continued, “Well...we didn’t lift it high enough, so the locks and hinges buckled, but it wasn’t enough to break it open.” Steve winced at the memory of it and mentioned, “Yeah, that rock near ran over my foot!” Natasha put her hands through her hair and after a moment of thought, “Well, let’s try it again, where is this small boulder?” Sutton and I pointed down towards the river. The group as a whole headed down towards the river. Todd evaluated the situation and stated, “It’s not only in the water, it’s also wedged in the mud.” Lowell looked around a moment and whined, “Where’s Mike? I wanted to tell him to ‘back off my Nexus’.” There was a general smile from all of us as we stood there. Sutton jumped into the water spontaneously and motioned the rest to help. Steve and Lowell stepped back and became suddenly reserved towards helping out in any form or sort. Todd slowly moved into the water and best judged the most likely place to stand in order to get the least wet. As for myself and Philly, we went in against our will and readied to lift up the boulder. Natasha took the role of direction barker and stayed out of the water to direct our effort. I grunted, “We don’t need a coach on this one, Russian. Okay guys, now LIFT!” To Sutton’s and my disbelief, the boulder had become even colder than it was earlier. Everyone slowly managed to move the boulder out of the water and we progressed up the hill once more. Finally after a minute or so, we made it to the doors and stood there a moment. “Okay guys, let’s do this right this time...I don’t want to go retrieve this boulder again and do this all over again,” I said out of breath. We put all our effort into lifting the boulder as high as possible and centered it over the left hinge. On Sutton’s command we dropped it. The boulder once more nearly rolled over Steve’s foot, causing him to leap back and out of harm. As for the hinge, by pure luck on our part, it had broken in two. There was a general sigh of relief as we watched the boulder splash into the stream once more. Steve, for one, was most thankful for not having to endure that torment a third time. Lowell motioned for us to help him with getting the door off. Todd, Philly, and I went to help him and found the door to be extremely heavy. We grunted and slowly lifted off the door and hurled it to the side. The smell overwhelmed us as we set the door down, causing us to feel a contact nausea. Sutton peered in while holding his breath and said, “What died down there?” Natasha smirked and replied, “More like, who died down there?” Steve and Lowell backed up a pace or two, crossing their arms and whispering to each other about the whole affair. Sutton and I also backed up to evade the smell and waved our hands over our faces. As for Philly, he took the liberty to treat it like tear gas and walked away from it waving his arms. Todd and Natasha took their flashlights and looked into the entrance of the doors. Once more Steve thought he heard whispers coming from inside, he became pale once more and quavered, “There are the sounds again.” Sutton, Lowell, and myself looked at him and sighed, having experienced this earlier. We shook it out of him and told him none of us heard it and that he was just letting his mind run wild. The rest looked at us and then after a moment felt it pertinent to just get going with their plans. Natasha stepped forward a pace or so and just bluntly walked through the open area. I cringed and followed after her like a moth to the flame. Sutton wasn’t going to let the opportunity to pass and followed close behind me. Philly had the usual look of ‘you idiots’ on his face as he followed in after us. As for the rest, they remained reserved for a moment and cautiously came in after us.

Just another Teen flick?

Natasha seemed to be entranced as she moved faster and faster into the dark, dank passageway. Sutton and I stumbled along and took the liberty to duck below the cobwebs above us. As for Todd, he found that the ceiling was lower than his height and painfully found that there were wood posts hanging above him at certain spots with came in contact with his head forcefully. Philly whistled the Indiana Jones theme as he followed behind The Green Giant. As for Lowell and Steve, they stumbled along with their flashlight, Steve nearly having conniptions over the possibility of thousands of spiders lurking anywhere above him. After a minute or two, Natasha came to her senses and stopped. All of us were to busy watching where we stepped and more or less crashed into her. “It’s a fork,” Natasha said bluntly. Philly rubbed his head and commented, “We should split up.” This did not rub Steve right and he clung onto Lowell for dear life, saying, “What is this, some sort of horror flick now? First we split up..then we all die.” Lowell tried to remove Steve from him and said, “I like to think of this as more of a Scooby Doo episode.” “Jinkies,” I said while smirking. Lowell took his cue and added, “Rooby rooby roo!” Todd joined in the fun and mentioned, “Well gang, let’s split up!” Sutton jeered, “Yep, Todd fits the bill of your standard ‘Freddy’, tall and blonde.” Natasha laughed while saying, “I guess that makes you Shaggy, Steve.” A strong wind came in from the outside, reminding us then of where we were. Steve clung tightly to his jacket while my hair went flying everywhere as was its custom. Natasha looked back and started to walk back towards the entry doors. She headed back towards us and said quietly, “That’s odd, I swear I saw a shadow pass over the doors.” Philly shrugged and said, “It was probably an animal, like a deer or something.” Natasha wasn’t comforted by this answer but didn’t let it get in her way of fun. The group came to a decision not to waste any more time and to split up. Steve made it clearly known that he would not leave Lowell’s side, so they were left together. Sutton and I were tired of their whining and took in Natasha and Todd into our group. Philly chose to join the delusional duo. As we headed through the right side of the fork Sutton felt mentioning, “Well, we’re leaving behind the three stooges.” “We heard that!” was heard from behind us. Todd yelled back, “Good luck guys, don’t get killed.”

Philly motived Steve and Lowell to get started and so they proceeded down the left side. Lowell began to whine, “Why did they get to take the right side? We should have been able to vote to see who got what side.” Steve added in, “Well, they just took off, so we missed our chance.” Philly sighed but made the best of the situation. They found that the ground was fairly torn up, obviously untreated from water damage and erosion. The paint on the walls was peeling off all around them. The smell was becoming more prevalent as they headed deeper into the 2nd basement. Lowell had taken charge of being the flashlight man and found his temptation to flash it on the ceiling more and more. As he finally couldn’t help himself he flashed the light onto the ceiling; there was nothing but brown and red. Steve stumbled back and said breathlessly, “I really hope that isn’t blood.” Philly tried to comfort him in saying, “It’s just soil color from clay and whatnot.” Lowell used a slow head-butt to push Steve along while saying, “Steve, you can’t back out now...it’s just like the Rangers this last season.” Steve stopped thinking about his fear and said rather loudly, “Lowell...I don’t want to here about the Rangers.” Philly felt like adding to the jeer, “Yeah, since your Kings are doing so much better.” “Shut up, I won’t tolerate this from you anymore,” Steve declared in his accustomed tone. It was then that they heard a loud thud come from behind them, a sound that resembled the noise of the doors they had tried to pry earlier.

Natasha and the rest of us heard the noise as well. I looked over at Todd with a pale look of fear. Todd was unnerved, or so he seemed to be to the rest of us. Natasha turned back the way we came and flashed her flashlight, not finding anything significant. Sutton did what was most needed, which was to scare the snot out of me. “Well, we have two choices, we can go back and check out what that sound was or we can keep going forward,” I said after shoving Sutton away from me in my fear. Todd evaluated the situation in his perfect manner and responded, “I don’t think we would be doing any good going back right now, we can worry about that when we are done with this adventure.” “Yes and I am starting to get hungry, so I don’t want to waste any more time, hey maybe we’ll find some food rations down here,” Sutton added. Natasha assumed the dictator role and concluded, “Well, I don’t care about rations or food for that matter, but I agree with Todd, so let’s go.” “That’s the last time I address a situation...they never ask the one who addressed the situation what his opinion is...” I muttered under my breath. So we chose to press on into the dark. There was a small stream of water running along the floor, most likely from an old pipe that was never patched up; Sutton dragged his feet through it as the rest of us did our best to evade the murky water. Our two flashlights traveled up and down the walls as we looked for anything of interest. After a bit longer we heard a scream. “Those jokers, always trying to get our goat,” Sutton said.

“You think that was the doors behind us?” Steve said while quivering. Philly looked back and shrugged, “There isn’t much we can do now. Let’s just keep going on.” Lowell took the opportunity to harass Steve both verbally and physically, “You’re epidermis is showing.” “Shut up!” Steve said as he went back to his recluse. Philly sighed and signaled that they should keep going. As they pushed on, they found that the air was becoming more and more stale, at the borderline of nauseating. The halls started to decline in elevation and the paint was less prevalent each step they took. There were very old light fixtures above them every 8 paces or so. Finally after some time they came to a larger room. Lowell flashed the light around and mentioned, “It’s about the same size as Harding Lounge...maybe a little bigger.” Philly grabbed the flashlight and flashed it in the corner, “Hey, that looks like a piano.” Steve scratched his head, “I wonder if it still plays.” They slowly made their way over to the piano and Lowell pushed a key or two. The sound was muffled and dirge-like. Philly said slowly, “It sounds like something’s on the strings...” They opened up the piano top to find a rotting body, naturally, they screamed like girls.

Todd thought deeply on the whole ordeal and spoke up, “I think that was a genuine scream.” I shivered and looked back, “I think I agree with Todd there.” Natasha shook her head, “Let them have their own adventure, I want to find something interesting.” Sutton laughed and whispered, “Ice Queen.” Natasha turned around and glared, “What was that?” Sutton feigned innocence and pointed ahead, “What is that?” We took the flashlights and amplified the beams by joining the two and pointed them down the hall. I murmured, “It looks like a storage room.” “Or a dining hall,” Natasha added. “Or a tomb!” Sutton had to bring up. As we headed further Sutton raised his hand, “Wait...I think I just heard a moaning sound coming from ahead.” Natasha joked, “Okay, Indiana Jones, we’ll find your treasure soon enough.” Sutton wasn’t comforted by this remark but also was now more interested in going further. We wandered in further, the stench of the rotting wet wood began to overwhelm us. Todd logically moved his flashlight up and down the room in a scanning manner. Natasha and I pulled our jackets over our mouths to attempt to reduce the intake of the smell. Sutton seemed completely unfazed. “There’s some sort of fog or smoke over there,” Todd said as he headed towards it. We watched him enter the fog and continued to look around the room aimlessly. All we could really see was the shadow image of Todd and of his flashlight. It was then that another shadow entered into our view in the fog. “Heya buddy, you scared me there,” we heard Todd say. After this, we watched in horror as the other figure raise a knife and stab Todd. The scream of Natasha was deafening and Sutton and I froze in fear, not daring to go into the fog. Todd was stabbed repeatedly and fell to the ground. The other shadow then darted off and the flashlight lay on the ground. Everything after that was a blur, all we knew is that we were running and running fast.

Lowell had done the bold thing and threw the top back down on the piano. Steve had turned rather green and rushed back the way they came. The sound of his relief was heard as he heaved. Dave just looked blankly at the piano with his jaw ajar. All three had a million thoughts running through their head and frankly they weren’t all too concerned with most of those thoughts. Finally after a while, Philly murmured, “Maybe we should look again and try to identify the body...” Steve and Lowell looked at each other and replied at the same time quietly, “No.” Philly grimaced, “Well then, let’s get out of here!” Just as they turned back to leave, the doors shut. They now ran to the door and heard a thudding noise as they got to the door. The door simply would not open. They heard a low rattling of chains leaving from behind the doors. They looked at each other and started to panic. Steve became almost claustrophobic, “We’ve got to get out of here! I can’t breathe!” The three tried ramming the door, no luck. They each tried on their own, then all together. The doors just wouldn’t budge at all. Steve collapsed and started to breathe rapidly and frantically. Bear shook his head and kneeled over Steve and tried to comfort him. Lowell nursed his shoulder and leaned against the wall. Steve had a look of terror on his face, “We’re trapped here, we’re going to die here!” Philly patted him on the back, “It’s okay dude, we’re going to be fine, we’ll get out.” Lowell stared into the room and responded, “Lies...lies...we will die here.”

We got back to the fork and fell down with exhaustion. Sutton kept looking around frantically while clutching his chest. I darted a glance towards the way we came when imagining an image trailing us. Natasha clung to the wall and began to breathe irregularly. I stammered, “We’ve got to get out of here.” Sutton agreed, “Yeah, this isn’t fun anymore, we need to get the police.” Natasha was silent and motionless for a while and finally said, “What about the others?” Sutton responded instantly, “I’m NOT going back in there!” I shook my head slowly, “We can’t leave them in there..not with the killer still in there. I will not have blood on my hands.” “Then you go in after them, I’m out of here!” Sutton said as he whirled around and headed back with his flashlight. Natasha looked down at the ground and said weakly, “I think I’m going to be sick.” I watched Natasha collapse to the ground and shiver, though I myself could not react. Sutton was gone. Our two flashlights lay there on the ground. I stared down at the flashlight and reached down for it, then headed in after the other three. After a only a matter of seconds running I heard a scream from behind me. Natasha was paralyzed but was able to stammer, “W-what?” Sutton’s jaw looked dislocated as he stumbled back towards us slowly, he didn’t say a word. I had run back by now and quickly made sure neither of them were injured. Sutton could only point towards our entrance. I slowly walked over. Aaron was there, with his cell phone, dead. I grimaced at the horrific site, it looked as if someone had carved a hole into his head and put the cell phone into the hole, which was drenched in blood. As the other two slowly approached, the phone rang with an odd jingle. Sutton coming to his senses spoke, “I know this song...du du..du du... du du du du du...pop goes the weasel!...” Natasha turned even paler than before and passed out. I turned to them and said simply, “Crap, we’re screwed.”

Philly was doing his best to calm both of Steve and Lowell down but not with much luck. Steve looked as if he had been stabbed in the stomach as he curled over and shivered violently. Lowell stared blankly at the locked door. All three knew only one thing, they really didn’t want to be here right now. Philly, rubbing his head methodically, spoke up, “Okay, let’s try to knock the door down, it’s old and shouldn’t be too hard to break it down.” Lowell shook his head slowly left to right, murmuring repeatedly, “We’ll never get out.” Bear was sick of this and went over to Lowell and slapped him upside the head, “Snap out of it, ass. If you want to die here, fine...but help me get out of here then.” Lowell staggered forward and touched his head in pain, “Ow...thank you, I was losing it there for a bit.” Steve’s desire to get free overcame his desire to be terrified as he got up and looked around the room, saying, “Okay, let’s give this a shot, I don’t want to die here.” “When Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don’t kill the riders,” Philly said under his breath with a chuckle. So the three got their shoulders to the door and paced back a few steps. They looked at one another and made sure they were synchronized. Lowell and Bear were on the outside with Steve in the middle. Steve had a look of excitement on his face to the amazement of the other two. Philly took a moment to make it clear, “Okay, I’ll count up to 3 and on 3, we charge the door.” The other two nodded and firmed their stance, readying to take off for the door. Even Lowell had a look of slight confidence in the plan and in their abilities. Lowell laughed and said, “It’s a good thing that it’s us three instead of having James or Aaron here.” Philly laughed as well and said, “Okay, let’s do this...one...two...THREE!” They charged the door and hit it with a great force. The door buckled and made a great cracking sound but did not fall. The three more or less were thrown back onto the ground by the door. Philly glared at the door and shook his fist at it hoping that it would make a difference. Steve nursed his shoulder and commented, “Well, it sounded good at the very least.” Lowell agreed and said, “Maybe two or three more times and it should fall.” Philly didn’t like the idea and replied, “Fine, let’s do it again.”

We looked over Natasha and frowned, she was out cold. Sutton poked her with his foot sporadically and I stood there just staring at her. “She looks dead,” Sutton said bluntly. “She’s the lucky one, now we have to carry her around while she’s unconscious,” I said under my breath. Both Sutton and I lifted her up and paused a moment, we really didn’t know which way to go. Sutton motioned to put Natasha back down, so we did. Sutton rubbed his chin, “We can either head back where Todd was...or go past Aaron.” I nodded in agreement but mentioned, “Either way we have to go past a dead body, it’s sickening.” Sutton said sarcastically, “I really wish the Russian was awake to help us through this!” By some luck, be it good or bad, Natasha came out of it and replied, “Well, I am now.” I laughed, “Okay fearless leader, why don’t you get up off the floor and we can try to get out of here.” We all talked a while over which way to go and finally decided it would be best to try and get out right now and call for help. So by that decision, we slowly passed over the body of Aaron, shielding our eyes from the gore. Finally we reached our entrance point and found that the door had been put back over the entrance. Natasha, a little worried, said weakly, “Why...are the doors back on?” “Don’t worry, we can push it off, shouldn’t be too hard,” Sutton said cooly. I pushed at the door lightly and said, “I don’t think it’s going to be that easy, it feels locked.” Sutton pushed me aside and rushed to the door and pushed up. I stepped back and stood next to Natasha. Sutton put in all his effort and had no such luck. Natasha began to shiver uncontrollably once more and I gripped my jacket subconsciously. Sutton cursed at the doors and turned around. Natasha shook her head furiously, “We broke the hinge off, how can it be stuck on there?” “Could it just be us trying to push up on the doors is harder than lifting them off? We also had three times as many people to lift it,” Sutton said slightly out of breath. I looked at the doors and echoed, “No, we should be able to budge it a little, those doors are heavy but not that heavy...it’s possible that someone has put a weight of some sort on the doors...no, look here! These doors have been welded shut!” We took our flashlights and combined them on the doors. It was true, the doors had been welded shut, both of them. We stepped back and were breathless. Natasha dropped her flashlight and passed out again. I looked down and sighed, “There she goes again.”

*thud!* “Okay, I think I just broke my other shoulder bone,” Steve said dejectedly. Lowell was getting frustrated as well, “Well maybe the third time’s a charm!” Philly looked at the door and kicked it stubbornly, “Piece of crap!” The three then leaned against the old door and sat down defeated. Lowell played around with his crazy sandals while Philly tapped a song on the door. Steve once more became wildly afraid and stated that he really didn’t want to stay there for a second longer. Reluctantly, they got up and readied to try again. “Okay, let’s do this again...one...two...THREE!” By either a miracle or pure luck, the door fell with a deafening crash. For a moment they stood there silent and shocked, only after some time breaking out to great rejoicing and celebration. So they started walking, walking fast. After a little bit of time they found something they did not like. Philly was the first to notice it, “Oh I hope I’m wrong about this…” They approached a new door, a closed door. Lowell tried the handle…this one was locked as well. They collapsed in front of it…swearing, spitting, and anything else they could do to it. It was in this fit of rage that something came from behind them and grabbed Steve, who was furthest away from the door. In a scream, Lowell and Bear were able to turn around to see Steve being carried away with his hand extended pleading for help from his comrades. They instantly pursued the Steve-napper but found that they could not keep up. Who ever they were dealing with was fast, inhumanly fast. Philly leaned against a wall out of breath, scared out of his mind. Lowell held his back, showing evidence of injury from slamming the first door. Philly shook his head furiously and said between breaths, “He’s picking us off one by one…we have no chance. It’s only a matter of time.”

Sutton ran his hand across the door and said gruffly, “I think we’re in trouble.” I shook my head and knelt down by Natasha, “Why does she have all the luck?” Both of us knew the situation was going from bad to life threatening. We kept near to Natasha and our minds began to wander, we were becoming delirious. Sutton was envisioning being at the frat, one of the least threatening places he could think of. I was deep in a dream thinking about the guys back home and how I promised them I would come home safe. Sutton finally snapped to and said, “So that’s it, we’re stuck down here…” Something hit me then, “No..no we’re not! There is no way any school structure would be made with only one exit! That’s would be architecturally unsound; if there was ever a flood, or a fire, or some other threat at one exit, there has to be a second one!” Sutton rubbed his chin, “Yeah that’s right! But what about this killer? Wouldn’t he know that and just weld that one shut too?” I looked down at Natasha and said slowly, “No…I don’t think they would…for two reasons: the first being he seems to like toying with us and the second being that he needs to get out himself.” Natasha was starting to come about once more, “Ugh, where am I?” “In Hell,” Sutton said with a grim smile. I glared at Sutton but then remembered what I needed to say, “Natasha, I know you knew about this entrance…did you know about any other entrances? We have to get out of here pronto.” Natasha looked up at the ceiling and said painfully, “Ugh, no, this is the only Entrance I knew about. For all we know, the other entrance could have been sealed under hundreds of pounds of cement.” Sutton spoke up, “No, James and I don’t think that’s the case. Well, I guess we’ll just to have to find it for ourselves.” With that, we helped Natasha up and slowly headed back into the unknown.

Lowell looked around frantically and said, “We have to find the others and we have to find them now!” “Agreed, but we’re stuck here! How are we supposed to get back to that fork in the tunnel if we’re stuck behind these doors? I just don’t know,” Bear said as he stood blankly at where Steve was before whatever it was grabbed him. Lowell couldn’t take it anymore, his anger overcame him and he drove his fist into the wall. By sheer luck (or chance) the wall not only sustained a blow the size of his fist, the wall gave way much more than a normal wall would. Bear turned and looked at the wall and grinned, “I think we have a way out of here!” Lowell smiled and commented, “I never knew I had it in me.” Philly studied the wall and laughed, “Didn’t they have concrete and wood back when they made this place?” Both came to the realization that this basement was old…REAL old. The wood was either decomposed to sawdust and the dry wall was as thin as a slice of lean beef. They proceeded to break down the walls, literally. Lowell found a metal pipe lying on the ground and used it to break up the tougher parts. After a short amount of time, they managed to get through the wall next to the door. “Okay, so I guess ol’ Spooky neglected our ability to break through walls, we shouldn’t have a problem getting back to the entrance,” Lowell said in a cocky tone of voice. Philly laughed and mentioned, “I hope this is a sign of our luck changing for the bet-,” Philly stopped mid-sentence. They had come up to A’s carcass and didn’t say a word…didn’t move. Lowell did the honors and keeled over and vomited loudly. Philly stood aghast and turned away finally. It was then that they heard something from behind them.

“What was that?” Sutton said silently. Natasha looked back and said coolly, “You should know that sound Sutton, it’s the sound of a sick kid.” Sutton took offense and was about to argue otherwise but I interjected, “Um, let’s go get whoever that is!” With that we ran back as fast as we could to find Lowell and Bear there next to A. I went and consoled Bear while Natasha helped Lowell up. All of us went a ways back down the path away from A and began to chat. Sutton said rashly, “Yeah, you get used to seeing A dead after a while I guess, or at least it isn’t as hard to look at as it is the first time.” Natasha shot a glare at Sutton and asked, “Where is Steve?” Bear shook his head, “We’re not sure…he was taken from us, it was sudden, we didn’t even cognitively realize it until the culprit was a ways away and running fast.” “Speaking of missing, where’s Todd?” Lowell asked. I ran my hands through my hair and said sullenly, “He’s dead. Some fog of some sort crept up and he went into it like the fool he is to check it out…what I still wonder about is that when he went through that fog we heard him say, ‘heya buddy, you scared me there.’ Right before he was murdered.” Bear couldn’t believe it, “No…not Perfect, Version 4.0!” Sutton knelt next to Bear and touched his back with his hand, “I know how you’re feeling, man, we have to get out of here…” Natasha grew rather confident suddenly, “No, no we can’t leave!” Lowell shook his head, “Natasha, have you lost it? There’s a killer down here and we’re down here with him!” I had to agree, “Yes, it’s only suicide for us to stay down here.” Natasha spoke up, louder this time, “What about Steve? We can’t leave him here…not alone with that…thing!” Sutton stood up, “Steve’s dead, Natasha. He killed A and he killed Todd. What makes you think Steve isn’t dead like them?” Natasha couldn’t respond, she sat down and bit her lip, fighting the tears. Something struck me and I replied, “Wait, she might be right. Listen, the killer more or less left A and Perfect for us to see clearly that they were killed. Steve was carried off, something the killer hadn’t done yet. Steve could very well still be alive and I think we need to find him.” Bear stood up now, “I agree with James and Natasha, we have to find him. He’d come looking for us if we were in his place…” Lowell spoke up, “You’re all insane…what we need to do is to go get the cops and let them handle this, we’re over our heads!” With that, Lowell left into the dark of the inside. Natasha pleaded with us, “Shouldn’t we stop him? He’s going to get killed.” I nodded, “C’mon before he gets too far away to hear us.” It was too late, somehow, some way Lowell disappeared into midair as we heard a muffled gasp.

“Oh Hell no…” Philly said as he charged towards were Lowell had gone to. The rest of us followed Bear into the darkness, unaware of what would happen next. Bear stopped upon hitting another door, “Oh, now I’m getting angry, you wouldn’t like me angry!” I looked over at Natasha to make sure she was alright and asked, “What’s he going to do?” Philly looked at the sealed door and looked at the wall next to the door and smashed his foot through it. Shocked, we watched him rip the whole wall down practically. Sutton helped with the last bit realizing that time was essential if we were ever to catch the murderer. “I can’t hear him anymore, he’s gone and this passage shoots off in many different directions,” Natasha said after the wall had been demolished. Philly fell to the floor exhausted and in tears, “it was true, he’s picking us off one by one.” I clenched my fists and commented, “It might not even be a guy, it could even be some really sick and sadistic girl.” Sutton went pale and said, “It could be the ghost of Sewall Hall. She always did scare the hell out of me.” None of us had any answers and none of us knew how to escape.

A shriek could be heard deep in one of the passages, almost un-human in pitch. Natasha pointed down one of the halls that had a quick flash of light appear from it, “There, let’s move, fast!” Before anyone had time to object we were all on our feet once more running down this hallway with the one remaining flashlight. Our assailant was not as stealthy as before as this time we caught up with him. Sutton and Philly charged forward and tackled down the foe who was still carrying Lowell on his back. Philly remarked, “Eric?! What in the world is going on!” “He does my bidding now,” a voice said from the shadows.

The shadowed figure stepped forward with a gun in one hand and a bloody knife in the other. All of us gasped in shock to find Steve still very much alive tied to a chair and gagged with the knife at his throat. Natasha stepped forward, “You wouldn’t dare, he means too much to you!” The only thing illuminating the room was a directed lamp somehow still functional down at that level. All that could be seen was the hands of the murderer. Philly recognized the hands as well and cried out, “Please…don’t do it, he’s innocent and his death won’t do anything for you except cause more pain!” Easy crawled towards the murderer and begged, “Please! You told me you wouldn’t hurt him if I killed Todd and brought Lowell here as well. You promised!” The gun lowered and a shot was fired into Easy’s heart. He fell dead. Steve struggled violently at the sight of his beloved friend’s death before his eyes and deafened ears. Another shot was fired and Sean fell dead from the headshot.

A lone CUPD officer walked forward from the shadows behind Steve and the two corpses. “Are you all alright?” We all were shocked and speechless. Tears were rolling down Steve’s eyes and Lowell stumbled over to untie him and remove the gag. Philly leaned against the closest wall and held his head in his hands and shook all over while mourning as well. I held Natasha in my arms as she wept and breathed a sigh of relief. As for Sutton, he walked calmly over to Eric’s body and took off his jacket and covered Eric with it. The officer motioned for us all to follow him; the secondary exit wasn’t far away, we complied. Sutton picked up Eric’s body and carried him out while the rest of us followed quietly behind.

We reached the surface in what was another part of the hill behind Sewall Hall that had become even more overgrown than the portion we discovered the first opening to. Mike met us at the entrance unaware of what horrors we had seen down there in the second basement of Sewall Hall. Thankfully he had decided to come follow us after we had been gone so long to find our footprints lead to the sealed door, from there he called the Police which had documents on the sealed portions of Sewall Hall and were able to send their best officer down to investigate. The bodies of Aaron and Todd were removed and all three were buried up at the graveyard between campus and the Flatirons alongside each other. The body in the piano was identified to be a student from back in the late 80’s who was left there in that piano by a murderer caught long ago but the body was never recovered until then. As for the second basement, a crew came in and permanently sealed up both entrances with large concrete slabs. Each of us try our best to avoid going up and down that hill when possible now, the memory of that place always causes a cold chill to run through us like nothing else. Lowell put it best right after we went to the hospital to tend to various minor wounds, “At least we still have each other, we made it out alive and can be grateful for it and for each other. Thank you for saving me. Let us not take for granted the friendship that we have, let it grow in the remembrance of those no longer with us who would want to see us happy and would want to be with us as well had they still been here.”