The disused school buildings swam into view as the group of friends stopped nervously at the rusted gate that now sat askew from its hinges. There were four of them waiting with baited breath in the dull moonlight outside the once bustling grounds of St Raymond's.

          Cass, the tomboyish leader of the gang with a penchant for cargo pants and red streaks in her raven coloured hair. Freya, the princess whose long blonde locks had been carefully swept under a designer headscarf. While her $200 sneakers were so pristine that they glowed. Katy on the other hand was a dreamer who spent more time watching television and surfing the Internet than indulging in the social pleasures of the real world. Finally there was Lara, who compared to the others was the meek, slightly neurotic one. In fact she was so anxious about their impending mission that she had stuck a few band-aids on 'just in case.'

          "Are we ready?" Cass asked, edging toward the gate in a manner that showed she was dying to get in and have a look around.
          "Should we get our torches out first?" Katy suggested and quickly produced something that was clearly destined for a future in a sci-fi movie villain.
          "Whatever," Cass sighed, retrieving her own torch and switching it on.
          "Oh my, what's that?" Lara gasped as an eerie face glowed from the asphalt not far from them.
          Katy, Freya and Lara all gasped and nearly tripped each other as they leapt back. Cass crossed her arms and let out an unimpressed huff.
          "Freya, why'd you bring a stupid 'Thomas the Tank Engine' torch?"
          "Sorry, it's my little brother's." Freya frowned as both Katy and Lara let out relieved sighs. "It's all that had batteries."
          Cass rolled her eyes and marched defiantly through the gates. Her friends looked at each other before following gingerly.

          St Raymond's itself had been closed several years ago and the students has been merged into another school across town. While neither Cass, Lara or Freya has attended the school, Katy's older sister Becca had attended regularly before the merger. Becca frequently indulged her younger sister and friends with some wild tales about what had taken place behind the now abandoned walls. The most chilling of the stories involved an exchange student from Latvia, who was apparently so hideous and deemed so disturbing that he had been locked in the cellar beneath the school to avoid frightening the other students. From the moment the words had left Becca's lips Cass had declared that they would hold a sleep over at Katy's house the following weekend and go to St Raymond's to see if what Becca had told them was true. If there really was some awful European hunchback contained in its grounds Cass wanted to see for herself.

          "This is seriously cool," Cass beamed as she cheekily gave the heavy glass door of a two story building a shove.
          "Don't suppose the toilets would still be working," Lara mumbled, looking around wide eyed.
          "Why?" Freya asked, wrinkling her nose at the mere thought of using a school bathroom.
          "Nerves," Lara shrugged and then jumped into Katy with a shriek as Cass squealed triumphantly.
          "Would you believe our luck?" she beamed as Katy pushed Lara away annoyed. "It's open."
          The heavy glass door opened with a small but eerily echoing creek. Cass swallowed but put on a brave face as she peered into the darkness. Her friends moved up behind her to shine their torches into the dark and get a better look. Half a second later the four fell into a screaming heap on the dusty floor.
          "Great, you'll have woken it up now," Katy groused as she dragged herself out from the tangle of arms and legs.
          "Oh don't say that," Lara gasped, her hand covering her mouth. "We've come this far, maybe we should go back."
          "Get a grip will you," Cass huffed as she shone her torch around the cramped stairwell. "Look!" she exclaimed excitedly and motioned to a patch on the grotty lino.
          "What is it?" Katy asked, crouching down to get a better look.
          "Footprints," Cass smiled. "And look," she added, making a path with her torch. "They lead up the stairs."
          Katy, Cass and Lara were all studying the footprints and the direction they led when the room was filled with a blood curdling scream. The three girls jumped a mile, their hearts raced and then they saw Freya tearfully dabbing at her sneakers.
          "Freya?" Katy said softly. "You ok?"
          "No," Freya sniffed. "Look at my sneakers! Do you even know how much they cost?" Cass rolled her eyes again. "They're only sneakers Freya."
          "Only sneakers? These are the latest…" Freya's voice became muffled and they all looked to see Lara smiling bashfully and a rather bright coloured band-aid stuck fast across Freya's mouth. Cass, Lara and Katy fell about laughing until Freya tore the band-aid off and stormed past them up the stairs.
          "Wait for us!" Katy squealed as they raced to catch up with her.
          They were pleased to find the classrooms upstairs were quiet. They walked in relative silence as they kept a close eye on the footprints. Soon they had descended another flight of stairs and were back to the ground floor.
          "Now can we go?" Lara whispered. "There's nothing here."
          "The prints lead into the old staff room," Katy perked. Both the door sign and footprints were visible in the torchlight. The girls looked at each other quickly and then, in silent agreement walked nervously into the former staff room. Red leather seats and dusty coffee mugs still cluttered the room.
          "Still nothing," Cass groused, disappointed that there were no hunchbacks or hideously deformed individuals roaming the darkened school.
          "I can't believe I got my sneakers dirty for this," Freya huffed as she marched off to the other side of the room, closest to the sink. Suddenly a loud crack broke the silence, followed quickly by a scream of horror film proportions from Freya.
          "What did you get dirty now?" Katy jeered as she sauntered over. "Oh dear…"
          "What?" Cass and Lara said together as they raced over.
          "I think she's been taken," Katy gasped and motioned to the small square hole in the floor. Lara let out a strangled sob and Cass edged toward the hole with her torch pointed down.
          "Freya you down there?" she called. "You ok?"
          "Oh just brilliant thanks," Freya's angry voice screamed back. "I'm completely filthy."
          "My heart bleeds," Cass said sarcastically. "No really, it does."
          "Are you going to help me or not?" Freya spat and crossed her arms as Cass's torchlight caught her.
          Cass, Lara and Katy looked at each other before they gathered around the hole and helped haul the considerably dirtier Freya back into the staffroom.
          "Look at my good jeans," Freya whined, trying valiantly to dust them.
          "Did you see anything down there?" Cass asked curiously as the group carefully exited the staffroom and started back down the corridor.
          "Y'know it hadn't occurred to me to look," Freya growled as Katy paused.
          "What now?" Cass sighed, deciding the whole thing had been an unmitigated disaster.
          "Listen," Katy said softly and they each heard the unmistakable sound of rushing footsteps.
          "What are you girls doing?" a voice called from the direction they'd come from.
          "What do we do?" Lara said in one very quick and very short breath.
          "What any good mystery hunter would do I guess," Cass shrugged.
          "And that would be?" Katy and Freya said together.
          "RUN!" Cass yelled and the four girls took off up the rest of the corridor, across the school grounds and didn't stop until they were back to Katy's house.

          Back at St Raymond's, Clive the nightwatchman shook his head and slid his torch back into its clip on his belt. He felt a large hand on his shoulder and patted it gently.
          "Labvakar Volfgang," he laughed. "Labvakar."

Labvakar is 'good evening' in Latvian