The Hidden Door (5 page)

Nodding, I inch closer to him. “That doesn't explain how he got the key.”

“Patience, Daph, I'm getting there,” Justin says with a chuckle. He pulls me closer to the wall. I love the way he says my name. In my excitement I don't care about the past. All I care about is this moment. He continues, “So one night my dad was ranting away about the Hidden Door Legend and how he couldn't figure it out. Then he pulled out this box and told me that when he was a young professor here at the university, he attended the opening of the 1927 time capsule.”

I'm starting to put the pieces together now. “Okay. So he would have seen the unveiling, which included the key. But how'd he get it?”

“From what he said he had a special viewing because he was part of the faculty. I guess he took it then when no one was looking. All these years the key has been right under my nose. So when he passed out from his rant, I took it. He won't ever notice. He's too drunk most of the time anyway.” Justin's hand closes around the key.

“Why would he take the key in the first place?” I put my hand over his. “He's always been the biggest naysayer.”

“Naysayer?” Ju
stin asks, his eyes crinkling.

I swat his arm. “You know what I mean. He always said we were wasting our time.”

“Yeah, I know, but I think it's because he wanted to find the door himself. I wish…” He trails off. “It doesn't matter. All that matters is that we have the key now.”

I take a step back to g
ive myself some breathing room—
some thinking room. Being close to Justin clouds my judgment. He doesn't seem to notice my distance. Maybe because I am only a step away, but probably because he is staring at the
key still clenched in his hand.

Picking at a stray piece of yarn on the sleeve of my sweater, I think about tonight. In the span of two or three hours I have been reunited with Justin, been threatened by the freakiest faux vampire ever, and been shocked to learn about the actual physical existence of the mythical key to the legendary door.

“So, um, has your dad said anything else that would be helpful?”

Justin looks up at me blankly for a moment then he shrugs. “He just goes off on creepy tirades a lot no
w. I guess he thinks there are hidden d
oors all over campus. He showed me a map once that supposedly had secret passages marked on it. There were a couple here in the castle, but I think…”

My gasp interrupts him. “I know where one of them is. We have to check it out. Right now.”

I grab his hand and pull him toward the stairwell at the end of the hallway. My mind is racing as fast as my heart. I think I've solved the mystery of the Hidden Door. No wonder we couldn't find it. The door wasn't anywhere we were allowed to go. Until last Christmas, that is.

After running up two flights of stairs, I stop to catch my breath. Justin places the key carefully back in his pocket while looking at me like I've lost my mind.

“And do you want to share this plan with me?”

I laugh between heaving breaths. “Sure, we're going to the President's office.”

Justin's eyes narrow. “You're joking, right?”

“Absolutely not,” I say, reaching out for my backpack. Justin hands it over with a funny look on his face. I sigh. We can't read each other like we used to. That was one of the b
est parts about our friendship.

“Last year my parents dragged me to the annual Christmas party here.” I shoulder my backpack and start walking up the stairs. “There were tours of the entire building, even the President's office. Anyway, there is this cool hidden staircase behind a bookshelf in the upstairs meeting room.”

Glancing back over my shoulder, I see the flicker of interest in Justin's eyes, blazing a glittery emerald. His lips quirk up at the corners and he starts following me. “Did you go up?”

“No, they wouldn't let us. But we got to peek. There was definitely a door at the top.”

Adrenaline surges through me again as we reach the doorway to the President's hallway. All of the top administration at the university has offices on this floor. As I reach to open the door, Justin grabs my arm.

“Hey, how are we going to get in?”

The smirk on his face tells me he knows exactly how we are going to get in but he wants me to say it.

I roll my eyes. “With your wonderful espionage breaking and entering skills.”

Justin forces his face to stay serious. "Sure, because you know how much practice I've had."

We stand there grinning at each other for a few moments, memories of the last time we hunted for the Hidden Door flashing through my mind. I reach into my backpack and pull out a mini flashlight. Then I stash my backpack in the corner of the stairwell. I feel confident no one will come along to mess with it, and it's a risk I'm going to have to take. I can't afford the extra weight in case we need to run or hide or something else.

Creeping into the hallway, I am relieved to see that the lights are all on their dimmers and not another living soul is present. The President's office is in the middle of the building directly above the music hall in a turret of the castle. If I remember correctly the president can look out the front windows of his office and see the rose garden and the little car turn-around on the road below. I think if he leaned all the way into the farthest window well to the west he could see the headless gargoyle.

Hiding the gargoyle's head in the President's office seems like a risky move at best, and maybe not our best bet. Still, if the guys back in 1927 were as superstitious as we think they were, hiding the head deep within the bowels of the ca
stle makes sense. We shall see.

"Do they have security cameras up here?" I whisper.

Justin freezes, and looks around. I follow his gaze to the ceiling, to the corners of the hallway. Nothing. Typical. The one place you would really want security cameras and they don't have any
. Good for us tonight at least.

We approach the door to the President's office with our breath held. My shoulders are starting to ache from the sheer tension of the situation.

Justin reaches the door first and tests the door handle before trying anything else. To our surprise, the outer door opens easily. We slip inside, not daring to make a sound or turn on my flashlight. Dim light filters through the windows of the President's office, barely illuminating the outer office. Still, as my eyes adjust, I am able to see Justin miming that we need to get in. Now.

The plush carpet squishes under our shoes as we creep toward the door. Everything blurs into slow motion . Justin reaches for his wallet. I know exactly what he plans on doing, even though I have never been able to master the technique of jimmying a door open with a credit card. Instead of getting the wallet out, though, he tests the President's door. And sure enough, the door swings open.

My stomach twists. There is no way anyone at this university would leave an important office unlocked even by mistake. And if the outer door had been left open by the night janitor, for example, there is zero chance that the interior door would be left open too. Something doesn't feel right. I know we should leave. But I can't bring myself to vocalize my concerns to Justin. He's frowning at the open door like he's
having similar thoughts anyway.

Instead of following our insti
ncts, we are propelled forward—
almost as if driven by an unseen force. Keeping the flashlight off, we slip into the shadows near the wall. Justin wraps his arm around me then drops his head to whisper,
almost imperceptibly in my ear.

"Up the stairs. Then show me where the door is. I'll go up and try the key."

I want to demand that I am going too, that I have as much right as he does to be the one to discover the door. Besides, I don't want to be left alone at the bottom of the staircase, in a dark, unfamiliar office, with the creepy feeling still stalking me.

Of course, I don't say anything. Justin leads the way up the staircase behind the President's desk.

At the top of the stairs a space opens up where a long conference table and large bookshelves line the walls. If I remember correctly the one that opens up is at the far side of the room.
I lead Justin to it and he flicks on my flashlight. We begin testing books to see if we can find the lever. Absurdly, it turns out that the lever is on the side of the book case, right out in the open. Justin and I lo
ok at each other, disappointed.

Nothing this simple could contain the gargoyle's head unless...

"What if it's a cover up?" I whisper. Justin looks at me like I've lost my mind so I continue. "Seriously. What if the head was found years ago? And they keep it up here as some sort of sick joke?"

Justin nods. I know he hates to think that all these years of searching have been in vain, but what if I'm right? We pull the lever and jump back as the bookcase swings open several feet. Justin starts up the stairs. I grab his hand and bound up after him. There is the briefest moment of hesitation that makes me angry. But then he grips my hand in his own, and we rush up the stairs. We follow the winding steps. In front of a door that could contain the answers to our lifelong mystery.

Swallowing hard, I squeeze Justin's hand. He squeezes back, and with his free hand he reaches in to his coat pocket and pulls out the key. I take the flashlight and aim it at the lock. Silently we count to three, Justin holding up fingers as he goes and then he inserts the key. And...

Nothing happens.

Disappointment rushes through me. A boulder sized lump forms in my throat burning with unshed tears as I meet Justin's disappointed gaze. I'm glad to be proven wrong, but sad that our search has turned up short yet again. We shuffle back down the stairs, no longer holding hands. Justin heaves the bookcase back into place until we hear the latch click. I flip off the flashlight a
nd tuck it into my back pocket.

We head down the stairs back to the President's office. I can't stand the way Justin's shoulders are sagging. I should say something. I need to say something. But what? I feel awful too. Still, I want to make him feel better so I open my mouth and begin to babble in a low voice about how at least we can keep looking.

A clattering in the outer office makes me clamp my mouth shut. Justin grabs me and pulls me down under the President's big oak desk in one smooth motion. Thank goodness the desk is massive or else we would not fit. Justin wraps his arms around me, holding me firmly against his solid chest. Despite the fact that we are about to be caught, and most likely be in very big trouble, I can't help sinking into him just a little. Why am I having such a hard time keepi
ng my distance from him?

I almost laugh at the absurdity of that thought. Gee, I wonder why I can't seem to get any emotional distance when the physical distance between us
keeps shrinking exponentially.

The door to the President's office thumps open against the wall. Footsteps sound just on the other side of the desk, and the beam of a flashlight bounces around the room.

"Is anyone in here?" The voice is gruff, but weary. My guess is that it belongs to a campus police officer, tired from dealing with drunken college students pulling stupid pranks all night. Well, that and dealing with The Vampire. That woul
d be enough to wear anyone out.

My breath hitches. In the dark under the desk where our combined breathing seems louder than a jet engine, I am sure the cop hears me. Luckily his footsteps recede and soon we hear
them thudding up the staircase.

"Now," Justin says in a low, urgent voice then he pushes me out from under the desk. As quietly as a moose in a china shop we stumble out of the office as if we are on fire. We hightail it to the stairwell, I grab my backpack and we race down to the level below. Hopefully we'll be able to blend in with the crowd from the Music Hall.

I think I hear the sound of footsteps on the stairs above us. My heart is racing. We burst onto the next floor just as the Halloween concert lets out. The throngs of people impede our escape, and suddenly we are laughing. Justin grabs my hand as we weave through the concert-goers. We burst into the cold night air and keep running. Finally we run out of stea
m near the headless gargoyle.

Still laughing, Justin pulls me close, into a hug that is so painfully familiar I don't even blink. He draws back slightly, sobering suddenly. The look in his eyes mirrors the same feeling warring in my chest. I let him pull me close again, his mouth hovering dangerously close to mine. An icy wind whips around us. All I can feel is his wa
rm breath teasing my lower lip.

I don't know which of us closes the gap but we kiss. Frantically. Drinking each other in. He tastes like the mocha coffee he had earlier when Malcolm and Riva were still with us. The thought of our friends breaks the spell. Anger wells up in me, hot and fast, blurrin
g my vision and my rationality.

I shove him away, taking a definitive step back. "This is what started everything being bad in the first place," I snap.

My instinct is to simply walk away. As I do, Justin springs to life and grabs me. "What are you talking about?"