Nightmare Academy (30 page)

I should have known!

He fell through the bench like it wasn't there, tumbled backward and downward like the floor wasn't there, and finally landed—not too hard—on another floor in another room below, flat on his back, looking up at the ceiling that gave no indication he had just fallen through it. The ceiling was covered with red carpet. There was an upside-down doorway with its bottom tight against the ceiling. There was a chair and a potted plant stuck to the ceiling. The ceiling . . . wasn't the ceiling.

Elijah closed his eyes and felt his nerves tingle with instinctive terror as his senses sent him a message:
You're
on
the ceiling,
looking down at the
floor.
You're going to fall.

He argued back,
It's a trick. It's a
trick!

A very good trick, good enough to make him nauseated. His body told him the center of the earth was behind his back; his eyes told him the opposite.

You're on the ceiling, looking down
at the floor. You're going to fall.

The door above him opened, and a young man came in, walking upside down on the—well,
his
floor. He was wearing a tattered and stained burgundy blazer, had a bruise on the side of his face and blond hair that really needed a comb. Elijah could just about reach out and touch him.

“Hello?” Elijah called.

The kid looked up—Elijah's down—and all around as if he'd heard a voice, but apparently didn't see anything.

“Hello down there.”

The kid looked around again. “Who's there?” He looked up again.

I'm going crazy,
Elijah thought.

The kid was Elijah Springfield,
himself,
looking lost and perplexed, wearing the same clothes and looking like he'd just had a terrible fight with someone.

“Can you see me?” Elijah asked.

The other Elijah finally looked his direction and gawked, quite startled. “How did you get up there?”

“How did
you
get up
there?"

The kid reached up to him. “Are you real?”

Elijah sat up so he could reach down. Their hands touched.

His stomach felt like he'd just done a somersault, and he was standing on the carpeted floor, reaching up toward the ceiling where he'd been.

He was the Elijah he'd been talking to.

His stomach churned and roiled. He was sick and getting sicker.

He looked around the room for a place he could throw up and lunged toward the corner in time to give a gift to the potted plant.

Elisha and Mariah, in street clothes again, took a very careful peek out the door of their dorm building. The playfield was empty now. The riot was over, the gate was closed, and things were quiet. A few kids were crossing the campus with snacks in their hands and more pop. Obviously, the toughs who had once locked up the cafeteria still had the keys to open it again.

“What are we going to do?” Mariah asked in a squeaky whisper.

“I want to search the office building for a telephone.”

“But everybody said there aren't any phones.”

Elisha reminded herself to be patient. “Mariah, since when is the word of anyone on this campus worth anything?”

She thought about that. “You mean they're lying?”

“What a concept, huh? Try to look casual. Here we go.”

They walked casually to the library, then casually ducked behind it, then casually moved behind the office building and tried the rear door. It opened, and they found the tool room inside, full of rakes, shovels, a few axes, some hammers, some screwdrivers, sacks of fertilizer, and cans of paint. Another door led them into the main hallway.

They divided up and went from room to room, going through the desks and all the drawers, opening cabinets, moving furniture, looking under and behind things, checking for phone jacks, wires, anything. Elisha went through the office where she and her brother had their meeting with Mr. Bingham, the academy dean, and she was surprised at how empty the drawers, shelves, and cabinets were. Mr. Bingham's desk had a few blank yellow pads and two old ballpoint pens in the top drawer, and that was it. Some office. The academy brass hardly used the place.

“You mean they're lying?”

They searched as far as the front office, but came up empty.

However, the front office had a computer just sitting there idle, with no one around.

“E-mail!” said Elisha.

She took the chair at the keyboard, then reached down under the desk, looking for the on-off switch on the computer tower.

She pressed it.

The whole tower scooted backward as if it weighed nothing. She jiggled it, then tipped it, then squatted down, lifted it, and shook it. Except for a loose nut or washer rattling around inside, the tower was an empty box.

She dropped it in disgust, but also curiosity “It's a dummy. It's a fake.”

There were wires going to the mouse, the keyboard, and the wall outlet. There was even a phone jack in the wall, but no line going to it.

Mariah was looking down at her in wonder. “Doesn't it work?”

“No.” Elisha was already looking around the room. There was a file cabinet, another desk with some papers and magazines stacked on top, and a copy machine. Elisha clicked on the copy machine. It worked, but it was out of toner and had no paper. She opened the desk drawers. Except for a gardening catalog and a roll of tape, the drawers were empty. The file cabinet was a hollow shell. “Maybe this whole office is a fake.” She had to sigh out some disappointment, and then started down the hall. “Come on, let's go.”

Mariah followed, a loyal sidekick. “What now?”

“We've got to find a way out of here.”

“But there isn't one!”

“There you go again, believing everybody.”

They circled around the back of the buildings and reached the far corner of the stone wall, hoping to find any usable route through the woods to whatever road might be back there. There were plenty of unknowns, but that was why they were looking. At this end of the wall, the forest and underbrush were thick, with no obvious trails.

“My, uh, my friend Jerry said he found kind of a trail some­where.”

“I can't go in there!” Mariah whined. “What about the bears?”

Elisha was beginning to feel like a baby-sitter. “Well, just how many bears are there per acre around here? They can't be everywhere at once.”

“Everybody who's gone in these woods has seen a bear! They're all over—”

Elisha tapped her gently, shushing her. They listened.

“What is it?” Mariah whispered, afraid of everything by now.

Elisha listened a moment. From somewhere far up the hill came the
buddluddluddle
of a diesel engine. “It's heavy equipment, like a bulldozer.”

“A bulldozer,” Mariah repeated, eyes wide with wonder and fear.

Another voice made them jump. “Hello, ladies.”

It was Tom and Clay, two of Alex's Big Four, approaching from behind the buildings. Elisha could have kicked herself for not paying more attention and letting them sneak up.

But Warren was with them, gesturing for calm as he said, “It's okay. There doesn't have to be any trouble.”

Elisha eyed him carefully. He'd changed out of his uniform, but at least he wasn't wearing a tie around his head. “What do you want?”

There was no malice in his face or his voice. “Alex has called a meeting in the Rec Center and everyone has to be there.”

Alex. Elisha was sick to death of Alex. “Well. Alex can toot and light a match for all I care.”

Tom and Clay leaned forward menacingly, but Warren intervened, holding them back with a raised hand. “I came along so we could do this politely, without anyone getting hurt.” Tom and Clay relaxed—for the moment. “Listen. We
should
be there. Somebody has to talk some sense into this whole thing.” He nodded toward Tom and Clay. “And we don't have much choice anyway.
Please
come.”

The Rec Center had been reopened with the same keys that locked it. The kids had all gathered and were standing, sitting, kneeling, and leaning all over the lounge area next to the vending machines. Alex, sitting in his favorite spot on the end of a picnic table, was already holding forth as Elisha and Mariah, with their escorts, came into the room.