Sons of Night

Chapter 24
Andy’s POV
I was shaky, a bit dizzy, and everything sort of sounded like I was underwater, but I was somehow functioning. Well, not really functioning. I was existing. I was living and moving and doing the bare minimum for what I needed to do to continue living in the situation I was in. I didn’t really realize what was happening until I heard CC’s voice crackle into my ear, very close.
“Can you hear me Andy?” He asked through the earpiece. To say it startled me would be a huge overstatement. It occurred to me that I probably should have at least jumped at the sudden sound, but I did not. I pressed the button on the earpiece.
“Yeah,” I said back.
“Awesome,” CC replied. We were still in my living room. We hadn’t left yet and I felt like it had been three years since I got the call the the killer had Mayden. All that I could see in my head was all of the terrible things that he could be doing to her. Those thoughts made my chest tight and I got even dizzier than I had been before. Like no matter how much air I got in there still wasn’t enough for me function. Like I was on the top of a very high mountain. I tried to push the thoughts away, but they kept coming back, visions in vivid detail. I felt a hand on my shoulder and Jake stood in front of me.
“We’re ready but are you sure that you’re okay to come with us?” He asked. I stared at him for a moment and contemplated not answering him, but that wouldn’t help my case.
“I can’t sit here and do nothing,” I said. Jake looked like he wanted to say more, but I willed him not to and he must have heard my prayers because he just nodded. I shrugged his hand off of me, he got the hint and turned away.
“Are we ready?” I asked turning to look at my friends, they all nodded. Jinxx looked incredibly concerned for me, but I ignored it. I began to walk to the door, without waiting to see if anyone was following me.
The cold night air snapped me out of it a little. I became more aware of what was around me and the fog that I’d been seeing through seemed to lift a bit. The only thing that told me that the guys were still with me was the slapping of shoes on the pavement behind me. No one talked. I got the sense that they wanted to say something to me, but I also got the sense that I did not want to be spoken to. I was reverting back to how I had been in my late teens. I went nearly completely mute for about a year. I knew that they could see that I was falling back into it, that I was starting to get trapped alone in my own head again. I didn’t care though. In my head I had control. I could make anything happen in the world that was in my head, there was no one else’s opinions or issues that I had to deal with. Just me. Me and whatever fantasy I had going on. Jinxx called it maladaptive daydreaming. I called it Hell disguised as heaven, it seemed nice at first until you’re trapped in it. I was falling back into my world as we walked to the school. For a little while I almost forgot, why I was walking and where I was going because in my head, that didn’t matter, in my head I was happy.
Then we rounded the corner on the walk up to the school, and my fantasy world was shattered. I sick knot settled in my stomach. That was where it had happened. On the dimly lit, winding, barren road, someone had taken Mayden. My fists clenched and my jaw tightened. Someone had ripped her straight out of the life that she had and into a world of terror. Then I thought about all the other girls he’d done it to. I wanted to find him so bad, and I wanted to put him underground. We reached the school.
“Okay, the lunch room’s around back, guys,” CC said through the earpiece.
“We know,” Ashley said.
“Just making sure,” CC replied. We walked up to the school, looking around in the parking lot. There were a few cars. Kids with large band instruments were loading up their trunks and getting ready to head home. Just a few though, and they were almost gone. We took the path less traveled around the back of the school, avoiding the parking lot. We trudged through the snowy grass on the side of the school where all the ugly pipes and heating vents hid from the road. The pipes hissed and fans whirled in the vents covering up the sounds of us walking. Then we rounded to the back of the school and we saw it. A large looming glass wall that curved over to form the ceiling of a lunch room. As we got closer Jinxx looked into the pitch black windows, cupping his hands so he could see in.
“I don’t see any security from here,” He said.
“Good,” I replied.
“So I just found the first flaw in our plan,” Jake announced.
“And that would be?” I asked.
“How in the world are we going to climb up this glass wall. It has no handholds or anything,” Jake announced gesturing up to the glass.
“That’s easy, we climb the brick,” Ash said. He was a few yards over pointing to a brick column that stood at the corner of the lunch room. The bricks were crossed over each other and stuck out from the edges making a near perfect ladder up the side of the glass.
“Nice one, Ash,” Jake said. I wondered ver with Jake and Jinxx to join Ashley. Standing next to the brick wall that I was about to climb made it look a whole lot bigger.
“Who’s going first?” Ashley said looking up. I was about to volunteer when Jake spoke up.
“I am, so I can find the windows on top that open and start rigging the ropes,” he said. No one argued so he took his first steps up onto the brick wall. That was when I noticed just how small the footholds were, about a three inch gap to try to get a foot wedged into. Jake made his way to the top like a spider. He scrambled straight up the wall like it was horizontal. He hauled himself up over the edge and stood near the edge of the roof.
“Do it quick and it’s not that bad,” he called down to us. It was a solid thirty foot climb and I could feel my hands starting to sweat in my fingerless gloves.
“I’m going next,” I said, despite my fears. Jinxx stepped aside and watched me closely. I’m sure that part of him thought that I was just going to jump once I got to the top, but I wasn’t. I stuck the tip of my boot into the brick space and reached up as far as I could to the next space with my right hand. I remembered what Jake always said, three points of contact while climbing and you can’t fall. I straightened my leg and pulled up with my hand, reaching with the other for another handhold. I found it and I had three points of contact. I couldn’t fall. My right foot jammed into the wall and I repeated the process, telling myself that it was under five times my height, that’s all. I tried to make it seem small, but my trembling legs reminded me that five times my height was enough to kill a man. The brick scraped my knuckles and my calves burned from balancing on just my toes. Then I made it to the hardest part. The awkward dismount, climbing up the top of the brick column and onto the glass ceiling which I realized then was slightly sloping. I brought my knee up and pushed with my hands so I was on all fours on top of the column I looked over the edge. It was a dizzying height back down, but I had made it, and Ash was already climbing while Jinxx watched into the woods.
A second later Ashley made it to the top. I grabbed his hand and pulled him up, helping him with that oh so awkward dismount. He nodded in a breathless thank you and I nodded back. I turned and looked up. About halfway across the roof jake had a hatch open and I could see him rigging ropes. I started walking towards him, praying that my boots wouldn’t slip on the icing roof. I got to Jake and he was on his knees with a length of rope hanging down into the school. It was tied at the top so that we could retrieve the rope and pull the hatch closed once we were at the bottom.
“Alright, Andy you’re going down first,” Jake said. He stood up next to me and handed me a harness. It was very awkward to try to get it on without losing my balance and falling into the open hole or sliding off the roof. As I finished Jinxx and Ashley joined us. Jake pulled me forward and started hooking me up to lines. I knew how to repel, they’d taught me in the woods years ago. Jake handed me the rope and I got to the point where I was hanging by the rope just inside the window when Jake had to let go of me all the way. From there I just had to trust that he knew what he was doing when he was tying all the knots. I dangled for a moment and everything seemed secure so I slowly let the rope slide through my hand.
I descended into the dark room. It was getting warmer as I got lower, which I was grateful for. I glanced around, I remembered that room, eating lunch and trying to hide from bullies. I almost smiled. Those were good memories. I’d never seen the room from above though. I continued sliding down the rope and within a few seconds My feet hit the ground. I unclipped myself and the harness went back to the top without me. I stood in the empty lunch room looking around for any signs of movement while the rest of the guys slid down the rope. As Jake landed he gave a solid pull on one rope and it came loose, falling to the floor. Then he pulled on the other rope and the hatch slammed shut with a big whump that seemed to shake the room. We all let out breaths and looked around.
“Okay guys. There’s a stairwell in the hall to your right, you’re headed to the second floor,” CC said, and we were off without a word. I remembered the stairs. I found them in an instant and took them two at a time until I reached the second floor.
“Now take that hall to the right, security offices are right there,” CC said. I gave him a thumbs up in front of my camera and turned the corner, that’s when I saw him. A figure darting out of the security offices where a guard snored in his seat. The figure ran down the hall in the opposite direction as us and I took off after him. The rest of the guys saw it too and they ran after. The figure knew he was being followed and he ducked and turned into hallway after hallway to try to throw us off, but I was faster. He had a bag of something slung around his shoulder and I knew it had to be the tapes. Finally I got close enough to him and grabbed him by the back of his jacket, pinning him to the ground.
“Let me go!” He screamed. I turned him over onto his back and shined my flashlight in his face. I saw a teenager. He had blue eyes and a sweep of brown hair that fringed over his eyes.
“Who are you? And why are you stealing these tapes?” I growled with my hand around his throat. He struggled and I let up just enough so he could talk.
“He promised he wouldn’t kill my twin sister as long as I stole these tapes for him. I don’t want to help him, I just want my sister to be safe. My name is Braden,”

Notes

Sorry if this chapter is a bit oddly worded or had grammatical mistakes. My brain has been punching me in the face all day with a migraine. Anyway I hope you enjoyed, leave me a comment and let me know what you think.