Page 79 of Bound By Fury

It’s deathly quiet and spooky dark. I squint my eyes, trying to make out the details of their faces and the hall around us, but mostly everything is one big, gray blob, save for the periodic blue security lights in the ceiling corners and the blinking red ones marking every camera.

“Don’t worry about it,” Missy snaps. “I have my ways.”

“Sorry, but that’s not really good enough,” Sam hisses. “This is starting to feel like a setup.”

Daisy snorts. “Yeah, that was a little too easy.”

“Shh,” Missy whispers, yanking on Daisy’s and my arms, pulling us closer until we’re nearly touching faces, her voice lowering even further. “Was it too easy, or do I just know that security doesn’t bother to lock the door because the key always jams during their rounds? You’re right, that was the easy part, but now we need to be more careful. We should stick to the walls. The cameras aren’t as good at seeing on the edges. If we keep our faces toward the perimeter, they won’t be able to make out who we are.”

“That seems…,” Sam trails off, trying to find the words. “Like we’re definitely going to get caught.”

“No, we’re not.” Missy says. “I’ve never been caught.”

“You’ve never been caught, but that doesn’t mean—”

“It’s fine!” Daisy interjects quietly. “I know where they keep the tapes for the cameras.”

“You…”

“What—”

“I’m sorry?”

We all speak at the same time.

Daisy shrinks. “So maybe last year I hypothetically broke into the security office to erase a video of me and Emma doing something we weren’t supposed to in the AV lab.”

“Is everyone at this school secretly breaking into things?!” Sam squeals.

“You need to chill!” Missy sneers.

“Hey,” I say. “Watch it.”

She levels me with a look, her hazel eyes turned deep brown with the lack of light. “The headmaster’s office is on the third floor.”

We slink against the walls and into the stairwell, keeping our hoods yanked up and our heads down. No one speaks as we ascend. On the third floor Missy peeks her head out into the hall and gives us the all clear.

“Nelson typically takes his smoke break around now. That gives us enough time to get in, open the cabinet, and see what we can find. He usually comes back and checks the fourth floor first and makes his way down before taking another break. We need to be sure that when he reaches the office, he can’t see us through the window of the door.”

We nod in agreement and follow her into the hallway. Even though the wooden floors are covered in plush maroon rugs, they still groan beneath us. My heart rate spikes with each sound.

The door to the headmaster’s office has Alastair Matsoukas engraved on a bronze plaque that sits below a foggy door light.

I try the knob just in case. It doesn’t budge.

Pulling the bobby pins from my pocket, I stretch them into right angles before shoving them into the lock.

“How did you learn how to do this?” Daisy asks. “This is a very hot skill to have.”

I chuckle, but I’m too busy concentrating to give a real answer to her question.

When the lock finally clicks, I turn my head slowly, meeting Missy’s eyes. “I’m in.”

She scoffs and shoves past me, stomping straight to the cabinet at the back of the room. “Close the door behind you,” she calls to Sam before trying the top drawer unsuccessfully.

I take in the room. It’s stuffed full of knickknacks and loose papers, taxidermic animals and leather-bound books locked away in ornate dark-wood curio cabinets. I’m drawn to one in particular, the glass door slightly ajar.

“Stop gaping at everything and come help!” Missy hisses from the floor.