~o0o~
Gabriel and Ruby walked down what was once the western corridor of old Wallingford. Their footsteps echoed hollowly around the empty hallway. Beer cans, magazines, old condom wrappers, empty bags of chips and other scattered debris lay strewn against the walls and piled up in the corners. They obviously weren’t the first to use old Wallingford as a hang-out spot and undoubtedly wouldn’t be the last until the school figured out what to do with the building. The light from their candles was dim and did almost nothing to cut through the darkness around them.
“So what do you think, Rube,” Gabriel said. “We gonna see the Midnight Man tonight?”
He looked over at her and even though he couldn’t see her face all that well in the darkness, he knew that she was rolling her eyes at him. He just knew her too well.
“Yeah right,” she said. “He’ll probably be riding a big pink unicorn.”
“I dunno,” he replied. “There’s lots of freaky shit that don’t have explanations in this world. Bigfoot, UFO’s, the Loch Ness Monster -- ”
“Why I love you,” she said and laughed. “That's completely inexplicable.”
“How could you not love all this?” He asked, flashing her a big smile.
“You really want me to answer that?”
They stopped and turned around as the sound of a slamming door echoed down the hallway. It sounded like the front door in the common room, the one they’d left open for the Midnight Man.
“Did you hear that?” Gabriel asked.
“Duh,” Ruby replied. “Didn't I turn around too? It was probably the wind closing that door we left open.”
A peal of thunder crashed overhead as if in reply. Through the cracks in the boards that covered the windows, Gabriel could see the bright flash of lightning outside.
“It’s getting ready to really open up out there,” he said. “Maybe we should call it a night and head back to our dorms.”
Ruby looked over at him. “You wanted to play this game,” she said. “You heard Jordan, nobody can leave this building until three thirty-three.”
“Or what?” Gabriel replied. “The Midnight Man’s gonna get me?”
“That’s what she said.”
He laughed. “You’re the one that doesn’t believe in this stuff,” he said. “So why stick to the rules?”
Ruby turned away from him and walked down the hallway.
“Just in case I’m wrong,” she called over her shoulder.
Gabriel held his candle up, trying to dispel the darkness as he looked down the hallway toward the common room and gave brief thought to just heading back to his dorm. But he ended up turning and quickly followed Ruby down the hallway instead.
They entered what had once been the kitchen though very little remained to identify it as such. A long island in the middle of the room once presumably housed a large stove though the cooking surfaces were long gone. The former cabinets and pantries were marked by open, missing and broken door fronts. Large gaps between the slats covering the windows along the far wall let through a diffused, strobing silver light as the lightning flashed outside.
“Did you see that?” Ruby asked.
“What?”
“Over there,” she pointed toward a doorway on the other side of the room. “It looked like somebody was standing over there.”
Gabriel chuckled. “Maybe it was the Midnight Man comin’ to get you.”
She punched him in the chest. “Shut up,” she said. “I’m serious. I saw somebody standing there.”
“It was probably just the lightning flash messing with your eyes,” he said. “Or even more likely, it was probably Lance screwing with you.”
“It wasn’t lightning, Gabe,” she replied. “There was somebody standing over there and it wasn’t Lance.”
Gabriel left Ruby where she was standing and walked over to the doorway, holding his candle out in front of him. As he stepped through the doorway, the flame on his candle flickered as if caught in a breeze and went out. As the darkness surrounded him, he felt a flutter in his stomach and a tightening in his groin as he looked into what had probably once been the dorm’s dining hall. It was smaller than the dining hall at new Wallingford and the air was tinged with a musky, earthy scent.
“Gabriel,” Ruby called. “Your candle.”
“What about it?” He replied.
“It’s out,” she said, a nervous tremor in her voice. “Jordan said you have to relight it within ten seconds if it goes out!”
Gabriel patted his pockets. “Shit,” he said. “Hey, you’ve got the lighter, Rube.”
“I don’t have one,” she said. “I thought you did.”
She rushed over to him and tried to relight his candle from her own. Her hands were trembling so fiercely, she couldn’t get the wicks to line up.
“Shit!”
“Relax,” he said. “Breathe, Ruby. It’s no big deal, see?”
Gabriel dramatically breathed in and then exhaled, accidentally blowing out her candle as well.
“Goddamnit, Gabe!”
“It’s no big deal,” he said and laughed. “What are you so freaked out about?”
“Jordan said our candles have to be lit,” she was on the verge of panic. “I saw him, Gabe. He’s here.”
“Seriously Rube, listen to yourself,” he said, trying to calm her down. “This is just a stupid kid’s game that’s supposed to put us on edge. Anything we see or think we see is just our imaginations messing with us. It’s all in our minds, babe.”
She didn’t reply but he could hear her breathing harder in the darkness. The lightning flashed again, the silvery light illuminating a face stricken with terror. In that flash of light, he could see that her eyes were focused on something over his shoulder. Gabriel slowly turned around and from the darkness of the former dining hall, a darker shadow moved, coming toward them. Gabriel backed up, straight into a frozen Ruby and they both went down in a heap together. He looked back up in time to see the figure looming over him, pale blue eyes blazing coldly from a face cloaked by shadows. The sound of Ruby’s shrill screams rang in his ears as he watched the Midnight Man’s shadowy arms reach for them.