The Key

Introduction
This time is supposed to be different! This time I don’t want to make Julia cry, sorry about that again.
This time is different – well not really. Part of this story is true, like always there is some truth behind what I write about. I used something that happened to me two summers ago, in my old school, which is why it will be out of my point of view, and made the rest up.
Some information up front:
- yes, those people really exist, the names have not been changed
- yes, I had this ‘comfy’ couch. There are other stories about that, but that’s for another time
- yes, I have been in an all girls school. Some of you already know what happened to make me come here, NO I wasn’t thrown out!)
- yes, the hotel and the mansion really exist
If there are any more questions, keep them to yourselves until I finished reading.

“WOULD YOU PLEASE SHUT UP!!” I shouted at my friends.
This was not supposed to be like this. Like hell it should have been like this. Why did we have to go through with this stupid task?
“No, don’t cry! Damn it, Elaine, do something.” I saw how Jacky began to cry, she was the cry baby out of the four of us and I couldn’t deal with crying people, I always do something to make the situation even worse. Just to have an example, when I was ten I saw how my sister cried, at that time I had thought she was crying because our dog had died, so I told her “Don’t worry. Sammy is in a better place now, called Doggy heaven!” My sister looked me in the eyes, crying even louder and more tears than before, telling me that she was crying because there was something in her eyes and that she didn’t know that our dog Sammy had died. So much to me handling crying people.

“It’s your fault, you do something!” Elaine was not really helpful at that moment.
“Me? How was I supposed to know she is scared of spiders?”
“You’ve been friends for over eight years! This is stuff you should know, idiot!”
“Idiot? You call me an idiot? It was you who told her the big ones come on the next floor. Why not just finish of this stupid test on your own and get the key yourself?”

The reason for being in a situation like this was the fault of our teachers, who made us go through with a test of courage. The goal was to find a key, a key to a better room in the hotel we were staying in. I really wanted to win, after spending three nights on a broken-down one person couch with two other people, made me really eager to win. Even if I had to beg at the winners feet to get a better sleeping place than the one I had.

“You know that we can’t do that, either we all win or we all lose.” Anna, the fourth person in our team, tried to keep the peaceful atmosphere, but she had no luck. “Vanessa, what is your problem? You never get this annoyed.”
“She is jealous that –“ Elaine started.
“Would you shut up?” I could just put my hand over her mouth in time, like I wanted them to know the real reason of my behavior. It didn’t have anything, and I really mean anything, to do with a person in another team.
“Oh ho, so it’s true.”
Did I ever mention how much I hated Elaine? She was never able to keep her mouth shut and secrets to herself, not even bad rumors were safe with her. I turned away from them all, this all started because I made a bad joke about a spider on Jacky’s shoulder, she freaked and they started to make me feel bad.
“I’m sorry Jacky. I will never do that again.” I apologized and held up my hand as a promise. She had nodded. I had hoped everything was back to normal then, but it wasn’t.
After I apologized it was time again to look for the key. We were still inside the haunted house, which belonged to the hotel we stayed in. It was a tradition that every class, which ever stayed there, would need to go through with this task. It was our turn this time, with 18 people in my class and everyone wanting to win.
I had heard from my other friends that they had really comfortable rooms and that no one had to sleep on the couch. I envied them. Not only did we had to get a room with broken furniture, but it also had to be the only room left beside the good one we were able to win.

“Let’s go already.” I said and grabbed Anna and Jacky’s hands to make them move.
“I’m scared Nessa.” Jacky mumbled and took hold of my whole arm.
“You’re not a baby, let go already and search for the damn key.”
“But Nessa?”
“What?”
“Don’t you like me anymore? Have I done something bad to you?” Jacky looked me in the eyes, she was really good at making puppy eyes and making me feel nervous. She was the devil! Well, not really but sometimes she would act really crazy.
It was easy to manipulate me. I was never able to stay consequent. I fell for another trap, but I noticed it too late. I told Jacky she could hold on, but only if she looked for the damn key. Who thought of hiding a small key inside a huge mansion anyways? The mansion was a four story building. It was old and dusty, not a place where someone could live and survive, no one except little creepy insects that I didn’t want to meet, ever! We were already on the second floor, the other teams, wherever they were, were probably looking for the key or had already found it.
“Wouldn’t it be better if we split up?” Anna asked and pointed to the two doors ahead of us.
“I don’t mind, but you better watch for the other groups, they may be around here somewhere.” I told them and moved to the right door. But I could still hear Elaine mention something about some person that I really wanted to avoid.
“Are you able to look on that side of the room on your own?” I asked the clingy person next to me, who finally calmed down a bit. Having Jacky in my search team wasn’t that bad, she may be a cry baby and scared of almost everything, but with her luck, she might actually be able to find the treasure. I was quite unlucky myself, which is also why I ended up hanging around Elaine.
“Sure, just don’t leave without me, alright?”
I nodded, when she let go of me we both walked to a corner of the room and looked around.
Weren’t there other ways to earn the big room? Like drawing an amazing picture of the hotel? Helping out in the hotel? I would have been fine with anything, but why look around a haunted house, that wasn’t even haunted? How was this interesting, how could that be any fun?
We had been inside the mansion for over an hour, but nothing was scarier than hearing Jacky cry. I really wanted to get out of there; I needed to get my mind free from torture. I wanted to sleep in a nice comfortable bed.
Millions of questions were flying around my head. Why had I agreed to go on this trip? Why did my mum send me off to an all girl’s school? Why did I agree to something that would change my life about 180°?

“HA!”
I jumped up. Was that he sound of joy? Did I hear that right? I turned to look in the direction where I had heard the voice. Had it been Jacky?
“Jacky?”
I couldn’t hear anything anymore. Why was it so silent?
“Hey Jacky, where are you?”
Still nothing. I looked around for her, looking for her head covered with long black hair.
“Jacqueline!”
What the hell was going on?

“Vanessa, what’s going on?” Anna came running through the door, with Elaine right behind her.
“Jacky is not here anymore.”
“So? She might have had to pee and left?”
“Funny Elaine. You know how scared she was to even go inside here with us, why would she leave alone and not tell me?”
I was not going to get pissed now. I would stay calm…CALM.
“You and Anna go look in the rooms we’ve already been in, including the bathroom. I will look onwards; we will meet back here in 20 minutes, alright?” They nodded and ran outside.
It really had to happen to our group, didn’t it? I took out my flashlight and ran outside and down to hall that we still had to search through. There was only one room left and the stair case that made its way up. I opened the door with a loud sound. I too was a little scared and didn`t want to be careless. Who knows what could have jumped out and right in my face.
“Jacky?”
Nothing. Where was that girl? ‘Don’t leave without me’, yeah right. Idiot.
I ran up the stairs, them being old and creaky wasn’t important to me, up until I got caught on a nail with my pants. “Damn.” My pants were ripped on my right leg.
I moved slower from then on, but not slow enough to stop in time to prevent my head colliding with a piece of wood hanging rather low. “What the fuck?” I cursed again, since the world had decided to mess with me today and nothing wanting to go my way.
One hand on my forehead and the other holding the flashlight, but I still couldn’t see a damn thing. Did I ever mention how much I hated people go missing and having to look for them?

I heard a whisper behind me, but when I turned around there was nothing there. I didn’t want to make myself go crazy and pulled out my MP3-Player, at least a bit of a distraction was possible at the moment and I would still be able to hear what was happening around me.
Moving around the rooms and keeping track of the time made me annoyed, of course I was worried that something might have happened to Jacky, but why? Why did my bad luck have to strike again?
I felt how something touched my leg, where my pants had ripped before. I jumped a bit and pointed the flashlight into the direction. There was nothing there, nothing that could even be the reason for that weird feeling. Was I going mad? I looked at my watch, still five more minutes until we would meet again, I thought that one more room wouldn’t hurt and walked over to a small cabinet. It wouldn’t open at first, but with a bit of force it flew open.
And surprise, inside of the cabinet was the key that we were searching for so badly. I held myself back with celebrating. I took the key and put it on my necklace for safe-keeping. At least now no one would know that I had it. I closed the door again and made my way back to the meeting place.
I could hear someone talking.
“Where could she have gone?”
“Don’t know, Vanessa might have already found her.”

Anna and the unpleasant person were already waiting for me. I turned the music off and told the two of them that I couldn’t find Jacky anywhere. They were not pleased.

“Couldn’t you keep an eye on her?” Elaine pushed me back by my shoulders, which made me fall back to the wall.
“What is your problem?” I said when I came back to my senses. “She is old enough to take care of herself!”
We were so into the fight that we did not notice that Anna also disappeared. We pushed each other around until we both landed on the floor, with me sitting on her back to keep her of me.
“Hey, where is Anna?”
“She was here a second ago, wasn’t she?”
I stood up, but not without giving the fool on the floor a last kick. Sadly she didn’t even complain. But it wasn’t the time to think about the fight or how much I hated her; we had to find Jacky and Anna.
“This reminds me so much of a bad movie right now.”
“Shut it, you and I will have to split up and look for them.” She was right for once, but only this once and she would not hear me say that out loud. “You go up again, you know what it looks like and I will try to look down here and find a teacher, maybe I can get a few walkie-talkies.” I nodded and made my way up again.
I turned the music back on again. Ironically it was Evanescence with Haunted. The world really had it in for me. I moved up the stairs again, this time watching out for the nail not rip my pants up even more and for the wood sticking out somewhere. I got frustrated, I wanted to find my friends and finally leave the mansion. Now with the key under my shirt nothing was closer than a nice bed.

“JACKY! ANNA!” I yelled as loud as I could. I was about to give up when I heard a muffled voice behind a door I hadn’t checked so far.
“HEY!” I tried to open the door but nothing moved. I took a short run and threw myself at the closed door. It didn’t move. I took more of a run and jumped. The door flew open, but not because of me, but because someone had opened it. I fell inside the room, into this really dark room. I couldn’t see a thing.
“What the hell happened just now?” I mumbled as I tried to stand up, only to notice that I couldn’t. I was held down by something. My eyes were wide open. What was going on?