The Dragon Trainer

The Hidden Staircase

“I don’t understand why you brought me here in the first place. What the he-,” 

“Can you stop talking? It won’t take long,” said Adrian while shuffling through papers. Apparently, he was looking for a particular assignment. “Drake will kill us. He would have our head on a spike and besides what good is this anyway?” stammered Jay. He held the flash light in his shaky hands. “Zip it, Jay! I got it. Just have to tear a few pages here and there and done.” Adrian read through the whole paper and tore a few pages selectively. He put the pages in his bag and arranged the assignments exactly as they were before. The duo was about to leave when they heard a click of the door lock. 

“Hey, its already open.”

“Adrian! That’s Drake’s voice. We have to hide.” cried Jay and dove behind the book shelf.

“Adrian. What are you doing here?” asked Drake. Drake was sturdy, tall and muscular. He was a great athlete and was on the soccer team.

“Getting back what you stole. I need my story back,” replied Adrian.

“Sorry. I need to pass and I need your story. I mean my story. Before I punch your….”  

“Before you punch me, you might want to turn around and look whose waiting for you.”

There he was. Mr Rubin, the dean of the school, standing at the door. Mr. Rubin wore a suit with small grey checks and had big round glasses which were always on the tip of his nose. He was almost bald with a few hair strands here and there and carried a stick around to walk. Drake was taken aback by this sudden entry of Mr. Rubin. He stared at Adrian and wondered how Mr Rubin found out that they had barged into the staff room. He glared at Adrian. Adrian stretched out his arm. He tapped the public address system mic and winked slyly at Drake. Adrian had turned on the mic so that the entire school would hear their scuffle over the speakers and that Drake stole his story. “Its not going to take me a lot of time to get out of this mess and when I do, you will know what's coming for you,” said Drake clenching his fists. “See you around. Let’s go Jay.” Jay came out from behind the book shelf adjusting his glasses as Mr. Rubin looked at him sceptically. He smirked at Drake and tagged along with his friend.

“Adrian! That was crazy. I thought we were going to get beaten up,” cried Jay while putting his beanie over his head. Jay was a short guy, with wavy light brown hair. He had a slender face with glasses over his big wide eyes which were most of the time, filled with his worries. Jay always wore oversized clothes, carried a bag which was too big for his little stature.

“He may be strong but he still can’t keep up with me,” smirked Adrian. He had an air of arrogance though he wasn’t strong and sturdy like Drake. He knew that his wit would get him out of any situation. Adrian was tall and thin. He had jet black hair which he kept short and eyes which never gave away what was going on in his mind. Adrian was on none of the sports teams. His interest lied in literature.  

“I was scared to death.” “You are Always scared Jay,” said Adrian getting Jay’s beanie off his head. “Hey! Give it back.” “Take it. Race me.” “Hey wait up.” Adrian ran through the school hallways and teased Jay. He turned back and laughed at him. That’s when he banged into a pile of books. In a second, he was on the ground. All he could see around him was old, tattered books and sheets and a girl with wavy brown hair who immediately started gathering her belongings. “You should be more careful,” she said. The girl had dark brown eyes, pale skin and her eyebrows were well defined. Her lips were full and smeared with a reddish gloss. She wore a burgundy sweater and black pants and was shorter than the both of them. “Well, you shouldn’t carry so many books in the hallway, you know,” Adrian replied with no remorse at all. “It was your fault,” she replied, now annoyed. She dusted her books and walked away.  “Hey, that’s the new girl who joined this month. What was her name again? I can’t remember,” said Jay wearing his beanie again. “Sahara,” replied Adrian looking at her turned back and wavy hair flowing through the air. “Yes. That was it. She seems weird. She doesn’t talk much but looks like she is an avid reader. I mean, look at those books!” “She is, I suppose. Hey! Look, I think she dropped something.” Adrian picked up a small note on the ground. There was something written on it. A word. “It says, “Flamento.” Jay and Adrian stared at it trying to decipher its meaning. “Do you think it’s something important? Should we return it to her?”  asked Jay. “Maybe, we should. Let’s go to the old library.”

The old library was at the top floor of the school building and was hardly used by any student. They said, it was a home to all the age-old collection of books. Jay and Adrian walked up to the top floor of the building. The building was darker than usual. It was already late. Adrian was confused about this note and also this girl. Sahara was a new admission who entered the school mid-year. She could not make any noticeable friends at school nor did she try to do that. She always stayed in the library even after the whole school vacated the building. Sahara was always the last to leave and no one even saw her leaving. 

Adrian and Jay reached the library floor. “The lights are off. I think there is no one in the library. Maybe, she left and besides it getting late and…. dark.” “I think we should go and check inside. She might be in there,” said Adrian.  Jay shivered but followed his friend anyway. Adrian opened the library door. It was pitch dark. He walked ahead with the note in his hand. They couldn’t see beyond the bookshelves. Suddenly Jay started sniffling his nose because of all the dust in the library. Adrian shushed Jay and tried to find his way in the dark. He was extremely curious about this new girl. He suddenly felt a pull on his hoodie and a jerk on his back. He fell down with a huge thud on the wooden floor, his face looking up at the roof. He and Jay were both on the ground. It appeared so, that Jay stumbled upon something in the dark and grabbed Adrian for support. “Hey what was that all about, man?” said Adrian. “Sorry. There was something on the floor. Right here.” Jay couldn’t see in the dark. He thought he stumbled upon a book and so he tried picking it up. It wasn’t a book. It was a wooden plank peeping out of the floor. “Hey the floor seems to need repairs.” “No, wait a minute. Let me see,” said Adrian. He picked up the plank and tried looking below it. Suddenly, there shone a light. He could see a  wooden staircase below the plank. It was an old and worn out staircase with dust and spider webs everywhere. There were candles on both sides of the staircase. They lit up immediately after Adrian set aside the plank. “This doesn’t look good. We should get going,” said Jay finding all this extremely creepy.  Adrian ignored Jay. He was taken aback by what he had found under the wooden floor. The library actually led to a staircase which was apparently was some kind of a secret and the candles lit up on their own. It was like an invitation, as if the stairs were welcoming them. 

“Wow! Jay. Look at this. Our school has a secret staircase.” “Yes, and we shouldn’t be going down those stairs right now. This seems dangerous and Sahara might not even be here. That was the whole point, right?” “I don’t care whether she is here or not. I need to find out what’s down there and you are coming with me. Let’s go.” Adrian dragged Jay down the stairs. They went down the stairs taking each step carefully. The stairs led them to a tunnel which was again dark until they entered it. There were lamps on the walls of the tunnel which were lighting up with blazing fire with each step that Adrian took. The duo kept walking hoping that this will lead them to a revealed secret but as they thought they were near the end; they came across a huge wall. The wall blocked the whole tunnel and they couldn’t reach beyond. “I think this is where the tunnel ends. This is where the stairs lead to. Maybe that’s why we don’t know about this. Probably the school is planning to close it anyway,” said Jay already starting to retreat. “No, it doesn’t. I just have a feeling that there is something beyond this wall Jay, otherwise this wall wouldn’t be here.” All of a sudden, there was a huge bang at the library door upstairs and a noise boomed. “Who’s there?”“Adrian, let’s get out of here!” said Jay almost jumping out of his shoes. Both of them hurried up the stairs and quickly kept the plank back in its place.Adrian noticed that as they left the staircase resumed to being a dark nothingness. The light of the candles faded and it was pitch dark again. 

The voice was that of a girl. It was Sahara. She was at the library door her face showing irritation as if someone entered her territory. “What are you both doing here? Its already past school hours. You shouldn’t be here,” said Sahara sternly. Her eyes showed that she was scared but she spoke sternly. “Well then you shouldn’t be here either Sahara. What are you doing here?” asked Adrian, keeping his calm. He was very suspicious of her. He immediately noticed the look on her face. Her eyes were stuck to the floor and she immediately noticed the disturbed wooden plank. She was hiding something. “I was just here because- I just wanted to- because I forgot to take some books with me,” she stammered.  “But what about you Adrian? You don’t even read books.” “No, we don’t. We just wanted to give you something you dropped, Sahara,” said Jay. Adrian handed over the note to her. She opened it quickly and slipped it inside her pocket. "I think we all should leave now," said Sahara motioning Adrian and Jay to come out of the library. “She could have said thank you. Anyways, let’s go now. This has been a way too adventurous evening,” said Jay. Adrian didn’t say much and followed Jay down the stairs. He had so many questions popping up in his mind. Why was there a secret staircase in the library? What was there behind the wall? Why was Sahara so annoyed at them? What is she hiding?