King's chapter 1

Chapter 1

The old school hall building was fairly creepy at night, despite the school’s apparent attempt to make it look modern. The hall was very large with ceilings at least 50 feet high; windows surrounded the two sides of the room framed by fancy red curtains, at the closer side was two sets of double doors, and high up a balcony with rich red velvet seats, and the school crest on it. The crest was strange it was a shield with a red cross going from one corner to the next and what appeared to be a sea shell in the middle. At the far end of the hall was a stage also framed by large red curtains, obviously the stage was for plays and other performances so that the kid’s rich parents could come and see that their kids were learning something for all that money.

This school is very old I think it was instated by Henry VIII himself, I suppose the name king’s school implied who this school was really intended for, rich princes and other prestigious folk, maybe if I was sent to a school like this I wouldn’t be cleaning up after the spoilt little shits, but I guess whatever puts money into my account is all that matters. Out in the lobby things are a lot less creepy, it’s more cosy then creepy enclosed off in the smaller confines of the lobby, with its carpeted floor leading to the doors of the great hall. I look out of the full glass doors ignoring my owl reflection looking out into the darkness.

It was creepy out without a doubt, I hated the darkness in some respects but in some ways I welcomed it, I suppose working in this place any one would be creeped out at night, but at least at night none of my old friends could walk past on a casual day out and see me still cleaning and laugh at me for never changing, I’m comfortable, why should I change?. I look out into the darkness upon the streets of my old home away from home, Rochester, a very historical town with its own castle and even a cathedral, though it wasn’t very good for shopping, I spent many happy weekends here back in my teens though some of them are a little hazy thanks to my old friend alcohol, but unlike me times have to change. One day I will change into the person I want to be, but not yet.

I walk around the lobby my footsteps echoing through the empty building, I look up at the large engraved wooden plaques and read aloud to myself, “old roffensians?” what is that? Some sort of society of old men with a lot of money, reading further into the plaque I discover it was a list of names of those apart of the group who died during the great war, and on the other side of the room a list of those who died within world war two. I withdraw my disrespectful comment mentally, as I have much respect for those who gave their life.
I slide my hand into my pocket and look around for my tobacco, just one then I’ll work, I think to myself. No stop procrastinating just this then the preschool down the road and you can go home. I hated the preschool it was larger than the hall building but there was changing rooms for the teens down stairs; you would be surprised that the preschoolers are neater than a bunch of spoilt teens.

After a good while of texting my girl friend from my phone and scratching my overgrown beard that badly needed shaving I decided some work needed to be done, I started emptying the bins and wandered down the stairs at the side down into the changing rooms, “ugh, messy bastards” I exclaim to myself with much distain for the spoilt bastards as I look down at the muddy foot prints on the floor, I walk through the long hallway of changing rooms emptying the bins and picking up the rubbish the little assholes left behind because they had decided eating lunch there was a good idea.

After all the bags were emptied, I again mull the idea of a smoke in my head; I shake it off and get the broom from the cupboard in the lobby and walk into the hall, I look across the large hall then at my tiny broom, this is gonna take forever, I’ll half arse it no one will complain. I reach the far end of the hall brushing the broom against the floor hastily picking up crumbs and dust.
I gaze behind me noticing a door next to the stage, I wonder where that goes, I always did, it was one of the very few places I didn’t have to clean, I place my broom down and open it slowly and peer through, just a set of stairs, in the middle of the stairs is a corridor leading off to the side looks like it leads to the changing rooms below, and a door right down at the bottom of the stairs, hmmm. I close the door and carry on with my work. I put my headphones in my ear and press my phone to play some nice heavy rock music to keep my mind at bay.

As I finish sweeping the dirt from the hall into a nice neat pile to be picked up, I feel a slight shudder on my back; my curiosity is getting the better of me, I look back at the door and decide to look and see what’s at the bottom, probably nothing just a store room, I walk down the stairs and approach the door and turn the handle and push, locked damn it, I pull the keys from my hooded jacket and find the master key on the mangled bunch of keys, I slide the key into the slot and turn, success. I open the door the look in.
I stare into the darkness of the room, for some reason when I look it feels as if my soul has been ripped out of me, I take a step in and bang, the noises pulsate in my ears and screech making my face cringe and crinkle up tight in agony of my ears as the music I once enjoyed screamed and squealed in my ear. I yank off the headphone and drop my keys and bolt up the stairs, I stop running at the top and catch my breath. I look down the stairs into the dark abyss and walk slowly to the disabled toilets in the lobby, I splash my face with water from the sink and look at myself in the mirror, my brown hair slightly wet from the splash sticks to my forehead slightly, the scar on my left cheek going a slight tint of red as it usually did when it got wet, damn dog how could I love something so much that would scar me in such a way, dumb animals.

I look into my green eyes in the mirror and think to myself, come on Sam, you’re tougher than this, I laugh at myself slightly and walk back to the stairs and begin to descend slowly to retrieve my lost keys, I stop at the open door and kneel down and stick my hand into the darkness and fumbled around for my keys until aha I found them, I stand up and grab the door to pull it shut, ah what the hell? I’ve come this far, I step into the room.

I take a few steps in and search my keys for the flash light attached and I find it I click it on but the light just flickers on and off, damn thing. I hit it a few times and then against my thigh, “ouch! Shit!” I yell grabbing my thigh realising that the pocket knife attached to my keys had come unsheathed and cut my leg. “fucking thing”, I hit the light again and it come on, I looked at my thigh for a moment, the knife cut through the jeans and cut my leg, a little bit of blood but not too bad I’ll live, I put my fingers against the cut to see how badly it was bleeding, just a little. I decided to then reap the benefit of my reward and look around my new discovery, nothing the room was empty not even a store room.

I feel the blood from my thigh on my fingers, drip off slowly and hit the floor.