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“It makes sense!” said Avelyn excitedly. She changed her position again and she was now on her knees in the middle of the bed, facing Amelia. “It makes all the sense in the world!”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” interrupted Delyse. “First, it’s still just a legend. And, if it were real, and there are, indeed, secret tunnels underneath the school, then we sure have no idea where the entrance might be.”
“Except we do,” said Amelia. “Or, at least, I do.”
“What?” Claudia almost screamed, prompting Avelyn and Delyse to motion for her to keep it down. “Sorry. What?” She whispered this time. “How would you know something like that?”
“Because I’ve used them.” Amelia dropped the bomb and now all eyes were on her. “Ok, listen. Avelyn, I have no idea why I’m doing this, because I sure as hell don’t agree with you and your plan of running away. We’re not friends. We’ve never been friends. But I’m going to help you this one time. Or, maybe I’m just helping Delyse get this wolf guy and get her father out of her hair. It doesn’t matter. The thing is that this has to stay between us four.” Saying this, Amelia moved her eyes slowly from one roommate to another. Claudia nodded her head in silence, Avelyn nodded her head vigorously and refrained from clapping her hands, and Delyse whispered a faded “yes”. “Good,” concluded Amelia and sighed with relief.
“So,” said Avelyn “Tell us everything. How did you find the tunnels? And can I use them? Where do they lead?”
“They take you deep into the forest, up north, towards the mountains. The idea was to provide a route of escape in case o
f siege, and it wouldn’t have helped anyone if they led straight into the heart of Myrtle Valley. So, that will be one of the problems: I assume you don’t want to spend the rest of your life in the mountains, so you’ll have to find your way to town. It will be quite a detour.”
“Through the forest…” said Avelyn a bit disappointed. However, she couldn’t complain. Amelia’s plan was more than she could have ever come up with by herself.
“How do you know all of this stuff?” asked Claudia.
“I read a lot.” She wanted to stop there with the explanations and simply lay out the plan. They didn’t have to know all the details, but Delyse had other things in mind.
“What?” asked the blonde.
“Excuse me?”
“What do you read? We’re not stupid, Amelia, so drop the act and tell us everything you know. I’ve browsed the library so many times that I almost know it by heart. If there were any books that contained such information, I’d have come across them.”
“No, you wouldn’t have,” sighed Amelia. She realized she had no choice now but to trust them. She cursed herself for opening her mouth and suggesting there was another way of getting out of Alma Venus. For so many years she had lived with the secret and never felt the need to share it with anyone. Why now? Or, maybe, her deliberate isolation made her feel lonely, and she had simply refused to acknowledge it. Now, after taking part in this conversation, after seeing Avelyn so broken and after being the first to find her crying in her pillow, Amelia felt like she belonged to the group. It was a new sensation, and what scared her most was that it felt unexpectedly warm. Was it a good idea to continue on this way? Probably not. Could she ever be friends with her roommates? She knew she would never completely agree with them, and they would never accept her own beliefs, but did that really matter? Did people always have to think and feel the same to be friends and trust each other? She didn’t have an answer to that, as she had never had real friends. It was new territory to her.
“There are a couple of old books on the history of Alma Venus, and among them there is one collection of medieval tales that contains the one Avelyn mentioned. But they aren’t available for the students. They are kept in that room at the far back of the library, the one behind the Physics shelf.”
“The Physics shelf?” said Claudia. “I’ve never even been near that one.”
“Exactly. Now shut up and let me finish. Two years ago I got this habit of reading in the library, so I had the chance to see the librarian go inside that room a couple of times. It got me curious. One evening, I managed to snatch her key and I spent the night in there, between old books with yellow pages. I had to be out of there before 6 in the morning, so I didn’t get to read much. I mostly browsed through them, looking for interesting stuff. That’s how I found an old construction plan of the school. It was so old that many parts we know now didn’t even exist then. The best part was that it contained a detailed sketch of the tunnels, so I studied it long and tried to commit it to memory. The next day I found one of the entrances. I chose the most remote one, and went down there.”
“Have you ever made it outside?” asked Avelyn.
“Yes, many times. I usually spend my free time out there, in the forest. I mostly go on weekends, when there are smaller chances of anyone looking for me.”
Avelyn jumped out of the bed and started pacing the room. “I can’t believe you! You knew this for so long, you actually got out of Alma Venus regularly, and you never told anyone?”
“I don’t see why it is so hard to understand. Why would I tell anyone and put myself in danger of being discovered, or worse: giving someone like you the idea that there is a way out of the school and, again, put myself in danger of being considered an accomplice?”
“She’s right,” said Delyse. “If I were her, I would do the same thing.”
“Even knowing that I’ve been trying to escape Alma Venus since… I don’t know… since forever?” Avelyn raised her voice involuntarily, feeling her chest constricting with anger.
“That’s not what I meant.”
For a few moments, the two girls looked at each other, hidden emotions flickering in their eyes, and unspoken words dying on their lips. While Avelyn was relishing the feeling of adrenaline pumping in her veins, Delyse was tired and it showed on her face. What a few hours ago had seemed to be the end of Avelyn’s life, now looked more like a beginning, and the redhead was growing impatient. She had to get out of there, and fast. She would feel safer in the middle of the woods than in this room, waiting for Blackmane to claim her. Every time she thought of him, a thrill started in her stomach, traveled down her gut, and turned her legs to jelly. The unfairness of his sudden decision and the fact that he had bought her without consulting her, had almost made her forget the sweet, torturous tension which had equally aroused and confused her. She wondered if she had had a different reaction if he would have come up to her and asked for her consent. But, looking at Delyse, she realized that the answer would have been “no”. What did Delyse say right after the interview? “I think I like him.”
“I’m glad someone agrees with me. I have to admit it’s a nice change,” said Amelia, not noticing the tension between the two friends.
Avelyn broke eye contact. “When can you take me to that remote entrance you were talking about?”
“Whenever you’re ready. What time is it now?”
Claudia checked her watch. “1 AM.”
