Into The Basement

"Where did it go?" asked Caspar.

Miles looked around frantically. Where was that thing? It could have gone anywhere: through doors, around corners, even into the floor. But how was that possible? For that matter, how was anything that had happened in the past week possible?

"Where would something like that even go?" Lilly wondered aloud.

"When I saw it," Miles said, "it looked scared of us. It was running away from us, so maybe it went to hide somewhere."

"Great," Caspar remarked, "but where would a ghost hide?"

"Somewhere dark?" Jason suggested.

Miles considered it for a while. Where would a ghost hide?

"You said there was a basement, Jason?"

Jason nodded. "No student has been down there before now, but I guess no ghost has been down there either. Should we check there?"

Miles shrugged. "Might as well, right?"

"Right better than history class," grinned Caspar.

"Sounds like an adventure," Lilly said.

"Alright then," concluded Miles. "To the basement."

They made their way cautiously down the stairs. Getting caught wasn't an option. With only a dozen kids attending the school, surely any bypassing teachers would know something was wrong. Unfortunately, they came face to face with their fear almost immediately. Literally. Dr. Lancaster was coming up the stairs of the basement and was now staring into the four kids' surprised faces.

"History class too boring for you?" Lancaster asked, his expression unreadable.

No one said anything. Miles gulped and, after an uncomfortable silence, decided to speak up.

"Ms. Lisa needed us to get something for her," Miles lied. "From the basement."

"Ah," Lancaster said, and continued walking up the stairs. "Good luck finding something down here. It's a mess."

The group released simultaneous sighs, relieved. Lancaster turned back.

"Don't run into Captain R, by the way," he said. "He may not be as gullible as I am."

Lancaster turned away once again and this time turned the corner and walked off.

"Decent guy, the Doc is," said Caspar.

Lilly turned to Miles. "That was quick thinking."

"I doubt he believed it." Miles just shrugged. "Well let's get going, then."

They entered the basement. Dr. Lancaster was right: it was a mess. Boxes laid around, stacked in corners and tossed aside. But other than that it was another hallway, like most of the floors in the academy seemed to start off from. There were two doors on either side of the hall and instead of the hall continuing down, it stopped, with one door on the end of the hallway.

"Which one?" asked Jason, looking around.

"The one on the end is a training room, I think," said Lilly. "Mr. R's room."

"Captain R," corrected Caspar. "Even Doc calls him that."

"Okay," Miles decided. "We each pick a side door and go in. Call if you find the ghost thing."

Miles chose the first door on the left. The doorknob was slick. It seemed to have some kind of goo on it.

"Mine's locked," called Jason.

"Mine's a bathroom," Caspar complained.

Lilly didn't say anything, and Miles continued to work on his door. He used his shirt to grab the knob and started to slowly turn it. When the knob was properly turned, Miles pressed his shoulder into the door to crack it open. The room was pitch black, so Miles pushed the door all the way open. In the corner of the black room, a glowing light pulsed. Miles knew what it was.

"Guys, come here." He spoke quietly, but the group heard him. Jason and Caspar appeared by his side almost immediately and Lilly followed soon after, her breath seeming a little ragged. He wondered what had been behind her door, but now was no time to ask.

After seeing the light, all three of Miles' companions had started to stare at him. Miles didn't like it—it made him uncomfortable. It was like they expected him to do something.

"What?" asked Miles finally, when they gave no sign of saying something to the ghost thing.

"Do something, Miles," said Lilly.

"Like what?"

"Why'd we even go after him?" Jason seemed nervous.

"Say something to it," encouraged Lilly.

Miles sighed. The last thing he wanted to do was start a conversation with a ghost. Ghosts were a: dead and b: not real. Yet the being in front of them seemed to be alive and definitely very real. They had gone to all the trouble of tracking the spirit thing down, why shouldn't they just talk to it? Miles racked his brain for a moment, thinking of something to say. Anything. Heck with it, he thought. The thing looked just as afraid of Miles as Miles was of him.

"Hey," Miles said stupidly to the spirit. "I'm Miles. I won't hurt you. We won't hurt you."

The ghost thing looked up. It looked like the figure of a boy a little younger than Miles. His eyes were wide and clear. His body had a not-quite-full opacity to it, making it slightly transparent. He made no movement to either attack or defend himself. Or itself. Was a ghost a he or an it? The figure didn't move though, so Miles took that as further encouragement.

"Do you have a name?"

The ghost didn't speak. Could it speak?

"Spirit?" suggested Caspar.

Lilly wrinkled her nose up at the name, but the ghost didn't seem to mind.

"Can we call you Spirit?" asked Miles.

The figure nodded curtly, or at least made a motion that seemed like a nod.

"Okay," Miles continued, "we'll call you Spirit then. Can you talk to us somehow? Can you speak?"

Spirit seemed to shrink further into the corner.

"You don't have to speak," added Lilly. "Maybe you could communicate some other way?"

The figure didn't respond, so Miles decided to ask some of the questions that had been running wildly through his mind since he first laid eyes on the ghost. "How can we see you?"

Spirit looked in Miles' direction, which was the only indication that he heard him.

Caspar scratched his head. "Maybe try yes or no questions, yeah?"

"What are you?" Miles asked.

"Do you know what a yes or no question is?"

Miles ignored Caspar and took a step toward Spirit, who suddenly launched himself into the air, his eyes wide with fear.

"I'm not going to—"

"You certainly are not!" a voice came from behind them, filling Miles with dread. He knew who it was before he turned around. Ms. Lisa.

"What are you kids doing down here?" she cried. "Skipping my class, going where you aren't permitted to go... this is unacceptable. No one skips my class!"

"Can't see why not..." muttered Caspar, which only made the woman angrier.

"Detention! All of you, my classroom after your other classes end. Don't you dare be late either or I will go straight to administration!"

Ms. Lisa was red in the face with rage. Miles had never seen someone so angry before. After, staring at each of them in turn for several seconds—Caspar got some extra time—she walked off, fuming all the way.

"That went well," Caspar remarked. No one said anything, so Caspar spoke up again. "We have administration here?"

They walked up the basement stairs. Lilly and Jason were shook; Miles didn't think they had been yelled at by a teacher before. Miles was pretty used to angry teachers and he was sure it was an everyday occurrence for Caspar, so it didn't affect them as much. But, above all else, they were thinking about the figure. Spirit. What was it, who was it, why was it there, so many questions that the ghost didn't seem to be able to answer for them. Maybe it couldn't speak, or maybe it was just scared of them.

When Miles, Jason, Caspar, and Lilly returned to the second floor of the academy, they met back up with the rest of the kids, who were in the process of walking to English class. They fell in line with the group as they entered the classroom. Ian looked over at them and Dawn narrowed her eyes, but no one asked where they had been. They filed into the classroom, where the desks were sitting in columns instead of tables. Miles sat down towards the back of the room, with Jason on his right and Caspar directly behind him. Once everyone had found a seat, there were still many untaken chairs, which led Miles to believe that the amount of "special" kids was expected to increase. Miles didn't mind this—it would just take some of the spotlight off of him.

"Welcome to English class, students!" welcomed Ms. Lukeson, who still wore the same smile as the day before. Miles wondered if it was permanently engraved upon her face. Still better than Ms. Lisa's frown, he thought. "In this class you will learn to properly use figurative language, improve your knowledge of sentence structure, and enjoy books that we will both read as a class and individually. Sound good?"

Everyone nodded graciously. They were all probably just as surprised and relieved as Miles to have a teacher that gave them perhaps the polar opposite of the treatment they had received from their previous class.

Ms. Lukeson continued, seemingly pleased with her audience's reaction. "Some of you are not going to know as much as others, some of you will learn more quickly than others, and some people will join this class at a later date, so everyone is at a different place. I am more than happy to help you on anything that we are learning and I would love it if you helped each other out and participated as often as you feel comfortable with."

And that was it. They got to work, just like that. It was as if Miles was back at Woodside High, being handed a syllabus and books, grabbing a pencil, and getting to work. He hadn't wanted to take normal classes, but it was pretty nice. No talk about superpowers or spirits. No talk about evil organizations or wars. Life was normal again. Until fourth period.