Putting her hands to her ears blocking out the volcanic roar from the room Hanna made her way over to a gap that was forming in the wall, vision was difficult but she had seen a space that was being created by the tumbling bricks. Holding herself steady at the gap she peered through, it seemed to lead to another room.

“Michael, I think we can get out this way!” She shouted, clearing her dust filled throat. As she voiced the words the room became immediately still, it seemed to take a large breath fill its lungs and then relax.

Clambering through the gap Michael and Hanna stood surveying their surroundings. It was a smaller room, no more than eight foot by twelve foot with windowless walls, a door and an old writing desk standing at an angle in the corner. Walking over to the door Michael twisted the doorknob and pulled, turning his head round to face Hanna who stood near the gap chewing her nails, he said, “Its locked, looks like we will have to brake one of the windows in the gym and climb out that way, see if you can find anything to smash them with.”

Yanking open one of the draws in the desk Michael realises this must have been the Headmasters room, there was a secret compartment hidden underneath and it was filled with diaries from the seventies full of kids names, he continued looking through until a name caught his eye,

“Hey, wasn’t Pamela Lightfoot the name of the missing girl?”

“Yes it was, why do you ask, have you found something?”         

 “This diary’s full of kids names,” he said slapping the diary onto the desk, “And hers is the last one, do you think the old Headmaster felt guilty about something?”

“I don’t know… did they ever find her can you remember the story from when you were younger?” Hanna asked.

“Don’t think so.”

Hanna noticed the desk leg was loose and began to kick it. It would make a good tool to smash glass she thought. Together they ripped it off and started back to the gap, the diary tossed aside as the made their break for freedom. As they got to the gap the piano started to play by it’s self, its keys forcing out angry notes full of malevolence, the songs were the same as the ones Hanna played earlier but getting more and more frantic. Hanna stood glued to the spot as Michael started to lift his leg back through the gap, as he did the top of the wall started to fall blocking his exit and trapping his leg. Hanna screamed, as the music got louder. She started grabbing the bricks away with her hands eventually freeing him enough so he could pull himself clear. Hanna was sobbing and shaking violently, tears leaving muddy tracks down her face. A slow trickle of blood escaped down Michael’s leg.

Please release me let me go, filled the air at a volume so high they felt it damaging their ears, it wasn’t just in the room next door now but it was all around them. The walls and floors started to shudder; they took refuge in the middle of the room watching as the walls peeling away in rivers of hardcore. The shuddering stopped, all went quiet. Michael sat nursing his crushed bloodied leg; he was struggling to stop the bleeding with his T-shirt.

Hanna noticed it first as the dust cleared. In the wall cavity behind the Headmasters desk, gleaming white fossil like flecks were entombed in the cavity that had been behind the fallen wall, Hanna went over for a closer look. She rubbed the dust away with her fingers, they were small white smooth objects and her fingers moved over them as if reading brail, starting to piece the bits together she soon realised she was unveiling the skeleton of a person, snatching her hand away only when it dawned on her the body was smaller than her own. Two tears slid down Hanna’s face as she came to the conclusion that it had been encased between those two walls for years. Perhaps this was Pamela she thought as she heard the wailing sirens of emergency crews outside the school. Maybe the search for Pamela was finally over and she could now rest in piece.