Elizabeth, better known as Ellie, was the type of person who'd find trouble even when she wasn't looking for it. "Punishments" was a concept she was never able to understand. "Punishments are ineffective! They don't really change a person in ANY way, do they? Well, at least, not me!" She used to think this every day, until it became her moral. Whenever she got punished, this is what she would remind herself.
Ellie had a pale complexion, dark brown eyes, and a light case of acne. She had a habit of often curling her hair around her finger. She would usually do it unintentionally. One bright Sunday morning, on her way to school, she saw a prison. "Huh?" She never noticed it before, ever. The prison had no name, address, or anything written on it. Just the bright red words, "Prison". Just as her car was about drive past the mysterious building, she pointed at it and asked her dad, "Did you see that? I'm not sure if I ever noticed that before." Her dad took a while to respond, but once he did, it was "See what?", and went back to focusing on his driving.
Once she reached school, late- again, there stood Ms. Beak at the classroom's door- almost as if she was waiting for her. Obviously, her name wasn't "Beak", but she had such a long nose, it was hard not to think of it as a beak. Along with that, it seemed that she applied foundation only on her nose, or either everywhere on her face except her nose, as it was quite more orange than the rest of her face. Ms. Beak stood cross-armed. "Late again, mah' dear Elizabeth? What's yer' excuse this time? Ya' forgot to turn the alarm on? Or did yer' dog die again?!" Her accent was comparable with a talking parrot, or Hagrid from Harry Potter, to be specific.
After Ellie apologized, and earned her detention, she sat next to her friends, which were almost as big of headaches as Ellie herself, all of them being in detention. After school dismissal, they were held inside their class to do their Physics homework. "Ughhh- only a teacher like Doctor Faheel could make us succeed in Physics, because I am so lost right now," exclaimed Asher. (Dr. Faheel was known as the best physicist in town) "Even if Doctor Faheel would be teaching you, you would still fail pretty miserably," proclaimed Sarah, who was almost as lost as Asher during the homework. "Guys, this is boring. Can we just fake sick and ask miss if she can excuse us early?" Asked Jasper, who, unlike his friends, was able to solve his homework. "That's honestly not that bad of an idea," remarked Ellie, who already started thinking of excuses which could make them exit detention. After a few moments of nothing but silence, Ellie admitted "Yeah- I can't think of anything but faking sick. Any ideas, you guys?" There was silence for a brief moment, but then Sarah replied, "I mean, if we ask Ms. Beak if we all could go to the bathroom, she would find out we're up to something." Asher put his thinking face on for a moment, then confessed, "I think the best option here is to fake sick. Maybe we could convince Ms. Beak we all caught a nasty, contagious cold?"
When they all decided on one plan, Ellie walked up to Ms. Beak, fake sneezed, and asked if she could go to the bathroom. When she was excused, all the kids, slowly but surely did the same thing. When they all gathered outside, they giggled and ran out of school premises. As they slowed down, Ellie, in a tone of disappointment, said, "I guess this is the part where we all walk home..." There was a hint of sarcasm in her voice, as if she meant the exact opposite of the words that escaped her lips. "Nahhh, we should totally hang out till it's late. We're supposed to be in a 3-hour detention, right? Wouldn't our parents be suspicious of us if we come home early?" Sarah suggested. Ellie grinned as a response, and exclaimed "Now, thatÕs the response I wanted!"
The rest of the crew agreed, and they all sat outside under the shade of a tree, even though it was dark, and decided to play a game of truth and dare. When it was Ellie's turn, she chose "Dare". "Typical," Jasper muttered. Asher, who heard Jasper, giggled, and dared Ellie, "I dare you... wait- did you know there's a prison not far from our school, currently under construction? I dare you to sneak inside there." Sarah jokingly slapped Asher on his back, and claimed, "There's no way we would ever be able to sneak inside a PRISON! Be a little serious, dude-" Ellie interrupted Sarah, and announced "I'll do it! Anyways, the place is under construction, right? So, there's no way we would get in trouble if we broke inside. Even if we would- there would be no one to punish us! By the way, I saw the prison on my way to school, it gave me the chills." "Well, if you're doing it, then so are we!" Jasper exclaimed. Asher nodded, but as they all stood up, Sarah confessed "I know, I know. It sounds pretty cool, but be a little reasonable! Can't we do something simple, and something that would avoid us trouble- like using our brains?!"
Eventually, Sarah agreed, as she didn't like being the only one with a different opinion, even if nobody else was being reasonable. The four children left their bags under the tree, and headed towards the prison. Asher led them around for quite some time, until they reached their destination. "Phew! That was a long way, hm?" Jasper exclaimed, while wiping off the sweat of his forehead with his sleeve. "Indeed, indeed. Now, this better be worth it!" Sarah demanded. They all silently walked inside. Ellie felt a sudden gust of wind fly through her, and realised it suddenly got cold. A sense of danger echoed across the room, but she decided to stay silent about it. The top corners of the walls were filled with cobwebs, and the marbled floor was cracked. It looked like more of an abandoned area rather than one currently under construction. "I believe this is the part where we all spilt up?" Ellie asked, trying to leave her fear behind. She was quickly responded by Sarah, "Are you crazy?! Haven't you seen a single horror movie?" "Since when did you become a scaredy-cat? A while ago you were brave enough to break out of school-" Ellie claimed. "Well, this is different!" Sarah exclaimed. Asher stepped back, on Sarah's side, and admitted, "Sarah's right... It's not just splitting up, but ever since we stepped inside, I've had a bad feeling about this place."
"Wait, did you guys hear that?-" Whispered Jasper, who interupted the conversation. Suddenly, the group heard footsteps. Getting closer and closer. The sense of danger coming closer and closer. The sense of punishment getting closer and closer. "Run, guys!" Ellie shouted in a whisper, and they all were about to sprint outside, when they were stopped by a faint, croaky voice, "Leaving so soon?"
TO BE CONTINUED