"Why is it so dark in here! " I exclaimed. I shined the torch down to my right judging every bit of the cemented floor before stepping on it. My left hand traced the cold wall to keep my balance as I walked.

"What do you expect? Christmas lights throughout the hallway?" She mocked me. I turned my head to face her, standing beside me and shining her torch with her left hand tucked deep into the pockets of her pants.

I can make out, her shrugging her shoulders and making a funny face to mock me even in this dark corridor lit by our torches. Her blond face shined even in the little light there.

"Atleast a small ray of light from the room we are heading!" I bite back at her shining my torch through the hallway pointing at the room at the end of the corridor.

The night was too dark, blanketing the path of light from my torch. The light smoothly hit the board, poking out from under the room's door.
We could faintly make out the bold red letters printed on it "Arts Club".

"Do you mean you told her beforehand that you will be coming here? Now you even expect herself to welcome you shining lights out at her door?"she spat back. Her voice echoing down the hallway.
I knew that she would eat me up with her words .

"Don't throttle me with your questions, Aubrey. Keep your voice down." I whispered back.

"Then don't complain for it being dark, Millie." She whispered back imitating my tone, turning to face me folding her hands across her chest, shining the torch in her right hand, the other way.

"Okay fine! I won't complain again. Keep your torch down don't point it that way!" I gave in. No one can win her.

"That's good." She said triumphantly with a smirk, forgetting to keep her voice down again.

"Don't you think you are being too loud for sneaking at night." I picked at her again.

"Which is why I wanted to search for her tomorrow. You are the crazy one who insisted on sneaking into school at this time." She threw her hands into the air rolling her eyes at me. Her voice echoed through the hallway again and the light of her torch dancing around whenever she moved her hand.

"Shhhh... Aubrey!! I know I suggested this but you tagged along right?" I replied in a loud whisper.

"Duh. That's why I am here now. To check on you , to keep you from fainting in the dark if you go alone." She mocked at me again. A wild smile creeping up her face. She always loves to point out the fact that I get scared easily.

"I am not afraid of the dark. I am afraid of facing whatever thing, that made the creepy noise yesterday." I replied her in a low whisper keeping my head down staring at the floor. I felt a shiver go down my spine when I recalled the sound from last night. It still echoed in my ears.

That weird cry from next door. Emily's room.

"Are you sure you can find Emily in the Arts Club at this time?"She asked.

"I think so." I replied faintly.

Aubrey sensed the drop in my tone. She placed a reassuring hand over my shoulder to calm me down. She always stands back and contradicts my words but she never left me alone to suffer. She was always there to bring me back from the sad hole.

"Come on, Millie. Don't shed your precious pearls of tears in here." She said soothingly into my ear ruffling the hair near by, tickling me.

"Ahhww.. That tickleess.." I started chuckling. Aubrey reciprocated it, loudly laughing at me .

"Seriously Millie. You even felt that funny in this situat..." I cut her off by closing her mouth with my left hand switching off the torch on my right.

"Wha..t ar..e y..ou doig.." Aubrey started mumbling in with her mouth closed.
"Shhh.. Don't you hear that?" I whispered into her ears. We leaned in to listen.

Footsteps.

We saw two light rays dancing around the left side of the long corridor. Aubrey sensed the situation. She tapped my hand to let her go. She motioned with the torch towards her right pointing at the right side of the corridor. We started walking to the right.

"LETS WALK FAST NOW! " I whispered to her. We ended up holding our hands and tiptoed towards the door on the right side of the corridor. Our night mission's destination.

We were just two rooms away. When we heard that.

"Who's in there?" A booming voice echoed through the empty corridor.
We shuddered at the voice.
We saw the light rays becoming brighter at the left end. The footsteps getting louder by every minute. A chill ran down my spine when it started growing loud.

We both broke into a run towards the Arts Club.
I motioned Aubrey to hide the torch. She clicked off the light immediately. We reached the large door. The room read "Arts Club".

The sound of footsteps were clearly audible now. The dark corridor started gaining brightness by the second.
Aubrey tried to open the door. But it wouldn't budge.

"Oh my god. We are going to get caught Aubrey." I said in a hurried whisper. My legs started trembling when i saw the dark shadows of two large figures at the far left end of the corridor. I stood there stunned.

*Click.*

I felt a hand dragging me inside and locking the door behind me. We leaned onto the back of the door. I left out a deep sigh. Aubrey was breathing heavily. I traced out Aubrey near me, in the pitch darkness.

"We made it." I said in a low sound.
"Yes we did." She replied in a faint rumble.

"What's wrong?" I turned to see her face. My eyes were adjusting to the darkness. But I could make out the confused glistening face of hers.

"What was the door colour of this room?" She asked in a faint note. Her head was facing down searching something on the floor.

"White of course. We came here yesterday right? Also all the doors are white at school." I told in a tone of silliness.

"Then why is this door.... Red?!"

She lifted her head up. We looked at each other.

Then our eyes went wide.

We both stood startled, feet fixed to the ground. Looking into each other's eyes. We heard it clearly now.
It was coming exactly from behind where we were standing.

The same weird cry.