The morning sun broke across the horizon, bringing with it the warmth of an early autumn morning. The bird songs began to pick up as well, as did the sounds of early morning conversations, and the the sound of shoes against the gravel floor of the courtyard. The students were beginning to rise one by one, and one by one they filled out of the dormitories. Most students would follow this same routine throughout the school year, rising with the sun to make the most of their time before school truly began. Most of the students would follow this, but not all.
Arno made his way across the campus, following an old gravel pathway that led that wound its way through the park. He kept his hands in his pockets, and his head down. His dark blue jeans were weathered and worn, and his black hoodie was dusty. He had worn the same outfit for days, and he was rather intent on keeping his outfit together; it was the only bit of familiarity he'd have in this place for the next few weeks.
With his hood drawn above his head, he kept walking until he passed the iron gate, the entrance to Kadic Academy, and his home for the foreseeable future. Upon reaching the gate, he stopped for a moment, looking up, seeing the iron glow and shimmer under the light of the morning sun. He stayed for a moment, before bowing his head again, and moving on. He turned right, walking for a time before turning right again His path didn't really matter to him, not as long as he could find somewhere to be alone with his thoughts, outside of the campus grounds.
He kept his eyes on the sidewalk, listening to the humming of the occasional car as it passed by. The sound still set him on edge. He tried to keep his mind off of the sound, and on the day that was about to begin. He had classes to attend, people to meet, and a dorm room to set up. His thoughts drifted to the boxes of stuff that he probably would leave unpacked for a good few months, mementos from home, clothes both old and new, and whatever supplies his family had been willing to part with. Whether it was for him, or for them, he still wasn't sure.
He kept his eyes down. As long as he kept to the sidewalk, he'd eventually find his way back, or use the gutters and cracks as landmarks to find his way back to the campus.
Arno paused for a moment, looking up from his path, and towards the school that he'd call his home for the foreseeable future. He still wasn't sure what to make of it. He sighed, keeping his gaze on the buildings that peaked above the trees for a moment longer before returning to his walk, and lowering his eyes once again.
He'd lost track of his steps. The cracks and sewer drains had long since begun to blur together. With no destination in mind, he continued to walk forward, following the path of the sidewalk until it reached its end. It sloped into a curb, and a white crosswalk had been painted into the street. Almost instinctively, he looked up to watch for oncoming cars for a moment before crossing. His eyes scanned to the right, then to the left, and he froze.
Across the water, atop a sliver of land in the center of the river, a massive building stood. It clashed with the blue-amber sky with its dark concrete shell. Green vines stretched across the foundation, showing cracks and signs of wear that were visible even from across the river. Many of the windows that lined the top half of the building were still in one piece, although some had been broken long enough for birds to make their nests on the windowsills. A single bridge connected the island to the mainland at the island's center, but both ends had seemingly long since been barred off, and closed. Yet, the factory doors remained open, as if an invitation to explore the archaic structure. It was closed off from the world, most likely for a good reason.
"It's super cool, isn't it?" A voice snapped Arno out of his thoughts. He jumped, pulling his hands from his pockets, balling them up into fists. He turned to his left, and the source of the voice stood still as stone, as though he didn't even notice Arno's violent reaction. "It looks like it's been standing for decades, but all it's got is a few broken windows and some vines!" The boy belonged to a boy, although it was certainly higher than most boys of his apparent age. He was young, short, and thin, with a head of curly blond hair, and a pair of bottle glass spectacles sitting loosely on the bridge of his nose. He shuffled in place as he spoke, as if it were a chore to keep himself still. He was dressed as brightly as his mood, with a light blue longsleeve shirt, and light brown cargo pants with more pockets than it really needs (most of which looked as though they had been sewn on after they had been purchased).
Arno was taken aback by the stranger's presence, but said stranger was unaffected.
"Apparently it was an old car factory, before the cars it produced were outsourced. It's closed now but boy oh boy doesn't it look like it's begging to be explored?" The boy asked, almost dancing in place. Arno had no response, and wearily took a single step to his right. The boy was still unfazed by Arno's physical reactions, or the lack of a verbal response, and turned towards him as soon as he'd taken the step away. "I'm Jonah, by the way! Jonah Dunn!"
Arno didn't respond, taking a few steps across the crosswalk after looking out for oncoming traffic. For a few moments, Jonah simply remained still. It wasn't clear whether or not he had been at all affected by Arno's response (and lack thereof), but he had his suspicion that it wouldn't bother him.
After a few short seconds, however, Arno heard the sound of his shoes against the sidewalk again. They didn't approach his direction, instead moving across the street. For just a moment, he breathed a sigh of relief. This relief was cut short when he heard the jarring sound of two car horns blaring one after the other, each one coming from a different direction. Arno froze.
"Sorry, sorry!" He heard Jonah call out from across the street. This was quickly followed by the sound of a dull thud, and an exclamation of shock, but it wasn't long before Jonah's shoes were scratching against the pavement again, and getting more distant as the seconds dragged on. They were growing farther away from Arno, who quickly realized that there was only one direction they could be going now.
He shrugged it off, he'll be ok, he thought to himself. The boy tripped again. Arno stopped in his tracks, closing his eyes and cursing his luck. With little more hesitation, he turned about, and looked down the street before walking across, and following Jonah towards the open doors of the factory.
Arno stepped through the yawning doorway, into the long corridor that stretched on for nearly half of the factory's length. They were on the second level of the building, a concrete walkway that wrapped around the interior of the factory, about 15 meters or so above the ground. Large steel beams were equally spaced around the walkway for support, piercing the ceiling and floor to keep it suspended. There wasn't much noteworthy about the interior, with the exception of a large freight elevator that sat just to the right of the entrance, at the bottom of the lower floor, and a pair of flimsy ropes dangled from one of the support beams above them.
Jonah was on his hands and knees, peering down at the lower level with his hands resting on the edge of the walkway. He still wore the same look of excitement and fearlessness on his face.
"Look at this place!" Jonah exclaimed, turning back to Arno with a wide toothy smile, "Isn't this place the greatest? Who knows what we'll find here, a million dollars, old machines, a dead body?!" He pushed himself up off of the ground, dusting his knees as he did so. "And look, we can use these ropes to get down!" He took a few steps to the side, pointing up towards the dusty ropes that hung from the beams above them. Before he could reach out to grab them, as he leaning forward to do, Arno gripped his shoulder and pulled him back.
"Wait." He ordered, reaching forward himself and tugging at one of the ropes with a tight grip. A cloud of dust was expelled from the folds of the rope, and the top began to fray outward. "These ropes are flimsy, they must've been here for years."
"Well, we'll find another way to get down then!" Said Jonah, immediately looking around for a different route to take. Arno stayed with the ropes, looking over them with a weary gaze.
"These ropes." He started, taking one of them into his hands, turning them over gently. "They look as though they haven't been touched in ages. But why would they need rope like this in an abandoned factory? Didn't you say that this place used to be a car factory?" He looked around, waiting for a response from Jonah, who was nowhere to be found. "Jonah?" He called.
"Down here!" The boy called up from below, waving to Arno as he peered over the edge of the catwalk. "There's a small ramp over to your left, on the wall-side of the walkway. Come on down and look at this elevator with me!"
"I can't watch over you forever kid, I have somewhere I need to be." Said Arno, but Jonah was already out of sight, and it was unclear if he would've listened either way. With a quick and shallow sigh, Arno took a few steps to his left, seeing the small ramp that Jonah spoke of just a few meters ahead. If he hadn't been looking for it, he might not have even seen it.
By the time he reached the bottom floor, Jonah was already almost done examining the freight elevator. Compared to the rest of the building, it looked almost discolored. The inside was a painted in a dulled shade of gold, tainted with green rust. There was a singular vent sitting in the ceiling, and a keypad on the inside of the car, just to the left of the open door. Besides that, or even including that, there was nothing worthy of note about it.
"I wonder where this thing even goes." Jonah pondered aloud, more to himself than to Arno. "There's a keypad on the inside, maybe you need a special code to get to the lower floors?" He stepped into the box, looking over the worn keypad for any clue as to what the combination could be. As he searched, Arno looked around the car himself. The cables looked just as ancient as the support beams that held the elevator in place. They were rusted and worn down with years of use, but they still looked sturdy enough to function for years to come.
""This is so cool!" Jonah cried out, stepping out of the elevator with a skip in his step. "I never imagined finding a cool place like this!"
"Yeah." Arno agreed, poking his head into the car. He looked around for nothing in particular for a moment before stepping back out, and away. "This place is pretty old. I imagine most of anything we're going to find here isn't operational anymore."
"Yeah but what if it is?"
"Then that's not encouraging." He quickly replied. The entire building felt almost haunting to Arno, a fact that he wasn't hesitant to share, although his intuition was no match for Jonah's sense of discovery. He looked to his left, where the young boy once stood, only to find him already halfway down the main chamber's walkway. "Hey, Jonah, where are you going?" He called out, turning to follow him.
"This is a factory! What, you think there's just one room and that's it? There still so much more to be discovered!" Jonah responded, not even turning away from his path. Arno sighed, and quickened his pace. The sooner Jonah found a reason to leave, the sooner he could as well. He pulled a black flip phone from his pocket as he caught up with Jonah. The time read 0730. School would begin in an hour, and the first meeting of the school year would start half an hour before that. An entire morning, spent babysitting someone with no evident sense of fear.
As Arno finally caught up with Jonah, he saw exactly where he was headed: a dull green door was embedded in the wall, almost out of sight, at the very end of the factory, hidden away in the corner behind one of the few concrete beams placed between the steel supports.
"See? I told you there would be more!" Jonah excitedly pointed at the door with a wagging finger.
"I never doubted you. I just wish you were wrong." Replied the disgruntled Arno beneath his breath.
"Really? You don't think this is exciting?"
"There are just other things I wish I had done with my morning."
"Things other than exploring an archaic facility? What do you do for fun?" Before an answer could be given, Jonah pulled open the door, and stepped inside, followed closely by his reluctant protector.
The door led into a room full of machines. They hung from the ceiling, hovering above a long conveyor belt that wound around the room. Old pieces of machinery still littered the idle black belt, and the tools that once worked with these parts were now motionless, in a way that looked as though they could spring to life at any moment. In fact, it almost looked as though they had before. Arno approached the arms, which still bore what seemed to be their original silver plating. They were significantly more polished than the rest of the machines and metal they had found in the factory.
Rather than dwell on this fact, Jonah seemed much more interested in the fact that there was still machines that existed at all. Although he was just tall enough to reach onto the belt without much difficulty, he opted to sit on the edge of the belt, and fiddle with an old bit metal, with a few wires sprouting from the piece.
"Hey, hey you! Look what I found!" Jonah called out, waving his newfound discovery in the air with a bright smile.
"It looks like an old machine part. What it was supposed to be is anybody's guess." Arno walked over, picking up a piece of his own, and turning it about in his fingers. "I wonder why it's still here." He thought aloud to himself. "These things have been here for years. Why has nobody come and picked -any- of this stuff up?" He looked up from the years old artifact, towards the end of the room. Opposite from where they'd come from, there was a large stairway that led down to a lower level, one that led to a landing platform. He walked forward, down the stairs, and onto the platform. It led to more stairs, but these led to an actual floor, a room with a layout not to dissimilar from the one he just left. From what Arno could see, there wasn't anything too special down there. Short structures of small beams and pipes littered the floor, and stout concrete beams supported the ceiling above them. Almost without thinking, Arno stepped away from the conveyer belt, and towards the wide stairway.
He reached the bottom of the stairs before Jonah caught up to him.
"Hey, did you find something?" Asked Jonah, before reaching the bottom step. Upon doing so, his mouth opened wide in awe and excitement. "Whoa!" He cried out, his hands splayed out at his sides, "This looks like a jungle gym! I love those things!" He began to race forward, arms preparing to grab at the pipes. Arno quickly grabbed him.
"Hey!" He shouted, in a mix of frustration and fear. He shoved Jonah back enough to get him away from the pipes, and tugged on them as he had done with the ropes in the main chamber. With a single tug, he tore one of the horizontal beams from its place. Both he and Jonah stared for a moment before their gazes met. "Do you ever think before you act, kid?"
"Only on my bad days." He responded with a sheepish grin. "But look!" He reached out, pulling on a vertical pipe in a similar manner to Arno. Instead of pulling out a single beam, however, the entire structure began to collapse. Jonah quickly stepped back in shock, but Arno pulled him over, shielding him as the brass structure topped over, bashing him with a few pieces of the falling debris.
When the noise finally subsided, they each looked towards the rubble that had most likely once been structurally sound. After a moment of staring, Arno once again glared at Jonah with one hand still on his shoulder. Jonah, still bearing the piece he'd collected, wore shock on his face for a second before turning with a shy grin to Arno, who watched him with building frustration. Arno released him, and snatched the pipe from his hands, before standing up straight and moving on with a huff. Jonah was quick to follow, but remained rather quiet.
The two walked through the room, finding larger and more sturdy structures. There were catwalks above them as well, as well as pulleys that hung from the roof, and above these more sturdy constructions. They walked in silence, observing, although cautious of touching or moving anything. Even Jonah seemed visibly aware of danger at this point, although not enough to dissuade him from getting close to everything. This corridor ended quickly, with another door, and upon opening it, The two were met with yet another hallway. This room was empty, with nothing but a flimsy metal staircase leading down to the floor, just about half a meter below the door.
Arno walked down the steps, while Jonah leapt from the top stair to the floor. The room held nothing of real interest, nothing besides a hole in the far side of the room.
At first, there was very little to keep them there. In fact, with a single glance towards each other, they had made an unspoken agreement to return to the previous room. Only when Jonah had rushed up the stairs, did Arno turn back, with one foot on the first step. He stared into the darkness of the room, towards the hole on the far side. It wasn't too small, just over two thirds of his height. In a factory like this, what purpose did it have? Water runoff? He looked down at the floor. It was sloped, just barely enough to notice, but runoff wouldn't constitute a hole of that size. He stepped down, squinting his eyes to see through the dark. After a few moments, his eyes were finally able to focus, and he caught sight of a faint green glow. It was just barely visible, almost entirely overpowered by the darkness around it. If it were any weaker, he might not have seen it at all.
Arno stepped off of the stair, prompting Jonah to turn and follow him, as he took gentle steps towards the light.
"Hey, what do you see?" Jonah called after him, stomping down the steps. Arno didn't respond, instead, crouching down as he got closer. On his hands and knees, and approached the gap, and upon reaching the light, he was able to see its source.
"What the hell...?" He breathed.
The room was softly glowing with the same light that had called him over, one that struggled to reach the four corners of the room. The center of the room had the brightest glow, being the source of the light in the first place. A sort of projector sat in the middle of the room, raised off of the ground like a mechanical mesa. Two rings sat around it, one above, and one below. The ring surrounding it was home to a single large chair, set on a swivel, and seemingly free to move around the lower ring. Above it, however, was a sort of circular frame that hung from where Arno sat. It was comprised of a larger ring, that connected to a smaller circle through curved beams that bent inward. Resting on those, however, was the center of Arno's attention. He stared intently at this machine, a long mechanical arm bearing three or four computer monitors. All of them were off, yet the light at the center of the room still glowed. The entire room had an eerie feel about it, as though the computers and machines could spring to life at any moment. It sent shivers down Arno's spine.
"Nothing." He finally, pulling himself out of the hole in the wall. "Let's go."
"That was a lot of time spent looking for it to just be nothing." Jonah commented as arno turned to leave the room. He seemed hesitant to leave, but he followed anyways. "What was the light?"
"I donno. Maybe a small chemical spill. Either way we're better off not going down there." He reached the stairs to the door, and held it open for himself and Jonah as they passed through.
"Well, this was fun! I like this place, we should come here again sometime, there's got to be more to this place!" Arno caught the door before it closed, peering past the darkness, towards the strange green light.
"Yeah. I'm sure there is." He let go, and the door closed with a click.
"I can't believe you go to Kadic as well! That really is some coinkydink." Arno leaned against the brick wall that surrounded the old vending machine, struggling to keep himself anchored to reality. The images of that computer in the depths of the factory still haunted and intrigued him, and only Jonah (and his incessant conversations) kept him from drifting back into his thoughts.
"Mhm." Arno mumbled in response, looking through the options that the vending machine had to offer.
"Do you have your schedule yet?"
"Not yet."
"I do. I think I'm going to like my class lineup this year! I have a couple of science classes, english, lunch-"
'Right."
"And P.E.! English is going to be really easy though, it's my first language actually! Did you know that? I bet you thought that French was my first language, since I speak it so well!"
"Hm." Arno tapped one of the vending machine buttons, labeled "hot chocolate" with old making tape.
"So english is going to be super easy. You speak french pretty good too! Is it your first language?"
"No." The liquid dispensed into a cup, the steam quickly rising up towards Arno, who leaned in to catch its scent. It did not smell like hot chocolate.
"Really? What was your first language then?"
"Urdu. A bit of english." He replied, lifting the cup half full of the strange liquid. He scrunched his nose upon catching the scent again. It somehow smelled worse than it did before.
"Oh that's so cool! So what brings you here? Are you a transfer student too?"
"No." He lifted the cup to his mouth, cooling it down a bit before taking a sip of the drink, and immediately coughing it back up while he handed the cup to Jonah, who continued to talk all the while. The liquid, while not scalding, still burnt his tongue, and he had a feeling the burning was more from the rancid taste than the temperature.
"Hey, don't we have some sort of assembly before school today?"
"Yeah, we do." Arno spat the vile liquid out, onto the gravel. "It starts in about 10 minutes. I think."
"We should start for the gym then! Let's find our place before everybody else gets there!" Jonah took a few steps away from the machine, facing Arno and waving him over. "The early bird gets the worm!"
"No," Said Arno, waving him off, "I have to grab a few things from my dorm first. I'll be there soon."
"Oh, alright. I'll see you there then!" Jonah took off with a skip in his step, and Arno watched him until he was hidden from view, past the administrative building. He waited for a minute, watching, almost expecting him to pop out from behind the buildings again. He never did, and Arno breathed a sigh of relief. For the moment, he allowed himself to absorb the peace and quiet. Compared to the constant chattering of Jonah, the distant whispers of conversations that reached his ears barely bothered him.
He waited for longer, watching as more and more students began to make their way to the gym. Eventually, he decided to walk there as well. He took one step, then stopped. After a moment's pause, he lifted his hands up to his hood, and dragged it off of his head. His face met sunlight for the first time in what felt like a month. His light brown skin was knicked with old scars along his forehead and left cheek, his dark eyes were almost hollow and his curly hair was disheveled, and cut unevenly. He quickly debated with himself if he should put his hood back on, but decided against it. Taking note of the looks he received, he made his way to the gym after the other students.
The gym had been transformed into an assembly room for the morning. Row after row of chairs had been set out, and commemorative streamers and banners lined the walls. The stage was set for the principal to speak, and for the students to remain silent. When Arno had found the seat that would suit him, one in the back corner away from prying eyes, he sat down, and tried to relax.
"Hey there!" Came a voice from his left. Arno closed his eyes and sighed.
"Hello Jonah." He replied flatly, not even turning his head to the boy who had seemingly popped up out of nowhere.
"Did you find what you needed to get from your dorm? You got it pretty fast!"
"Yeah, I found it."
"Awesome! Today is going to be a great day, I can already tell!" Arno didn't respond, his eyes attaching to a figure who climbed the stairs that led to the stage. He was elderly, walking with a cane with one hand shoved into his pocket. He wore a dark brown sweatshirt with white diamond patterns above a white collared button down shirt. His hair had long since begun to turn grey, with large splotches intermixed with brown, held above his head by a sort of white bandana.
"I think the assembly is starting." Arno noted, as the man approached the microphone. He tapped it, sending feedback through the speakers, but then rested his free hand on the microphone stand.
"Uh, testing, testing." He growled into the mic. "Is this thing on?" The audience murmured an affirmative response. "Alright, good." He coughed into his sleeve. "Now then, I don't want to hear a peep out of you youngsters while the principal is talking, you hear? I might be old, but that doesn't mean anything." He then lifted his cane from stage, waving it in the air for a few seconds before putting it back down. "I've been the groundskeeper for Kadic for almost 30 years now, and that's not going to change anytime soon. So if any of you troublemakers start getting smart with the rules, you'll answer to me." Some of the students laughed, others didn't even seem to care, although the laughter didn't go unnoticed. "Oh laugh it up, go ahead. But we'll see who's laughing when half of you go to detention for the first week of school!"
Before he could continue, another figure walked onto the stage. She was taller, and much slimmer than the man who stood at the mic. She wore a black suit and tie over a white button down shirt, and a draped skirt that fell to her feet. Her auburn hair reached to the middle of her back, held back by a black hairband. Her demeanor was warm, inviting even, and she walked towards the man, her heels clicking with each step. She tapped him on the shoulder, and spoke to him in a hushed voice, ushering him gently away from the mic. When he had taken a few steps away, she took his place, and removed the device from its stand.
"Welcome, everyone, to Kadic Academy!" She announced. "To those who haven't been here before, my name is Elisabeth, and I am the principle of Kadic Academy. I bid all of you, both old and new, a warm welcome to this place of learning. Here, you will not only learn more about the world around you, math, science, writing and art, but you will also learn more about yourselves, and those around you. This life is a journey, and I'm excited to see how all of you grow and mature throughout this walk of life."
She continued to walk, and Arno looked around. Many of the students looked excited, others looked weary and tired. As she spoke, he could no longer keep himself out of his thoughts. That computer, that room, that factory. His stomach twisted. He had to know more. Something like that couldn't be ignored for long.
He looked to his left, where Jonah sat, swinging his legs back and forth with a smile on his face. Perhaps he could evade his attention after school today, at least for long enough for him to sneak away. Then and there, it was decided. After school ended, he would wait to make sure that he wouldn't be followed, and he would return to the factory once again.
End of Part One
Author's notes: I'm going to have one of these after almost every story for these first few parts, and then more throughout the length of the rest of the story. If you couldn't tell, this story will be considerably darker than the original. There will be cursing throughout, there will be some pretty dark themes throughout, and there will be some actual character development as well. That means no love drama for four whole seasons as if you didn't just learn the importance of communication and transparency two episodes ago. It will start off tame, but nearing the end of the story, it will get darker. I'm already working on part two, and hopefully, that'll be out sometime soon. Maybe sometime this week if work doesn't completely overwhelm me.
I'm going to drop this link here as well: /BlueWing10
This is a donation link for any of you kind souls who would like to gift me a few pennies from time to time, (although donations of $10,000 aren't going to go unappreciated, just throwing that out there) because bills are tough, rent is tough, and I require food to live. Mainly wattaburger. That's my comfort food right there. The donations will be used to help fund the following:
A) my livelihood. (?)
B) my personal projects that I would love to continue to work on.
C) Food. And lots of it. I'm a hungry boy.
Also, leave a comment if you liked it! It'll probably start off a bit slow, but once things pick up, they will pick the hell up. Honestly, comments and likes and votes are going to help keep me motivated for when I lose confidence in my abilities, or when the real world gets me down, so don't hesitate to comment! And remember, for my stories, and all others, keep the criticism constructive, like Torbjorn before his inevitable rework.
Most author notes won't be this long, but since this is the first story, I wanted y'all to get a glimpse into the personality that'll hopefully be entertaining you with these stories for years to come. I hope you enjoyed reading, and enjoy your day.
P.S.- the cover is a work in progress. That's just a placeholder, but hey, if any of y'all artistic type like my work and feel like making a cool cover for me, hit me up yo.
/BlueWing10