Chapter Two:

Break In

There are moments in life where people wish they had done something differently. In the hours following this one particular event that was about to happen to them, both Rachel and Will wished more than anything that they had the gift of hindsight and that they had used it. If only for this one night could they have possessed such a talent of seeing into the future to determine their choices, they would have used it and made their choices of what was going to happen and make the outcomes of their lives very different. As it was, neither of them had such a power and they had gone ahead with what they wanted to do without much care or concern of any negative outcomes. After all, certain things only really happen in films, movies, plays and books. They don't really happen in real life. But of course, if they didn't happen in real life, then why would they happen in fiction? When the ideas of fantasy are endless, the possibilities in reality are not so stretched and wide. Where for most people the sky isn't a limit and in actual fact it might be a little smaller, for some it is the limit and they can play with that. That's why there are authors and film makers. It is up to them to think of ideas and make them visible for everyone else to see them and share them. But are there some ideas that are just too dreadful for fiction? One hundred years ago? Maybe. Now? Absolutely not. The sky is most definitely not the limit for today's creative minds. But not even the most creative of minds could have constructed such a series of events.

In their classroom at half passed six in the evening on a Monday in the middle of October, Glee Club Director and Spanish teacher William Schuster and senior student and future Broadway legend Rachel Berry were surrounded by darkness. They were rehearsing and preparing, getting better and better for their competition, when the music from their CD player stopped with a whizzing scratch sound and the lights all turned out with a dull pop. It was semi-clear of what had happened: either a power cut or someone had just turned all the lights off. Mr Schuster – being a practical person – thought that it was most likely the first choice. Just his luck, a power cut had happened just as he was helping a really talented and promising student. Still he wasn't worried. The school hadn't had a power cut before, however he was sure he would be able to fix it. The problem was, Rachel was not at all happy about it.

His ambitious student was not just passionate about learning and becoming a star of the stage, she was also passionate about things 'just going right'. The power cut instantly annoyed her, and she stomped her foot and huffed loudly, crossing her sweater covered arms across her body. "Well this is certainly irritating," she announced, stumbling over to the CD player to press the 'stop' button so the wires of the player and the actual CD wouldn't get ruined due to its abrupt stopping. Will sighed and nodded his head, walking over to the light switch and flicking it on to just to see if it was a case of a whole school blackout or just a circuit fuse. He didn't really know much about electricity, but he knew that a circuit was easy to fix than having to rewire the entire school. Then, just as he was about to tell a rambling Rachel that everything would be okay and they would just had to stop rehearsing and go home, a worrying thought came into his head: how would they get out?

As part of an at the time new security programme a few years back, the school had been fitted with electronic front and back doors. If they made it to one of these doors, they wouldn't be able to get out. If all of the electrics in the school had gone out, then they wouldn't be able to leave without somehow breaking or overriding the system. And he certainly knew nothing about that and was adamant that Rachel didn't either! They would be stuck to try and find a fire exist, which would be possible but difficult due to the winding halls and corridors. Besides, what if they did use a fire exit. Could they into trouble and cause the fire brigade to come out? But Will shook this idea out of his head: he was positive the fire officers would forgive them for letting off a false alarm for the sake of their safety.

Having thought everything over, Will moved over to Rachel, who sat at the piano again and playing the same light tune she was playing before. It was different this time, purely because Rachel was annoyed and therefore she hit some of the key harder than they were supposed to be hit, therefore making the sound come out a lot harsher than necessary. Sighing he leaned his elbows on the top of the shiny black (although now almost invisible) top of the piano. "Bad news Rach," he sighed casually, knowing how annoyed she was going to be at their cut rehearsal. "The power's out so we're going to have to either be stuck in here or go and find a fire exit so we can go home." Even though he could see it, thanks to his eyes adjusting to the lack of light, Will heard Rachel's angry huff at the inconvenience the power cut was to her. "Well this is just irritating," she said again, banging on the key in annoyance. Will chuckled at her and held out his hand so she wouldn't trip over the leg of the stool or the piano. He marvelled, once she took his hand, how strange it was that the room barely changed from day to day and yet without the light they suddenly couldn't remember where anything was; including the frustrating realisation that Will couldn't remember where the nearest fire exit was! And due to the lack of lighting in the halls, it would increasingly difficult to find.

As he was leading Rachel carefully to her backpack and coat, Will asked; "Rachel do you have your phone?" She nodded her head and said that it was in her coat pocket. As it happened, Will had somehow left his phone at home. He rarely used it, but it was one of those annoying things that people living in this day and age do. This would be another event of his day that the invention/power of hindsight would have come very useful. The 'what ifs' and 'if onlys' of this situation would have been; 'if only he had taken the time to get his phone off the nightstand'. Still, as annoying as it is, these things are only thought of and realised once the event (or leading up to the event) happens. "Here we go!" Rachel announced yet again (a trait and characteristic she did a lot) and held up her phone. However, just as she was about to turn it on, a shattering clash and crash near to their classroom startled her (and Will) and she dropped her phone.

With the result of the crash of her phone, it shattered and parts of the phone were sent scattered around the room. When her startled, wildly beating heart calmed down, Rachel let out a whispered question of; "What was that crash?" Suddenly feeling like he was in one of the horror movies he loved to watch, Will replied in the same whispered volume and accidental added tone of suspicion and fright; "I don't know." Then the puzzling fear actually settled for them. They were alone. They had to be. The janitor had given Will the key for the front entrance. Will had told Finn that he was in charge of making sure the front entrance of the school was closed completely so he could get out but not let anyone else in. The weather reports had suggested any gale force winds or storms…so the noise could have come from an animal? But the crash was inside, not outside, so that only left one possibility: they were not alone.

Thinking on his feet, Will knew he had to be responsible. There was no way they would be able to find Rachel's battery for her phone in the dark and he didn't have one. The window at the top of the classroom didn't provide enough light for them to see and was too small even for Rachel to climb out of – even if she were wearing pants. "Rachel," he whispered again, not sure why but once he had started he couldn't stop. "I think someone else is in the school right now-"

"Mr Schue, please don't try to scare me!" Rachel pleaded in a very real and very scared voice. She wasn't acting but for once Will wished she was. Next to her – as they still had not moved from one another – Will nodded his head and felt for her hand. He was instructing her to stay low. Like in a hurricane or a tornado or whatever weather disaster they had to prepare for, Will wanted Rachel on the ground so that they could stay sill and small on the chance that whoever had broken in wouldn't come looking for them. It was what always happened in horror movies and books: just when the characters thought they were safe, the monster shows up and they have to start running for their lives. Really they should stay on their feet if that were the case, but Will was sure nothing bad would happen to them. No awful crime really happened in this town anyway. In fact, the school being broken into would probably be the worse public crime for a long time. There were a few personal crimes but nothing that was a real cause for concern.

As these thoughts crossed his mind, Will settled next to Rachel on his stomach. He could feel Rachel reach behind herself and tug on her skirt so it would go longer and covered herself with her coat. Her skirt must have ridden up and she wanted to follow his silent command of to stay on the floor. To make light of the fact he knew what she was doing, Will reached behind himself and helped her adjust the coat so it wasn't so tangled whilst whispering; "Don worry Rachel, one of the benefits of the darkness is that no one can see your legs!" He smiled kindly at her and she smiled back, allowing the blush of her cheeks to calm down. "Thank you Mr Schuster," she whispered back to him and then sighed, speaking with a hint of worry, "I just hope they don't come in here." Will nodded his head in agreement, but once again tried to reassure her. "Don't worry Rachel, they won't come in here. Why would they when-" But just as he was about to say that there was nothing in the room to steal, the lights turned back on and with that, so did the CD player.

To their shock, the song they were practicing to suddenly bellowed out of the speakers. Rachel's eyes widened again at the realisation that she mustn't have pressed 'stop' at all and pressed some other button. The room was flooded with light and noise and the two of them were frozen to their spot on the ground by the stacked up chairs. Rachel gripped onto the ends of her sweater and Will pressed his hands onto the floor. Their ears strained over the noise of the music as they heard the very distinctive sound of male voices: too deep and gruff to be even the senior football players! They were surprised and angry, that much could be heard. Then, they heard the sounds of their feet. They were heavy and loud and angry. Beside him, Rachel was panicking. As far as she was aware, her house had never been broken into. Their car was once, but her dad Leroy came out of the house wearing nothing but sweatpants, brandishing a baseball bat (typically) and yelled at them to go away. They'd been harassed due to the fact they were a gay couple in a slightly backward thinking town, but Rachel had never witness a break in. Will was a little more experienced with it, since his first apartment after college was broken into a few weeks after he moved in. But then he was annoyed, now he was scared. Probably because he had to not only protect himself but his student too.

Thinking as fast as he could, he ordered Rachel to stand up. He took her by her forearm and lifted her up. "What are we doing?" She asked, looking at him with yet again more expressions of real fright, and tried to decipher what he was thinking. But, like in all horror movies, there wasn't much they could do. Will looked around his almost memorised classroom and realised there was only one exit. And that exit was now filled. Together they stood side by side and were met with three smirking, smug faces.

"Well, well, well," the smallest man – but clearly the leader – of the trio said, cackling a little. He stepped forward, being flanked by his two criminal companions. Clicking his neck he raised his eyebrow and pointed his long, sharp knife at the frightened, frozen pair and smiled; "What have we here?"