I looked around, still in shock. Since I'd been here with Jenny the place had changed completely. The old furniture had been cleared to the side and there seemed to be dust everywhere. In front of me the ceiling had just fallen in, of course, but the rest of the walls looked just as wobbly, like they could fall at any time. It definitely wasn't safe here.
I could still hear them outside, though Jody seemed to have disappeared. I sat down on the dusty ground, trying to get my head round what had just happened. It seemed like they'd forced Jody to pretend to be in trouble, but had they planned this? Why would they do that? To annoy me, of course, but it still didn't make sense...
"Right," I heard Luke say, "We've got the tablet, we've got the password, now let's do our stuff."
I listened, confused. They couldn't do much except deleting that video, could they? Then, suddenly, I realised. At the dumping ground there was only one computer, which meant we all knew each other's passwords. The plan hadn't been to get me here, it had been to find out my password. And now they had it, they could get into all my internet accounts, social media pages, probably get me back for what I'd done to Thomas and Matt's accounts.
"What are you doing?" I demanded, clambering over the rubble and hammering on the door again. I heard them laugh.
"Oh, not much." Thomas called. "Just sending a few emails, putting up some stuff... Isn't it great how Jody knew the passwords of everyone at your care home? And now I've managed to "persuade" Jody to tell us them all, there's nothing we can't do!"
I sighed; this was terrible, of course. But after everything that had happened, somehow I couldn't find it in myself to care. I didn't want everyone getting hurt, but in a way I'd known something like this would happen, and I was starting to get fed up of caring, of getting upset about everything. What was the point if there was nothing I could do about it? And in a way, I'd known something like this would happen. But I couldn't be bothered giving Thomas the satisfaction of knowing he'd upset me again. That was what he wanted.
I don't know how long I sat there, just thinking, tired of everything. It wasn't safe where I was, under the staircase, but I didn't care. What could I do, anyway? There was no way out. I could still hear Thomas and the others, vaguely, but they'd obviously gone somewhere safer. Probably given up trying to annoy me.
I thought about them again. Why was I letting them win, now? Shouting wouldn't be any use, and hammering at the door would probably cause the whole building to collapse. There had to be another way. I looked round dubiously, but there didn't seem to be anything. The only opening was the place where the ceiling had come down, above the door, and I couldn't risk that... could I?
I thought about it again. It wasn't like I had anything left to lose; by this point, I didn't care what happened to me. I went over, standing on the rubble. The room was small, and if I stood on the largest chunk of ceiling I could just reach the top wall.
I grabbed at it, wondering if it was possible to haul myself up. I was fairly agile, but I soon realised it would be impossible. I needed something higher to stand on... I looked round again and, seeing the old desks still in the corner, I dragged one over and hauled it on top of the fallen ceiling, then stood on top, praying it wouldn't fall off.
I was now high enough to clamber on to the roof of the cellar; this had been the floor of a corridor before most of it had been demolished; now it just led on to the old staircase, and then scaffolding.
I took a deep breath, then took a tentative step forward, careful not to make what I was standing on fall in too. I was shaking now, but it was too late to change my mind. Carefully, I walked across until, after what seemed like an age, I stood on top of the staircase. I looked around, trying to work out where Thomas and the others were; I couldn't see them anywhere. Then, looking up, I suddenly spotted them.
They were on the roof of the school, above the scaffolding, still holding the iPad, though they'd stopped doing stuff on it. As I looked up again at how high it was, I felt a jab of fear, but I ignored it; after everything else I'd done, this was no big deal. I walked up the steps leading through the different floors of scaffolding, trying to keep quiet so I wouldn't get spotted too quickly, but there were so many floors and steps that after a while my heart stopped racing and for the first time in ages I began to calm down; at least till I was about halfway to the top. Then got nervous again. I didn't know what I was going to do, or what was going to happen. I'd just have to hope that finally I could somehow get the better of Thomas Fletcher.
