3: Questions Answered With Questions
Come English, Will's mind was far too preoccupied by weird occurrences and his feelings for Ariel, who was a large fan of weird occurrences, to pay attention to the teacher going on about Shakespeare's Sonnets, even if he shared a first name with the legendary playwright. Ariel was sitting next to him, which was normal, although it still made him excited, however lame that might sound. Halfway through the class she passed him a folded up piece of paper, which he discreetly unfolded under his desk. It was a drawing of a tall man with floppy hair and a blue scribble in the corner surrounded by question marks. Will smiled, folded it back up and slipped it into his pocket.
The next few periods passed like any other school day and he was relieved when the bell rang for lunch. Closing his locker door after putting his books away and taking out his lunch, he turned to find…. no one. Which was odd, as Astrid would always turn up behind his locker door at the start of recess and lunch. Figuring that she would turn up next to him at some point during lunch, he went outside and sat down on a bench at the edge of the oval. He stared intently at the place he had spotted the blue object, but there was still nothing there. He sighed, bored and turned his attention to his lunch. Time passed slowly and half an hour later he was still sitting by himself when he heard the same sound he had heard earlier, a noise like the groaning of engines. Snapping out of his dull daze, he started and stood up rapidly. The sound was coming from behind him and he ran off in its direction excitedly. Following the sound he came expectantly to… the storage room. Thinking it was a funny place for the blue object to appear; he shrugged, glad to have some sort of lead, and opened the door. Closing it behind him so as not to arouse suspicion, he found himself plunged into darkness. He fumbled for the light switch and a single light dangling from the roof flicked on, revealing the blue object at the back of the room. He approached it slowly, running his eyes over it wondrously. It was a 1960's style London police box, not something you found very often these days. He recognized it from when the History teacher was talking about the 60's and he was actually paying attention. Another indication was the large sign on top that said POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX in large white letters. For such an out-of-date object which held little to no interest to him, the police box had Will transfixed. It seemed mysterious, almost otherworldly in nature. He reached out his hand, his fingers tingling with anticipation, and placed it on the front of the police box. It was wooden, like it should have been, but something still didn't sit right with him. Reaching towards the door handle, he moved to pull it open, as directed by the sign on the door which read:
There was a sign on the other door for St. John's Ambulance but he wasn't quite sure why that was there. He didn't have much time to ponder this, let alone pull the doors open, when a sudden voice from behind him caused him to spin around in fright.
"I wouldn't bother trying to open that, you need a key."
The speaker was shrouded in shadow, but he could make out floppy hair and a bow tie, which indicated to him that this was the very same man he had seen last night. He held a round silver key up to the light, which Will desperately wanted to snatch out of his hand, as he was sure unlocking the door to the police box would unlock the mystery of the previous night and this mysterious man who now stood before him, just out of the light.
"Who are you?" Will asked, straining to make out the features of this elusive man.
"Oh, just a mad man with a box."
And with that, there was a brief flash of green light from something the man was holding in his hand, accompanied by a high pitched electrical noise, and the room was plunged back into darkness. Before he could comprehend what had happened, there was a sound of the police box doors opening and closing and the noise like the groaning of engines and when Will clumsily flicked on the light again, the police box was gone, taking the mysterious man with it.