Secrets Are For Keeping

Chapter Thirty-Two

Kain's plan was much simpler than I'd expected.

Maybe when Kain had said plan I'd automatically thought that it would've had to be complex so that we could actually make it out, but it was much easier when he told me how he'd found a door that was never guarded.

"They never have enough guards to cover every single one so they leave this one door unguarded all the time, thinking that the guard from a door really close by would be able to hear if anyone even tried to exit. So really our only obstacle is that we have to be as quiet as possible," Kain explained in a whisper, making sure nobody nearby could hear.

I nodded my head in understanding. It wouldn't be hard at all since I was already really good at keeping quiet. "No shoes then...shoes would only increase the chance that we'll be heard."

"Actually, I was thinking we could bring one pair with us so that we could hold the door open with them."

"Okay, good idea," I replied, and then leaned over to start untying my shoelaces. "I'll bring mine..."

I was able to shove both my sneakers off when I'd untied them. I held them in one hand and then softly stood up, making sure not to disturb anyone nearby. By now, the lights were dimming even more which only happened right before they turned off completely.

"Ready," I whispered to Kain as darkness settled down on the room.

Kain nodded and stood up with me, shoes already off. Even as I knew that the plan would be nerve-racking to carry out, Kain was still smiling. I could barely smile back over the adrenaline rush I was getting from knowing I was about to do something possibly stupid and obviously risky.

We walked out of the darkening classroom and into the even darker hallway. As Kain had predicted, there were no guards. The doorway we needed to escape out of was only at the end of the hallway, although a guard would be standing on the adjoining hallway so we had to be careful.

Everything felt even more quiet once Kain and I had stopped talking. I stepped forward, pressing my back to the metal lockers on the side of the hallway that the classroom was on. It reminded me of only a couple nights before when I'd done the same thing in an attempt to see what had been the cause of the begging I'd heard.

Nothing happened for a couple seconds besides the fast breathing coming from my mouth. I glanced at Kain once, before I continued moving.

My feet pulled me across the tiled floor, closer to the metal doors waiting like a light at the end of a tunnel. I walked slowly down the hallway until I reached the point where the lockers ended and turned off into the next hallway. I slowly moved my head to the very edge of the corner and looked down the other hallway.

At the very end stood a guard, if he only turned to the right he'd see us going out the door. We had to be quiet enough so that he wouldn't even consider coming over to the door. Because even if we made it out the door, he could still come over to it and notice the shoe sticking out like a doorjamb. We couldn't allow that to happen.

I decided to just go for it, and tiptoed over to the door before my nerves could stop me. Kain followed right behind me as I put my hand to the metal handle. My fingers folded easily around it, and I carefully pulled down.

The handle was now in a vertical position and all I had to do was pull.

Then a new problem hit me: wouldn't the guard feel a blast of cold air, at least somewhat, from down the hallway?

But it was too late to be concerned with this because I'd already pulled the door open and slipped outside, closing it on the extra shoe just as Kain escaped.

We were outside.

My eyes immediately flew up to the sky.

Just as I'd seen only minutes before in Kain's notebook, I now saw the stars in the sky. They sparkled at random intervals, even more visible than usual since all of the lights in the school were off. Unlike Kain's drawing though, there were no swirls, no galaxies, no bursts of random color exploding on the page.

But it didn't matter how Kain's drawing was more detailed than this. Because Kain's drawing wasn't real and this...

...this was surreal. I'd never really looked up at the night sky too often, since most of the time my worries were on the ground, not up there. But looking up now hit me with regret that I'd never actually bothered to look up for a long period of time.

It was nothing.

It was darkness. An endless expanse of black nothingness with only stars and the moon shining in the distance. But the darkness always overshadowed the light. The darkness was all consuming, destructive.

Beautiful.

I turned around and saw Kain looking up at the stars just as I had. He looked over to me and gave me a smile that made him look happier than I'd ever seen him. Then he leaned back against the outside wall of the school, and slid to the ground, leaning his back against the wall as he continued staring up at the sky. I waved his hand in a "Come here" gesture, and I walked over to sit down next to him.

The grass was damp and cold when my pants hit it, but I didn't mind it. I was already once more too focused on the sky to really pay attention to anything else.

It was weird how huge it was, how even as I tried to take it all in, I couldn't. It was impossible to take in the entirety of it because it was just too big. My eyes couldn't stop looking around, couldn't stop finding every star and remembering different constellations that had been pointed out to me by Olivia, back when my parents had been alive, back when we'd been happy in an apartment with a world that wasn't so messed up that it'd gone as low as forcing everyone's thoughts into the open just to ensure safety.

Without realizing it, minutes passed, first five, then ten. But nobody came running out from the door with handcuffs flying ready to take us.

Soon, my mind completely forgot that I was even breaking rules.

It was just the night sky, Kain, and me.

And nothing else.