When The Snow Falls

The sight confronting him was a collection of dust filled cobwebs swathing groups of lockers. The air smelt unpleasantly damp and musty. Daniel felt the uncontrollable urge to sneeze. It all added up to mean that no one had been inside for a long time.

Amien approached to look over his shoulder.

"There is a certain atmosphere to this place," he smirked and gestured at Harry who was looking very on edge.

Daniel stepped inside first with a series of sneezes. They all gathered in a circle in the centre of the lockers.

"If we are going by the Seven Mysteries we need to check all the staircases, the windows on the top floor, the music room and the science labs. The other three are outside so we can do those later," Oliver said, sounding more sure of himself now they were inside and the ceiling hadn't fallen down on them. "Should we go around in one big group or split into smaller ones?"

If Daniel remembered correctly, the mysteries related to the interior of the building were the twelve steps that became thirteen, the bloody face at the window on the top floor, the electrocuting bulb in the science lab and the piano in the music room.

"Splitting up means wasting the least amount of time," Amien answered instantly. "I suggest one sensible person a group."

The groups ended up being Daniel and Felix with Oliver and Harry and Meredith with Amien. Daniel's group were assigned the top floor whilst the others got the first two floors.

"We need to count these stairs first," Oliver said when they reached the foot of the first staircase.

There were nineteen exceedingly creaky and shaky steps. Daniel was careful to be on the watch for any missing steps or ones that were very weak.

"Nineteen steps is different to twelve steps," Felix noted as they walked up to the next flight which also had nineteen.

Daniel frowned. Maybe there wasn't anything in the Seven Mysteries after all. The stairs leading to the final floor looked enticingly shorter and Daniel allowed himself to feel a little hope that it was not all a waste of time. They counted together and exchanged looks once they were at the top.

There were twelve steps.

"So this one could be true!" Oliver exclaimed happily. "The thirteenth step is supposed to be a dead body."

That sounded horribly morbid to Daniel. He looked over at Felix who was squinting at the ceiling. He shone his own torch at the ceiling and realised why Felix was interested in it. It was a very low ceiling which explained the lower number of stairs. It was certainly an inconsistent building.

"We need to check all the windows next so that means going in all the rooms. I hope they aren't locked," the Mystery Club leader said worriedly.

"What classrooms were up here?" Felix asked before using his torch to check the nameplate on the nearest door. "Cinema Club?"

Daniel shone his torch on the other doors they could see and noticed they were all names of clubs.

"It looks like all the clubrooms were on this floor," he observed. "I wonder if the Mystery Club meeting room will be here too."

He opened the door of the Cinema Club's room and took a look inside. The chairs were neatly pushed under the tables and were covered in spider webs. There was a DVD case left on the desk at the front of the room. It gave the impression that the room was vacated in a hurry.

"It matches what the caretaker told us," he said out loud. "Everything was left as it was."

"It does look like it," Oliver agreed. "I didn't know that Tatsuaki was that talkative though. Did you manage to understand his strong accent?"

Strong accent? Daniel frowned. Tatsuaki had a strong English accent that had made him very easy to understand. Oliver was English so he should be in the same boat.

"Don't you mean the strong English accent?" Felix asked.

Oliver shook his head. "No, he has a really strong Japanese accent. Not that I've heard him speak a lot. He usually just walks past with his head down."

Oliver's description matched with what Meredith had said. It was just it was all the opposite of what he and Felix had encountered. That added one more strange thing to the growing list of strange things about the case. Did that mean Tatsuaki could not be trusted? He had given them the key and contact information for Lily Emberry after all so he hadn't hindered them, he had helped them.

"We're supposed to meet Amien and the others in twenty minutes so we need to move on," Oliver told him and waved his phone at him to show the time.

Daniel put the Tatsuaki issue to the back of his mind and followed Oliver out. The Chess Club was next and only revealed dusty chess pieces that had rolled into the skirting boards and lots of chess sets in the cupboards. The Literature Club and Maths Club rooms provided nothing as well. The Mystery Club room was the next door.

Daniel turned the handle and took a tentative glance inside. If there were going to be any clues, this was the most likely place.

The layout of the tables in this room was quite different to their current classroom and the room seemed to be bigger than the Maths Club room next door. The tables were arranged in a horseshoe around the whiteboard at the front. The wall was covered in posters of famous detectives which spanned several countries and eras. Sherlock Holmes was the first one he recognised. Others were Poirot, Maigret and Ellery Queen.

Considering the lack of time Daniel tried to decide on the most likely place something would be hidden. He went for the chairs first to check under them. Not that there was much under them besides chewing gum. Felix followed his example and checked under the tables. Daniel was under the desk at the front when he found something. Written on the underside of the desk in black marker was 'Room 23' and 'Shelling Ford'. Daniel took a photo on his phone in case either of them meant something. By this point, Oliver had gone to check the other clubrooms by himself.

Next he peered into all the cupboards. This was the most difficult task due to the poor light. He resorted to trying to sense abnormalities in texture by touch. He was about to give up when Felix joined him.

"I think there's a corner of a sheet of paper sticking out by your hand."

Daniel felt a smooth texture right at the bottom of the cupboard right by the wall and gripped it with his nails to pull it out. The piece of paper was brown and uncannily similar to the colour of the wood used for the cupboards. He shone his torch on the piece of paper.

It was a grainy old photograph of the exterior of the old building before it had all been boarded up. The most important point was the face at the window on the top floor. It looked like a mask. One of the Seven Mysteries was a bloody face at the window. He turned the photo over to check if there was anything on the back.

'Mask looks like one owned by drama club- investigate' was written in an untidy scrawl.

Now he knew the source of that mystery. The Seven Mysteries sounded like they were deliberately created for a reason.

"Daniel?" Oliver called from the doorway. "Are you two finished yet? I've checked all the other rooms."

Daniel placed the photo in his pocket and left the clubroom with Felix. He was sure he had found anything that could be found.

They met up with the others by the entrance. Meredith was sneezing profusely and muttering about dust and Harry's hair looked grey in torchlight whilst Amien looked the same as he had before they had split up to search.

"What happened to you?" Oliver asked Harry.

"Someone had to check all the lights- that person turned out to be me," he explained with a groan. "Amien wouldn't do it. The power is off here so we wouldn't know if they could electrocute anyone anyway."

"It was a fruitless search," the oldest member agreed. "The music room was the same. The piano was out of tune and certainly did not play by itself."

"We were more successful," Oliver informed him with a smug smile. "There were twelve steps on the set leading to the top floor. We went in the old Mystery Club room as well."

That got everyone's attention for different reasons.

"That's interesting about the stairs," Amien said thoughtfully whilst Harry and Meredith were more excited about the clubroom.

"Was it better than our room?" Meredith wanted to know.

"Of course. It's a room decided to the Mystery Club and not just some classroom we have to use."

Amien sighed. "Right, we need to get a move on. The next three are the statue outside, the cherry blossom tree and the well. I know where two of them are. Let's be quick about it, it is one o'clock and I want to get some sleep tonight. I have a test tomorrow."

They all left the building without protest. Felix replaced the padlock and locked it again. Amien led them around the side of the building and shone his torch around.

"The statue is around here somewhere," he said and pointed ahead. "There is it is. It used to be whiter."

The statue was marble and in the dim light, it looked like an angel holding a delicate sword in her hands. Daniel felt like he had seen something like that sword before.

"Naturally there is not a dead body hanging from it. This used to be where the smokers sneaked cigarettes. I think they would have reported a dead body."

"Where is the well?" Daniel questioned.

He couldn't see anything off about the statue apart from the familiarity of the sword. Perhaps it was merely a generic angel statue.

"At the back. It might be covered in weeds now- we were told that going anywhere near it meant a detention and taking the cover off meant immediate expulsion without appeal. It was in the school rule book."

The threat of expulsion made it sound like there was definitely something hidden there. The well had moss growing up the side and looked ordinary until Daniel noticed all the warning signs in red writing that were nailed into the stonework. The dark light made all the signs look even more ominous.

"I refuse to be the one to take the cover off in case we get caught," Amien made sure to say.

Daniel sighed and gave it an experimental push. It was a little stuck and he couldn't move it by himself. Felix joined him and together they pulled the cover off. Daniel shone his torch down the well and saw nothing except darkness.

"We need more light to see the bottom," Felix said after adding the use of his torch.

Daniel looked back at the others who were standing awkwardly a metre away.

"You aren't going to get expelled," he said. "No one knows we're here."

Meredith came to join them whilst the others stayed standing.

"You've all broken into school property and trespassed, this is not going to add much," Daniel commented.

That persuaded them all to come and help illuminate the well. The light was powerful enough to show something.

"Is that-" Meredith looked queasy.

"I think it is," Oliver answered sounding similarly ill.

At the bottom of the well, the outline of something that looked like a skull was visible.