When The Snow Falls

"Where is the old canteen?" Daniel asked.

He did remember it being mentioned on his tour. Liam had said it was out of bounds and anyone caught trespassing would get worse than a detention. Based on that and what George had said, it had to be the right place.

He was keen to explore as soon as possible. The longer he left investigating it, the more pupils were going to return to school and it was going to be easier to get caught investigating. The Pudding Club would probably meet on a weekday rather than a weekend and he wanted to go there when it was certain that they weren't going to be meeting there.

"It's the separate building behind the humanities department. It closed down because of Ben," Sunny explained.

All Daniel knew about Ben's past work incidents was the food poisoning one. That shouldn't warrant building a new canteen.

"What happened?"

George sighed heavily. "The deep fat fryer was left unattended and overfilled. He always protests that he had the situation under control and the fire wasn't that bad. Apparently, it wasn't need a whole new building bad."

"I see," Daniel said doubtfully. "Why is it still there then?"

It did seem strange to keep a fire damaged building around that might collapse at any time. Then again, if the heating and plumbing had never been updated it wouldn't seem like a stretch that they would keep the old building.

"The old canteen was much bigger than the current one and had different areas. The school board are constantly discussing converting it into something else or having it demolished," Sunny told him. "For a while they were planning on making into a recreational area, then someone else said it was too modern and that's why nothing's happening."

That description of the school board sounded realistic to Daniel. It explained why everything seemed to be stuck in the past.

"What parts of it remain structurally sound?" Daniel asked.

He might get a clue as to what it was actually being used for. Cooking was definitely off the cards though. A deep fat fryer fire would have blown out the kitchen first.

"The kitchen at the back is completely gone," George said. "The nearest seating area as well. The toilets were fine because they were on the opposite side. The cl.u.s.ter of sofas by the door are fine as well. That's all I can tell you."

"The fire happened two years ago so some of the building might have deteriorated afterwards," Sunny added.

It did sound like the perfect place for a secret society to meet. It was out of sight, parts of it were still useable and people assumed that it was too dilapidated to enter.

"It must be freezing in there," George said with a shiver.

Daniel was in agreement. Either the secret society wrapped themselves up with blankets, hot water bottles and heat packs or what they were doing was more important than the temperature.

Sunny picked up a fairy cake and munched on it thoughtfully.

"What could they be doing in there?" she asked out loud.

"It's the inner sect of the Pudding Club so it could be anything," Daniel told her and glanced at the cakes doubtfully. "Did you make the cakes?"

He wasn't sure about eating cake that might have been made by Ben. They appeared simple enough: plain cake with glacé icing and sugar strands. Cake was a low risk product for food poisoning, but he was unwilling to chance it. It would be ironic if it was Ben's cooking that defeated him rather than the prefects. Was that more ironic than his first death being caused by a cat? He didn't want to think too deeply about that one.

George snorted. "If Ben had made them, they would be a pile of cake crumbs on a plate. No, Sunny made them."

That allayed Daniel's fears about getting food poisoning so he picked one up to take a bite.

"It's something to do with the Pudding Club?" Sunny asked. "I don't know about an inner sect, but I know that the normal one meets in the Food Technology kitchen. Ben told me that he offered to make some puddings for them and was rapidly turned down."

Strangely enough, Daniel could understand why they would turn down Ben's offer. Then he remembered that he'd had to find out about the Pudding Club from his father. Sunny hadn't mentioned Felix being a member.

"Did you know that Felix is a member?"

Sunny shook her head. "I only know what he told me and he never mentioned it. I would have told you otherwise."

That was interesting. It could mean several things. Felix might have not wanted to prolong conversations with Sunny by bringing up a new subject. It could also indicate that he wasn't particularly happy with being a member and had wanted to avoid discussing it. Then again, if he'd actually been making the pudding for over a year, he had to enjoy it to some degree.

"Jack made him join," George informed them out of the blue. "He wanted protection."

Both Daniel and Sunny turned to look at George who now had icing around his mouth and was chomping down a fairy cake.

"How did you know that?" Sunny demanded. "You're not supposed to speak to pupils either."

George grinned widely.

"I was weeding one of the flowerbeds last spring and he came to admire the flowers. He started talking to me and mentioned that Felix prevented him from being bullied like the others. That's why when he joined, he wouldn't go unless Felix went with him."

It was the same as the information Annabelle had given him and it backed up some of Christopher's information. Scholarship students weren't usually treated well, but Felix had been popular enough to avoid any bullying. Being with Felix had afforded Jack some protection against the bullying.

It was likely that some pupils had resented that. Daniel wondered if that was why Jack had been pulled into the inner circle. If Felix hadn't been invited, he wouldn't have been there to defend him. He was beginning to get a handle on the situation.

"I know that the secret society does something criminal, do you two have any idea what it could be?"

Their ideas would be useful because they lived on school grounds and probably saw some interesting things.

Sunny and George exchanged looks.

"The alcohol part is taken care of by a fake ID used at the off license down the road," Sunny explained. "At the moment, the older students use a fake ID to buy alcohol there and bring it back for their friends."

"The thing is, they don't actually need the ID. The owner would sell it to them anyway," Felix sniggered. "The penny hasn't dropped yet."

The anecdote was amusing to Daniel as well. Reading about idiotic criminals had been a pastime in his previous life. Then he realised to be purchasing alcohol, they would have to leave the school grounds.

"So do they sneak out of school then?" he asked.

George patted him on the shoulder. To George it probably seemed like a light pat, to Daniel it was a forceful slap.

"Of course they do. You see, to get to school us two officially walk down the drive and out the front gates. We don't because the walk takes ages so we take a shortcut at the back. Once you're through the fence, you're out onto the main road."

This made Daniel realise how naive he'd been to assume that pupils would actually stay on the school grounds like they were supposed to. It was useful to know in any case. He might need a quick escape one day.

"Through the fence?" he questioned.

"George pulls up the fence panel so I don't have to climb over," Sunny explained. "I wear a skirt in the summer and it's become a habit to just lift it up so I don't have to climb over. He puts it back when we're on the other side. George is very strong and it's a very old fence so it's pretty easy. The ones sneaking out have to climb over the fence."

"That's good to know," he commented. "Is there anything else dodgy that you two know about?"

George flushed red. "I-"

"He knows about the Drama Club," Sunny interrupted. "What we need to do is brainstorm what rich young boys get up to in secret societies."

Daniel didn't know what to think about Sunny's terminology.

"I would have said rich asshats, but Daniel is here," she added.

Daniel snorted. He probably did match her impression of a rich asshat to a degree. His father in this life was an Earl after all.

George nodded slowly and then his face brightened up.

"They could be doing the same stuff that society that a former prime minister was in!"

Sunny gasped and Daniel blinked in surprise. He did remember something with a previous prime minister, private parts of his anatomy and a pig. It would have never crossed his mind to connect it to this secret society. He found himself unable to speak for a few seconds.

"They're sticking their uh, dangly bits into pigs' heads?" Sunny asked doubtfully once she had recovered the power of speech.

"Where would they get the pigs from?" Daniel questioned, deciding to not enquire about the most obvious part to ask about.

"The farm isn't that far away," George said. "It only takes a ten minute walk across the fields to get to. It's possible."

Daniel hesitated. Considering that he didn't have much to go on, George's theory was actually workable. There was a supply of pigs in close proximity and Felix had made Black Pudding which usually needed pig's blood. It was just that it was hard to avoid the gross mental image and consider it a society that would kill Jack and attempt to kill Felix to keep him quiet. He considered the once you join, you can't leave aspect. Most people would probably be too embarrassed about the sticking your willy in a pig's head part leaking out so it would be easy to keep people from leaving.

It was just that it sounded so ridiculous to believe.

"I hope it's not that," Sunny shuddered.

"I can't see it as being worth killing people over," Daniel agreed. "Interesting suggestion though."

He had to give George some credit. It did fit a lot of the criteria for the inner sect.

***

Sunday passed with no major events. Daniel remained on the lookout for any prefects trying to recruit him and put off filling in his application form. He ate roast dinner with Alvin who told him about the wonders of the Pudding Club again.

He wondered if the prefects were taking the day off and wouldn't start recruiting him until Monday.

A piece of blue coloured paper was pushed under his door on Monday morning whilst he was revising. He picked it up carefully, half expecting it to be a summons to the prefects' sitting room. Instead it was from the office informing that he had a parcel waiting for him.

Daniel perked up. It should be the winter boots and supply of chocolate from his mother. She had picked out them out and sent them fast considering he'd only asked on Friday.

He wrapped up warm and walked over to the office. It had snowed again and he was looking forward to wearing footwear that was suitable for the weather.

His first sign that something was wrong was the room number written below his name; he hadn't known his room number until he'd arrived. The address was a typed-out label that had been stuck on which was odd because it was a lot of trouble for his mother to go to when she could have just written it by hand. He signed for the parcel nonetheless and took it up to his room.

The parcel was wrapped in plastic so he pilfered Felix's scissors from his desk and cut it open. He began to feel a misgiving when he realised how light the parcel was considering that it was supposed to contain winter boots and chocolate.

Had someone else sent him something?

He guessed it could be from Annabelle as well. Daniel cut open the tape and opened the box to look inside. He fought back the urge to throw up when he saw what was waiting for him.

He'd found the missing cat from Felix's wardrobe.

It certainly wasn't his mother that had sent him a dead cat's head.

The stench of blood and dead cat wafted over him and he forced himself to get a closer look. The cat's body was missing along with its whiskers. There was a note propped against the bloody mess that was the cat's head.

Daniel held his breath and reached his hand inside to pick up the note so he could read it. His hand brushed against the matted fur for a second and he tried not to puke. The mutilated cat beat anything he had never seen in his previous life.

The note was written in blood and asked a question.

'Does meow meow have whiskers?'