Miss Goodds Boarding School - Daily log: 572

1:23 — 13•12•2000

The scratching has started again. I know Mr. Walsh thinks I'm making it up as an excuse not to sleep, but it's so loud. It sounds like there's something trying to claw it's way into the dorm. I don't understand how the others can sleep through it.

2:48

The scratching stopped four minutes ago, sounds like whatever it is has left.

Jackson woke up and went into the hall four minutes ago, has yet to return. He will return, right?

5:49

I fell asleep at some point. Jackson appears to have returned. A few of the other boys are awake.

Breakfast is in two hours and I believe Mark is already heading to the showers, his two friends are going after him.

5:57

The gap between the wall and floor is a fingernail wider. Is it the fault of whatever is scratching at the walls?

11:37

Ciris joked that we should try and find out what is happening in the walls at night. Stay up late, try and see if we can slip into the wall somewhere.

13:12

Ciris wasn't joking.

15:37

We have a non-school approved expedition tonight. He's managed to gather some others to join us.

18:42

Dinner was the same. Kale and Snow Thorne soup with sourdough bread. Although we were also given strawberries. I didn't think strawberries grew in the winter. The kefir smoothies are still making me sick.

21:42

Lights out was 102 minutes ago, another sixteen before the expedition.

22:34

Ciris — 11A

Bramble — 11A

John — 12D

Symon — 13E

Maya — 12G

Hopefully we don't get in too much trouble.

23:47

It wasn't supposed to snow. It wasn't supposed to hale. I should have grabbed a thicker coat.

We've walked the perimeter of the school, no weird holes into the walls or secret doors. We're heading back in.

Is it wrong that I'm hoping the scratching starts, even just so I don't feel crazy anymore?

The scratching started while we were halfway across the courtyard.

Not from the dorm walls.

From beneath the snow.

It moved.

Not loud — not like before — but deliberate. A dragging, testing sound under the frozen ground. Ciris froze first. Maya grabbed my sleeve so tight my arm still aches.

Symon said it was probably pipes.

Pipes don’t change direction.

0:19

The snow near the east wing shifted. Not sinking — shifting sideways, like something was pushing just under the crust.

Bramble whispered that we should go inside. John said if we ran, whatever it was might chase.

I don’t know why that made sense, but none of us ran.

The scratching moved toward the foundation of the school.

Then it stopped.

0:27

We’re back inside now.

No one spoke on the way in.

The hallway feels narrower tonight. The gap between the wall and floor — the one in our dorm — is wider. Not by much. But enough that you can see darkness under it now.

Not shadow.

Darkness.

1:03

Ciris pressed his ear to the wall.

He says it sounds hollow.

He says it wasn’t hollow before.

Maya asked how he knows.

He didn’t answer.

1:41

The scratching has started again.

Only this time it’s not at the walls.

It’s above us.

Slow. Patient. Directly over our dorm ceiling.

There is no attic above our dorm.

2:06

Symon suggested we check the staircase to the maintenance crawlspace near the west stairwell. I didn’t even know we had one.

We stepped into the hall.

Jackson is standing at the far end.

Just standing there.

Facing the wall.

Not moving.

2:08

I whispered his name.

He didn’t turn around.

Ciris walked halfway down the hall and stopped.

There is a thin line running vertically along the wall Jackson is facing.

A seam.

It wasn’t there yesterday.

2:11

The seam widened.

Not fast. Just enough to notice.

Jackson leaned forward slightly, as if listening to something inside.

The scratching stopped above us.

It started behind the wall.

2:13

Maya told us to go back to the dorm.

No one argued.

Jackson is still standing there.

3:22

The scratching hasn’t resumed.

Jackson returned to bed at some point.

I don’t remember hearing him come in.

He is asleep now.

His fingernails are packed with dust. White dust. Like plaster.

There is dust on his pillow too.

5:55

The gap between the wall and floor is no longer a gap.

It’s a space.

You can fit your fingertip inside now.

Ciris says we shouldn’t tell Mr. Walsh yet. He says if we do, they’ll seal it.

Seal what?

7:02

Breakfast again. Kale and Snow Thorne soup.

Strawberries again.

In winter.

Jackson didn’t eat.

He keeps staring at the walls.

Sometimes he tilts his head, like he’s listening.

I don’t think he hears scratching anymore.

I think he hears something else.

And I think it’s answering him.