Under an Ancient Storm: Brandy, Calvin, and the Power of the Unknown

"How long have we been in here?"

"I don't know," Calvin replied. "It might have been hours, or days."

"That's not good." Brandy said. She took her hand out of her pocket and looked at the tiny blue star in the middle of her palm. The points of light around it were dim, but they were there. It was a small comfort in all this darkness, and she could feel her heart lift a bit simply by looking at it.

Calvin sighed. He was sitting on his desk, his arms folded across his chest. His feet were up on the chair beside him, and his head had drooped down between them. If she didn't know he was still awake she would have thought he was asleep.

She watched him for a while, wondering if he was thinking about their situation as much as she was. When she couldn't stand it anymore she walked over and sat down on the edge of his desk.

"You're worried about your dad, aren't you?" She asked quietly.

Calvin nodded without raising his head from his arms. "It's just so unfair," he said miserably. "Just when I'm finally starting to get on with him again, this has to happen." He lifted his head and looked at her, his eyes full of tears. "We haven't seen each other since Christmas," he explained. "He's never home anymore, and even when he is he's always so busy with work." He sniffed loudly and rubbed a hand over his eyes before continuing: "My mum says he's always like that these days - working late or going out to dinner with clients whenever he can." Calvin paused for a moment and stared at the floor before taking a deep breath and looking back up at Brandy in front of him. Now that they were both listening to each other rather than thinking about their own problems they found themselves able to talk openly with each other - which had always been one of their favourite things to do when they got together after school. Their friendship had started off slowly, but once they realised that neither of them had anyone else who talked like they did (and still do), they grew closer and closer until one day when Calvin asked Brandy if she would be his girlfriend; not because he wanted to get into her pants (he knew that was never going to happen) but because he simply wanted someone who could understand him - someone who could make sense of the strange worlds that lived inside his head as well as Brandy did hers. With tears coming into her own eyes now too, Brandy smiled at him sadly before saying, "The thing is though...I think you should talk to him about what's happened to us today." She hesitated for a moment before continuing: "I mean...you know how you are," she added quickly with a shy smile, "always asking questions no-one else can answer or understanding things no-one else does...well...maybe your dad knows some stuff that others don't know." Calvin frowned thoughtfully at her words but said nothing as Brandy turned away again to look out through the window behind them into the pitch black night outside where rain was falling heavily against the boarded-up windowsill next to them. They had tried using their phones earlier that evening to call someone for help, but had only succeeded in draining their batteries without getting any service - which meant Calvin couldn't use his phone's torchlight app to see better anymore either (though Brandy's phone hadn't worked for calling anyway). It wasn't surprising though; Moreland High School had been built more than a century ago, and surely no-one had used modern technology in here for decades before Brandy and Calvin had arrived today during lunch break (well...Calvin hadn't arrived until after lunchtime actually; he'd been sent down with Mr Harper after being caught playing video games under his desk instead of paying attention). As Brandy continued watching the rain outside she wondered absently why their teacher hadn't come looking for them when class ended this afternoon (like most teachers usually did). Mr Harper was usually nice enough, except when you kept distracting him from teaching by asking him questions no-one else could answer; then he would send you straight out of the classroom with a frown on his face and an angry stare in his eyes (though not nearly as angry as Mrs Blackman's stare when she caught you running in the corridor or putting headphones on in class). This time though it seemed like he'd just left them alone all afternoon without checking on them once - maybe because their classroom door was stuck shut? They hadn't really noticed at first because they'd been too wrapped up in their conversation; but eventually Calvin decided to go check it out just before class ended and found that it wouldn't budge even an inch more than it already had (in fact...it didn't seem like anyone had opened it for years). At first Calvin thought maybe someone must have jammed it closed (or locked it from the outside), but then they remembered that Mr Harper didn't lock doors during class or let students leave without permission (which meant whoever did this must have done it last night...when Calvin wasn't in class). They weren't sure what to make of this discovery though; after all, they'd been friends since Year 7 but had never discovered anything remotely supernatural about themselves beyond what most people could do naturally - which made sense considering most people didn't believe such things existed anyway (or if they did believe them then they certainly didn't want anything to do with them). Yet here they were now...locked inside a classroom full of paintings from another time period entirely - paintings which seemed somehow familiar despite having never seen them before today - paintings which Brandy now suspected might have something very strange going on behind them... Without warning one of those paintings suddenly appeared in front of her now - suspended in midair between herself and Calvin! Her heart skipped a beat as she recognised it immediately: It was one of the paintings hidden behind another painting all along! The one behind Adamus' painting! And now this painting was visible once again...the way it should have been all along!