pH Balance

Earlier this year, I binged-watched House of Anubis. That is what, in part, inspired me to write this story. Another part was trying to get better at writing romance/character development/dialogue. I’m a very plot-oriented person, so an exercise in writing believable, fun characters was my goal with my Q3 story. Enjoy!

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“Do you want to know what the worst part is?” Duckie didn’t answer. He was too busy banging at the wooden panel that sealed their only visible exit. “This was the first date I’d ever been on!” Duckie stopped making noise and turned around.

“It wasn’t a real date. It was a trap. Trickery,” he replied, a dramatic pause between each sentence. Bex couldn’t help but wonder if all Americans talked like they were on the telly. 

“All first dates involve traps and trickery,” Bex replied, shining her torch in Duckie’s face.

“Maybe on the lady’s end.”

“You’re right,” Bex said, swiveling the light back at the wooden paneling. “We’re so desperate for men that we’d do anything but be ourselves.” Before Duckie could get another word in, she changed the subject. “There has to be some way to undo what we just did. Otherwise, nobody from DelPhi would ever be seen alive again.”

“Maybe.. the exit… is somewhere here,” Duckie said, gesturing to the opposite side of the room. They were in what seemed to be an ordinary storage closet, about 1 ½ meteres in length and width. Ordinary aside from the fact that there was no longer a visible way in or out.

Bex followed Duckie’s gesture with the torch. His hand was pointing to a wire shelf stocked with bleach, kitchen roll, and other cleaning supplies. 

“We’ve checked there. And we’ve checked the paneling covering the front door. We’ve cried for help for-“ Bex looked at her watch, “almost an hour. We’re stuck until someone smells our rotting corpses and lets us out.” 

“But,” Duckie countered, “Laila somehow found a way out. She used this same passageway, right?”

“That was the plan”

“You really shouldn’t have let Laila go alone,” Duckie said, grabbing the torch from Bex. He shone it on the closet shelves again. “If we somehow make it out of here without her, my sister will kill us both.”

“Someone had to stay behind and distract you”

“Traps and trickery,” Duckie replied, sticking the torch between his teeth. He rolled up his shirtsleeves, and began looking at the closet shelves for the third time.

Bex stared at the beam of light coming from the torch. Her mind started to wander. She couldn’t help but lose herself in the events that led to them being here, wasting each other’s oxygen supply. And if she was being honest—

… 

“Now that we’ve finished our tour, be honest with me,” Duckie said, stopping in his tracks to face her. Bex raised her eyebrows. She was nervous. When nervous, she found it best to postpone speaking for as long as possible.

She’d learned from her mistakes. 

“What are you most nervous about,” Bex’s stomach prepared to jump out of her throat. “Regarding the start of term in just two days?” He said it excitedly, as if they were about to embark on a fantastic and adventure-filled journey. 

Bex took a deep breath. She hoped it came off as theatrical and not at all the only way she could get an appropriate amount of oxygen into her lungs. To get her stomach to settle.

“Honestly?”

“Honestly.”

“And you promise to keep this just between you and me?”

Duckie smiled, as if he knew that she was about to say something utterly ridiculous. Which was fair: the  fact that words were coming out of her mouth continued to surprise her. It was the most lovely and temperate of summer days, yet Bex managed sweat through every layer of clothing. The sun shone directly in her eyes, and her heart beat so loudly she could barely think. 

A breeze washed over them. She slightly shivered and stepped forward, out of the sunlight. Their noses were centimeters apart.

“I don’t know,” Bex whispered, “how to tie a tie,” Duckie shook his head in mock disappointment.

“I’m surprised they even let you in this school,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. Bex nearly jumped. “I’m going to have to teach you.”

“I thought all campus tours came with tie tutorials”

“They don’t,” Duckie said, turning on his heels. “They happen over dinner.” Beads of sweat pooled at her hairline. Everything was going perfectly— so why was she so nervous?

“7—tomorrow night.” She felt her face flush, and was glad Duckie was already a few paces ahead. 

“Let’s make it 7:30,” Duckie said, turning around to face her. “I need some time to brush up on my knots” She felt like someone kicked her in the stomach.

“7:30 it is,” she replied.

At first, everything happened exactly as she had planned. But somehow, something went terribly—

… 

A loud THUD brought Bex from campus back to the storage closet. She saw Duckie taking his anger out on a box of toilet paper.

“Goddamn it!” 

Duckie slumped to the floor. Bex sat down too, careful to leave a sliver of space between them. “Maybe this wasn’t a passage. Maybe we did something wrong and triggered a trap.”

Bex shook her head. “Our portion of the map clearly marked a staircase somewhere in here. In this closet” 

Duckie crossed his legs and pivoted so he was facing her. “How did you get your hands on the map anyways?”

Bex shrugged.

“Oh come on, there’s no point in keeping secrets now. Either we trust each other and maybe get out of here, or we keep lying and die.”

“I trust Kendra to save us.” Her roommate’s girlfriend was capable and smart enough to find them. She’d come back to Phoenix House tonight before bedtime, realise that the three of them were missing, and find help. They would work together to find Laila.

There was no need to give anything else away.

“Pleeeaaaase? If we get out of here, I’ll tie all of your ties for a month.”

“This is the biggest secret I have. That’s not a fair trade.”

“It’ll be a month before you can tie one on your own, anyways.”

“That’s because I had a bad teacher.” Bex could tell he was out of replies by the way he smiled back at her.

“How about I tell you how I found my piece of the map?” Duckie offered.

“I already know,” Bex replied, shaking her head. “Tucked away in grandfather’s copy of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Gifted to you and Kendra upon his passing.” Duckie shook his head in disbelief. 

“I can’t believe my sister told her girlfriend our most important family secret”

“Kendra didn’t tell Laila anything. Laila found it. Your sister was using your half as a bloody bookmark.” She turned to Duckie. “Why is the map in two parts, anyways?”

“Because of the schism”

“The schism?” Duckie nodded. He held the torch underneath his chin, like he was about to tell a ghost story.

“Granddad was part of the last class of people at this school who were in Delphi. He and one of his mates at Phoenix House got into a fight. They burned the only copy of the map. But grandfather, from memory, recreated it in two parts. He hid one half with him and one half on campus. He didn’t want them to be found until after he passed, for his safety and the safety of our family.”

“They’d hurt you guys over the map?”

“Delphi was responsible for innumerable acts of questionable justification,” Before Bex could ask for more information, Duckie changed the subject. “Anyways, mum didn’t know about the map because she was at school here while grandfather was still alive.” Both Duckie and his sister referred to their British mother as ‘mum’. The word sounded strange in their American accents.

“But you and Kendra started the search this term, after his funeral.” Duckie nodded. “And your grandfather didn’t tell you where the map led? Or what you were supposed to be looking for?”

“There’d be no fun in that,” he replied. “But I think Kendra and I figured it out.”

“And?”

“And,” Duckie said, shining the torch right into Bex’s eyes. “I’ll tell you after you tell me how you found your half of the map.”

“All right,” Bex said, recrossing her legs, which had gone stiff. She thought back to that first day in the Phoenix House common room, with Laila. Bex wondered if she’d ever see her roommate—or anyone else—ever again… 

This week’s top 3:

• Slade House 🪤 – quick, semi-spooky read. I liked the way this book went through time and space. I hope to write something like this one day!
• Stop Making Sense 🎸 – The Talking Heads’ live album & movie (A24 remaster). Doesn’t young David Byrne kind of look like Cillian Murphy?
• The Fly 🪰 – this movie was not at all what I expected. I’m not even going to tell you what I expected because then you’ll know what not to expect. Just go into it without reading/knowing anything about it besides there’s a young Jeff Goldblum involved.