Vulcan's Furnace by C. Starr (classic literature books .TXT) 📕

ONE

Raven lay on her bunk listening to the howling winds outside and the swaying trees tapping their branches on the window, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of too many girls in a too small room. Raven sighed and sat up, wincing as the bed creaked underneath her, she rolled over onto her knees and, using the tips of her toes, found the rungs of the ladder and carefully climbed down, hand, hand, foot, foot. She placed her feet in the wooden floor and crept over to the window, making sure she didn’t step in the dreaded floorboard, who’s creak would have the Mistress of the Boarding House screeching to high-heaven. Raven leant against the window sill and watched the rain pelting hard onto the ground outside, creating giant puddles, as large as she could imagine; the cars outside beeping and honking, drivers shouting out of their windows, telling others to hurry up and move, that they had lives to live. And again, Raven sighed in self-pity, and whispered to herself, “What must outside be like for someone like me? Because as far as I can see, there lays a life of adventure and excitement,” she glanced around quickly, hoping that none of the other girls had heard her, then she turned back and said a silent prayer before staring at a star and making a wish, a wish that she had made everyday of her life. She turned back and began creeping back to her bunk, forgetting until the last moment, the floorboard that woke everyone up, crEAK!
Her head shot up in shock and she glanced around as every girl in the room sat up in their bunks, tired from sleep, but still aware that someone had stood on the board. They all searched until every eye in perfect synch fell on her, and they all grinned trying to stifle their laughter, however, soon, every girl was laughing and Raven soon was laughing with them until, abruptly, they all stopped, and Mistress Lloyd waddled into the room with a look of dementia in her eyes, her hair ruffled, her clothes crumpled and her face contorted in rage.
“YOU GIRL! YOU WILL PAY FOR DISRUPTING THE PEACEFUL SLEEP OF ALL THE PEOPLE IN THIS HOUSE!” she roared, a few titters escaped and Mistress Lloyd glared at the culprit. In the boarding house, it was a known fact that Mistress Lloyd and Master Abbott did quite the opposite of peaceful every night. “IF ANY OF YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY IN THIS GIRL’S DEFENCE, YOU CAN CLIMB OUT OF YOUR WARM BEDS AND TALK TO THE HEADMASTER, IF NOT, GO TO SLEEP!” she continued. She scanned the room and seeing that not one girl had raised a hand, Mistress Lloyd nodded in agreement, and grasped Raven’s wrists in each of her paws and dragged her towards her punishment.
Raven glanced around at all the girls, and watched as they all turned their heads in guilt, as if looking at Raven would remind them of what wrong they had done just so they could be warm for another night.
Raven wrenched her hand from the woman’s clammy grasp and walked the rest of the way, dragging her feet as if it would make the punishment seem further away. She closed her eyes and made her wish again,
I wish I could go outside.

And again, watching the same street, listening to the same tree, in the same building, stood Carl. He was in the Boys Half of the house, the half that no female was allowed in apart from the nurse. Carl sat on the windowsill and watched the cars driving through the pouring rain, their wipers wiping furiously in a futile attempt to keep the water from blinding them. He pressed his hands against the cool glass and closed his eyes, imagining the cold, wet rain, falling onto his palms, he imagined it so vividly, that when he opened his eyes again, he was disappointed. Carl watched the rain making rivulets against the surface of the window, and looked up at the lone star in the sky. He closed his eyes and whispered a wish, it was childish, he knew, but it was the only thing that gave him hope in the grim place. Carl turned away from the window and began to creep back to his bed, and suddenly, he jumped as the creak of a floorboard ran through the walls, he dived into his bed and closed his eyes in foolhardy as each boy in the room turned over and fell asleep. He silently listened to the laughter of the girls and smiled, suddenly, he heard them stop, and the screeching voice of Mistress Lloyd woke each boy in turn, who groaned and muttered about women being irritating, before going back to sleep.
Carl heard Mistress Lloyd drag the girl out of the room, her feet causing reverberating squeaks on the dry floorboards; he made his wish again,
I wish I could go outside.
And the oddly calming squeaks drove him to sleep.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Carl shot up from his bed and winced as his head hit the bottom of the bed above him. Rubbing his forehead, he listened to each crack of the whip and the sound of it breaking on the girls’ back. He could just imagine the raw, red welts it would leave on her back and could only imagine the pain of it. He had never been whipped before and only a few of the boys had, but he had never heard of a girl being whipped, and it must have been the first time because her screams were loud enough to wake the dead. He covered his ears with his hands and closed his eyes; he grabbed his thin, featherless pillow and clamped it across his ears, trying any means to make the haunting sound of unbearable pain go away.
Carl rolled over, squeezed his eyes shut and muttered to himself over and over again.
I wish I could go outside.

Raven sat in the small-enclosed room, weeping silently and trying not to look at the blood all around her. Master Abbott was still whipping her, but she had given up on screaming, it just seemed to empower him, so all she did was mutter over and over again.
I wish I could go outside.

Carl sat in the dining hall eating his breakfast of porridge surrounded by 200 boys, each trying to savour the meal that would have to sustain them for 5 hours. He glanced up at the head table were the Headmaster sat with his croons, each tucking into a plate of eggs and bacon, but somehow managing to look intimidating at the same time, they sat perched on their seats, ready to shoot up and roar at the first child to commit an ‘offence’. He looked at them warily again and then looked down quickly, as he saw one begin to look at him. Even with his head down, he could still feel their eyes boring into his skull. Suddenly, a finger tapped his shoulder, and he sat up immediately, tensing his muscles.
“No need to be so uptight mate,” John muttered.
Carl relaxed and looked up at John, John was his best friend, his only true friend in the boarding house, and John, being John, was about to do his mysterious act again, Carl could tell.
“What do you want? And don’t waste time, we have another 2 minutes and counting to finish this,’ he paused, “whatever you call it.” John nodded and sat in the space next to him, “You’ll never guess what me and Richie found out today,” John whispered dramatically.
“What?” Carl asked impatiently.
“We found out a way to the girls dorm,” he concluded.
Carl looked at him disbelievingly, “No way,” he murmured.
John nodded, “Yep, and it’s right under my bunk,”
“So what are you gonna do?”
“You mean what are we gonna do,” John said, looking at Carl pleadingly.
Carl shook his head, “No way, I’m not gonna risk my neck just to get into the girls dorm,”
“Please?” John gazed at him, putting on his best puppy impression, and winning a threat from a teacher.
“OK,” Carl answered, just as the bell rang. He grabbed his bag and walked to the door.

Raven sat, knees together, chin up, back straight as Madame DuPree told all the girls in her French accent, they were sat in their second class of the day, which was supposed to be history, the history of the boarding house.
The Lord Albert Boarding House was the biggest in London, which was all the girls knew about it. It was once the home of Lord Albert and his family, until he died. In his will, he had given it to his youngest son, Richard, who gave it to his daughter Hannah, who turned it into a boarding house, named after her grandfather.
“Girls, today we are to learn the history of this, this bravura house which you girls call home,” Madame DuPree squealed, “We will start with the year it was built. Open your text books please and turn to the first clean page.”
She paused and waited for the sluggish rustling of paper to finish and finally, tapped the board with her stick.
“The Lord Albert House was built in the year 1969 and finished in 1971…” she continued.
Raven yawned furtively, and slid her attention from the board to the back of her book were she drew her pictures, it was an object that she saw in her dreams, an amulet, half an amulet, and she drew it everyday, from little strokes to big, long curves, building it up until it resembled the charm she saw every night. It was what looked like a crescent moon and a mountain with firebolts that seemed to dance around it, yet also seemed to be stationary.
“I wonder if it’s real?” she thought out-loud, and earned a shove in the back from Lucy, which caused her eyes to water and her teeth clench in pain, earning a stern warning from Madame DuPree.
“Miss Capello, if you wish to ignore my lessons, then, GET OUT! And Master Abbott can give you another beating. However, if not, then turn to the correct page of your book, and listen!” Raven turned back to her page and sat straight before lifting her head to look at Madame DuPree and indicate that she was ready.
“Thank you, now, where was I?” she asked, looking around at the class.
“Excuse me Madame, you were talking about the secret passages in the house,” Anne answered, after raising her hand. Raven’s attention snapped away from her daydream and she focused on what Madame DuPree had started to say.
“Thank you Anne, yes, the well known secret passages of the Lord Albert House, it is said that he imprisoned his cousin in one of the halls because she had dared to come between him and his son. It is known that she died in there, however, her body has never been found.”
“Why not?” asked Diane.
“Because no one knows where the passages are, my dear,” Madame DuPree replied sweetly, “Now girls, that is the end of today’s lesson, what I want you to do in your free time, is give me your ideas to where the passages are. OK?” she stood back and raised a hand for silence before indicating for the girls to go out of the room, and head for their next lessons.
“Class dismissed.”
All the girls strode out