|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- IRREGULAR SHIRT--CUP 14--"BIG BUILDING" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Irregular Shirt  ||  -------> (Cup SRis014, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Washington was tall and thin, with somewhat greasy short black hair and a sharp face adorned with a good deal of acne. He often wore a business suit sort of get-up and carried around a briefcase. I'm not quite sure why. "Well, like I told you before, I found this like secret room or something." "Yeah. I know about that, but I mean, how could it be secret? Surely the folks there know of it. It's probably just a storage room." "No. It feels too bizarre to be normal. I mean, just standing in there, it's like being deep within the earth, in a cavern where no one's been for ages. I think there's definitely something occult about it." "Yeah well, Big Building was constructed what, only sixty or seventy years ago. You think they had supernatural catacombs in mind? I doubt it." "You know as well as I do that Evene Thatter was into all sorts of weird stuff." "Mmm." I stared out the window at some folks meandering by. I did know that Evene Thatter, the school's founder, had been into the occult to some degree. But making secret occult rooms in a library? Well, it's not just the library. Big Building is an enormous structure containing numerous school divisions. and indeed, much of the interior is wholly without windows, since the architect had a vision of a massive mound of a structure where students could spend their whole day--or even their lives--the ones that live in the dorm section of it. "I'm telling you, Noaster, you're gonna love it. I'm really on to something here. I can feel it. I think I might break through, I might finally discover something." "Yeah--just like Tanner Loblolly, huh?" "Yeah. Whatever did happen to him, anyway? No one seems to know, but they act like it's no big deal." "I don't know," I said, getting up and going over to the closet, "but he was acting all weird--saying that he'd discovered something so cool. Then he just lost it and dropped out." "Yeah but who knows--maybe he DID discover something. I should really call him soon. I know I have his home phone number somewhere around here. " As I took a light jacket out of the closet, Doug Brine walked in, wearing a "Nardale Creeks" T-shirt. "Who discovered something?" Doug asked. I noticed something odd about Doug--dark stains around his lips and on his chin. "No," Washington said, "I was just saying how, y'know, how maybe Tanner actually did discover something really cool and that's why he dropped out." "Maybe." Doug said, looking a little uncomfortable. "Seemed more like a nervous breakdown or something to me. But he could have discovered something, I guess." "Washington thinks he has something now." I said, putting the jacket on. "Some sort of hidden occult room in the library." Suddenly, Doug turned very pale. "What?" Washington stood up. "Yeah," Washington said, "it's pretty cool. It's this room--you have to really squeeze through this opening and stuff. It seems like no one has been there in ages. I get a real weird feeling there." Doug was now visibly uncomfortable--I could tell his heart was thumping away like crazy. "When did you find this room?" Doug asked in an accusing tone. "Oh, it was this morning, after Prog. I was just sitting at a cubicle, studying for my test, and I just sort of noticed this kind of opening. It's funny, how I never noticed it before." "Was there anything in there?" Doug asked. "Not really." Washington replied. "Some kind of table and some boxes. But nothing all that interesting. It's just the FEELING of the place you gotta experience." "Uh-huh." Doug said, looking out the window. I made an effort and looked into Doug. I didn't like using my powers to peer into a person's mind, but in this case, I just had to know what was wrong with him. Instantly I saw that he, too, had found a secret room in the library, just the day before, and it was far from empty. "You ever see anything weird in that library?" I asked, trying to pry the information out of him. "Um--yeah." Doug said, leaning against the wall. "Yeah. I found someplace. A different place. Now it's really messing me up." "What do you mean?" Washington asked. "You found another secret room?" Doug nodded. "What was in it?" I asked. Doug looked at me, and I saw a scary sort of wildness in his eyes. "Well, you know Shirt University--how it was started by Thatter's friend Pobix Pabor? You know how he was looking for some kind of shirt? That's why he named the school that. Well, I basically found it. I have the Irregular Shirt. And now I have to drink ink." -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----