Guardians of Little Wonders, Part 6: The Hallway That Pretended to Be Something Else

Guardians of Little Wonders, Part 6: The Hallway That Pretended to Be Something Else

The Story Begins

After the last bell, the hallway on the third floor was almost empty. From the stairwell came only the tapping of someone’s shoes, and the open window carried the scent of rain-wet pavement.

Sara pressed the secret notebook more tightly against her blue sweater. Since their last adventure, she had carried it more carefully than her lunch. They knew Mr Shadowmorph was interested in the notebook.

“We should stay together,” Toby said, adjusting his glasses.

“We are together,” Leo replied. His green backpack bounced on his back. “And if any problem appears, I’ll look through a wall. Easy.”

Emma giggled. “Just don’t look like a TV detective while you’re doing it.”

Leo opened his mouth to say something, but just then they all noticed the sign beside the door. A moment ago, it had read 3.B. Now it read 8.K.

Sara blinked. The letters changed again.

“That isn’t our classroom,” she whispered.

The door opposite them was different too. Its handle was yellow, although all the handles on their floor were usually silver. When Leo stared at it, the yellow slowly faded away.

“The hallway is pretending to be something it isn’t,” Emma said.

“Or someone is playing with us,” Toby added more quietly.

They all remembered Mr Shadowmorph’s soft purple coat and his strange smile. It was not the kind of smile that shouted, Watch out! It was the kind that made you wonder whether you had forgotten to put on your shoes.

They set off side by side. But after three steps, the hallway grew strangely narrow. The walls did not shake or crack. They simply shifted somehow, making four narrow paths between the lockers.

“Stay together,” Sara managed to say.

Suddenly, doors stretched out between them. Toby was left by a blinking noticeboard, Emma by the lockers, Leo by a door with a picture of a funny hat, and Sara by an old bench. They could still see one another, but each stood on a separate short stretch of hallway.

“That’s a silly trick!” Leo called.

His voice bounced off the wall and returned as a whisper: Silly trick… silly trick…

Something clinked near Sara. A small, dusty key lay beneath the bench. She picked it up, but nothing happened. Then she noticed the door in front of her. Behind the frosted glass, she could make out desks. It looked like their classroom, but at every desk sat Sara, her ears bright red.

“You pointed the wrong way again!” came a voice from behind the door.

Sara squeezed the key so hard that her fingers hurt. What if it really happened? What if she led her friends somewhere they could not get back from?

Meanwhile, Leo peered at the door with the hat. Laughter came from the other side. Behind the glass stood what looked like every child in the school, all pointing at him.

“Look, Mr Know-It-All!” mocked a thin voice.

Leo felt his cheeks burn. He wanted to open the door and show them that he was not showing off. But that would look exactly as if he were.

Emma crouched by the locker. On its metal door appeared a drawing made with her own pencil: a crooked cat, an arrow far too big, and a blotch that was probably meant to be the sun.

“You muddled it up,” the drawing muttered in Emma’s own voice. “As always.”

When Things Start to Change

“Not always,” Emma protested, but her voice came out very small.

Toby spotted a blurry shadow beside him. It slid along the wall, although the light above them shone steadily. The shadow stretched towards Emma.

“Leave her alone!” Toby blurted, stepping in front of his friend.

His hands suddenly grew warm. His fingers felt firm and strong, as if they could lift the whole locker. But he did not lift anything. He spread his arms in front of Emma and stood his ground.

The shadow stopped at his trainers, rippled like steam from a kettle, and crawled away.

“Toby?” Emma called.

“I’m here,” he answered. “It won’t get to you.”

Sara looked at the little key in her palm. She did not need to prove that she was never wrong. She needed to find her friends.

“I want to help them,” she said softly. “I really do.”

The key began to glow with a gentle golden light. It was not sharp like a torch beam. It was more like a tiny star that had decided to live in her palm. The glow showed a thin line across the floor. It led back towards the bend in the hallway.

“I can see the way!” Sara called. “But we have to meet by the old wall!”

Leo stepped closer to his door. This time, he did not straighten up like a hero in a film. He simply took three deep breaths.

First breath.

Second breath.

Third breath.

For a brief moment, he could see through the door. There was no classroom full of laughing children behind it. There was a storeroom, piled with chairs, a mop, and a box for old notebooks.

“It’s only a storeroom!” he called. “The door is lying!”

Emma took a blue pencil and a piece of paper from her pencil case. Her hand trembled a little. First she wanted to draw a huge bridge, then a flying carpet, and finally even a robot with four arms.

“No,” she told herself. “Small and useful.”

She drew a simple signpost: a line, an arrow pointing right, and a tiny star. Under the picture, she wrote: To my friends.

The paper puffed up gently. A moment later, a real little signpost stood on the floor, about the size of a school water bottle. Its arrow turned towards the bend in the hallway.

The doors between the children rustled. Some slid aside, while others turned into ordinary walls. Toby walked beside Emma, but he did not pull her. He simply stayed close enough for her to know he was there.

At last, all four met by the old wall, where a patch of beige paint was peeling away. For a moment, there was silence.

“I didn’t like what I saw,” Leo admitted, rubbing his curly hair. “I was afraid they’d laugh at me.”

Sara looked at the glowing key. “I was afraid I’d lead you the wrong way.”

“I was embarrassed by my drawings,” Emma said. “Sometimes they really are crooked.”

Toby lowered his eyes to his hands, which were ordinary again. “And I was afraid I wouldn’t get there in time to help someone.”

When the last words faded, the blinking lights above them stopped flickering. The hallway did not widen or blaze with grand magic. It simply stopped pretending to be something else.

A soft metallic clink came from the old wall. Beneath the peeling paint, a small brass plaque appeared. It was tarnished, but at its centre gleamed a symbol: four tiny stars around an open hand.

“That looks like our club,” Emma whispered.

An Important Moment

Beneath the symbol were engraved words: Club of Little Wonders. Below them was a name, written in fancy, slightly faded letters.

ELIÁŠ VELÍN.

“Who is Eliáš Velín?” Toby asked.

No one knew the answer.

Just then, double doors appeared at the end of the hallway. Sara’s key flashed, and its light stretched straight towards them.

In the glass beside the doors, a purple reflection flickered. A tall figure in a coat smiled, but when Toby stepped towards Emma, the reflection melted away.

“Go back,” whispered a voice. “There could be a mistake behind those doors.”

Sara took a breath. “Maybe. But we won’t go there alone.”

The key showed the way with its light, Leo readied his three breaths, and Emma held the little signpost. Toby stood beside her like a calm guard.

Leo took three breaths and looked through the double doors. “The hallway ends behind them,” he said. “The real end. And the plaque continues there too.”

Emma drew one more tiny star with a line beneath it. She stuck it above the right door, and for a few moments it became a bright marker.

Then the children opened the doors together.

Beyond them was a brighter space by a tall window. A larger version of the old symbol hung on the wall. Beneath it, several more names showed faintly in the dust, but only one could be read: Eliáš Velín.

Sara noticed that her light no longer shone brightly. Finding the way had been enough for it. Leo did not act important, even though he had uncovered the truth behind the doors. Emma carefully put her pencil back into her case, and Toby smiled when he realised he had not come too late to help.

Later, they sat in a quiet corner by the stairs. Sara opened the secret notebook to a clean page. They all leaned over it.

“Shall we write it together?” she asked.

Then a new rule was added to the notebook: Fear grows smaller when we name it aloud and share it with our friends.

When Sara wrote the final full stop, a faint clink sounded from the end of the hallway. The old symbol glowed for a moment. The name Eliáš Velín flashed with golden light, then faded once more.

The four Guardians of Little Wonders looked at one another. The hallway was ordinary again. But the unknown name remained there like a little key to the next mystery.