❛ I go out walking after midnight, just hoping you may be somewhere walking after midnight searching for me. ❜

DEAD POETS SOCIETY
chapter nine

NIGHT DREW CLOSER, the boys planning up a storm during their other classes on where they needed to go while Eliza stayed locked in Mr. Keating's closet.

⠀⠀⠀When night finally fell, it was easy enough to sneak out of Welton. Eliza could step out of her room without John knowing she was leaving as he was in the other room. The boys all slept paired with someone else in the group rather than another nosy Welton student. So, they slipped out into the night and smartly brought along dog treats as the school dog barked a few times before he was busy eating the snacks.

⠀⠀⠀"Hey," Charlie whispered, slipping beneath the staircase with Eliza as she waited for one of them to meet her. She had only been at the school for a month. The halls were still just as confusing to her as they were on the first day.

⠀⠀⠀"Hey," she smiled back, only able to see his eyes in the pitch black. "You ready?"

⠀⠀⠀"Oh, yeah," he laughed, patting his coat. "Even got something special for the guys."

⠀⠀⠀Eliza raised an eyebrow at him but waved off what he said, turning around to pull a book out of her bag.

⠀⠀⠀"My Uncle indirectly gave this book to me," she explained.

⠀⠀⠀Eliza slapped the thick book into his outstretched hand. Charlie's fingers curled around the cover, holding it up into the light and skimming his other hand across the title Five Centuries of Verse. Eliza brushed his hand away from the embossed lettering. She opened to the title page where Keating had written into the front pages years before them.

⠀⠀⠀J. Keating Dead Poets '42. To Be Read At The Opening of D.P.S. Meetings. Beneath his words was a quote by Thoreau.

⠀⠀⠀"Seems like he really didn't want you to start this society," Charlie mused with a small laugh under his breath, his warm brown eyes flitting up to look at Eliza.

⠀⠀⠀Her green eyes brightened under his gaze, excitement bubbling in her chest. In some way, they both felt the odd warm flutter fill their stomachs as they looked at one another. The same dizzying effect and strange wants to come to their heads, but they never acted on them.

⠀⠀⠀In a daze, they were stuck beneath that stairwell, the book between them as they edged closer. Then suddenly, Charlie felt like he was five feet away, laughing awkwardly as he held the book back towards her.

⠀⠀⠀"Neil would like that," he stated, a lop-sided smile filling up half his face as he scratched nervously at the nape of his neck.

⠀⠀⠀"Yeah, I thought so," Eliza sighed, looking down at the book now wrapped close to her chest.

⠀⠀⠀"They're waiting for us," Charlie stated, pointing behind him towards the doors.

⠀⠀⠀"Right," she nodded.

⠀⠀⠀Charlie and Eliza tip-toed out of the Academy, closing the doors behind them. Then, they sprinted across the lawn to where the other boys waited in the shadow of the trees.

⠀⠀⠀"What took you so long?" Cameron asked impatiently. The stress of sneaking out turned him into an even more frazzled mess than in school.

⠀⠀⠀"You weren't kissing, were you?" Neil asked, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

⠀⠀⠀Both teens blushed by Neil's comment.

⠀⠀⠀"You boys look like trolls," Eliza commented, her eyes fixated on their pointed Welton hoods.

⠀⠀⠀"We need to get going," Meeks whispered, waving his hand.

⠀⠀⠀The boys and Eliza moved into the woods, quietly walking through broken branches and crunching leaves. It had rained recently, the ground still damp with water, and muddied their shoes. They tip-toes through the woods until they were a safe distance to be louder and use the flashlights they brought with them.

⠀⠀⠀"AH! I'm a dead poet!" Charlie screamed from the shadows of the trees.

⠀⠀⠀Eliza screamed at the sudden noise, jumping back onto the grass. Charlie stood above her as he laughed heartily while Neil and Meeks helped her up. The other boys nervously looked around, worried that Dr. Hager would emerge from nowhere and begin handing out demerits.

⠀⠀⠀"Are you afraid of something, birdie?" Charlie cackled.

⠀⠀⠀Eliza slapped her hand across his chest in annoyance.

⠀⠀⠀"What the hell do you think?" she shouted back.

⠀⠀⠀Charlie rose his hands in defense, stepping away from Eliza, but was still chuckling to himself as he staggered his way to Knox to whisper loudly about what happened.

⠀⠀⠀They made it to the old Indian cave, damp and cold and staring into the black cave. They all hunched over, staring, until Cameron turned to Eliza.

⠀⠀⠀"Ladies first," he grunted, holding his hands towards the cave for Eliza.

⠀⠀⠀Eliza rolled her eyes at him and awkwardly slid in as she tried not to get too much dirt and grime on her or her clothes. She stood in the middle of the cave without a flashlight and the boys' shadows swallowing whatever light could linger in.

⠀⠀⠀"Can someone bring a flashlight?" she asked.

⠀⠀⠀Charlie slid in beside her with a bright smile. He pointed the bright flashlight in her face and all around the cave.

⠀⠀⠀"Here you are," he stated, flipping the flashlight, so the handle was towards her. "I'll get a fire started," he explained as she took the light and arranged the sticks he had picked up along the way.

⠀⠀⠀Meeks joined the two soon after and had followed Charlie's lead with the fire. The other boys quickly came down, with Neil coming in soon after as the other boys converged on the fire that had yet to start.

⠀⠀⠀"I think you should read from this," Eliza called to Neil as he stood to the side, watching the boys with an amused smile. Neil stepped over to her and took the book from her hand. Eliza let him take it and continued to hold the flashlight like a lamp for the boys.

⠀⠀⠀"It's too wet," Meeks complained as smoke filled the cave.

⠀⠀⠀"God, are you trying to smoke us out of here?" Charlie asked him to cough obnoxiously to prove his point.

⠀⠀⠀"No, no, the smoke's going right up this opening," Meeks assured him, the smoking going up but seemed to settle there instead.

⠀⠀⠀Pitts entered the cave finally, slamming his head against the low rocks, and groaned loudly as the others laughed.

⠀⠀⠀"You okay?" Neil asked through his smile.

⠀⠀⠀"Oh, God. Clowns," he muttered.

⠀⠀⠀"Alright, alright, forget the fire!" Neil called to the boys as they were now all present. "Let's go, gentlemen."

⠀⠀⠀The boys all moved away, throwing their hands at the fire, and kept their flashlights on. Soon, the smoke cleared, and everyone settled into a small circle.

⠀⠀⠀"I hereby reconvene the Dead Poets Society," Neil stated after a drag of the cigarette Charlie had lit. The group cheered in recognition that they were now all a part of a secret society. "Welton chapter. The meetings will be conducted by myself, Eliza Keating, and the other new initiates now present. Todd Anderson, because he prefers not to read, will keep minutes of the meetings," Neil explained.

⠀⠀⠀"And now, without further ado, Eliza Keating as the blood of this society will be heralded by our Captain and read the opening message by society member Henry David Thoreau."

⠀⠀⠀Neil leaned across the unlit fire to hand her the book as the boys cheered in the intermission.

⠀⠀⠀Eliza stood, and recited the passage, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life."

⠀⠀⠀"I'll second that," Charlie cheered, raising his hand with a smirk like a toast.

⠀⠀⠀Eliza smacked his chest from where she sat beside him, then motioned for his cigarette. He complied and watched as her lips took a deep drag of the stick before she continued.

⠀⠀⠀"To put to rout all that was not life, and not, when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived," she concluded, a silence filling the room beside a few low whistles in reaction.

⠀⠀⠀"Alright!" Charlie exclaimed, looking around at the boys with those mischievous eyes of his. "Intermission. Dig deep right here. Right here, lay it down."

⠀⠀⠀"On the mud? We're gonna put our food on the mud?" Cameron asked, disgusted.

⠀⠀⠀"Meeks, put down your coat. Picnic blanket," Charlie stated.

⠀⠀⠀"Yes, sir," he nodded, standing up and setting his coat on the ground, muttered, "Use Meeks' coat."

⠀⠀⠀"Don't keep anything back, either. You guys are always bumming my smokes," Charlie chided as the boys threw in their stolen contraband.

⠀⠀⠀"Raisins?" Neil asked.

⠀⠀⠀"Yuck."

⠀⠀⠀"Wait a minute, who gave us half a roll?" Charlie exclaimed.

⠀⠀⠀Eliza couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Pitts with a stuffed mouth, looking so innocent as he said, "I'm eating the other half."

⠀⠀⠀"Come on," Charlie groaned.

⠀⠀⠀"You want me to put it back?"

⠀⠀⠀"No! Please," Eliza shouted, holding her hands out as Pitts looked tempted to put the half-eaten roll in a pile just for Charlie.

⠀⠀⠀Once they had all settled back into their places and ready to begin their meeting, Charlie leaned back on the cave wall, staring at Eliza as he tested the waters.

⠀⠀⠀"How about some ghost stories?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow as she turned back to look at him.

⠀⠀⠀"If you're trying to scare me, it's not gonna work," she told him.

⠀⠀⠀"I'll take that bet," he told her, patting her thigh as he leaned back up.

⠀⠀⠀"I've got a good one!" Neil cheered, taking a flashlight and lighting it under his face. "It was a dark and rainy night, and this old lady, who had a passion for jigsaw puzzles, sat by herself in her house at her table to complete a new jigsaw puzzle. But as she pieced the puzzle together, she realized, to her astonishment, that the image that was formed was her very own room. The figure in the center of the puzzle, as she completed it, was herself. And with trembling hands, she placed the last four pieces and stared in horror at the face of a demented madman at the window. The last thing that this old lady ever heard was the sound of breaking glass."

⠀⠀⠀All the boys laughed at Neil's story, Eliza rolling her eyes as she took Charlie's cigarette from him again for a drag.

⠀⠀⠀"That wasn't even scary," she told him, blowing the smoke in Neil's face.

⠀⠀⠀"I don't know about you, but I'm gonna have nightmares from that," Charlie teased.

AUTHOR'S NOTE —

The ending is kind of abrupt because I had planned on Eliza telling a scary story but I literally have none and I hate scary stories and I don't wanna freak myself out so... I hope it's okay.

SONG: Walkin' After Midnight by Patsy Cline

Thank you for reading! Leave comments telling me your thoughts on this chapter, but however you interact, know that I really appreciate you reading. I hope you enjoy, and until the next one.