Part 2
"You want some more coffee, dear?"
Nancy lingered at the breakfast table, running a hand through hair that was still damp from the shower as she thought about her strange nightmare and the conversation she'd had with Tina and Glen the day before. Could the man in her nightmares be the dead janitor?
"No thanks. Hey, yesterday we were talking about something that happened at school back in your day. You went to Springfield High, didn't you?"
"Yes, that's right. So did your father," her mother said as she started to wash up the breakfast things.
"Right, so do you remember an accident involving a janitor?"
They both jumped as her mother dropped a plate, and it clattered against the side of the sink.
"Oops, clumsy me," she said, holding it up to the kitchen window with a shaky hand and examining it for cracks. "What was that, dear? A janitor?"
"Yeah, this would have been maybe twenty years ago."
"Yes, I do remember something, but I think that was after I'd graduated. Didn't it involve the boiler?"
"Yes, an accident with the boiler, exactly."
"Sorry, as I say, I think I'd left by that time. I don't remember anything more than that."
"Oh well, never mind," Nancy said, getting to her feet and kissing her mother's cheek. "I'll see you after school."
--
Walking back from the canteen, Nancy told her friend Tina that she'd had another nightmare, although she omitted the more embarrassing details. They talked over what they knew so far although, in truth, they knew very little. They debated what to do next as they strolled down the corridors, brushing past their fellow students as they passed the trophy cabinets and rows of grey metal lockers.
"Hey, whatever happened back then, it happened in here," Tina said, pausing next to a door that was labelled "Boiler room, staff only".
"We can't go in there!" Nancy said. "We're not allowed."
"Come on, maybe the current janitor knows something. It doesn't hurt to ask."
"Gee, I don't know," Nancy said, unconvinced.
"Come on, don't be a scaredy-cat," Tina replied, pushing the door and finding it unlocked. "I just want to have a quick look."
Nancy reluctantly followed Tina down a long flight of hard, concrete steps, past a sign that read "No students allowed". Turning the corner at the bottom, they found themselves in a huge, cavernous space. It was sparse and dimly lit but Nancy could make out a row of lockers to her right, some of them open, mops and buckets spilling out. A row of metal shelves in front of her held cleaning materials but most of the space was taken up with a vast, complicated tangle of pipes and boilers that filled the warm, dusty air with an ominous, low, rumbling noise.
"Wow, I never knew this was here," Tina said, peering into the darkness at the complex tangle of pipes.
"Come on, let's go, I really don't think we should be down here," Nancy said, tugging at Tina's t-shirt nervously.
"Hello? Is there anyone down here?" Tina shouted, ignoring her.
From the shadows, a tall, dark figure studied the two girls. They were both attractive; the more confident of the two was blonde, her skin-tight bleached blue jeans hugging the curve of her cute ass, her curly blonde hair grazing the neck of her black Ramones t-shirt.
The quieter, more nervous one had loosely curled, shoulder-length chestnut-brown hair, and he watched as she followed her friend. Although dressed more conservatively in a buttoned-up white blouse and a knee-length skirt, she was just as good-looking but in a more pretty, girl-next-door way.
"Come on, don't be a wuss, let's look around," Tina insisted.
"Gee, I don't know, it all looks dangerous. We could get burnt or something."
"Can I help you girls?" the man said, stepping into the dim light and causing them both to jump.
He was in his thirties, tall and lean, with black hair slicked back from a lean, angular face and wearing a blue boiler suit covered in oil stains.
"Gosh mister, you scared us!" Tina said, her hand clutching her chest.
"Sorry about that, but you girls shouldn't be down here unescorted, that equipment can be dangerous."
"Told you!" Nancy hissed, digging Tina in the ribs.
"You're the janitor, right? Listen, sorry about barging in, but we're, um, doing a project on heating systems and we hoped you might show us around," Tina improvised.
"Heating systems, huh?"
"Yeah, we're, like, really interested in boilers and... stuff," Nancy confirmed, nodding her head.
"Well, I've got a few minutes, I can show you around. You know, I rarely get visitors down here, and they ain't hardly ever as attractive as you two," he said with a lop-sided grin, and the trace of a southern accent.
Nancy nervously tugged at the hem of her skirt as his eyes lingered over her legs.
"Now the boiler system you're looking at runs on liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG. It's stored right here, he said slapping a large, rounded tank. "Now we actually have four boilers in this system: three for heating water to run through the radiators to heat the school and one to provide all the hot water. Now down here..." he said, as they followed him along a narrow corridor, the walls formed by a tangle of thick metal pipes.
After a few minutes, Nancy tuned out, silently regretting letting Tina talk her into this.
"Now you may be wondering what happens to all the noxious gases that are produced, like carbon monoxide, that's highly poisonous you know. Well..."
"So how old is this system?" Tina interrupted.
"Well I've only been here five years, but I understand it was put in about twenty years ago."
"Oh, really? What was here before that?"
"I think it was an old solid fuel boiler. You know wood or coal, or both. But between you and me, I heard there was some kind of accident, a serious accident, so it was condemned."
"Oh? So it was taken out and replaced?"
