4308.272 · September 28, 1988 AD
Where the Shaft Goes Deep
School holidays have emptied Broken Hill High, but Violet Dallow isn't here for extra credit. Her history teacher knows things—terrible things—about the disappearances plaguing their mining town. What she discovers in his classroom will prove that the real lessons at Broken Hill High were never written on the blackboard.
28 September 1988. Afternoon. Broken Hill High School.
The sandstone corridors of Broken Hill High should be silent during the holidays, yet Violet Dallow's footsteps echo through them with purpose. She's sixteen, too smart for her own good, and carrying knowledge stolen from places she shouldn't have been.
Sally Harlow is dead. Strangled. Left in the dirt outside Silverton like so many others before her. The adults whisper about patterns, about history repeating, about things better left alone. But Violet can't leave anything alone—it's not in her nature.
Mr Clarke teaches history with a peculiar passion. His lessons about local disappearances carry too much detail, too much weight, as if he's speaking from memory rather than textbooks. He mentioned he'd be here during the break, marking papers. Alone.
The empty school becomes a hunting ground where it's unclear who is predator and who is prey. Behind the familiar classroom door, Violet will discover that some teachers keep more than lesson plans in their desks, and that knowing the truth about Broken Hill's missing might be more dangerous than joining them.
In the outback, they say the heat can make you see things that aren't there. But sometimes, the most horrifying revelations come in broad daylight, in places you thought were safe, from people you thought you knew.
