The Haunting Past
Every single one of us is frozen in place, unable to digest the sight of the semi-translucent being drifting ever closer to us. “Eep!” April shrieks digging her nails on my arm and I immediately jolt up, as if woken up by it. In less than a second the others follow suit and we scramble towards the door in a panicked manner. We step out of the classroom and start running as if our lives depend on it. I turn around and notice the ghost-girl cross the threshold of the room we were in. (Shit! She’s following us!) I shout inside my head as I continue running. “Wait…” A voice I don’t recognize echoes from behind me. (Yeah, like we’re going to wait just because a ghost says so!) I basically couldn’t care less about what she just said, but for some reason Anette stops in her tracks and turns to look at her. “I don’t think she means us any harm.” She says calmly looking at our panicked faces. “What?” I ask, my breathing heavy. “I don’t sense any immediate danger from her at least. We should see what she wants.” She explains turning to look at the ghost slowly floating towards us. “Maybe she knows about what’s happening in here.” Max suggests, trying to chase away her fear. “Are you out of your minds?!” April yells at us like we’re crazy. (Can’t really blame her…) “We’re going to wait for a ghost just because she says so?!” She continues her yelling in a state of panic. “Calm down. I know it sounds crazy but Anette can sense danger!” I explain as plainly and simply as I can as all of us root our feet to the floor. “Wh-“ She tries to protest but I cut her off “It’s like a sixth sense. Please, trust me!” I plead, with an honest cry. “O-okay…” She replies, clearly looking anxious. I turn to look at Chloe, who has been dead silent these last hectic seconds. She looks towards the ghost and her expression suggests that she’s one step away from short-circuiting but she doesn’t flee nonetheless. As I watch the floating figure approach us my brain basically yells at me to run, but despite that I keep my feet firmly stuck on the ground (HOLY. SHIT. I can’t believe I’m actually going through with this!) “Thank you for not running away…” The ghost says, closer than ever before. I dig my nails into my palm, anticipating an attack, a slash, anything, but nothing happens. “Don’t be afraid. I was a student just like you after all. My name is Nora.” The ghost tries to calm our nerves down. (Still hearing a GHOST telling us to NOT be afraid isn’t doing much to our beating hearts.) “Do you know what’s going on here?” Anette asks, since she is the calmest out of all of us. “Yes. I’ve come to warn you. You’re all in grave danger.” Nora spells out and I can feel my heart sinking. I had a hunch since the floor collapsed right beneath my feet but hearing her say that defeats any remaining hope. “Yes. I sense a deep darkness within the school. Do you know what’s causing it?” Anette inquires (How the heck is she so calm?!). “No I’m afraid I don’t. But I’ve seen this before. Ten years ago I was trapped along with a group of classmates here, just like you are now.” The ghost-girl explains to us. My attention is quickly shifted towards her words, making me a tad less scared. “And… what happened if I may ask?” I ask before gulping down hard, with a face curious to know more. (Well since she is a ghost I’m assuming it didn’t go very well…) The ghost turns her gaze at me and answers with her voice trailing off “None of us made it out alive…” She looks down at her feet. “Oh no…” Chloe mutters with eyes wide. “My despair over OUR failure has kept my soul here, unable to move on. Maybe, if I can help you escape, I can finally find peace. That’s why I want to help you.” Nora says sounding somewhat sincere. (I know I shouldn’t trust ghosts but the situation doesn’t leave much room for debate. “Do you know how we can get out of here?” Max joins in, inquiring. “Follow me.” She floats past us and we trail behind her.
Nora leads us up to the top floor, then to another set of stairs and after that, a door comes into view. (Isn’t that the door to the rooftop?) A strange lock is attached to the seemingly normal door. An ornate bronze lock with four keyholes. “This lock… It doesn’t feel normal.” Anette spells out shifting into thinking gear. “What is this?” I ask looking genuinely curious. “You need to find four keys hidden somewhere within this school. Then you need to use them to open this door and escape.” Nora explains plainly, still leaving questions unanswered. “And do you happen to know where these keys are?” Max asks cocking her head to the side. “I’m sure you’ve already noticed that there are deadly traps and sinister supernatural forces inside this school.” I think back to Liam falling to his death… “T-Traps??” April breaks her silence her eyes wide once again. If I didn’t know better I’d think that’d be her default expression. “Yes… We already encountered one of those.” I reply gazing at my feet, fist clenched. “But how are we supposed to get to the keys?” Chloe asks wearing a serious expression. “There should be a way around for each trap. But it’s still pretty dangerous.” The ghost replies hesitating for a moment. “I forgot to mention but… You don’t have forever to find the keys either. There’s a time limit.” Nora spells out and we edge towards her slightly, anticipating what could be a life-changing answer. “You’ve only got 66 hours by the time the clock strikes 12 tonight. As time passes and you remain trapped here the dark forces responsible will grow stronger and stronger.” We all freeze at her words. (So even if we cut it close to the time limit, this place might even be more dangerous than it already is..!) Doing the math quickly inside my head I figure out the exact time we got. “So if the countdown starts at midnight. That means we have 2 and a half days to find the keys, excluding sleep and rest time.” I say partly on impulse. “Not quite. I wouldn’t advice you searching for the keys after midnight. The supernatural forces are a lot more potent at that time at night.” She adds to her explanation. (Assuming it’s safe after 5 am… We have exactly 48 hours. 2 days…) “Just two days?? That’s ridiculous!” Chloe semi-yells in frustration, as she figures out the amount of time we have. “Calm down. If you all work together, finding all 4 of them is quite possible.” Nora states bluntly. The others fidget around, clearly pondering on what to do. “If I may, what happened 10 years ago?” I come right out and ask a hard, but necessary question. We need to know everything we can if we really want a chance of getting out of here. “We tried to find the keys, but we died with only one key in our possession. At first we lost two classmates to the trap protecting the first key we encountered but…” She trails off slightly hovering away from us. “But then we… we started to argue and…” Her voice trails off as she tries to explain what happened. “Our group wasn’t unified. The trust we had in each other vanished and all of a sudden what we called a team, fractured. Some of my classmates turned against the rest of us.” She explains as I feel a chilling sensation run down my spine. “Oh no…” Max spells out as we all look at Nora expecting her to continue the story in the worst way possible. “Turned against you? Surely you don’t mean…you killed each other, right?” I ask trying to convince myself otherwise. “Yes... That’s how I died… alone and betrayed…” Her voice trails off. I imagine how painful it must be to remember all this. “This must be part of the darkness I sense. Such a terrible tragedy…” Anette replies, clearly sympathizing with the unfortunate victim of a conflict that now stands before us. “I don’t understand. You were all in the same side! You were trying to escape together! What changed..?” I ask, the frustration visibly etched on my face. “You’ll find that when people are in danger. It’s easy for paranoia to take root.” Nora states and we all grow silent. “Can you truly say that there are no divisions among your group?” She continues posing a question to me. I think back to when Chloe snapped at Anette. (I feel like she still holds a grudge against her for letting Liam die. Not to mention those stares she gives me like I shouldn’t even be here. But I highly doubt she’d do something so extreme as to kill me or her over something like that.) “No. We’re going to get through this. All together.” Max states her face brimming with determination. “That is my hope. That you’ll succeed, where we failed.” Nora spells out, a ting of hope in her tone. “Well now that we have a somewhat clearer view of what we need to do, let’s begin the search.” Max suggests, shifting into calm-and-collected mode. “Yeah, let’s” I say checking the time on my phone. “Already 10 o’clock?” I mutter to myself. “What do you say we find a safe room to spend the night in when midnight comes around?” The cheery-looking leader of ours, asks. “Something like a home base?” Chloe asks and Max nods. “Yeah you can think of it like that.” She smiles. (Wow, she really is a ray of sunshine, even in this mess. I hope she’s not trying too hard…) Nora shifts closer and speaks up “I’m assuming you can use the Home Economics classroom.” She suggests (Nice one, Nora!) I think to myself (I can’t believe I’m on first name basis with a ghost…) “Yeah that sounds like it would work. Assuming its safe there’s a fridge, a kitchen and a bunch of other supplies there.” Max agrees with her. “I can make sure it’s safe.” Anette joins in on the plan. “We’ve got a plan then. Let’s do this. Together.” I announce, making sure to lock eyes with everyone in the group. I notice April nodding, clutching her chest. (She must be terrified…) Everyone agrees with me and we all set out, climbing down the stairs, as Nora fades away into the air with a wave, muttering “Maybe you can do this after all…” to herself.
(I’m pretty sure this won’t be the last time we see her…)
Nora leads us up to the top floor, then to another set of stairs and after that, a door comes into view. (Isn’t that the door to the rooftop?) A strange lock is attached to the seemingly normal door. An ornate bronze lock with four keyholes. “This lock… It doesn’t feel normal.” Anette spells out shifting into thinking gear. “What is this?” I ask looking genuinely curious. “You need to find four keys hidden somewhere within this school. Then you need to use them to open this door and escape.” Nora explains plainly, still leaving questions unanswered. “And do you happen to know where these keys are?” Max asks cocking her head to the side. “I’m sure you’ve already noticed that there are deadly traps and sinister supernatural forces inside this school.” I think back to Liam falling to his death… “T-Traps??” April breaks her silence her eyes wide once again. If I didn’t know better I’d think that’d be her default expression. “Yes… We already encountered one of those.” I reply gazing at my feet, fist clenched. “But how are we supposed to get to the keys?” Chloe asks wearing a serious expression. “There should be a way around for each trap. But it’s still pretty dangerous.” The ghost replies hesitating for a moment. “I forgot to mention but… You don’t have forever to find the keys either. There’s a time limit.” Nora spells out and we edge towards her slightly, anticipating what could be a life-changing answer. “You’ve only got 66 hours by the time the clock strikes 12 tonight. As time passes and you remain trapped here the dark forces responsible will grow stronger and stronger.” We all freeze at her words. (So even if we cut it close to the time limit, this place might even be more dangerous than it already is..!) Doing the math quickly inside my head I figure out the exact time we got. “So if the countdown starts at midnight. That means we have 2 and a half days to find the keys, excluding sleep and rest time.” I say partly on impulse. “Not quite. I wouldn’t advice you searching for the keys after midnight. The supernatural forces are a lot more potent at that time at night.” She adds to her explanation. (Assuming it’s safe after 5 am… We have exactly 48 hours. 2 days…) “Just two days?? That’s ridiculous!” Chloe semi-yells in frustration, as she figures out the amount of time we have. “Calm down. If you all work together, finding all 4 of them is quite possible.” Nora states bluntly. The others fidget around, clearly pondering on what to do. “If I may, what happened 10 years ago?” I come right out and ask a hard, but necessary question. We need to know everything we can if we really want a chance of getting out of here. “We tried to find the keys, but we died with only one key in our possession. At first we lost two classmates to the trap protecting the first key we encountered but…” She trails off slightly hovering away from us. “But then we… we started to argue and…” Her voice trails off as she tries to explain what happened. “Our group wasn’t unified. The trust we had in each other vanished and all of a sudden what we called a team, fractured. Some of my classmates turned against the rest of us.” She explains as I feel a chilling sensation run down my spine. “Oh no…” Max spells out as we all look at Nora expecting her to continue the story in the worst way possible. “Turned against you? Surely you don’t mean…you killed each other, right?” I ask trying to convince myself otherwise. “Yes... That’s how I died… alone and betrayed…” Her voice trails off. I imagine how painful it must be to remember all this. “This must be part of the darkness I sense. Such a terrible tragedy…” Anette replies, clearly sympathizing with the unfortunate victim of a conflict that now stands before us. “I don’t understand. You were all in the same side! You were trying to escape together! What changed..?” I ask, the frustration visibly etched on my face. “You’ll find that when people are in danger. It’s easy for paranoia to take root.” Nora states and we all grow silent. “Can you truly say that there are no divisions among your group?” She continues posing a question to me. I think back to when Chloe snapped at Anette. (I feel like she still holds a grudge against her for letting Liam die. Not to mention those stares she gives me like I shouldn’t even be here. But I highly doubt she’d do something so extreme as to kill me or her over something like that.) “No. We’re going to get through this. All together.” Max states her face brimming with determination. “That is my hope. That you’ll succeed, where we failed.” Nora spells out, a ting of hope in her tone. “Well now that we have a somewhat clearer view of what we need to do, let’s begin the search.” Max suggests, shifting into calm-and-collected mode. “Yeah, let’s” I say checking the time on my phone. “Already 10 o’clock?” I mutter to myself. “What do you say we find a safe room to spend the night in when midnight comes around?” The cheery-looking leader of ours, asks. “Something like a home base?” Chloe asks and Max nods. “Yeah you can think of it like that.” She smiles. (Wow, she really is a ray of sunshine, even in this mess. I hope she’s not trying too hard…) Nora shifts closer and speaks up “I’m assuming you can use the Home Economics classroom.” She suggests (Nice one, Nora!) I think to myself (I can’t believe I’m on first name basis with a ghost…) “Yeah that sounds like it would work. Assuming its safe there’s a fridge, a kitchen and a bunch of other supplies there.” Max agrees with her. “I can make sure it’s safe.” Anette joins in on the plan. “We’ve got a plan then. Let’s do this. Together.” I announce, making sure to lock eyes with everyone in the group. I notice April nodding, clutching her chest. (She must be terrified…) Everyone agrees with me and we all set out, climbing down the stairs, as Nora fades away into the air with a wave, muttering “Maybe you can do this after all…” to herself.
(I’m pretty sure this won’t be the last time we see her…)
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