Jessica

by Laura DeLuca

beautiful nineteenth century ballroom aged and decayed, as did the men and women that surrounded him. Grotesque monsters with bloated skin and empty eyes dragged their decaying limbs in slow motion. Wilbur watched them with growing horror, almost forgetting about the girl in his arms. The monsters noticed the stranger among them. They reached for him with fingers green from rot. Catching his breath in fear, Wilbur pulled away from Jessica and very nearly stumbled to the ground.

  “Wilbur, what’s wrong?”

  Jessica’s voice was filled with only concern. She pulled him off the dance floor, and cocked her head as she examined him. That was enough to snap him out of the frightening reverie, and he realized how ridiculous he was being. He took off his thick glasses and wiped the smears on his vampire cape. It didn’t really help since there were more scratches then dirt specks. But it made him realize it was just his poor vision, combined with the eerie Halloween masks and the blaring strobe lights that had made him see things that weren’t really there. When he looked around, he saw he was surrounded by only a bunch of rowdy college students. They may have been drunk and ignorant, but they certainly weren’t walking corpses. Though many of them might feel like it the next day.

  Wilbur snorted at his own little joke, but then he realized that Jessica was still watching him, and the laughter died on his lips, coming out more like a cough. “Sorry,” he said, and wiped his nose of his sleeve. “Allergies.”

  “It is pretty stuffy in here,” Jessica complained with a little pout. “This isn’t much of a party anyway. Do you want to leave? Maybe we could go for a walk on one of the campus nature trails.”

  Once again, Wilbur was struck speechless. Never in his life had he been given such an invitation. He knew he should answer her before she changed her mind, but his tongue felt like it was tied in a million knots, and there were butterflies in his stomach the size of gizzards.

  “If you don’t want to go,” Jessica told him, sounding disappointed. “I’ll understand. After all, we did just meet a few minutes ago...”

  “No!” Wilbur exclaimed, a little too loudly. Then he blushed. “I mean…um…I would love…to…to go for a walk with you.”

  “All right!” Jessica’s smile widened. She grabbed his arm and practically pulled him from the gymnasium. “Let’s get out of here!”

  The area surrounding the Stockman College was encircled with several dozen acres of giant trees. Large oaks and firs, hundreds of years old, stood guard over the campus. They were even older than the colonial structures that served as the dorm rooms. Between the school and the dorms, the campus was littered with nature trails, some that stretched for miles before leading back to the main road. It was impossible to get lost if you stayed on the trails, but more than once a drunken student had stumbled into the woods and wandered for hours before finding their way back.

  Wilbur often enjoyed taking an afternoon stroll along some of the shorter trails. The long ones left him too winded. He definitely got a little nervous when Jessica steered him off the safety of the path. The underbrush rustled under their feet, and he fretted over whether his legs would itch with chiggers the next day. Plus the light from the street lamps were getting too dim and far away for his liking. The bright moon was the only glow to light their way. Thankfully, they didn’t have far to go. Jessica led him to a well hidden bench that had rusted with age. It lent a scenic view of the crystal clear lake in the center of the woods, which someone had inartistically named Lake Fred.

  “Isn’t it beautiful here?” Jessica sighed as she took in the beauty of the moon reflecting off the glimmering water. “I think this is my favorite spot on the whole campus. I come here all the time to study and to daydream. I don’t think anyone else even knows it’s here anymore.”

  “It definitely looks deserted,” Wilbur agreed.

  “Just breathe in that fresh, fall air!” Jessica flung out her arms and breathed deeply. “It’s so invigorating. It really makes me feel alive.”

  Wilbur tried to imitate her, but as soon as he inhaled, his nose started to tingle from the pollen, and he let out a horrendously loud Achoo, after which he sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve again.

  “Allergies?” Jessica guessed.

  Wilbur shrugged. “Yeah, sorry.”

  “It’s okay.” She smiled. “After all, you’re only human.”

  Despite her reassurances, Wilbur still felt self-conscious, especially with his nose perpetually dripping, causing him to sniff and snort almost nonstop. He was getting disgusted with himself, and he couldn’t imagine that Jessica felt any differently. Still, she sat on the bench and looked out at the water, never complaining. Everything was silent around them except for the gentle slap of the water against the river bank and a sudden rustling of fallen leaves which indicated they were no longer alone. Before they could even turn to greet their visitor, a large, majestic deer bounded out of the inner forest and stood not five feet away.

  Although the large antlers were a good indication of its maturity, the animal’s eyes widened, and its agile legs buckled dangerously beneath its thick frame. It was odd, because the deer on the campus were so used to people; they scarcely paid them any mind. They normally went about business as usual, as long as no one was so brazen as to try to approach them. Yet, this king among stags seems stricken with fear. Wilbur wondered if there was something else, something far more dangerous, in the area that the deer was really afraid of. Maybe a coyote? Coyotes had been brought into the area back in the seventies to kill off an overpopulation of rabbits. They’d only brought males and thought they would just die off eventually, but they had mated with wild dogs and had never quite vanished. Wilbur had even heard rumors of brown bears being spotted on occasion, though he had never seen one himself.

  Wilbur didn’t have time to wonder long. The frightened animal gave them one last daunting stare, before barreling back into the forest. In the utter stillness, they could hear the crackle of twigs as it sprinted deep into the woods.

  “Did you know this school is over two hundred years old?” Jessica asked suddenly. She didn’t even acknowledge their visitor.

  “Is it really?” Wilbur asked politely, turning his attention away from the deer. He actually did know that. It was almost impossible not to know it, because all the school signs declared in bold, proud letters, Stockman College of New Jersey – Celebrating Two Hundred Years of Higher Education! The signs themselves were worn with age, so it was probably closer to two hundred and fifty years old, but Wilbur didn’t want to correct her.

  “Yes,” Jessica continued. “But it wasn’t until 1890 that women were finally admitted.” She seemed lost in thought for a moment, and then brightened considerably when she asked, “Hey, have you ever heard the legend of the White Lady?”

  Wilbur shook his head. “No, I can’t say that it sounds familiar.”

  “Well, then, I have to tell you all about her!” Jessica told him, excited. “After all, it’s Halloween, the perfect night to tell ghost stories, and the White Lady is a spirit that haunts this very campus. Did you know that the veil between worlds is thinnest on this night? Back in the old days, it was called Samhain. Some people still call it by that name. It’s considered a sacred night of magic. A night when people can talk to the dead, and the dead will answer. Do you believe in ghosts, Wilbur?”

  “No, I don’t,” Wilbur declared decisively, with all the authority of a Dean’s list chemistry student who believed there was a scientific explanation for everything. “I believe ghosts and all that supernatural nonsense are just hallucinations caused by hysteria, drug use, or mental incapacities. There is no proof of any type of life after death. When you die, that’s it. Game over.”

  “You really believe that, don’t you?” She gave him a small smile, and for a moment, Wilbur swore her green eyes glowed in the dim moonlight reflected off the water. “Well, I believe in ghosts. There are some mysteries in life that just can’t be explained, and ghosts are definitely one of them. Maybe I’ll be able to pro
ve it to you tonight. Maybe on this blessed night of All Hallow’s Eve, the White Lady will give us a special performance, just to make a believer out of you.”

  “I think I’ll pass on that one,” Wilbur said. His voice was a little shaky as he pushed his glasses up on his nose.

  “You almost sound afraid,” Jessica teased. “Why would you be afraid if you don’t believe in ghosts?”

  Wilbur didn’t answer. Instead he found something immensely interesting about his shoes. She gave him a little nudge, but he refused to meet her questioning gaze.

  “May I tell you the story of the White Lady?” she asked. “I’m sure you’ll find it entertaining if nothing else.”

  “I….I guess so. I mean….if that’s what you want to do.” Wilbur stuttered, though talking about ghosts while they were alone in the dark woods hardly seemed entertaining to him. He was just happy she wanted to talk to him about anything.

  “Oh, I definitely want to. It’s something of an obsession with me,” Jessica told him. “The story begins back in the late eighteenth century, when the college first decided to go co-ed. In those days, women didn’t have many rights. They were supposed to stay in the kitchen and make a dozen babies. But there were some women who wanted more, and so they enrolled right here