Chloe nodded glumly.
“I wonder who the ghost is. Maybe it’s the guy who built the place, and he’s stuck here, because he never got to finish it. Or maybe, somebody died when they had the fire, or maybe it was something more recent, like a student that died or something. I wonder what it wants. Trapped…it said, and it asked for help, maybe it’s trying to-”
“I don’t care!” Chloe insisted, “I don’t want to help it, I don’t want to talk to it, I don’t want to know anything about it. I just want it to go away. It’s scaring the crap out of me, and just a little while ago, if I remember correctly, you were pretty scared too!”
“Yeah, but-”
“But nothing! I think we should transfer rooms or something, go somewhere else,” Chloe decided.
“If we asked to transfer we might end up in another hall, and then Seth wouldn’t be your R.A. anymore,” Sam reminded her slyly.
Chloe frowned and crossed her arms. Sam was right. If she wound up in another hall, she wouldn’t see Seth anymore, and part of whatever reason he seemed to like her, might just be her proximity. If she went somewhere else it would be pretty easy for him to start talking to another girl. She shrugged her shoulders, but didn’t say anything else. She wasn’t sure what to do.
“Maybe if we try to communicate with it-” Sam began.
“No!” Chloe almost shouted. “Don’t you get it? I’ve been crazy. Is it so hard to understand why I might not want to hear something or see something that shouldn’t be there?”
Sam colored instantly and her mouth fell open. She nodded her head.
“I forgot,” she soothed, “really, I forgot. I do understand. Look, I’ll…I’ll get my cross out and we’ll hang it over the door, okay?”
“What good is that going to do?” Chloe sighed.
“Well my Grandma, she’s Irish, and she hangs crosses above all the doors in her house because she says it keeps out the evil spirits, and I have a cross in my drawer, it’s the one she hung over my bed when I was little. We’ll hang it up tonight, it might help,” Sam explained.
“Fine, whatever,” Chloe agreed dismissively. “What time are you done today?”
“Not ‘til four, but I have a break between ten and noon. I’ll probably just go to the library. I still don’t want to hang out in the room by myself, even in the daytime. What about you?” Sam asked.
“Done at two today,” Chloe said.
“You want to meet in the caf, like at ten after four?” Sam suggested.
Chloe nodded.
The bus came to a stop in front of Kells Hall and the girls got off. Kells Hall, which housed most of the psychology department, couldn’t have been more different from their dormitory. Built sometime in the sixties, it was supposed to look ultra-modern for its time, with a roof that sloped downward dramatically on one side until it almost touched the ground, giving the building a slightly off-centered look. The walls of the building were entirely glass, and the large front lobby that Chloe and Sam walked into was filled with natural light. So much so, that there were two large, rectangular, chrome planters towards the center of the lobby filled with thriving ferns and one large fichus tree apiece.
It was still early. They could see right away that the doors to the lecture halls hadn’t been unlocked, since a few early-rising students were already there, sitting against the walls. A couple of them leaned back with closed eyes and blank faces, listening to Ipods and sipping at coffee in styrofoam cups or thermoses. Others leaned over books or notes industriously, readying themselves for class.
Sam and Chloe walked down a short, wide hallway and found an empty wall across from the locked double doors of their classroom. Chloe nibbled on her dry bagel. Sam set her coffee down and smacked her knee.
“Forgot my paper!” she shrugged.
“I’ve got an extra,” Chloe offered.
“That’s nice and all, but I think if we turned the same paper in, we’d both get zeros,” Sam explained patiently.
“No…I…uhhh…it’s a different…uhhh” Chloe tried to think of an excuse, “See, I wrote two papers, because I wasn’t sure which one I wanted to turn in.”
Sam turned to stare at her quizzically.
“Can I see it, please?” Sam asked.
“Ummm,” Chloe stalled.
“Can I see the paper please?” Sam asked again, snapping her fingers.
Chloe fumbled around in her book bag until she found the paper and handed it to Sam. Sam glanced at it and raised an eyebrow in mock surprise.
“Your extra paper already seems to have my name on it,” Sam observed.
“Ummmm,” Chloe said.
“So this was why you told me I didn’t have to go to class last night?” Sam asked, “You were just going to turn this in without asking me or anything?” Sam began to read: ‘My innate desire to help others made me choose a career path that will, with hard work, lead to a position as a doctor. Psychology, the study of the human mind, will aid me in the understanding and treatment of my future patients…’ Oh my God, could you be any cornier?” Sam snorted.
“Well, I couldn’t let you turn in your paper…I mean, really! I was just trying to look out for myself! If you get kicked out of school because you fail all your classes I’ll probably get stuck with another roommate, and that would suck! Who knows what I might wind up with? It’d probably be some annoying girl who just wants to drink and party all the time and tease me about Seth, and get me involved in crazy schemes with ghosts and crap!” Chloe explained with a straight face.
Sam smiled and shook her head. A janitor pushing a loud squeaky-wheeled cart, loaded with cleaning supplies ambled down the hall toward them. The janitor stopped and grabbed a jangling key ring that probably weighed as much as a cannonball and unlocked the doors of their classroom.
The girls stood and grabbed their bags.
“Alright. But don’t make a habit out of it, okay?” Sam demanded.
Chloe shrugged complacently as they walked in.
* * *
Chloe’s fist hovered a few inches from the door. She stopped to listen. It sounded like there might have been movement on the other side. Some small sort of rustling, but now it was completely silent. She tapped on the door again. He might be sleeping, she thought. He had been up all night and he did have an early morning class. He could have come home and gone to bed, or he might not even be there. He might be at another class. Her hand dropped to her side and she glanced warily down the hall towards her own door. It looked the same as all the other doors, except that Sam had written their names with a fancy black calligraphy pen on light purple cardboard and hung it in the middle. She was going to have to go and wait for Sam in the cafeteria. Two hours of sitting in the caf did not sound appealing.
The door cracked open, and Chloe jumped. Seth blinked a few times and smiled sleepily at her.
“Well, well, it’s one of those rabble rousers from 237. Waking up your neighbors again, I see,” he said.
“What are you talking about?”
Seth yawned and went back inside, leaving the door open. Chloe took it as an invitation to follow.
Seth threw himself into a grungy-looking leather recliner, and pointed at a rolling chair by his desk, meaning she should sit. Chloe noticed that he was shirtless, wearing only a pair of black and burgundy plaid flannel pajama bottoms. She flushed, and trying to look anywhere but at his chest, she glanced hopefully around the room.
“Y-you don’t have a roommate,” she stuttered.
“Yup, one of the many perks of being an R.A., private rooms and,” he added yanking his head to indicate a door behind his chair, “private bathrooms.”
“Lifestyles of the rich and famous…” Chloe observed.
“So what brings you all the way down to my neck of the woods?” he clasped his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair.
If Sam were here, she’d be rolling her eyes at me right now, Chloe thought. He had to know what his body looked like, he had to do s
omething to make it look that good, so undoubtedly he knew she’d want to look. He was kind of showing off, wasn’t he?
“I…see…umm” Chloe mumbled, turning redder all the time.
“You need me to put a shirt on?” he guessed.
“No! I mean, I…uhhh…if you want…not like…like it bothers me or anything,” she stuttered, staring embarrassedly at her feet.
Seth leaned forward and snatched a wadded up t-shirt off the floor. While he pulled it over his head, Chloe took a deep breath and tried again.
“Our light burnt out…me and Sam’s…in our room, this morning. I thought maybe you were the one I was supposed to tell, I didn’t know,” Chloe tried to sound nonchalant.
He nodded.
“So that’s what all the screaming was about then?” he asked.
“Oh, y-you heard that?” Chloe faked a laugh.
“No, I was dead to the world at the time, but your neighbor heard it and came down and banged on my door at eight o’clock in the morning to complain. He was kind of a dick about it.”
“Yeah, it, freaked us out a bit,” Chloe made an attempt at a smile.
“I’ll get someone to replace it,” he said.
Chloe looked around the room. Make conversation! She ordered herself. Seth’s room was helpful enough, it seemed to suggest lots of topics. His desk was covered in stacks of books that she couldn’t quite make titles out on. His Ipod sat on top of one of the stacks. An old green-shaded lamp sat on the far corner, and a laptop in the center. His bed was a rumpled up mess of solid grey sheets and blue quilt. It looked like his shelves held more books, a framed newspaper clipping and what might have been a photo album. In front of his chair, an old TV and Wii game system sat against the wall. Stacks of video games were ranged about the floor. The room, she noticed, was carpeted, in a very new-smelling and clean-looking tan shag. On the wall above his chair hung a framed poster of the previous years’ Birch Harbor College hockey team. She noticed then the hockey stick leaning against the wall in the corner of his room, and his skates beneath it. Next to that, an electric guitar, a pile of cords and wires, and a small amplifier.
“You play guitar?” she asked, cringing immediately afterwards, because it occurred to her that he might be one of those guys that would pick it up and start playing, just because someone asked if he could.
“Not well,” he admitted, “Do you?”
“No. I took violin lessons. I used to play a lot, but not so much anymore,” she rambled. Stop talking like an idiot! her inner voice commanded.
“You…uhh…you play, well, I know you play hockey, but has the season started yet?” She asked wincing again.
“Nope. Just practice. The actual season starts in October and goes through March,” he explained, “You should come to some games. I could get you and Sam tickets.”
“Oh, definitely! Yeah, I’d really like to…to see you play,” she smiled.
“So what do you think about this weekend? Maybe going out to Pictured Rocks with me?” Seth asked.
“Oh yeah, that. Ummm…I…when were you thinking, like, what time?” Chloe asked nervously.
“I don’t know, early afternoon? It’s not that far. I thought we could just do a bit of walking. They have boat tours too, and that really gives you a nice view of the rocks, but I really like the forest there, and the lake itself. Have you seen Superior? It’s really amazing. It’s just so clean, it’s really something. You can look down and see everything, like individual rocks and stuff. It looks like you could reach down and pick them up, but really, it’s so deep, and cold too! Too cold for swimming already, unless you’re a native. The black flies know the difference, they only bite the tourists,” he smiled.
“Black flies?” Chloe wondered.
“Yeah, they’re kind of a pain in spots, but you get used to them. I used to walk the beaches and try to find Petoskey stones with my Grandpa,” he stopped abruptly, “I’m boring the crap out of you, huh?”
“No!” Chloe argued, “No, not at all. I like to hear you talk. I really do…but I forgot to talk to Sam, I don’t know if she’s got plans or anything.”
Seth scrunched up his face, he opened his mouth like he was going to speak, but then thought better of it, and then opened his mouth and closed it again. At last, it seemed, he made up his mind.
“You…uhhh…you understand that I’m asking you, right? I mean, like a date? I’m asking just you to go somewhere…with just me,” he explained.
“Oh!” Chloe had not understood that part.
“Look, if you’re not interested…well, to be honest, I really can’t tell what you’re thinking most of the time,” he grinned, “Sometimes I think maybe you like me, and sometimes I think I’m just making an ass of myself, and really, if that’s the case, I don’t want you to feel like-”
“NO!” she stopped him a bit too loudly, “No, tha-that’s fine.”
“It’s fine?” he asked her, still smiling awkwardly.
“It’s fine, to ummm…be interested because I...uhhh, I like you too and I think that it would be uhhhh…great to uhh…do the whole…dating thing,” Chloe felt like smacking her head repeatedly against the wall.
“The dating thing?” Seth grinned wider.
“A date…thing, just uhhh,” she tried to clarify.
“Well, this has been…uncomfortable,” he laughed, “but I’m glad we cleared that up, because at some point, I was kind of hoping that we could try that whole kissing thing again…maybe.”
Chloe put her face in her hands and groaned.
“I am so embarrassed about that, you have no idea,” she laughed.
“Probably almost as embarrassed as I am, because I’ve never almost knocked a girl unconscious with the goodnight kiss routine. I felt about as smooth as sandpaper, I guarantee you.”
They both laughed and looked up at the same time. Chloe thought that if her chair had been a little closer, if she rolled it a little bit towards him, with the way he was leaning forward, toward her, then maybe…maybe he would try. No! That could end way too badly. With her luck, she would try to roll the chair closer, snag it on the carpet, lurch forward and fall off the chair. She gave the chair the tiniest nudge. It moved half an inch closer.
“You promise you’re going to warn me next time, right?” she asked.
“Absolutely, you’ll know it’s coming,” he nodded.
With the way he was leaning forward and looking at her, she was suddenly quite certain it would be coming soon. She grinned and nudged her chair a little closer.
“Won’t that ruin the ummm…mood?” she asked.
“I’m sure it will,” he agreed, still smiling.
“You’re not worried that I only like you for your private bathroom?” she asked.
“The thought had occurred to me,” he admitted stoically. With one hand he reached out and grabbed the seat of her chair, yanking her with one pull, the rest of the distance between them.
“You said you would warn me, right?” she asked, heart in her throat, leaning towards him.
“I’m warning you,” he replied. Chloe closed her eyes. She could feel his nose brush hers lightly.
Out in the hallway, a piercing scream broke the afternoon silence.
“SAM!” Chloe gasped.
CHAPTER SIX
. Chloe was out of her chair and halfway to the door without being aware that she had moved at all. Yet somehow, Seth was already ahead of her. He yanked open the door with such force that she watched it arch back and smash into the wall, registering the bang a few seconds later.
Out in the hallway, Sam was pressed against the wall…directly across from the open door of their room. As Chloe ran to her, Sam screamed again. Doors were opening up and down the hall. Other students poked heads out, a few following behind Chloe and Seth, slowly…curiously.
Something in the room, her quiet voice warned her, it’s starting again! Now everyone will know, now you’ve made Sam sick too, now Seth won’t-
Seth w
as already in front of their door. He had stopped on the threshold, his hand against the doorframe. Sam was hugging herself tightly. She turned to look at Chloe with huge, wild eyes.
I don’t want to look, I don’t want to look, I don’t want to look, Chloe thought.
Yet she had to. It was her room, hers and Sam’s. All she had in the world was contained within those four walls. She crept up behind Seth, and with the shield of his body in front of her, she summoned the will to peek around him. It took her breath away.
When she first saw the red, her mind, conditioned by years of television and movie gore, thought blood. It was not blood. Every wall was covered in frantic, barely legible handwriting. HELP, HELP, HELP, TRAPPED, HELP, HELP, HELP, HELP… The words ranged in size from less than an inch in height to letters large enough to stretch across half the wall. Some darkened in forceful block lettering, some in a faint spidery hand. All of them in red or black marker. The spent markers themselves lay conspicuously in the center of the bedroom floor, caps missing. They were Chloe’s, from her desk drawer, a drawer she could see was still open.
She closed her eyes against the image, but the words were still there, etched across the darkness behind her eyelids, help. She could hear the whispers. Students pushing gently around her, craning necks, all wondering, all murmuring.
What is it? What happened? What’s going on? She heard the questions asked in whispers, no one seemed to have an answer. Seth, with the bearing of one who was used to taking charge, turned to face the slowly growing crowd, now spreading down the hallway on either side. He was still standing in the doorway, using his body to block the scene behind him from the eyes of the other students. Those closest to him were trying to see over or around him.
A clot, Chloe’s little voice rambled, the hallways are the building’s arteries, and we’ve made a clot. It knows we’re here now. Chloe clenched and unclenched her fists, Stop it! she thought back, Stop, right now!
“Chloe did you stop in at your room first?” he asked.
Chloe shook her head “no”. Did he think she had done it? Did he think she would do that to Sam?
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