by Lizzie Vega
Running out the front door of the library, they passed Alvin and Edward coming up the sidewalk. Nervous glances were exchanged, with Ashley just shaking her head at Edward, “Good luck in there.”
Entering the lobby, Edward brought out his monitor as Alvin texted Kelli and Mikayla. Kelli texted right back, “On my way. Mik will meet us there.”
Turning around in the lobby, Edward guessed at the disturbance’s location, “Upstairs at the end of the building.” The image flickered, “Wait...she’s moving.” The screen went blank. “Shit. She’s gone.”
“There’s Kelli,” Alvin said breathlessly, “We wait for Mikayla before we go anywhere.”
Just then the monitor surged but Alvin saw the lights of the building flare with a power surge. “Main floor, I think. This is crazy, it’s twice the size of the first one.” Just as Kelli ran into the building, Edward’s screen again went blank.”
“What the hell, Alvin?” Kelli was all fired up, “I just saw Brie and Ashley, they said something happened upstairs, books are flyin’ all over.”
“She’s trashing the place. This is gonna go public pretty quick.”
She put her hand on the doorknob to the stairwell, “What are we waiting for?”
Edward looked up from his tablet, “It’s gone now, and we said we’d all be together in case something happens, right? Let’s wait for Mik. Text her again.”
After a minute and with Edward making another adjustment, “Tell her to meet us by the Union, “I’ve got a signal. Jeez, she moves fast. Wait, it’s at the Annex. Really strong signal moving through the Annex.”
“Uh-oh,” Alvin said quietly as Kelli’s eyes went wide, “She’s going back to Burgum. Mik’s on her way.” Kelli turned and ran out of the building with Alvin and Edward racing to keep up with her.
Struggling to watch his screen and run, Alvin held up to stay with Edward. Any attempt to get Kelli to slow down was pointless. Suddenly she slid to a halt, phone at her ear. “Pick up, pick up,” she begged, turning to Alvin as he caught up to her. “She’s not answering.”
“Keep trying. Let Ed catch up. We have to keep an eye on the signals.” Turning to see Edward, he ran right by them, “It’s in Burgum. Mik’s end of the dorm, the location looks right.”
Rounding the corner of the street, Kelli was in a blind panic and didn’t see the police cruiser turn the corner behind her. Alvin and Edward, both chasing after Kelli, narrowly avoided a full speed collision with other students as all three disappeared quickly into the dorm building.
Alvin and Edward jumped into the elevator, but Kelli vaulted up the stairwell and got to Mikayla’s floor first, “Mik?” she shouted as she burst into hallway. Several students were already standing in the hallway, but three were standing in front of Mikayla’s door.
One of them turned to Kelli, “Something happened. We heard noises and the lights flashed.” They exchanged horrified glances, then Edward and Alvin tumbled out of the elevator. Kelli looked at the frightened girls, “Back up, lemme in.”
“Her door…” one of the girls whispered, “she slammed her door like three times. The side of the building shuddered. She’s having a meltdown.”
Kelli looked at the door to Mikayla’s room. Standing slightly ajar, she saw the corner of the outside trim board was pulled away from the frame.
“Mikayla?” she said firmly, “It’s Kelli.” Edward and Alvin quickly made their way into the narrow alcove, “We’re coming in.” Taking a deep breath and pushing the heavy door open, Kelli saw Mikayla sprawled across her bed, face up and shaking wildly, her left arm sticking awkwardly up in the air. Kelli spun around to the girls in the hallway, “All good here, an anxiety attack is all. She’ll be fine.”
Alvin closed the door to block their view, then turned to catch his breath, “Is she alright?”
Kelli bent slowly over her friend, “Mikayla?” she asked softly, “Are you okay?” She pointed to Mikayla’s hand, her fingers stretched out awkwardly and gasped. She looked down, watching Mikayla’s eyes fluttering.
“I’m…I’m g good.” she choked out, “she… she was here.”
Her breath coming in short gasps, Kelli reached for her left hand to inspect it, but Mikayla jerked it back, holding it close to her chest.
Kelli was in tears, “Did she hurt you?”
Mikayla finally looked at Kelli then focused on Edward but didn’t get a chance to answer when someone rapped sharply on Mikayla’s door.
“Security for sure.” Edward said, slipping his tablet into his book bag.
“An anxiety attack, she called, we came over,” Alvin said quietly as he moved to open the door. He opened to door to find three campus security guards filling the entryway, “Hi,” he said calmly, “Sorry for the noise but she had a little anxiety episode. Come on in.” He looked at the papers strewn all over the room, “Sorry about the mess.”
After a quick snippet of conversation, only one of the officers entered the room while the other two calmly walked down the hallway ushering concerned students back into their rooms. The senior officer stood at the end of Mikayla’s bed.
“Are you alright?” he asked, “Do we need to get you to the infirmary?”
“No,” Mikayla said as she struggled to sit up, “I’m sorry for the trouble,” she sniffled, “It won’t happen again.” Turning on the bed, she reached to grab Kelli’s arm with her left hand. Awkward as it was, Kelli tried not to react as Mikayla touched her.
“Didn’t you just have a fall at the Union?” he asked, “I was there for that. Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Mikayla, her hand still attached to Kelli’s arm, swung her legs around to sit up, “I was just overthinking how far behind I am for classes. I guess I just sorta boiled over. Do you need me to sign something?” She wiped her arm across her teary face.
The officer took his time looking around her room, even going so far as to open her mini fridge to look inside. Kelli glared at him but held her tone in check, “She doesn’t drink if that’s what you’re thinking. Is it okay with you if we hang out with her for a while?”
He glared at Alvin and Edward, then glanced at his watch, “Assuming that you’re respectful of the other students and the new curfew for this building, I’m fine with that.” He glared at the boys again, “We’ll skip a full report, but I’d really prefer that the three of you stop chasing all around campus in the middle of the night. I hear about it again and you’ll be hauled to the Admin building. I’ll let them deal with it.”
“Yes sir. Thank you,” Mikayla managed as he left the room. They were silent until the door clicked shut.
“Alvin,” Kelli hissed, handing him Mikayla’s arm like it was unattached, “Feel her hand. Edward, you too.”
Edward reached out awkwardly and touched the outside palm, then grabbed on less gently, “It’s freezing cold.”
“Yeah,” Mikayla said and hiccupped. She winced, looking toward the bathroom, “Clear me a path. I might wanna throw up.” Both Alvin and Edward parked themselves on her loveseat, “we can go if you want?”
“No.” She held up a trembling hand, “I went to meet you guys and opened the... the door. The hallway was dark and it…it felt cold. I knew she was there from the first moment.”
“Maybe we talk in the morning,” Alvin offered.
“No,” Mikayla came back sharply. She held her other hand in front of her face, “She was right there, right in my face. Backed me right back into the room and I fell back on the bed. The door slammed a couple of times, all my stuff was flyin’ around.”
Edward took out his tablet and booted it back up. He turned on the sensors again, “She’s gone. There’s nothing anywhere.”
“She was right over the top of me. Got closer…” she brought her right hand up, “I tried to push her away and…something slapped my hand away.” Her eyes got huge and tears spilled down her cheeks, “She grabbed my left hand and I got so scared.”
“Mik, you don’t have to relive it,” Kelli said softly, “
You just need to try and calm down.”
Mikayla shook her head, “That’s not gonna happen tonight. She started to squeeze down and then started to twist…”
Kelli reached out and gently took Mikayla’s hand, “But you’re okay, right? Mik…right?”
“The rest of me is a mess,” she nodded, “but yeah, my hand is fine.”
Chapter 35
The minute Alvin opened the door to the house, he knew something was up. Taking one look at Ethan’s expression, he hollered over his shoulder, “Ed, we got any Jack left?”
Edward leaned out of the kitchen to see Ethan and Alvin making their way down the hallway, “Oh boy,” he winced, “You called it.”
“What?” Ethan wondered as he walked into the kitchen to see Edward hurriedly rinsing out a shot glass in the sink, “There’s manly work ahead, we must prepare.”
“I didn’t exactly say that,” Ethan began, staring down as Edward hastily poured three shots, then set a can of beer next to each one, “I don’t drink much, I uh don’t drink at all to be honest.”
Edward smiled, “We don’t really either, but it seemed like an out there idea under the circumstances.” He set the almost full bottle on the kitchen table and sat down, “Off campus without the girls…what’s going on?”
Ethan sighed, “I have a theory, but under the circumstances, I don’t think I can do a lot of research when Sara is with me.”
“Which is kinda all the time now isn’t it?” Alvin prodded, “Though I don’t mean to be nosey. We have more than a theory by the way.”
“It’s okay, we were rehearsing last night, and she said something that made me question the happy mood she’s in when she’s around all of you.”
“Uh-oh,” Edward said quietly, and Ethan corrected himself. “It’s not an act. She’s not faking for sure, but the other night she was different. Frightened is more the word.”
“She knows a little more than she lets on, doesn’t she?” Edward shifted uncomfortably on his chair, “Ethan, there’s something you need to know.”
Seeming to ignore Edward’s overture, Ethan continued. “Yep. Well two things, I think. The other night when you went to the library to track, well, her. Once she left the Library? Where did she go?”
“To Burgum Hall,” Edward noted, “I think she’d chosen to rattle a few people in the library, then head straight to the dorms.”
“Not to the Music Annex?” Ethan asked, “Like, not at all?”
“Well, yeah,” Edward said, with a quick nod from Alvin, “Like just to pass through on the way to Mikayla’s dorm.”
“Sara has begun to talk about the Annex more, but it’s like we still avoid it when we go to practice. From the Annex to Burgum isn’t a straight line, either.”
“The signal veered through the Annex but only for a second or two,” Edward noted, “Though we might have missed some of it while we were running.”
“We panicked when she went to Mik’s dorm.”
“Lucky we did.” Alvin said quietly.
“I hate to think of what might have happened if we didn’t go after her.” Alvin stopped as he watched Ethan staring out the kitchen window, “Ethan?”
“It isn’t fair,” he whispered, “None of this is fair for her.”
“Ethan?” Edward repeated, “what don’t we know?”
“She calls it an accident,” he said, still not looking directly at either of them, “but I can’t be sure because she’s always so cheerful about everything. Whatever it was, it happened at the Annex.”
Alvin caught Edward with hard glare before he could say what they were both thinking. “Can you get Sara to go there with you?”
Ethan turned to Alvin with tears in his eyes, “I don’t know. I thought maybe she’d go…if you guys asked her.”
“Ethan, hang on a minute, there’s something you need to know, um…” Alvin hesitated and Edward jumped in, “When we met you, we were searching for a big shadow that was seen in the Annex. It attacked Kelli in the hallway.” He picked up his laptop and opened a file, then looked to Alvin, “The shadow that we were hunting and then you bring Sara to us…”
“At first we thought our, er your Sara was the source of both of them,” He spun the laptop to Ethan, the pictures of both Sara’s were side by side, “Now we know that they are two different ghosts.” Ethan only stared at the screen, then closed his eyes, shaking his head, “This is too much. How is that even possible?”
Alvin’s voice was a whisper, “How is any of this possible?”
Edward leaned forward putting his head in his hands, “I knew it would come to this. Can it wait until after your recital? It’s maybe too much to handle right now?” Edward sighed, “I’m sorry. I don’t say that to be mean.”
“It’s okay, Ed. I know you don’t mean it that way.”
Edward looked up, rolling his eyes, “God dammit,” he said sharply, “the day we met her…all in the practice room like that. It was the most fun I’ve ever had.” He sniffled, wiping his eyes, “Sorry, but it’s true. Shit, here I go now.”
Alvin cleared his throat roughly as he picked up his shot glass, “Maybe Ed and I go to the Annex, do a little looking around. Now that we have it possibly…” he sighed heavily, “I can’t even say it, narrowed down. Maybe something will jump out at us that will help.”
Edward picked up his glass, encouraging Ethan to do the same. “We learn what we can.” He threw back the whiskey shot, grimacing at Alvin, “Jump out at us…what’s the matter with you?”
Ethan grimaced, taking a small sip, “Yeah, no.” He put the glass down on the table, “Not for me. I trust you guys,” he said, “to do what’s best for Sara.”
Both Alvin and Edward nodded yet Alvin continued, “Not that we really know what that is, but we need to do what’s best for you too.”
“Um, thank you.” Ethan looked back out the window, “I’m not very good…at this sort of…”
“Neither are we,” Edward offered quietly, “what you have with Sara is amazing, but bad Sara is getting more aggressive. We worry a little. Kelli and Mikayla do too.”
“Especially, Mik,” Alvin interjected with a side glance to Edward.
“They’re both pretty cool, huh?” Ethan said, “Both fearless in their own way. I envy them.”
“Ethan, they’ve both had run-ins with Sara’s bad side, if we’re going to do something, I think it’s best if we’re all together.” Alvin turned to Edward, “Tonight, then?”
“Nope,” Edward said definitively, catching both Ethan and Alvin off guard, “Right now.”
Chapter 36
“Okay, this is weird…and equally creepy,” Edward whispered as he and Alvin approached the Annex lobby. Alvin pointed to a bench along the windows, “Let’s get organized over there.”
“I’ll do a flyby along the main concourse and you set up the monitors. How many did you bring?”
Edward took one of the tiny wi-fi sensors out of his bag, “I ordered four more.”
“So much for the club budget,” Alvin smirked. It was the first time either of them had smiled since they arrived. He shrugged, “It’s fine. Plus, I have an idea for the recital we should discuss when we get together with Mik and Kelli. Also, a budget thing.”
Edward powered up his laptop, “Recital? For Ethan?”
“Not exactly,” Alvin answered, “We’ll need Kelli and Mik’s expertise on this one.”
“I’m in,” Edward grinned, having no idea what Alvin was thinking, “Sensors are up and sequenced. I’m going to place them.” He pointed up to the mezzanine level as a group of students passed from one building to the next, “I’ll get two up there. Give me a few minutes.”
“Left stairwell, “Alvin cautioned, “Take the right one and you’ll end up headed to the Union. I’ve done it like five times this year.”
“Twice for me, it’s like a maze,” Edward chuckled. “If I have to wait until the halls are clear, it might take some time.”
Alvin waved him on
, “I’ll keep an eye on things. Go do your stuff.”
Minutes later, Edward signaled Alvin from the open hallway above the Annex lobby. Walking back to the open lobby he placed two sensors, one hidden in a large potted tree and the second behind a trash bin close to the door. He hustled back to the bench to see Alvin engrossed in an online article.
“This building was supposed to be just a connecting skyway between the music building and the Union. Some bigshot alum donated a ton of money to the school to make it more like an art gallery.”
“There isn’t a straight angle in the whole building,” Edward laughed, “I had to backtrack after I placed the last sensor, but you can see all the way to Burgum from the upper level.”
Alvin watched as another group of students made their way across the upper level. He turned to watch the front doors then back to Edward as he was bringing the sensors on-line. “Ed,” he said softly, “you bring the infrared camera?”
“Of course,” was the instant answer, “It’s just a little obvious right now, don’t you think? There are too many people in the halls.”
“Ed?” Alvin asked again, his voice a bit firmer this time, “Don’t power up just yet.”
“The sooner we’re up and running…”
“Edward,” Alvin hissed from clenched teeth, “real slow, turn and look at the far wall just below the mezzanine. I’m seein’ shit. Don’t be obvious.””
As Edward slowly rotated on the bench, a shadow had formed where the sparkling terrazzo tile floor met a rough textured concrete wall. While the sunlight streaming in the Annex window lit up the entire lobby, the projection from the upper level created a deep shadow as the walkway entered the Music Building. Cloaked in the naturally occurring outline, a jet-black ringlet crept out of the seam in the wall and was snaking slowly along the floor all on its own.
