“You were only in there for a second, we just closed the door,” Sinéad complained. “You had to stay until after midnight.”
“I was in there for hours.” I looked at them confused. “Whatever. I don’t care. I’m not going in there again no matter what you say or do.” My outburst shocked even me. Before I became invisible, I was never timid. However, sly and cunning looks meant to demean without saying a word had the power of stripping confidence and assurance. Being in room thirteen had given me the courage to stand my ground, or at least try to be more assertive. My mum might have brought me here for her own selfish reasons, and at the time I felt a deep and utter sadness. I now came to realise, coming here was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.
Sinéad huffed, “Fine. We’re only trying to help.”
I turned away from them to walk to my room. “I don’t need your help.”
Sinéad asked, “What’s wrong with you?”
Rachel said, “Leave her, she’s kinda weird.”
Ignoring them, I pushed open my bedroom door and after I walked into the room, the door swung closed behind me without me touching it. The wind rushing past me sounded like an exhaled breath.
At my cupboard, I pulled open the doors and reached for my towel when a scraping noise behind me made me glance over my shoulder. Nothing was out of place, so I turned back and pulled my nightgown from a hanger. I was determined not to let my experience in room thirteen make me feel anxious or afraid. I was happy to be out of that room, but I felt different. Somehow, I felt stronger, invincible like my mum always used to say I was.
From the corner of my eye, I saw a dark shadow shift across the mirror on the inside of the cupboard door. I turned to face the mirror and felt threatened by the expression in my own eyes as they stared back at me. It was there only for a second and then my own brown eyes were looking back at me.
A loud noise made me spin around completely. Utterly terrified, my panicked eyes scanned the room. My lips trembled, about to ask who was there when I was brutally shoved into the cupboard and fell back into my hanging clothes.
3
I woke up in my cupboard, not really knowing why I was laying in a bundle on the floor with half of my clothes on top of me. Then, memories flooded back and I remembered every horrific second of the night before.
The whole morning I was trying to shake the feeling of dread and even if it was all I could think about, I wanted to pretend it did not happen.
I only arrived here a week ago and I really did not want everyone to think I was mad in the head. It was better they first got to know me. I had to make a good first impression. Find my place in the world where I was not invisible.
When most of us die our souls move on, but some souls remain in a place of anger and revenge, a lot closer to this world and when I entered room thirteen I opened a door to this other side and I did not know how to close it again.
It was the third period, Technology when I walked into the classroom and sat down beside Evelyn.
For a moment we sat listening to the sounds of feet rushing through the halls outside the classroom and locker doors being slammed shut.
Evelyn turned to me with a curious look in her big blue eyes. “Did last night go well? Any ghosts?” She flicked her shoulder length blonde hair hanging on the one side of her head to the other.
“I don’t ever want to talk about it,” I dismissed her. If I did not talk about it out loud then I could pretend the curious and unusual feelings I had since being in room thirteen was just my imagination. Feelings which were trying to overwhelm me.
After I left room thirteen last night, I stood up for myself for probably the first time in my life ever.
Before, I was timid and did what I was told without question because I wanted the approval of those around me.
Now, it felt as if I was warring against an inner demon.
The school bell rang and the other students started filtering into the classroom.
Evelyn cleared her throat. “So, you looking forward to the dance tonight?”
“No, not really. You?” I looked up from scrolling through my phone to make eye contact with her.
“I have multiple options for a date, would you like to go in a group with us?”
“I don’t have to tag along.”
Evelyn added, “Yeah, but showing up at a party alone would look rather pathetic and I do have a partner situation. It would be easier for me to text them and tell them we’re all going in a group. I’m not very good at decision making.”
I felt a strange twist in the pit of my stomach and the simmering feeling of rage tried to overwhelm me. I had to really push hard to make the feeling fade as I convinced myself it would be nice not to arrive on my own.
Just then Mrs Peterson walked into the classroom and started handing out sheets of paper.
The girl closest to the door complained, “But Miss, we have the Valentine’s Dance tonight.”
The girl sitting behind her agreed after she picked up the sheet of paper from her table to scan it, “It’s not fair, Miss.”
“Okay, girls, settle down. You have a week to complete the assessment and I only want your best efforts,” Mrs Peterson explained. “You can start now.”
I read through the instructions and started working on it straight away.
Twenty minutes later, Evelyn nudged me and whispered, “Okay, it’s all arranged. We’ll meet at seven in front of the main entrance to the school.”
I whispered back, leaning closer to her, “What if I get there before you?”
She scrolled through the photos on her phone until she landed on an image of two good looking boys. “These are Colin and Oliver.” She pointed her finger at each one as she said their names. “So if I’m not there yet just introduce yourself and wait with them.”
As if.
My eyes lingered on Oliver, who had a tanned complexion with a smattering of freckles on the crest of his cheeks. His dark hair was swept back from his forehead, but it was his eyes and his smile which caught my attention. His eyes were a shade of blue. Sometimes blue eyes just looked washed out, but his eyes were radiant. His smile, even though just pixels on a screen made me want to smile as well. I think I might have fallen in love with him just then.
“So, you’re game?” Evelyn looked at me for confirmation.
“Yeah,” I agreed. She was right. It would look pathetic if I arrived at a dance dedicated solely to the idea of love, alone.
The bell rang and she grabbed her bag. “So, I’ll see you tonight. Seven. Front entrance.”
I watched her rush through the door before any of the other girls even got up from their chairs.
We were allowed to take the rest of the day off to get ready for the Valentine’s Dance, and when I got to my dorm room, I started doing all the little things needed to prepare for a dance. Things I had no intention of doing this morning, but four hours later and things had changed. I liked Oliver. Well, I liked the look of Oliver. He might turn out to be completely not my type, but I wanted to make an effort to look my best. To impress.
At fifteen minutes to seven, my nails were done, my make-up applied with the help of a few YouTube tutorial videos and my black hair, which I had in curlers since two o’clock this afternoon already started to lose their curl.
Standing in front of the mirror in my room, I pulled up the zip of the black, fitted dress I was wearing. The only decent dress I had brought with me was the same black dress I wore to my father’s funeral. When he died a part of me died as well. There was a hole in my heart which would never go away. Depressing, I know, wearing it to a dance of love, but it was either jeans or this.
Taking a deep breath, I swung the cupboard door shut. A gust of air pushed the door open again and I quickly dared a glance at the darkness within. Forcefully I pushed against the door until I heard the little latch at the top of the door catch.
I grabbed my handbag from the dressing table and just as I reached my door, I
heard a faint creak. Looking over at my cupboard, the door was open again.
Pulling my dorm door open, I saw girls streaming down the hallway, dressed in shades of red. I joined them and followed them down the stairway, before heading for the entrance doors of the main school building.
“Alison,” Evelyn called as soon as I rounded the last corner. I walked over to her where she was standing to the side with Oliver and Colin.
I was never a romantic, maybe a dreamer but never a romanticist. Sometimes I dreamt there was a balance between good and bad, and here it was. The bad of my dad dying, my invisible state, being abandoned at boarding school was suddenly perfectly balanced by the boy in front of me.
After quick introductions, Evelyn grabbed Colin’s hand and pulled him down the hall with her, leaving me to follow with Oliver who fell into step next to me.
When we reached the entrance doors to the assembly hall, he tilted his head a little, gestured with his hand for me to walk ahead of him and smiled an amused, crooked smile.
Self-consciously, I stepped ahead and walked into the hall, which had been transformed into a red and white monstrosity with long, sheer, see-through curtains hanging from the high vaulted ceilings like banners in old, medieval castles. A gentle, fragrant breeze blew from hidden vents and made the material sway, and together with the soft lighting created a mystical illusion.
I had to walk past Sinéad and Rachel, who waved in greeting. Rachel gave me a big smile and said, “You look gorgeous, Alison. You clean up nicely.”
The earth did not open and swallow me whole.
Oliver reached for my hand and held onto it as he steered me through the crowd of people and tables to get to Evelyn and Colin on the other side of the room.
I tried to pull my hand out of his, but he held my fingers a little tighter.
A song started playing and students started moving toward the dance floor, making it even more difficult for us to navigate our way to Evelyn and Colin.
Abruptly, Oliver changed direction and started pulling me toward the dance floor instead.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“If you can’t beat them, join them,” he said with a nonchalant shrug.
On the dance floor, he turned suddenly to face me, and I walked into him. My hands coming up to stop me from crashing into him, landed on his chest.
He smiled as he looked down at me, before folding his arm around my waist and pulling me closer. “I never thought of this as a slow song, but if you insist.”
Again the earth refused to open and swallow me whole. My heart was beating wildly in my chest. If I was a cartoon drawing, my heart would be going kaboom, kaboom on a string attached to me.
He said, “In case you got confused with the introductions, I’m the one called Oliver.”
“And I’m Alison, in case you missed it too.”
“No, I got it. Thanks for agreeing to be my date, though, last minute and all.”
“Wait...”
“What? You didn’t and I basically kidnapped you?” He chuckled.
“No. But... Evelyn said you both asked her and she couldn’t choose.” I really hoped I did not just share a secret Evelyn did not want to be shared.
“They’ve been dating for two years, and if I made a play for her, Colin would maim me, so, it seems she told you a tall tale. Sad someone had to lie to get me a date, don’t you think?”
I wondered why, though. Surely he could get any girl he set his sights on.
“Not going to say anything?” He asked after a few moments of awkward silence.
I raised my eyebrows as I looked up at him and smiled a little. “Not really. I think you’re the one telling tall tales.”
“Wow! You’ve finally found a girl who’s even better looking than you,” a stocky boy said, looking over his shoulder while gyrating his hips.
Oliver let out a booming laugh.
The girl dancing with the stocky boy, Violet, agreed, “I’ve seen a thousand girls look at him like you are right now.”
Earth. Open. Swallow.
Violet danced around the stocky boy so that she could lean into me, and said close to my ear, “And this is the first time I’ve ever seen him look back at a girl like he’s looking at you.”
My heart reacted with a jolt.
“Violet,” he growled and turned us away from the two chatty dancers.
I dared a glance up at him and saw a faint rose-colour taint the crest of his cheeks. Was he blushing?
4
I felt possessed.
Dark and soft lights flashed in the room, the throbbing pulse of the music, the movement of dancing bodies, his arms around my waist, everything around me culminated in making me feel alive and I had not felt alive in a long time. I had been unseen for even longer.
“Alison,” Oliver said, pulling me back from my thoughts. “I hope that jerk, Evan, didn’t make you feel awkward.”
I looked up at him, and into his clear blue eyes. “I know he was just joking. How gullible do you think I am?”
“He likes to mess with me, is all,” he explained. “Are you looking forward to going camping next weekend?”
“What camping? It’s the first I’m hearing of it.”
“That’s when the fun really starts around here.” His eyes sparkled as a mischievous grin pulled on the corners of his mouth.
“Both schools? Boys & girls?” I could not see how boarding school could ever get to be fun. It was supposed to be a form of punishment, wasn’t it?
He answered with a wink, “Separate tents, though.”
The music changed, and I started to pull away from him, but he pulled me even closer. Good thing we were in the middle of the dance floor with about a hundred bodies surrounding us. We could not be seen too clearly by the chaperones who made sure we all kept respectable distances from each other, just in case the mere touch of our bodies would lead to impregnation.
“I hear you went into room thirteen and survived to tell the story,” he said jokingly.
I shook my head, and at the same time, I felt a sharp pain in the nape of my neck, like a precursor to a headache.
The suppressed feeling of rage I have had since leaving room thirteen tried to overwhelm me, and I pushed away from him. “I need to powder my nose.”
“No worries,” Oliver said as he took my hand and led me through the dancers between us and the door.
“I know the way,” I told his back.
When we entered the well-lit corridor, he slowed down until I was beside him. “I know you know the way. I just needed a breath of air as well. Too many people in the same room make me feel claustrophobic sometimes.”
The designated toilets were just across the hallway, but there was a long queue.
With my hand still in his, he pulled me past the line of girls. Leaning down, with his lips brushing my ear, he whispered, “I know of another one where there’ll be no waiting.”
“How...” I started asking, but then realised this was not his first dance here and I am not the first girl he had walked down this corridor. The simmering ember of rage in the pit of my stomach was ignited by this thought and it glowed red hot. The feeling threatened to burst from me.
Since my mum married again, I had grown good at hiding my feelings. Hide the hurt, the anger, the rejection and the pain. I always had my emotions under control, at all times, until now. Was it because here I did not have to hide them as well as I did at home?
“So, Lily?” He turned to look at me.
“Yeah?” Then I realised he had called me Lily, and I answered as if I was her. I know now I should never have gone into that room. The rules warned me, deep down I knew I should not mess with supernatural things, but I did it anyway to prove I am worthy, to get the approval of people who still did not see me. I looked at him with a frown and asked unsure, “Lily?”
“You know. The girl from room thirteen,” he explained.
“What about her?”
“Do you think s
he really killed herself?”
“Probably. There were witnesses,” I said dismissively. The only thing everyone wanted to talk about was the sudden demise of Lily, fifteen years ago. I did not want to be reminded. Since being in room thirteen and meeting Lily, I felt as if we had a connection. We were one.
“I wonder who the mystery guy she was in love with was,” I said.
“Do you think he knew she walked into the lake and drowned herself because of him? Rumours say he married some stuck-up, rich girl. Did you know he dumped her the day she killed herself, the day before Valentine’s Day?”
“I’ve heard all the rumours, but do you know who the guy was?”
“I think it was some guy called, Rob or Robin or Robert, something like that anyway. You can look it up in the School Journals in the library, though. I’m sure they have them all there.”
An irrational impulse pushed me to know who the boy was who broke Lily’s heart. I had to see his face. “I’d like to find out who he was,” I said. “I think it’d be interesting to know.”
“I’ll help you if you wanted me to.” The crest of his cheeks shaded a colour of pink again. He certainly was adorable. The one moment I knew I could really love Oliver and the very next second I felt inexplicable anger. I could not understand where the feeling I had to avoid him at all cost was coming from. I felt an acute awareness that he would have no trouble breaking my heart and he was not to be trusted. No boy was ever to be trusted.
He asked, “Tomorrow? We could start early.”
“How early is your early?” I asked.
“The library opens at ten on a Saturday, too early for you?”
We had reached the bathroom, and I pushed the door open, telling him across my shoulder, “You know it’s kind of embarrassing having you wait here for me. Maybe we could meet back at the drinks table?”
He nodded and I watched him walk away before I let the heavy door swing shut behind me.
The bright fluorescent lights glared in the mirrors to my side and as I pushed lightly on one of the slightly open cubicle doors, I saw a shadow move across the mirror and there was a flash of silver, maybe a reflection off the tap.
The Girl in Room Thirteen Page 2
