The Girl in Room Thirteen

by Lynette Ferreira

  “I think you do, though.” She smirked as she lifted her forearm and her bangles dangled down to her elbow so that I could clearly see the scars on her wrist. “See. I can relate.”

  I closed my eyes, feeling a chill.

  From across the courtyard, there was a sudden soft sound.

  Scratch… Scratch… Scratch…

  We both turned in the direction of the sound.

  Rachel asked, “Who’s there?”

  There was no answer but a breeze ruffled the leaves of a small bush nearby. I peered into the darkness.

  Rachel asked in a soft whisper, “Was it the wind?” Then she asked louder, “Who is that?” Rattled she started to back away from me and the darkness toward the door of the entrance hall.

  I turned to face her and saw someone standing behind her. Rachel was backing up right toward the figure. “Be careful. Behind you,” I warned her.

  She swung around quickly.

  The figure disappeared and I thought it might have been just a shifting shadow from the way the light was coming through the windows, and the gentle breeze moving through the leaves of the trees.

  Even though I knew it could have been no more than shadows, I was unable to shake the feeling we were not alone.

  We both jumped when her phone started ringing and she quickly pulled it from her pocket. She said, “Sure. Of course. I’m on my way.” She ended her call and looked back at me. “There’s something seriously creepy going on here.”

  I agreed, as I looked up at the building and saw a dark silhouette in the window of room thirteen.

  With a resigned sigh, I sat down on a low wall and pulled my phone from my pocket. Scrolling through my contacts, my finger hesitated on my dad’s name whose number I would never delete from my phone. I felt a deep, painful loss just looking at his number and knowing I could not phone him. In the past, since he died, I had often felt this way but now the feeling was more intense. I could feel it burning in the pit of my stomach, a feeling so intense I had never experienced the sensation before.

  I looked up at room thirteen again, but it was empty now. Just a window which would stay empty and dark forever.

  My phone vibrated in my hand and I looked from the window to my screen.

  It was a message from Oliver: Are you still safe?

  I replied: I think someone’s messing with me.

  Oliver: Like?

  Alison: I keep seeing shadows and things. Sorry! No one else to tell.

  Oliver: You can tell me. Anything.

  Alison: Do you really think there’s a psycho killer running around? Revenge for Lily, maybe?

  Oliver: Sometimes.

  Alison: Am I just going crazy?

  Oliver: NO. I don’t think you’re crazy.

  Alison: Would you believe me if I told you what’s happened since I went into room thirteen or would you just make fun of me?

  Oliver: I’d believe.

  Alison: You could use my texts against me in a court of law!

  Oliver: I could, but I wouldn’t.

  Alison: I think I’ll keep my secrets for now. I was just feeling a little freaked earlier.

  Oliver: You sure?

  Alison: 100%

  Was I really the reason why Lily killed herself?

  Yes. My dad cheated on her.

  Yes. He cheated with my mum.

  Yes. My mum got pregnant.

  With me.

  Then I realised why Lily blamed me. I realised what one plus one equals three meant.

  My dad was one.

  My mum was one.

  Add them together and the sum would be me.

  Two people and a baby.

  An incredible sense of dread washed over me.

  I stood up from the low wall and on autopilot, I walked into the brightly lit entrance hall, turned to my right and walked up the wide staircase to the first floor. When I reached door number thirteen, I stopped and placed my hand on the door handle, turning it at the same time.

  I was a little shocked when the door swung open even though I expected it to be locked. Rachel and Sinéad must have forgotten to lock it again when I left it the other night in a sheer panic. If I was so scared the last time I was in this room, why did I come back?

  After I closed the door behind me, I found my way across the floor to the bed and sat down on the edge.

  I was barely breathing, waiting for something to happen.

  Nothing happened.

  “I don’t understand,” I said softly. “You wanted me to come here. You wanted my help.”

  Everything was silent. The room seemed to be somewhere in space where no sound could reach it because I was sure girls were talking in the hallway outside, going to the bathroom, laughing, playful yelling, yet not a sound managed to enter this room.

  I curled into a ball on the bed, facing the door, ignoring the smell of years of dust on the bed covering.

  I must have fallen asleep, because dreamlike images flashed before me of my mum and Lily sitting on this bed, in this room.

  Lily asked, “Is Roger ever going to actually ask me out, or will he just keep giving me that look whenever he sees me?”

  Dianne glanced at Lily. “He will, I’m sure. He’s always looking at you with that lost puppy look. Maybe if you made the first move?”

  Lily laughed. “Now you’re just being silly. Girls don’t make the first move.”

  “Really? This is the year two-thousand, haven’t you heard you don’t have to wait for a boy to ask you to the dance. It’s okay to be the one doing the asking.”

  “My mother would have a stroke if she found out I asked a boy first. Etiquette, my dear.” Lily mimicked a snobbish accent.

  Dianne shrugged her shoulders. “If you don’t ask him, I will.”

  Lily gasped. “You wouldn’t.”

  “I would.”

  “You like him too?” Lily looked at Dianne with a shocked expression.

  Dianne looked away, unable to meet Lily’s penetrating stare.

  “Is it true? When were you going to tell me?”

  Dianne huffed. “Yes, I like him but he only looks at you. Besides, John told me Roger is asking you to go with him to the Year-end formal so it doesn’t matter if I like him or not, he doesn’t even know I exist even when I am always by your side.”

  “I cannot believe you’re doing this to me,” Lily exclaimed, standing up to pace.

  Dianne looked at Lily with a look of despair. “We cannot choose whom we fall in love with, but you’re my friend and as long as you are, Roger will forever be off limits to me.”

  Lily said loudly, “As long as we are friends, he’ll be safe? Meaning if you weren’t my friend he wouldn’t even be interested in me?”

  Dianne sighed loudly. “That’s not what I meant, Lily, and you know it.”

  “Get out!” Lily shouted.

  Dianne looked at her confused. “What?”

  Lily screamed, “Get out! Get out! I’d rather have no friends than have friends like you!”

  10

  I woke up with a start, looking around confused until I realised I had fallen asleep in room thirteen and I could not even remember coming here. My last memory was sitting in the court yard, texting Oliver.

  From the corner of my eye, something moved and then there was a loud scraping sound of something being dragged across the floor. Quickly I slipped off the bed and reached for the light switch beside the door, just in time to see the bed move away from the wall by itself.

  I stopped breathing as my body froze in panic. I felt heavy, paralysed, unable to even twitch a muscle.

  Everything was still then as if something in the room was waiting for my next move.

  Quickly I reached for the door handle next to me and pulled the door open so fast it banged into my shoulder. My feet slapped against the polished surface of the floor in the hallway as I ran to my room.

  It was so late, everyone was sleeping which made my chest feel so tight with fear I could only take shallow br
eaths. My eyes were darting everywhere. The boarding house was so quiet, room doors were all closed, the fluorescent lights on the ceiling seemed dimmer than usual. If there was a psycho about, now was the time he would get me or, even worse, if it was Lily haunting me… I could feel bubbles of panic push up through my chest.

  When I reached my room door, I could not get it open fast enough. I had a feeling something was standing right behind me. After I quickly closed the door, I sat down on my bed and stared at the door, waiting for it to open again.

  There was nothing.

  Only silence.

  Did I imagine everything?

  Was I going crazy?

  Then my books started hurling themselves off my desk one by one. At first, it was slow and then it became faster and faster, the books travelling across the room at a greater distance. Whatever or whoever was doing this wanted to do me bodily harm.

  I convinced myself it was Lily doing this.

  She hated me.

  My mum always got what she wanted, and it was clear from the dream I had in Lily’s room that my mum wanted my dad. When Lily told her they weren’t friends anymore, she gave my mum permission.

  My laptop slid across the desk and then flew into the wall behind me, missing my head by centimetres.

  I jumped up and saw a figure standing in my cupboard, in the shadows. It did not move or speak, there was no face but it stared at me with a strange reflection where its eyes were supposed to be.

  My entire body felt weak with fear and I started screaming until my neighbour, Violet, started banging on my room door, asking, “What’s going on?”

  I fumbled with the door until it opened and Violet looked at me with a freaked expression on her face. “What the hell, Alison?”

  “I’m sorry,” I apologised. “Just an awful nightmare.”

  She looked at me for a long moment. “Do you need to talk about your dream?”

  I shook my head. “I’ll be fine.” I started closing the door. “Sorry for waking you.”

  After she left, I sat down on the floor in the corner of my room, pulling my legs up to my chest, keeping my eyes wide open as they swept my room from side to side for any movements.

  I did not think I would ever fall asleep again, but I must have. Although it felt more like a memory than a dream.

  Red flashing lights started spinning around me and I saw a sheet covered body on a stretcher being loaded into the back of an ambulance.

  My dad’s voice cried from behind me, “No… No… This isn’t happening.” Then he walked through me trying to get closer to the ambulance and I staggered backwards, barely breathing, wishing something could make sense.

  The red lights swept across me with a creeping menace.

  A door slammed closed then – a locker door with notes taped to the front of it, notes with sad messages – and the noise woke me from a deep sleep I did not even know I was having.

  I felt too paralysed to shed any tears. I was falling apart and I was fading further and further into oblivion, no more just invisible to the one, most important person in my life, but invisible to everyone. Was I just imaginary? A fantasy? A dream?

  Lily. Did Lily feel invisible too? Fading away as her best friend spoke to her boyfriend, the boy she thought was the one, who promised so many things until he betrayed her and broke her heart, her spirit. After she died, her soul imprinted itself on her surroundings and even though nobody could see her, she saw everything.

  Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, trying to tune out my thoughts, trying to get rid of the feeling that something was wrong with me.

  I stood up from my sitting position and stretched my legs which felt stiff after having them pulled up to my chest for so long. The light from my window shifted and I glanced down at the Ouija board still lying on my desk and then the planchette… twisted.

  I kept staring at it and then very slowly it started moving across the board by itself. Unable to pull my eyes away from it, the planchette continued its eerie drift across the board from the middle to the engraved word: Hello

  Shocked I took a step back from my desk and caught a glimpse of a dark shadow in the mirror on the inside of my cupboard door which for some reason would not stay shut anymore.

  The shadow was in the shape of a dark figure and it tilted its head a little to the side when my eyes made contact with the gleam where its eyes were supposed to be.

  It was moving closer to me and frantically I searched my room for help but my room was only filled with shadows.

  Tears ran down my cheeks as I stood there frozen in fear. A feeling of hopelessness filled me as the dark figure glided across the floor toward me.

  There was a noise like water gurgling down a plug hole, as it whispered, “Lily. It’s time to come back.”

  My eyes widened. I started running toward the door. I had to get out of this room and there was nothing that could stop me.

  As I ran down the hallway I kept looking over my shoulder at my room door which I had left open, until I literally ran into Sinéad. We almost fell over from the impact but she steadied us and kept us from sprawling to the ground.

  “Are you okay, Alison? It looks like you’ve seen a ghost!”

  Only then did I notice all the traffic in the hallway. Girls were running in and out of the bathroom, chatting as they walked in groups to get to class.

  Sinéad and Amber walked me back to my room and when I slowly took the first step into my room everything looked normal. There was not a sign of the horror I left behind only moments earlier. I dared a glance at my cupboard and the door was closed.

  “We’ll wait for you while you get ready for school,” Sinéad suggested.

  Grateful I nodded my head and quickly got ready for class.

  Together we walked to the school building where I saw Oliver sitting on the kerb outside the entrance.

  I walked closer to him while Sinéad and Amber stepped past me, saying, “Bye, we’ll see you later, Alison.”

  I greeted him, “Hey, Oliver.”

  He frowned. “We were texting and then you just stopped replying. I was worried.”

  I pulled my phone from my pocket and saw I had more than twenty notifications. “I’m sorry. My head is all over the place.”

  “You’re okay, that’s all that matters.”

  I sighed long and deep. “I feel like I’m in a nightmare I can’t escape.”

  He looked at me concerned. “So, I’ll see you this weekend at the camp-site?”

  “Yeah. There’s no way I’ll be staying in my room while there’s no-one around.”

  “Creepy, is it?”

  I laughed softly. “Very.” I started backing away from him. “I'm gonna be late.”

  The school bell rang and he turned away. “I better get going too. I’ll see you later?”

  The trees to the side of the school building cast long shadows, but I side-stepped them not wanting the darkness to touch me.

  11

  The yellow school bus stopped in a large, level area on the other side of the lake.

  When I stepped off the bus, I looked across the flat, calm surface of the lake and saw the school building on the other side, a darker shade of grey than the surrounding clouds. I was mesmerized by the image.

  “Alison?”

  I turned around to his voice. “Hey, Oliver.”

  “Scary, isn’t it?” He asked as he came to stand next to me.

  “What’s scary?” I forced a soft laugh.

  “The school from all the way over here.”

  I looked back at the building in the distance. “Yeah. At least it’s far from here. I’m looking forward to this break, that’s for sure.”

  The weak sun shone high above the surrounding trees as the other girls from my year group disembarked the bus. Behind that, the boys leapt with raucous pushing and shoving from a navy and white bus. Not long after, bags were scattered on the ground and the two buses pulled away from the camp-site.

  Mrs Scott’s v
oice boomed, sending birds scattering from the tree tops. “Girls get your bags and move them to the pod you were allocated to yesterday. If you weren’t paying attention, wait by the picnic tables until I get to you.”

  I turned away from Oliver. “Better get going.”

  “See you later,” he said as he walked away to find his own bag and to get settled in his allocated pod.

  The pods were built close together and the camp-site could accommodate thirty-six students, six per pod and then the four staff members each had their own pod. The toilet and shower facilities were immediately adjacent to the pods and were shared. There was a strict schedule with boy/girl time slots stuck to the door of each pod.

  Evelyn called me over. “I’ve saved you a bed. Top or bottom?”

  I looked at the bunk bed. “Bottom?”

  “Perfect!” She clapped her hands together with glee. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

  Glancing around the area uncertain, I wondered if we were supposed to unpack our belongings or what.

  Evelyn explained, “I forgot it’s your first year. You just live out your bag while we’re here. We usually just push them under the beds to keep them out of the way.”

  I unzipped my bag and pulled a jumper from the top, before zipping it closed again and sliding it under the bed with my foot.

  After Evelyn pushed her bag under the bed, she suggested, “We’re allowed to keep ourselves entertained until lunch, so Colin, Oliver and I usually go for a walk, are you coming with?”

  “Okay,” I agreed. This was my first time here and by the sound of it Evelyn had been coming here every year, so until I got my bearings I decided to stay close to her.

  As we left the pod, Evelyn explained, “Each year group has their own camp-site, so every year it’s a different area to explore, so it’s quite exciting.”

  Colin and Oliver were waiting for us and as soon as we reached them Colin took Evelyn’s hand in his.

  Awkwardly I fell in step next to Oliver and was barely aware of the conversation between Colin, Evelyn and him.

  My eyes kept glancing to Oliver but he seemed oblivious of me as he let his fingers drift over the knee high grass we were walking through.

  My mind started drifting as we came to a clump of trees. A faint mistiness seeped between the trees while the sunlight made long streaks from above the tree tops to the ground below. Taking deep breaths I let the crisp air clear out everything that had happened to me since the thirteenth of February when I walked into Lily’s room for the first time. Quickly, I pushed Lily from my mind. The surroundings were too beautiful to let her spoil it for me.