The Ghoul Girls

Chapter 1

August 21, 2022

Mary

Someone new is sleeping in my bed. I don't like it. They came yesterday, Saturday, and threw their shit all over my room. They moved in here as if I wasn't here first. This is my room, after all. I never moved out. How dare you move into my bedroom? I heard one of the other invaders call her Alyssa. Well, Alyssa, you have no idea what you're getting yourself into.

"Bella!" I yelled. "Do you see this shit? Who the fuck does she think she is?"

Bella sauntered out of her bedroom, the room diagonally from mine. She was clad in her gray sweatpants that she cut into shorts, and her vintage Winnie the Pooh sweatshirt. Her blonde hair was straightened, like she usually wore. Naturally, her hair was in tight waves that fell over her shoulders.

"Yeah," she whispered, "there's someone in my room too." Allison and Josi each stepped out of their bedrooms. Allison's room was directly across the hall from mine, and Josi's room was to the left of mine. Josi had long brown hair that nearly reached her butt. She had on her matching puma joggers and sweatpants. The three of us were considered above average when it came to our height, all nearly topping off at about five foot nine. Then there was Allison who stopped short at five foot four. Allison wore black square framed glasses and had dark red hair that she dyed repeatedly. She had on her Adidas joggers and her Hillstone University sweatshirt. Each of us were confused and angry.

"I mean did you guys expect that they would just leave this apartment unrented?" Allison asked.

"Yes." Josi, Bella, and I all shouted at the same time.

"Universities are money hungry corporations and a few girls dying isn't going to stop them from making money. They have already bled out enough money to compensate our families." Allison carried on.

"Well I don't like it," I said. "Therefore, they shouldn't be allowed to do it. I mean have you seen the way this girl decorated my room? It looks tacky." She had pale pink bedding, a white shag rug, and frilly throw pillows all over her bed. I tried to remember the 'Girls Support Girls' mantra, but in this moment it slipped my mind. This was still my bedroom. I preferred a more retro style. My room was completed with 70's style wall prints, a woodstock poster, curtain lights, and 45's tacked to the wall. I would have brought up my lava lamp, but I had to keep up the aesthetic of my room at home.

My bedroom door creaked open and Alyssa mosied out of the room. She walked right through my body, giving me a chill that ran up my spine and a metallic taste in my mouth that made me want to vomit.

"Jesus," I shuddered. "I hate when that happens." I heard Alyssa begin to make her breakfast. As time went by, each of the new girls stepped out of their rooms and settled on the couch in the living room. The four of us sat down in the hallway, something we all did often. When we were still alive, that is. The new girls chatted and joked in the living room. One of them asked if this was the apartment where all those girls died. Another wondered if it was haunted. They laughed at the idea, but the four of us gave each other a look that said if you only knew.

A lot of people believe that when you die you go to heaven, or a higher place. Some believe in reincarnation. Others believe that you go back to the place you loved most. Well I can assure you that this apartment is none of those things. I'm not really sure what we did to deserve this hell. When we died we thought that nothing had changed, since we just woke up the next day in our beds. I sat up, but my body didn't. Let me tell you, seeing your own body isn't a fun experience. I tried to go home, but it's like our bodies are tied here. Once we realized that we were all stuck here, we cried for days. An eternity at Hillstone University? I couldn't even handle two and a half years here. I'm supposedly stuck in a never ending hell, but I'm determined to find a way out of it.