Dark Secrets [COMPLETED]

Chapter 9: The Screaming Girl

Being unemployed was starting to get to me. I'd spent all afternoon doing nothing, save for some half-hearted job searching, and yet I felt completely drained. How long would I be able to live like this, I wondered as I laid on my back, staring at my ceiling. I struggled to keep my eyes open, and eventually I fell asleep.

I woke up three hours later to my phone vibrating against my table. Expecting it to be Roger, I just answered and put it on speaker. "Hello?"

A girlish voice responded. "Hi, Calista?"

"Yeah...? Who is this?"

"This is Miranda from Laurier."

I sat up. "Oh, hi! What's up?"

"I'm just calling to give you an update on the current situation regarding your information. We figured out what caused the error and were able to salvage most of the files that got corrupted. Unfortunately... we weren't able to locate your transcripts or your housing records."

My stomach dropped. "Are you kidding me?"

"I'm sorry, Calista," she said, "A lot of students were affected by this. We're doing what we can to fix the problem."

I wanted to snap at her out of frustration, but instead I swallowed my anger and gave a sullen reply. "Alright. Do you know when they're going to get everything figured out?"

"I've been told it could be up to five weeks. Maybe more."

Silently, I released a long stream of curses. "I'm not in a great living situation right now, Miranda! I don't have five more weeks!"

"I'm sorry! I only know what I've been told..."

A loud knock sounded at my door, making me jump.

"What was that?" Miranda asked. "Are you there?"

"Yeah, I... I gotta go. Just let me know when everything's sorted out, okay?" I hung up and went to my door. I opened it and poked my head out. "Hello?" I called.

The hallway was empty. Annoyed, I tried again. "Who's there?"

No answer. I growled in frustration. I was done being plagued by random voices and shadows that weren't really there.

"Fuck off!" I shouted down the hall. Then I slammed the door shut and turned to go back to bed.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I came face to face with a stranger.

She glowed silvery-blue. Her pale hair hung past her waist in waves, and her eyes were sunken and blank. She wore a long white gown that was spattered with a dark substance. A giant gash on her chest pulsated blood down her front.

Her facial features tightened, like she was about to cry. Then she opened her mouth wide and let out a bloodcurdling scream. My voice came back at that moment and my own scream joined hers in a horrifying duet.

I lunged for the door and flung it open. I booked it down the hall, making a beeline for the stairs. I glanced back, but only for a second. I wish I hadn't.

The screaming girl was racing after me, her mouth still wide open in a ghoulish expression.

I practically threw myself down the stairs, and stumbled forward on the landing. Hands grabbed my shoulders from behind. I screamed again, flailing around to try and break myself free.

"Calista!"

I looked up and saw it was Carlos. He held me in place by my shoulders, forcing me to look him in the eyes. "Are you okay? What happened?" He demanded.

I looked frantically up the stairs from where I came, but my pursuer was gone. Like she'd never been there. I turned back to Carlos, unsure of what to say.

A door slammed from above, making me jump. Fast footsteps approached us, and Robert appeared at the top of the stairs, looking irritated. "What is going on down there?"

"I don't know, I heard screaming and then Calista just came barreling down the stairs!" Carlos explained.

Robert turned his gaze onto me, his eyebrows furrowed. "What happened?"

"T-There was someone in my room," I said, my voice shaking,"A girl I've never seen before! She screamed at me and chased me down the hall!"

"Holy shit, what?!" Carlos exclaimed. He went to go upstairs, but Robert stopped him.

"I'll go investigate," he said. "You comfort your sister. She's clearly shaken."

"Someone's in our house!" Carlos protested. "We gotta call the police or something!"

"No!" Robert snapped. Indignation flashed across his face for a moment, only to vanish as we stared at him, baffled. "If someone truly broke in, and they're still in this house, then I want to be sure of it. If not, then we will have wasted the police's time for nothing. Just give me a moment, both of you." He turned and went back upstairs.

Carlos guided me down to the kitchen, where he sat me down in one of our chairs. He got me a glass of water, and I sat there in shock, staring into space. He set the glass on the table and sat in the chair directly across from me. "Okay, tell me exactly what happened."

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. "Well...I was napping, and a phone call woke me up. It was just my school keeping me updated on my stuff. Then I heard a noise outside my door and went to investigate it. There wasn't anyone there, so I closed the door, but when I turned around I saw...just some girl in my room!" I shuddered, remembering her sunken, glassy eyes. "She looked so fucked up, Carlos. She had a deep wound in her chest, like she'd been stabbed! Then she just screamed and ran at me, and chased me down the hall. Then I ran into you and...it's like she just vanished."

He stared at me with a blank expression, and my heart sank. "You don't believe me," I stated.

"It's not that, It's just..." He huffed. "Are you sure you've been getting enough sleep lately?"

"I didn't hallucinate it, Carlos! It was real!"

"You were really chased by a bloody, screaming stranger who magically appeared in your room somehow?"

"Maybe she was hiding somewhere! You've seen that hidden door, maybe there are other secret rooms in this place!"

He stared at me incredulously. "Do you hear yourself right now? One sealed-up room doesn't suddenly mean that we're living in a murder house!"

I shook my head. Of course he didn't understand, how could he? He hadn't seen the visions that I'd seen. He didn't hear the voices from nowhere like I did.

Robert came downstairs, and entered the kitchen. "I found no one upstairs," he said. "Your mother was startled from all the commotion, but I told her that everything is fine."

They both stared at me expectantly, but I couldn't answer. I just shook my head in disbelief.

After checking my room and Meredith's office twice with Carlos, I reluctantly agreed that I'd been imagining things. This seemed to satisfy him, and he went back downstairs. Robert wasn't so convinced, however. When we came out of my room, he just stood there, staring at me in the darkness of the hall.

I stared back, daring him to say something, but he just nodded once and walked back down the hall to his study.

Not wanting to be left alone for another minute, I grabbed my phone and earpods out of my drawer and went for an impromptu walk. I didn't know what the hell I'd just experienced, but I didn't want to think about that girl—apparition—whatever—for any longer than I needed to.

All I knew was that I wouldn't be sleeping in my own room that night.