Ghost

0303

The bells had rung around three-fifteen that day, and while all the other kids flew out of their seats and practically toppled over themselves to get out the door, I stayed sitting. It was Friday, and all the kids would be hanging out, but not me. I didn’t get to go out and do fun things, even if I had friends to hang out with. I had detention.

“Maybe you should to take more care to control the volume at which you insult teachers under your breath, Miss Hagen. Us nuns have better hearing than you’d think.” Sister Anna, one of the few in the school, was sitting behind the desk in the front of the room in a sweater vest and khaki trousers. She was gazing down at a book while continuing to lecture me about the decibels it took to get away with backtalk. I guess she was still a little sore about me bringing attention to the stick up her ass.

While the two other kids had managed to fall asleep, I had my head on my hand; my eyes rolling in an eternal loop. That was back in the peak of my attitude phase. If I wasn’t arguing with teachers about the pointlessness of keeping feet off of the desks, then my life wasn’t complete.

“I have to pee,” I said suddenly. Sister Anna looked up at me from above her glasses.

“You have to what, again?”

“May I use the bathroom,” I bit into each word like it was rotten.

She held my gaze for a second before shaking her head. “I’m going to take everyone during your ten minute break. You can wait until then.”

I started to jingle my leg. “Please, Sister Anna, I really need to go. I haven’t gone all day.”

“And whose fault is that?”

“The teacher who told me I couldn’t go earlier.”

She let out a sharp sigh. “Fine, Natalie, but if you aren’t back in five minutes I will come find you personally and give you detention every day for the next month, is that clear?”

I nodded and jolted out of my seat, “Thank you so much, Sister. Bless you!” It was her turn to roll her eyes as I almost leaped right out of the room and bolted down the hallway.

She knew I wasn’t planning on coming back. We both knew, and I kind of got the feeling she just secretly liked mischief. Stick up her ass or not.

My adventures through the seemingly empty hallways became short lived once the teachers started locking up their classrooms and heading out. I ended up having to hide in a broom closet, unaware that it was locked from the outside until I had already closed the door. I spent five minutes trying the kick it down, which was pointless with my stick-legs. Another ten minutes went to periodically knocking, and the last twenty went to sitting on a mop bucket counting how many cleaning supplies lined the shelves. That’s when I saw an extra set of keys hanging on a hook right near the door. Genius.

As soon as I was out and done kissing the floors of freedom, I started to head back into the direction I had came from; hoping I hadn’t ventured past the point of talking myself out of perpetual detention. I had only taken a few steps when I heard a strange noise. It reminded me of the sound a dryer would make if you threw a pair of shoes in; thumping, banging. Only slightly rhythmic. I would have mistaken it for the beat of my heart if I hadn’t been relaxed just a few seconds before.

I turned and looked down the hall, where only a few doors lined up the walls before hitting a dead end. I’d been down this hallway plenty of times. The room at the end was one of my favorite classes.

It was the room at the end that I noticed a faint light glowing from the crack beneath the door.

I had always been too curious for my own good, despite the trouble it lead me into. So this wasn’t something I could just walk away from. Even after…the last time I’d gone snooping. I had to make sure it wasn’t happening again.

I sucked in a breath and hoped that it was just some air vents knocking around and not it again. My steps were slowed, steady. I took about a full minute to walk what would have usually taken a couple of seconds as my breathing increased. When I came up to the door I had to hold my breath just to hear it.

 The moan.

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[a/n]: If anyone would be willing to give me feedback: should I keep this chapter italicized or not? I figured having it italicized would make it more obvious it was a flashback, but I'm concerned it might be harder to read (sorry for the random question, but I am incapable of making decisions myself).