Slit

***Hi, guys! I got the lovely privilege of being chosen to write this creepy and scary short story for the Gallows movie, coming out on July 10th! I hope you like it!***

Apparently at boarding school, everything interesting happens at night. At least, that's what they told me.

A senior transplant, moving from a small Tennessee town to upstate New York was a definite change for me. My parents' excuse for sending me? It was a first look at how college life would be, living on campus and focusing on my studies.

Three boxes sat at the end of my bed, still filled with my things, but I wasn't in the mood to open them.

My shared dorm room was like any other - two beds, two desks, and a shared closet with drawers. Luckily, there were no problems between me and my roommate so far. Derek Prescott was a star lacrosse player for Ashworth School. When not in class, he was either in the gym or on the field, so it was quiet most of the time.

Until now.

The dorm room door swung open, hitting the wall with a loud crash. Derek stood in the doorway with a flashlight in hand and a smile on his lips.

"Well, man...how about a spooky night of fun to honor the end of your first week at Ashworth?" he asked, his smile broadening.

"What are you talking about?" I questioned, pushing myself up from my bed.

That was when I noticed three people behind him - his girlfriend Adair, his best friend Marshal, and his sister Rennie. When you had one, you undoubtedly had one or more of the others.

Rennie grinned, her brown eyes she had in common with Derek sparkling. "Oh, come on, Alex. You've been here a week. No doubt you've heard about our tradition."

I snorted. "Yeah, I heard about it, all right...but I can't say I believe any of it."

Derek nodded at Marshal, who threw one of his flashlights on the bed beside me. "You want to see for yourself? We need a fifth person since Trevor graduated last year."

"And you can't think of anyone else who would do it?" I asked, picking it up and clicking it on and off once.

"Only because no one will," Derek grinned. "They've heard too many horror stories."

I raised a brow. "And what makes you think I want to do it?"

"Because we're asking nicely?" Rennie smiled.

"Asking nicely to go on a ghost hunt."

"Exactly."

Sighing, I clicked the flashlight on and off once more before standing. "I'm in."

With all of them grinning, I let them pull me into the hallway. Derek flipped off the light in our dorm and closed the door.

Dorms opened up and down the hallway as the five of us passed. Students were poking their heads out, seeing us just before their eyes widened and slammed them shut. The tradition proceeded itself well enough for others to not want anything to do with us on this night.

I didn't know exactly how this tradition got started, but I knew the origin of the so-called haunting, reading up on it after hearing so much from others.

Before Ashworth was a boarding school, it was a summer home for a wealthy New York City banker named Winston Ashworth in the early 1900s. He, along with his wife Greta and their daughter Clara, would spend June through August at their bayside estate, throwing extravagant parties for all of their friends and family.