"Favourite Haunts", Part One // Short story

Kara folded her arms and leaned back in her chair, satisfied. “Okay, I think we’re finished,” she announced. “It’s perfect. At least, as perfect as it can be.”

Her friends, Amy and Lynne, cheered half-heartedly. Kara knew that they were both as exhausted as she was. It was five p.m. on a Friday night; a time any self-respecting teenager was at home, playing video games or texting their friends, looking forward to a long, lazy weekend. Not Kara and her two classmates. They had a science presentation due on Monday, and had had no choice but to stay at school until late to finish it.

“Man, Year Eleven sucks,” complained Lynne, as they packed their bags, ready to leave the classroom. “All this homework. I feel like I no longer have a life.”

“I just hope we get a good grade,” said Amy anxiously. Amy was very academic and always worried about her grades; it had been at her insistence that they’d stayed behind to work on the presentation at all. Kara both admired her dedication and felt exasperated by it.

“It’ll be fine,” said Kara, trying to sound upbeat, but only sounding as tired as she felt. If she was perfectly honest, at that moment she couldn’t care less about her grades. All she wanted was to be at home, curled up on the sofa, a warm drink in her hand, catching up on missed episodes of her current favourite TV show.

They left the classroom and started quickly making their way towards the school’s front doors. The school was completely silent; a far cry from what it was usually like – filled with loud, chattering kids making their way from lesson to lesson. At this hour, though, Kara and her mates were the only ones still there, apart from the caretaker.

They were almost at the door when Kara realised something. “Oh, crap,” she grumbled. “I left my sports bag in my locker.” She felt her heart sink. Her locker was almost exactly at the other end of the school building, on the top floor. It was going to take her forever to get to it.

“We’ll come with you,” offered Lynne.

“Nah, it’s okay, you guys go home,” said Kara, starting to walk backwards along the corridor. “I’ll see you on Monday.”

They said their goodbyes, and Kara started power-walking towards the staircase leading up to the first floor. She was slowly slipping into an extremely bad mood. Couldn’t anything go well for her today? All she wanted was to get back home as quickly as possible; was that so much to ask?

She reached the stairs, taking them two at a time. She could hear the faint whirring noise of the janitor doing the hoovering in some classroom nearby, and the sound of her footsteps echoing as she jogged up the steps.

She made it up to the top floor, and started making her way along the quiet corridors, past deserted classrooms, to her locker.

It was slightly eerie, the school being so silent. She was used to New Road Secondary School being packed with noisy students, a wild, crazy world of lessons and homework and lunchtimes and running feet. Now it was so silent she could hear the sound of her own breathing as she hurried along.

She could almost hear the sound of the students who walked these corridors during the daytime, she thought as she reached her locker and pulled out her sports bag. The sound of their chattering, shrieking, whispering, shouting, giggling…

Hang on. She frowned, straightening up and slamming her locker door closed. She wasn’t imagining it; she actually could hear the sound of someone giggling, coming from behind a closed classroom door nearby. It sounded like a little girl. But why would anyone be here at this hour?

Her curiosity getting the better of her, she moved slowly towards the classroom where the noise was coming from. The giggling had gotten louder, as though whoever it was had fallen into another fit of giggles. It was probably a bunch of younger students, Kara thought, who had sneaked up to this classroom to play a practical joke or something. Or maybe it was a teenage couple who had taken advantage of an empty classroom, to, well, kiss – or worse. Kara felt a wave of nausea at the thought of walking in on that, but she was determined to find out the source of the giggling.

She reached the door, pulled it open, and stepped inside.

There was no-one there.

She looked behind the door, bent down to check under the tables, peered into the room’s corners. No-one.

She frowned. Had she heard wrong? Was the noise coming from a different classroom? She paused, listening, but the sound had stopped.

She made her way back outside, and stood still in the corridor. She’d been certain that the noise was coming from inside that particular classroom. But perhaps she’d been wrong. She was so tired, after all…

Everything was completely silent now. Maybe whoever it was had heard her, and was making an effort to stay quiet.

Telling herself it didn’t matter, she’d leave the giggling girl to whatever it was she was doing, she started hurrying back along the corridor, towards the stairs.

But then she heard it again. The giggling.

Louder this time, and coming from a door directly to her left. She walked resolutely to it, yanked it open, and looked inside.

Nobody.

Feeling a shiver of unease climbing up her back, she shut the door and kept going. Again, the moment she’d opened the door, the sound had stopped.

What was going on? Where was the noise coming from? And why couldn’t she find its source?

She was nearly at the stairs when she heard it again, even louder this time, and now it wasn’t coming from a classroom, it was coming from around her, from the walls, from everywhere at once; the sound of a girl laughing manically, insanely, filling the air around Kara, washing over her, drowning her…

Terror like she’d never felt before exploded in her stomach. She closed her eyes, as though that could somehow help, and broke into a run. You’re over-tired, she told herself desperately. You’re imagining it. You’re exhausted and your mind is playing tricks on you…
She got to the staircase and tore down it so fast, she stumbled and rolled down the last few steps. She scrambled to her feet, barely noting the pain in her arms and knees, desperate to escape this nightmare, to run all the way home, until she was safely in her room, away from anything in any way out of the ordinary.

She suddenly realised that the sound had stopped. It was completely hushed in the school corridor. She couldn’t even hear the sound of the hoover anymore.

She paused, panting for breath. Now that it was over, she felt somewhat embarrassed for freaking out so badly, but she still wasn’t going to waste any time in going home. She set off at a near run.

“Hello. Where are you going in such a hurry?”

Kara nearly jumped out of her skin. She whirled around – and felt a shudder of fear make its way through her.

Standing directly behind her was a small girl, no older than eleven years old – she looked too young to be even a Year Seven student, but maybe she was small for her age. She had extremely long blonde hair, and was wearing a uniform that looked similar to the New Road Secondary School uniform, only more old-fashioned – a bonnet and a stiff-looking blazer and skirt. Her face was very pale and thin – and the most terrifying part about her was the fact that her eyes were completely white. No pupil, no iris, just large milky-white orbs.

As Kara stared at her in horror, the girl giggled. Kara recognised the same laugh that she had heard upstairs.

“Have you come to play with me?” The girl skipped closer; she seemed to be moving far too quickly. “My name’s Maudie,” she said in a cheery tone. “And I’m so glad someone’s come here. I’ve been ever so lonely.”

Kara could only stare at her in a mixture of fear and confusion. Who was this girl? What was she doing here? And what was wrong with her eyes?

“Come and play with me,” insisted Maudie, and suddenly, in the blink of an eye, moving faster than any human could, she was standing right in front of Kara.

Kara staggered back in shock, nearly falling over, and the girl reached a hand out, closing her fingers around Kara’s wrist. Kara gasped. Maudie’s fingers were colder than ice.

She tried to yank herself free, but Maudie clung on, her face lit up with an insane smile. Kara felt like she was about to pass out cold out of sheer terror.

Then she felt the strangest sensation, as though something was being pulled out of her, as though all her energy was flowing out of her, down her arm and into the little girl, as though her life was being sucked away from her body…

Unable to help it, she started to scream.

                                                                                         

Heh heh heh, me and my cliffhangers. I'm so evil it's awesome.

So there you have it, part one of my entry for my Monthly Writing Challenge! I'm going away tomorrow evening, but I'll probably have time to post part two in the morning or afternoon. If not I'll just post it on Tuesday (as long as I have WiFi).

Let me know what you thought about this!

-Indigo