Dorm Ghosts - Flash Fic Story by Danica Rice (of course?)

“Dorm Ghosts” – Flash Fiction Ghost Story

Written by Danica Rice.  

It was Thanksgiving week, and Shondra was alone in the dorms. Everybody had gone home for the break, and she honestly didn’t care that she was all alone for the week, because it would allow her valuable time to read some recreational books for once. Being a college freshman didn’t exactly offer much time for recreational activities. Although, goodness knows, her friends certainly found the time! But they were all home with their families for the holidays. It would be the very first Thanksgiving she had ever spent alone.  Much less all alone in a dorm.  Though, she had everything she needed, and unlike everyone else, she hadn’t needed to pack in the last few days, so she could just sit back and watch everyone ELSE panic doing laundry or stuffing dirty clothes in their suitcases and agonizing over what books or movies or games to take home. She laughed as she looked around her dorm room, everything comfortably in its own space.  It was late at night, everyone having gone home hours ago, and now she realized she was hungry and with some quick mental math as to the hours on the clock and her ingrained knowledge of the dormitory meal places, quickly realized she was out of luck everywhere except for the vending machine in A level, the basement.
She let herself out the heavy automatically locking door and stopped in her tracks, the lights in the hallway, normally bright were dark.  In the distance, a single solitary light fixture blinked and flickered. Ensuring her door was locked, she walked, as usual into the lobby, those lights also flickered ominously.  Raising her eyebrows, an open doorway down the other hallway caught her attention. Nobody was on this floor except for herself and one RA who split hours between his girlfriend’s room and his, and she remembered he’d confided in her that he’d likely be with his girl all week, and even had her room number if she absolutely needed him. So, she was entirely and completely alone on this floor.  Yet, a door stood ajar. She got closer, and noticed it was more than just ajar, it was completely open. A quick glance down to the bottom of the door revealed that the heavy door was not wedged in any way, but rather freestanding by itself, the room beyond darkened. She felt almost certain she knew the person who lived there and knew that they wouldn’t appreciate their door being left open, so she looked from side to side and quickly scurried towards the door and yanked it closed before anyone could see her, though she knew rationally no one would.  She turned and approached the elevator as soon as she was confident the door was closing.  She heard it click closed, the familiar sound echoing through the corridor.  Reassured that no one’s belongings would go missing that night, she reached towards the elevator button to call it to her floor, but before she could push it, the doors slid eerily open.  In the middle of the metallic elevator was…. a garbage can.
Given how alone she knew she was in the dorms, with only a handful of people willing to sacrifice their vacations to monitor, well, her, and maybe five other students who had nothing better to do on their holiday.  Now that she thought about it, the garbage can was likely a prank pulled off by some of the other bored kids.  Immature too, she rolled her eyes and entered the elevator with the garbage can, pressing “A” for the basement.
Once there, she stepped off, taking her time deciding what she wanted from the vending machines.  Moments passed as she waited for her soda and sandwich to dispense, when suddenly, all of the lights in the basement went pitch black, except for the eerie glow of the soda machine she stood in front of, so she knew it wasn’t a power outage, likewise with the elevator’s sign glowing.  Only moments later, all the lights came back on and all was normal.  Thoroughly creeped out, she reached for the button to once again call the elevator, and, once more, the same elevator appeared without her button press, sliding open to reveal, this time, a chair exactly in the same spot as the garbage can had been.  Holding her breath she pushed the 6^th floor button, hurriedly exiting.at a sprint towards her RA’s girlfriend’s room, pounding at the door.
A few moments later, her very groggy RA opened the door querulous expression on his face seeing her there.  She took several shallow breaths and finally the entire terrifying story came tumbling out of her mouth.
A smirk began playing at the corners of her RA’s mouth as he said, her story completed, “Is that all?”   Her eyebrows shot up as if to say “All!?”
He nodded.  “Yep. It’s common knowledge. There was a suicide a few years ago, a couple of them actually. On our floor. One guy jumped off the roof, and the other actually was a rape and murder, somebody threw the poor girl off the roof. Since then, they’ve locked the roof, nobody can go up there now, not even staff.”  Gaping at him, the RA chuckled at her, saying “Yup, Ellingson is haunted. The ghosts don’t come out unless NOBODY is here.  Now, good night!” and shut the door in her face.
Deciding to take the stairs back to her room on the 12^th floor, she couldn’t help but notice the door to the roof was ajar.