Harmony Heights

REAUX

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prologue

Chapter 1: Room 13

Chapter 2: Secrets in the Shadows

Chapter 3: A Rare Gem

Chapter 4: Whispers

Chapter 5: Haunting History

Chapter 6: Echoes of Pain

Chapter 7: Light in the Darkness

Chapter 8: Haunting Revelations  

Chapter 9: Truth Revealed

Chapter 10: The Confrontation

Epilogue

Copyright

Copyright © 2023 by Nakia Presents

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, paces and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to the persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my big sister who has been my saving grace for all of my life, but definitely during these past months or so. None of what I do could have been completed without your guidance through my darkest nights.

I love you with all my heart, Mikki!

Thank you to all who decide to enroll into Harmony Heights University! I greatly appreciate your support and I truly hope you enjoy this work of art!

_ Reaux

Prologue

“Amy.”

She stirred in her bed as the voice called her over and over again. “Huh,” she moaned, turning over and slowly opened her eyes. With the help of the campus light post outside peeking through her curtains she looked around and saw she was alone. Had she been dreaming? She thought moving to sit up and suddenly feeling overcome with a sense of dread. The once peaceful room had grown unpeaceful in a matter of seconds. Her breath quickening and heart racing, she continued to look around the room.

“Amy.” This time the voice came from her closet. It was deep and raspy, almost as if they were trying to catch their breath.

“No,” she moaned, fear becoming her friend yet again. Suddenly something pulled at her toes and then rubbed her bare legs. “No!” She screamed, throwing herself onto the bed and wildly kicking around until her sheets and pillows were on the floor. “Stop!”

Drawing her legs into her chest, Amy covered her ears and started to rock back and forth. The lights started flickering on and off, her radio in the far-right corner popped on and kept changing channels and the curtains blew wildly outside her window. “Please, please!” The scream that ripped from her throat made it raw and she could have sworn blood was starting to trickled down into her stomach. This couldn’t be her life; she couldn’t continue down this path for she knew it would never come to an end.

Lights still flickering, Amy decided enough was enough and ran out of the room and down the long dark hallway, screaming at the top of her lungs.

“Amy!” Someone called out. “Amy, stop, where you going? What’s wrong?”

To any and everybody else that rushed out to see what the commotion was all about, the voice that haunted Amy appeared normal. The person that called her name sounded terrified because of how she was acting but to Amy who was too far gone, it sounded distorted and unearthly. . “Amy! Amy, where you going? The scratchy voice mocked, chasing after her. “Stop running from me!” The deep and guttural voice echoed as she ran, but no matter what it sounded as if it was right there on her back. Amy refused to look back as she mindlessly ran up the stairs to the roof, she refused to stop.

“Please, just please,” she begged, still clutching her ears, but it was of no help because she could still hear it, still feel it. “Please.”

Solely focused on making the voice stop, Amy hadn’t noticed she had somehow made her way to the roof of her dorm building.

It wasn’t until she was at the ledge of the roof did the voice and terrorizing feeling finally stop and it was in that moment that she realized she was no longer running, instead she was falling.

Her mouth opened to scream for help, but before the words could escape from her lips, everything went dark…

10 Years Later

Heart banging against her chest as her insides jumped around, Cheryl jumped out of her father’s rental SUV and looked around. Despite the tormenting heat and humidity Houston, Tx was known for it didn’t bother her one bit.

“You know baby girl, the pictures of this place do not do it any justice,” her father Anthoni Dunbar equipped, walking around to her side of the vehicle and wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “You ready for this, Peanut?” He asked.

Pulling her bottom lip between her teeth to try and squelch the squeal of excitement from bubbling over, Cheryl nodded vigorously. She couldn’t believe her dream had finally come true and she was standing in front of Houston’s largest and most popular historically black university, Harmony Heights University which was settled just on the outskirt of downtown Houston. “I never been ready for anything in my life!” She yelped. Anthoni smiled proudly and told her it was time to start unpacking.

HHU classes started a little over a month ago, but for Cheryl it was just beginning. Two years ago, like most students in high school, Cheryl started applying for out of state schools left and right, but HHY had been her number one all because of her grandmother. She knew she could have gotten into any school she wanted because her grades and school record had been nothing but stellar. She was number two in her graduating class of 2023 and salutatorian. She maintained a 3.9 grade average through-out the four years of school and spoke two different languages. Sure enough at the beginning of the year her acceptance letters started rolling in, except this one. Nervous that they wouldn’t want her, she had slowly started looking at her other option. She just knew that would have put her at the top of every university out there, but for some odd reason, it didn’t seem to faze HHU one bit.

After much prayer she finally settled on attending Mont Clair University and was all set to move in and get ready when her grandmother fell ill and was in hospice during her summer break. Not knowing how much longer her grandmother had Cheryl reached out to the school and asked if they could put her acceptance on hold until the following semester. The dean had been more than understanding, but she was sure it had something to do with him and her mom being old friends as Mont Clair was her Alma Mater and the dean was her frat brother. One month later her grandmother, Esther Wells-Dunbar lost her four-year battle with pancreatic cancer and three before they buried her, she received a letter and email from Harmony Heights University apologizing for the late response and happily accepted her application.

“She did it!” Cheryl remembered crying to her parents when she finally stopped crying long enough to tell them. “Madear’ made it happen!”

Two weeks after Madear’s funeral, Cheryl had packed everything and booked a flight to Texas to attend her grandmother’s Alma Mater. Her parents hated the idea of her moving so far away, especially her mother who wanted her to follow in her footsteps and pledge Alpha Kappa Alpha at Montclair. Despite not wanting to lose his only baby girl after losing his mother so soon, her dad had been at her side every step of the way.

Walking through the arched entrance, Cheryl’s eyes bounced left to right in awe and disbelief. It was the middle of a Saturday and the courtyard was full of energy and live like it was happy hour. Young adults running around talking mess and dancing. On the other side there was a crowd starting to form and several males and females were lining up dressed in color matching outfits. While the buildings had been changed over the years, it still looked just like her grandmother described to her. The lawns were perfectly manicured and stretched far and wide throughout the land the campus was built on and large oak trees as tall as the buildings lined the walkways, providing shade along the way and a little breeze.

“They litty lit!” Anthoni yelped, pulling two rolling luggage bags and carrying another one in hand.

“Dad…” Cheryl exhaustedly sighed. “I thought we talked about this on the plane. You are not allowed to say that or anything close to it!”

“Yea, I thought about that, I don’t think that’s possible, kiddo,” he teased back, nodding his head towards a sign. “What’s the name of the dorms you’re staying in again?”

Shit, she thought, rustling through her purse to find her phone. After several minutes, she found the information she needed. “Building E… Whispering… Whispering Oaks!” She read off.

Both of them glanced around for the building, Anthoni scoffed. “Hell, they all look the same.” All the buildings were not the same height or shape but they were all bricked in red with white panels and ivy crawling up the walls. While it came off as a bit creepy to Cheryl, she had to admit it added a touch of natural beauty to the already perfectly structured buildings. They all in fact did look the same. “Hey, young man you think you can help us?” Anthoni called out to a boy walking by.

Dressed in a pair of skinny leg black jeans and a white T-shirt, the boy adjusted the books he held in his hands and nodded. “Oh ye… Yes sir,” he replied politely.

“Thank you… we’re looking for Whisper Oaks.”

The guy looked at him confused before looking over at Cheryl who held out her phone. “Sorry, he meant Whispering Oaks,” she quietly laughed.

“That’s what I said!”

“Ha… No worries. I was actually heading that way; I live there as well.” He thrusted his hand forward and smiled. “Hi, I’m Daniel.”

Daniel had to be at least six feet with mocha colored complexion and grey eyes. He appeared to be like any other male, but it was something about his eyes that made him stand out more than the rest. Maybe it had something to do with his perfectly manicured eyebrows, but nevertheless he was nice to look at.

“Hi, I’m Cheryl and this is my dad, Anthoni.”

“Nice to meet you… C’mon follow me.” Daniel shifted his books to his other side and reached for the luggage bag Cheryl was carrying and led them towards the building. On the way Daniel talked about the school and how they were known as the party school and having the highest academic standing in all of Houston. “This is my second year here, so while I’m still a little new you can still come to me if you need any help. I’m always willing to help out in any way I can.”

Several minutes later the trio stopped in front of a red bricked, five-story building. “Well, here we are… Whispering Oaks or Building E, whichever you prefer. What room are you in?”

Cheryl glanced down at her phone. “Room… 13,” she replied.

It was quick, but she saw a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes. “Are you sure?” He asked, almost in a whisper while leaning over to look at her phone with her.

“Uh… Yea, I…” Cheryl checked the information emailed to her at least three times before nodding. “Yep, information says my room number is 13 and we just picked up the key from administration. Why? Is someone already moved in? I was told these were singles, not that it’s a problem, I just want---"”

Daniel waved his hand. “Oh, no, no! It’s not that, nothing like that… per se. It’s just that, that room has---”

“Yo, Daniel! C’mon man, we gotta get to the spot before they switch up the menu.”

“Okay,” he called back. “Sorry, I have to run. I’ll uh… I’ll check in with you a little later and see how you’re settled in.”

“D, let’s go!” The boy called out again.

Daniel did a little wave and ran off to follow the guy who looked a little bit like him, just a little taller and had dreads. “Mhm, wonder what that was about,” Anthoni smirked, grabbing the bag Daniel dropped and walked up the steps. “C’mon baby girl, let’s get you settled in.”

Brushing Daniel’s hesitation off, Cheryl shrugged her shoulders and happily followed her father inside the building. She took a look around and smiled. Just like outside, there were young adults hanging around and chilling. One side they were studying or debating and on the other side they were playing cards and hanging out shooting the bull. The atmosphere was chill and it had Cheryl even more excited to get this part of her life started. Several people spoke and waved as they made their way through the halls and to the second floor where her room was. “Here we are!” The excitement that had been building up for weeks was boiling over as she stood in front of the door of her dorm room.

Anthoni, towering over her, placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Ready to see your new spot?”

She cheered and reached for the key card she retrieved from the office and tapped it against the door. Instantly the door unlocked and she pushed it open and revealed a semi big room with freshly painted walls, glossy hardwood floors being bathed in soft lighting from open blinds. “Wow! This is nice!” She walked around and did a little twirl as she inhaled the clean scent. Almost instantly a shiver went down her spine causing her to stop and look around. She took note of the windows being closed and the ceiling fan being off. Maybe the air kicked on, she thought trying to brush off the feeling.

“And I’m sure with your passion for decoration, you’re going to make it even better,” Anthoni replied, sliding the bags to the side and walked around the room himself. He ventured towards the closet and did a slight jump when his reflection greeted him as he opened the door. “Well, I’m not sure this is supposed to be here.”

Feeling the joy and excitement starting to melt away and nervousness starting to settle in, Cheryl walked over to investigate. “Maybe they moved it when they were cleaning and just forgot to put it back,” she shrugged off, trailing her fingers alongside the frame. Oddly enough it was as cold as ice. “I like it though,” she said quietly, touching it again this time Tracing the design similar to ivy’s branched around the buildings . “I’m sure I can make it work.”

Anthoni nodded and started walking towards the door. “Start getting settled in, I’m going to get the rest of your things.”

“Okay,” she mumbled, still looking at the edge of the frame. Out the corner of her eye she saw something behind her move. It was quick that if she hadn’t been looking in the mirror already she would have missed it. “Daddy,” she called out, turning around seeing that she was alone. “Daddy?” Cheryl walked away from the closet and after a couple steps concluded she was definitely alone. Maybe her dad popped in really quick and left, but why hadn’t he said anything. “Maybe…” Her words trailed off as her lips turned up into a smile. Realization hit her, or so she thought. On the day her grandmother passed she told her she would always be with her and would be there to protect her. “Madear’, is that you?” She asked, looking around slightly and chuckling. “No need to watch over me so hard, I’m going to be okay.” Cheryl stood in the middle of the room and propped her hands on her hips. “Yea, I’m gonna be okay!”

Secrets in the Shadows

“Alright baby girl, it’s time for me to load up and head to the airport.”

Putting a pout on her face, Cheryl turned to face her dad who stayed in town an extra two days to help her get straight. “You sure you don’t want to stay a little while longer?”

“I wish I could, but you know how your momma is and…it’s time I start getting back into my routine,” he replied sadly. After the passing of Madear’, which was also Anthoni’s mother, he took a sabbatical from work to get her affairs in order and grieve. He thought after the funeral he was going to be okay, but it turned out he was nowhere near okay and had to take a leave of absence. The time away from work allowed him to spend some much-needed time with his family and properly start the process of life without his mother.

“Yea, I guess so.” Cheryl went into his open arms and squeezed him as tight as she could. “Thank you, daddy, I’m gonna miss you.”

“I’m going to miss you too pip-squeak. Now remember the rules---”

“No boys, no girls, no parties, no drugs, and no alcohol,” she replied, with a long and deep sigh. “No life.”

Laughing, Anthoni pinched her cheek. “No… have fun. Learn all you can, grow as much as you can and have the time of your life. This is the true start of your life, make it count.”

His parting words made her smile. eEven hours after he was gone she was wrapped up in her fleece blanket going over her schedule for the upcoming week. In the midst of making notes on her iPad there was a little tap at her door. At first it was faint and she almost didn’t hear it, but then it happened again, and this time louder followed by voices.

“How the hell you think she gone hear that baby ass knock you just did!? Move!”

Giggling and curious as to who was coming to see her, Cheryl slid off her bed and rushed to the door. “Hello!” She greeted, staring into three pairs of eyes, one of which she recognized.

“Hi, remember me from Saturday, Daniel?” He asked, then gestured to the two with him. “This is my twin brother Darnell and our annoying neighbor since elementary Meka, we just wa—”

“Sup! We just wanted to come by and holla at ya, give you the grand HnH H and H tour!” Darnell, she assumed, burst out, pushing his way through Daniel and Meka. “I’m Darnell, but everybody calls me D’Money, but you can just call me D.”

Meka smacked her lips and smooshed Darnell in his face and extended her hand to Cheryl, her long acrylic nails blinging as the light hit them. “Boy, please… Nobody in their right mind call you D’Money. You have to have money in order to be called money, boo! Forget him, hi, my name is Meka, I live across the hall in room twelve.”

Despite having just met two of the three in the group, Cheryl could already feel they were going to be some of the coolest people to be around. Maybe it was because the way they acted, well Meka and Darnell, as if they were brothers and sisters, the bond was something she never had of her own. She was an only child and her parents, mostly her mom, had been so strict with her she rarely had time to hang out or a chance to make new friends. Aside from wanting to attend Madear’s Alma mater, her parents overbearingness was the main reason she wanted to attend an out of state school..

“Please, come in. I’m sorry about the mess, I’m still trying to get things put away Sorry, I’m Cheryl by the way.”

Meka and Darnell looked around and burst out laughing. “Sis, if you call this a mess, I would surely hate to hear the word you would use when you see Darnell’s room.” Immediately Darnell stopped laughing and shoved Meka.

Confused, Cheryl looked around. She had a couple of boxes stacked in the corner and two bean bags off to the side. To the others her room was damn near spotless, but to her it was a mess if she ever saw one and she didn’t like it not one bit. She had every intention on putting things in her closet, but the biggest closet held the vintage vanity she forgot to get her daddy to move and it was too heavy for her.

“Daniel, why are you standing in the door? C’mon before people walk down here trying to see what she got and try to steal it,” Meka fussed when she looked back and saw Daniel standing in the doorway, eyeing the archway very closely.

Daniel shook his head. “No, no… I just remembered I… I have to go study for a test. Bye!” And poof, just like that he was gone! He rushed down the hall so fast, you would have thought the building was on fire. Confused by his actions, Cheryl went to close the door.

“Don’t pay my brother no mind,” Darnell scoffed, plopping down on one of the bean bags. “Shit, girl, it’s cold in here. Where you from the alps or something?”

“Sorry about that, I don’t know what’s going on. I put in a maintenance request. They came by to check it out yesterday, and it was fine up until this morning. I have some extra blankets though.” Cheryl rushed over to the boxes and pulled out two more blankets for her guests and went to sit on the edge of the bed. The first night everything in the room was fine, yea it was a little cool, but it was okay because she had been moving around all day and the coolness was welcoming. But after the third and fourth night, it started to become unbearable. She found herself sleeping in full pjs and fuzzy socks and that still wasn’t good enough. The maintenance guy came by to check her vent, but found nothing was wrong and it was set to the recommended temperature. He did however change out the filter and cleaned something else out before rushing out the same way Daniel had done a minute ago. Turning to her guests, “I have a question. I know y’all don’t know me all that well, but is everything okay with your brother?”

Darnell’s eyebrow arched high and Meka caught it leading her to jump in before he took offense to what she said. “He’s fine.”

“I’m sorry, I only meant that…” She started and then went on to tell them how the maintenance guy acted the same way.

“It’s the room,” Meka interjected.

“It’s the tales of the room,” Darnell corrected. “Ain’t shit wrong with this room but the temperature… Look, it’s a old folks tales or whatever they call it saying that this room is haunted. Some girl ten years ago was seeing and hearing shit and it got so bad she ran and jumped off the roof one night. And a couple of other stories about people experiencing paranormal activities and all that stuff. Honestly, as told by the dean himself, it’s just a made-up story someone told a freshman to get them all riled up, you know haze them and it just got blown out of proportion. This is my second year in this building and I haven’t seen or heard not one thing coming from this room,” Darnell explained, getting up from the bean bag chair and walked over to her record collection. “Yo, this still works?” He asked, his finger gently touching the edge of the vintage record player her grandmother left to her.

Cheryl nodded as she got up and walked the short distance over to him. “Yea, my grandmother gave it to me before she died,” she replied softly, pulling an old vinyl record from the shelf gently placing it on the turntable. As the sweet sound of Marvin Gaye crooned through-out the room leading Darnell to close his eyes and start humming, Cheryl’s mind replayed the story he just told her. She had been there for about a week now and she heard whispers from those around her saying ‘that’s the girl’, ‘she in that room’, and now it all made sense. Just like Daniel had taken the story about the haunting to heart, it seemed as if a lot of other people did as well. But unlike them, Cheryl didn’t believe in hauntings, though she believed in ghosts. . There was always a reason behind things like that happening and if she had to be the one to guess, she would bank on drugs or alcohol playing a huge part in some of the stuff and then others, letting people get inside their heads.

It wasn’t long before Cheryl let the tale go from her mind and started getting to know Darnell and Meka and them getting to know her. They talked and joked well into the night. “I’m right across the hall if you need anything,” Meka reminded as they started walking out the room and she skipped into her own.

Laughing, Cheryl turned to Darnell who was leaning against the wall. “Yea, and I’m three doors down, so just holla if you need anything.”

“Thank you.”

Darnell smirked. “You not like most girls, are you?”

“What you mean?”

He continued to stare before shaking his head and laughing. “Nothing, nothing… get you some rest and don’t forget, be up and ready to go at seven. Gotta make sure we get there before the line gets too long.”

Cheryl still couldn’t believe she agreed to go with them to the breakfast club at the butt crack of dawn on a Saturday no less. “I know one thing, the chicken and waffles better be good as hell or else we’re gonna have a problem,” she teased, fixing her small throw around her shoulders.

“Bet, bet!”

Soon after, Cheryl walked back into her room and laid across her bed. It was now one AM and she had to be up and ready to go in a few short hours. “And I still have to finish unpacking,” she said to herself, laying her head on the pillow and sighing. Against her will, her eyes started to get heavier and heavier until finally they closed and sleep consumed her.

Four hours later seemed like only a few minutes later as Cheryl pulled the blanket tighter around her body due to the room growing colder by the second. “What in the hell,” she mumbled, slowly turning over until her face wound up being partially buried into the pillow. It was at that moment she started feeling odd, like something wasn’t right, leading her to jump up and look around the room. She could have been wrong but it almost felt like somebody was in the room with her and they were watching her.

To make sure she wasn’t tripping, she leapt up from the bed to make sure the door was still locked and sure enough it was. She looked in every spot she could and even in the closet and saw, what she already knew, that she was alone.

“They say it’s haunted.”

“Nah,” she laughed, the words steady playing in her head as she turned away from the double closet doors and went to turn off the lights. There was no way what they told her was true or even at all possible. There was no such thing. “I’m tripping and so are they,” she said to herself, crawling back into bed and after several minutes of thinking about everything subconsciously managed to fall asleep.

Little did she know, life was full of things deemed impossible.

A Rare Gem

Cheryl took a step back and did her best to guide Darnell. “Watch the corner!”

Darnell scoffed and let the sides of the vanity go, letting the legs hit the floor with a loud thud. “I know I said call on me if you needed anything, but damn, not to move this heavy thing!” He spat, leaning against it and dropped his head. “Now tell me again why maintenance can’t get it out?”

“I… I didn’t want to bother them with that ole thing,” she replied, but in actuality was told by three different maintenance men that it wasn’t something they could or would do. Said something about it not being their problem, but the problem of the last person to have stayed in the room.

“You might need to hire a mover then, because this is heavy as hell. This feels like real, genuine antique from way back in the day,” Darnell exclaimed stepping back and investigating the piece. Shocked that he would even say anything of that nature, because it was not the person he came off as, Cheryl walked over to him and followed his finger as he trailed along the side of the mirror frame. “You see the markings here… That is the work from at least the eighteen hundreds, rare… shit priceless even! This might be an original English Regency mirror.”

Thoroughly impressed, Cheryl smiled up at him. “How do you know all of this?”

“My pop is a collector of many things… Old things… new things… free things,” he hinted and then chuckled. “Nevertheless, one of the requirements to stay in his will was to learn about his collection, down to the date the item was made and pieces like this was one of many.”

“Wow! I don’t know whether to be impressed or worried.”

Looking over at her, Darnell winked. “Oh, impressed, only impressed.”

“Not going to work,” Cheryl giggled, thinking about how he started flirting with her two days ago when they took her to the breakfast club. He was cute, but he was trouble and she had no time in her life for that. Granted her father and Madear told her to have fun and not be standoffish, love wasn’t part of the plan she had for her life at the time. Maybe in a few years, she thought, turning away and going to grab her phone. “Maybe we can just leave it in there and I can put my things in around it somehow. It’s okay.”

“Yea, that might be… Oh, shit, I’m sorry.” Darnell picked something up from the floor and extended his hand to Cheryl. “I didn’t realize I was stepping on your stuff.”

Cheryl reached for the item and after removing the knot for the chain, held it up. “This isn’t mine, but it’s beautiful.” The twenty-inch bronze chain held a beautiful charm with two hands holding a stone shaped like a heart. “It must have been left behind by the last person.”

Darnell took the necklace back “Well they are definitely going to be upset when they realize they just lost a one hundred- and fifty-thousand-dollar piece. Either way it’s yours now,” he handed it back and turned his attention to the vanity. It took some finagling and rounding up a couple of other boys to come in, but after about hour or so they had gotten the vanity moved out of the closet and off to the side of the room where she initially wanted it.

Later on that night after treating the three guys including Darnell to Chick Fil A, Cheryl entered her room after her shower and sat down at the vanity to start prepping to braid her hair. Suddenly she looked down at the ruby necklace they found earlier and out of nowhere the notion to try it on washed over her. “Just a little bit,” she said to herself as she reached back to fasten it around her neck. The rich and warm tones of her caramelized skin served as the picture-perfect backdrop for the necklace’s intricately antique design. The light that shone from her lamp hit the gem allowing little tiny twinkles and bursts of red across her skin.

Ignoring the heavy weight the necklace suddenly held, Cheryl admired the way it sat against her chest and rested there as if it was made just for her. Turning her head left to right to appreciate the beauty that laid against her, she found herself wondering about the true history of the necklace. Who had crafted it? Who did it belong to? Why hadn’t anyone come looking for something so beautiful and something that obviously held great value?

“I don’t understand,” she said, reaching up to start on her hair. As her fingers worked through her scalp Cheryl couldn’t help but take notice of subtle shift that fell upon on the room. The temperature slightly dropped and a weird fain and unexplainable breeze rustled her curtains, causing them sway side to side ever so gently. Before she could turn around a tingling sensation pricked at the back of her neck and she instinctively reached up to touch the necklace. Despite it being against her warm, almost hot skin, the pendant felt cold to the touch, a stark contrast!

Looking into the mirror at her reflection, Cheryl caught a glimpse of movement behind her, much of like what she saw on the day she moved in, except this time she didn’t feel at ease like she did before. Heart racing, she quickly turned around to look but saw nothing. Along with the breeze that was flowing through the room, this made a stronger shiver run down her spine. Coming to her feet Cheryl started to walk around the small room before turning back to the mirror and looking down at the necklace. It could have been a figment of her imagination, fear or wonder of the stories she heard about the dorms haunting past, but she couldn’t help but wonder even more about the true origin of the item she wore around her neck; which was why she decided to remove the necklace and hang it on the vanity mirror.

Cautiously she sat back on the stool and finished braiding her hair, all while letting her eyes roam every few minutes to the mysterious necklace that dangled ever so lightly. Finally, two or three hours later, after completing a task that should have only taken her an hour, Cheryl laid in her bed and turned over to sleep, which did not come as easy as she would have liked. She tossed and turned, kicked and squirmed before finally dozing off into a deep sleep.

As the hours passed and Cheryl slept soundly the room began to almost let go of the breath it’d been holding. Shadows from the ivy that snaked up the side of the dorm’s building enlarged and casted against the walls giving off an eerie silhouette that seemed to dance with the moonlight. Then as if the room was holding a breath in anticipation everything became still and a soft, haunting melody cut through the still room. Shifting at the sound, Cheryl rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked around to see if what she was hearing was true and lo and behold, the more her body started to come back to life, the louder and clearer the sound became. It sounded like something from an old music box, a nostalgia lullaby, but as she looked around, she didn’t see a music box. It was as if the sweet haunting melody was seeping through the walls and it was then her eyes went toward the vanity mirror.

Sliding off the edge of the bed, Cheryl slowly walked over to the dangling necklace and gasped in disbelief as a faint, crimson glow radiated from what she thought was an inanimate object. “What am I doing?” She asked, reaching for the necklace and going against the common sense she knew she had, picked it up and stared deeply into it. Something suddenly came over her the moment her skin made contact and her mind, her soul was flooded with emotions and memories that didn’t belong to her.

The memories that played out before her, though blurred and fast moving captivated her and terrified her beyond words. “Cheryl,” a voice whispered.

“Help!” A screeching voice followed.

Her body, which had been in some kind of trance, was released from an unnerving grasp and thrown back against the side of her bed.

“Cheryl!” a voice called out. “Cheryl, are you alright? C, c’mon sis, open the door!”

“Yo, Cheryl, open the door!”

She heard the voices, but they started to fade second after second, until there was nothing.

* * *

“That’s the girl.”

“You think she possessed?”

Cheryl fixed the hoodie around her face and rushed through the hall. Three days ago, she had been rushed to the hospital after being found unconscious in her room by Darnell and Meka and it wasn’t even a full 24 hours later that the rumors started. The rumors went from one ridiculous story to next, either she was possessed by a demon or a ghost, or she was self-medicating to avoid the pressures of freshman year. All of which were obscene.

Passing by more students and hearing more whispers and laughter, Cheryl ran to the only place she could find solace. She slid the key in and once the sound clicked letting her know it was unlocked, she rushed in and leaned back against the door. A sigh of relief pushed from her heaving chest as tears streamed down her face. This was supposed to be the start of a new chapter in her life. New beginnings, new friends, all good and positive things, but it seemed like a week after her arrival it had been everything but.

She stumbled to her feet and walked over to the mirror that Darnell had hanging on his closet door. Slowly she unzipped her hoodie to reveal the necklace she so desperately tried to remove.

“Why... Why did you put this on me?” Cheryl asked as Meka helped her get dressed.

Meka looked down at the necklace and shook her head. “I didn’t. It was already on you. And funny thing, when the nurses tried to remove it, it wouldn’t come off,” she replied with a scoff. “They said it’s one of those permanent pieces.”

And ever since then it had been affixed to her like a second skin. She tried to yank it off, cut it off, even had Darnell try to burn it off and still she had no luck.

“What am I going to do?” Cheryl cried after Darnell failed to remove the piece of jewelry and she plopped on the edge of his bed burying her face into her hands.

Darnell sat next to her and let his finger trail along the bronze chain. “Why did you put it on?”

“I didn’t! I mean I did, but… but then I… I took it off and…D, this is crazy,” she continued to cry. “And now everybody thinks I’ve lost my mind and my parents think I’m on drugs. I just got here and I already have a reputation that was not created by me.”

Struggling to push the past few days, hell, the past few hours out of her mind, Cheryl turned her gaze to her reflection in Darnell’s mirror. Despite the heavy cloak of terror and exhaustion, weighing on her, something deep within made her reflection smile. While her body remained frozen still in a state of dread, the corner of her reflection’s mouth pulled back and her eyes sparkled with something unworldly, something sinister and knowing.

In the midst of the lingering eerie smile that was glued on Cheryl's reflection, fear settled over and her heart raced and out of nowhere an unsettling giggle slipped from the lips of her reflection. She moved her mouth to speak, but fear and something else she couldn’t quite put her finger on paralyzed her. Maybe it was the fact that she tried to gain some kind of control of her own reflection or maybe it was the sinister laughter in its eyes. At last, she let go of a trembling breath and was finally able to turn away from the mirror and ran to the bed, where she buried her head into the sheets and cried.

WHISPERS

Darnell pulled the blanket over Cheryl’s shoulder and sighed. It had now been a week since she was released from the hospital and only a few days since she cried to him about what she saw in his mirror. At first, he thought she was just exhausted and taking a lot of shit to heart that she heard around campus, but he noticed that since she’d been sleeping in his room instead of her own shit hadn’t been right in his. His air had been acting up, one night he woke up and saw Cheryl staring at the mirror in deep thought until he finally took it down and put in the back of his closet. He also noticed that Cheryl was not the girl he met just a few weeks prior. Before she was happy, bright and open to learn any and everything, but as of late she had been dark, on edge and closed off. Him and Meka tried everything they could to pull her out of her funk, but nothing seemed to work.

“Are you even listening to me?” Daniel fussed in a whisper, putting his pencil down. “How are you going to pass that test if you’re not paying attention to the notes and the lecture. “D!”

“Is there a problem, Mr. Daniel and Mr. Darnell?” The professor questioned as she came to a halt on the fourth step that led directly to their row. Professor Victoria removed her glasses and dropped the paperwork she had on top of their desk.

Both of them flinched at the sound. “Yes, yes ma’am… I was just… just—” Daniel stuttered.

Raising a brow at his brother, Darnell cleared his throat and sat up to look at their professor. “Yes, Ms. James, everything is fine.”

“Are you sure Mr. Darnell? Because we’ve been in lecture for all of forty-five minutes and you have not once picked up your pen to write down anything.”

He turned on that charming smile that usually worked when he was in trouble and lightly tapped the side of his head. “That’s because I have it all up. Recorded, burned, branded in my brain.”

“Mr. Darnell, that does not faze me,” she shot back before putting her glasses back on and grabbing her papers. “See me after class.”

“But—”

“But nothing! See me after class… Now, in regard to the constitution of…”

Darnell sat back in his seat and sighed. His mind had been so wrapped up in Cheryl and everything she had going on, he was starting to slack in his lessons, which was something he didn’t do. He came off as a play boy, a jock, but he was just as smart as his brother, just chose to not show it.

Darnell managed to get through the rest of the lecture without getting into more trouble and once class was dismissed, he walked down the steps that led to the professor’s desk. “Ms. James, I’m sorry… I just… I just got a lot on my mind and I zoned. Momentarily!”

“Darnell, you missed most of what I had to say, mind you everything that was discussed will be on that exam. So, tell me sir, how do you plan on passing it?”

“I can get the notes from Daniel.”

“He’s in just as much bad shape as you,” she said with a laugh, sitting in her large brown leather chair. “What’s going on with you? This isn’t the first time I’ve noticed you being off, but now it’s becoming concerning because you have a very-very important exam coming up.”

During his freshman year Professor Victoria James, shit hadn’t been so easy for him. He was smart as shit in high school, but the college stuff was testing him in every way. It had gotten so bad he was eventually put on notice by the dean to get his act together or he was going to be expelled. The dean even went as far as to calling his old man who, without a second thought, came up to the school and ripped into his ass something serious. Ms. James had seen everything go down and reached out to him to help. For the better part of the second semester, he and the professor had gotten close, like family. Which was why it should have been a no brainer to tell her what was going on, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Instead, he dropped his head and sighed. “It’s… nothing Ms. J. And I promise the next class I’ll pay attention and I promise I’ll pass that test.”

Professor Victoria eyed him closely before dropping the interrogation and gesturing for him to help her carry somethings to her car. “You know I never understood why you didn’t stay on campus like some of the other professors. If you ask me, it makes much more sense.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Yea maybe, but… As much as I love this place… It sometimes… sometimes becomes too much.”

As they were walking and talking, Cheryl and Meka walked up to them coming from getting something to eat. “Hey baby girl,” Darnell greeted Cheryl, giving her a kiss on her forehead. Something he’d been doing ever since she started sleeping in his room to avoid whatever was happening in her room.

“Hey… We got you and Daniel something to eat.”

“Thank you.” Darnell turned to the professor and nodded in Cheryl’s direction. “This is Cheryl, she’s in our dorm, Cheryl this is my leading lad—”

“Darnell,” Victoria warned, slightly jabbing her elbow into his side. “Ignore him sweetie. I’m Professor Victoria Thomas, this crazy child’s phycology professor,” she greeted, extending her hand and then stopping when something glimmery caught her attention. Following the light, her eyes fell onto Cheryl’s chest area. “… oh,” she whispered. “Oh my god.”

The trio of friends looked at her and then followed her gaze. “That’s hot,” Darnell was the first to speak.

The professor snapped out of the daze and snatched the box of files from Darnell. “I gotta… gotta go,” she snapped, before rushing off to her car.

“I don’t know whether to be turned on and concerned,” Darnell hinted, rubbing his hands together. “She was straight staring at your---”

Sucking her teeth, Meka rolled her eyes toward Darnell and lightly slapped his chest. “She was looking at the necklace you idiot. Stop being so mannish!”

Darnell threw his hands up in defense and laughed. “I know, stop being so rough wit ya boy. Anyway, I’ve never seen her like that. She’s always so cool and collected, just now she looked scared out of her mind.”

“She probably heard the rumors,” Cheryl replied sadly. “You might as well stuff me in the closest where this damn thing came from and let me rot there. This is only my first year, hell first month and I got a reputation that is far from what I wanted.”

“Hey, hey, don’t let this mess get you down. We’re going to get to the bottom of all of this. We can turn that all around for the better… just have to find out how to get this thing off of you.” Meka scoffed, as she reached for the pendant. The minute her finger touched it a shock was sent through her entire body leading her to jump back. “The hell! Now see the first time it did it, I let it slide because they had taken you to X-ray and other shit, but now nothing has been done and that’s odd as fuck!”

Cheryl dropped her head. She didn’t know how much more of this she could take before it started driving her bat shit crazy and make her do something she would later regret. No matter what she did or how hard she tried to shake the feeling of evil off her shoulders, it didn’t budge. During her classes she was either being bothered by the feeling or the whispers. While she was sleeping, she was bothered by the whispers of a female that was never there or freezing. Whatever the case there was always something happening where she wasn’t allowed any peace.

“I’m going to head back to the dorms and try to rest.”

Meka and Darnell looked sadly at Cheryl. “You need one of us to go with you?” Meka asked.

“No, no… y’all hang out. I’ll be alright,” Cheryl softly urged, turning away and rushing off to the dorms. She was getting ready to push the door open when a breeze went past and oddly enough, whispered. She turned around so fast she almost fell. When she gathered her bearings, she realized the breeze was still going back in the direction of the woods off to the side of their building. Now normally she would have said hell no, but something in her made her put her food on the stoop and go. Her feet moved like they had a mind of their own until she wound up at a heavily wooded spot with roses growing out of a lone bush.

“Help me.”

The hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up as did her entire body. She opened her mouth to speak, but fear kept her mute. Concern made her slow to think.

The cries laced heavily with a plea froze her.

“Cheryl, help me.”

Haunting History

Books close to her chest, Meka walked down the echoing halls of the main building of Harmony Heights until she came to stop at the door that led to the dean’s office. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the heavy oak door in and was instantly welcomed with a warm and inviting smile. “Hey darling,” Ms. Calhoun the receptionist /assistant happily greeted. “He’s in a meeting down the hall, you can wait in his office. Shouldn’t be too much longer.”

“Thank you, Ms. Calhoun!” Meka told her before walking behind her large desk and pushing open one of the doors that led to the dean’s office. She glanced around a few seconds before going to sit on the beige leather sofa in the corner of the office, pulling out her iPad to review the notes she’d just taken in class.

But, the lack of rest over the past couple of days started to kick in. Just like Cheryl, she hadn’t been getting much sleep. If it wasn’t due to her staying up to study for an upcoming test; it was because of how Cheryl cried, tossed and turned through-out the night ever since she stopped sleeping in her own room. Meka was ecstatic to have someone to bunk with, however the constant interruptions had started to take its toll. It was becoming harder and harder for her to focus on her studies or even get a good night’s rest for that matter because of the weird shit that was happening.

Having dozed off on the sofa, Meka’s already restless slumber was interrupted by a loud and booming voice. Eyes heavy, she stretched her entire body and met the gaze of a pair of dark brown eyes that matched hers. Mustering up a tired smile, “How long you been standing there?”

“Long enough to know you have not been getting any kind of rest.” Dean Harold Grimes slid from the coffee table he’d been sitting on for the past few minutes and sat next to her. “What’s going on baby girl?”

Meka rubbed her eyes and sighed. The foursome made a pact to keep what was going on to themselves until they were able to get more information or at the very least proof. It was bad enough the entire school was looking at Cheryl like a three headed dog when she was the one suffering. “Noth… Nothing, just a new roommate.”

“Roommate?” Harold equipped, raising a salt and pepper brow, his voice dripping with disbelief. “Honey, you shouldn’t have a roommate. That’s why I got you in that dorm so you could be by yourself. The last thing you need right now is distractions,” he argued. “That was one of the reasons I didn’t want that damn boy and his illegitimate brother in there. They are nothing but trouble.”

Rolling her eyes, Meka sighed. Dean Harold Grimes, also known as her grandfather was one the smartest men she knew, and he was one of the strictest. Being raised by only her mom, Meka didn’t have any males in her life to help her become the woman she was meant to be but her grandfather. For as long as she could remember he was always on her back, making sure she did everything she was supposed to do and then some. While she appreciated his overprotective ways, sometimes welcomed it, it was also smothering. Once she entered her senior year of high school, her entire world started spinning out of control when her mom lost her battle with lung cancer due to many, many years of smoking. She managed to graduate but only by the skin of her teeth and was barely accepted into Harmony Heights. Thanks to her grandfather, who was the dean for almost twenty years, she got in and stayed as focused as she could. Oh, she did have a good time when his back was turned, but for the most part she kept her head down in the books and pushed through to pass all of her classes with nothing lower than a low A.

“They’re not the reason, paw-paw,” she finally replied, hating how he always talked down on her best friends, who’d been there for her even when she hadn’t been there for herself. She looked into his eyes and contemplated on whether she should tell him everything or just leave well enough alone. “Pops… Can I… No, no, never mind.”

“No, not never mind. Talk to me, what’s going on?” Harold unbuttoned his suit coat and sat back, his large arms stretched wide and resting along to back, he fixed her with a look that gave no chance for an argument. “Talk, Meka.”

For several odd seconds, Meka stared at her thumbs as she twiddled them before finally asking. “I have this friend who um… who overheard someone doing some… some research on the history of the school,” she began, slowly trying to find the right words to say without giving to much away. “Well, they were talking about something dealing with room thirteen.”

The atmosphere in the office went from being full of laughter and happiness to being thick and heavy with tension. Harold’s entire body went stiff as the blood drained from his face and his breathing slowed down extremely. “Paw-paw, did you hear me?” Meka asked, looking over him and seeing how the life was slowly draining from his eyes. “Grandpa you, okay?” She asked, now concerned out of her mind.

“Yea. Ahem… Yea, I’m good.” Harold replied clearing his throat and blinking away the tears that was starting to form in his eyes. “Can’t say I’ve ever heard anything about a room thirteen or another,” he quickly replied, jumping to his feet and rushing over to his desk.

Suddenly filled with unease, Meka stood from the couch. “Grandpa, are you sure you’re okay?”

“Oh yea, I’m fine.” His voice was strained as he adjusted his tie. “Little lady, you better get on to your classes, don’t you have two more?”

“Yea, but—”

“No buts Meka! G’on and get to class,” he barked, whirling around to face her.

Meka reared her head back in shock and grabbed her things. “Yes sir.” Without saying another word, Meka walked out and went to do as she was told. Her grandfather always had somewhat of a temper and was always kind of secretive, but he’d never been like this with her before. To say it hurt her feelings was an understatement.

Back in the office, Harold waited until the door was completely closed before turning around and opening his draw. He tapped on the bottom of the draw and pushed it back to reveal a secret compartment. Inside was important and confidential documents, along with one more thing, a shard of glass with ragged edge and rusting water spots. For a brief moment he hesitated before picking up and gazing into the uneven reflection. It wasn’t long before the reflection became still and distorted. It was an image he knew all too well, one he’d been seeing every time he closed his eyes for the past nearly fifty years, a reminder of the night he did the unthinkable. Though the face haunted him, he thought for sure the secret, the history would no longer be an issue. He thought he buried it long, long, long ago. “Shit,” he hissed, slamming the shard of glass onto the desk to further shatter it.

“You don’t…. You don’t have to do this!” She cried out, trying to wriggle her wrist from the grips of the steel cold cuffs. “Please,” she pleaded! “Please!”

Sweat dripping from his brow, he grabbed the bronze, dagger and traced the tip along the bottom of her left eye. “I’m sorry, I can’t change it.”

“Nobody has to know!” Her voice broke with each word she spoke as the tears poured from her eyes and her body shook violently. Fear was an underestimation to what she was currently feeling. “I won’t tell anybody, I promise.”

“I’m sorry.” Straddling her body, he drew the dagger high above his head.

* * *

Meka’s mind was in complete and total chaos worn down from heaviness of the day’s eye-openers or the lack thereof. Somehow, she managed push through the rest of her day and completing the last of her classes. But the entire time her thoughts were consumed with the struggles of her new friend and the disheartening meeting she had with her grandfather earlier that day. His response when she mentioned the room that seemed to suddenly be the hot topic around campus was truly unsettling. With each step she took down the partially carpeted hallway that led to her dorm room, her mind continued to spin uncontrollably.

Just as she made to her door, a familiar voice pierced through her already preoccupied mind.

“Meka!” Daniel called from a door behind her.

Frightened, she turned around to see Daniel standing out the door of his brother’s room. Pushing aside her stress Meka forced a smile on her face. “Hey, hon… I was…” Her words slowly faded when she saw a look of fear and disbelief painted on his face. “What happened?”

Daniel gestured for her to follow him. Sensing the urgency, Meka quickly followed him in and what she saw sent a jolt of worry through her veins. Sitting on the edge of Darnell’s bed was Cheryl looking ruffled. Engulfed with concern, she dropped her book bag and rushed over to check on her friend. “Oh my god, what happened?”

“I was attacked,” Cheryl whispered, voice shaky as a leaf in a storm.

“By who?!” Meka asked, shifting her attention from Cheryl to Daniel and then Darnell for answers. “Who did this?”

Licking his lips, Darnell replied with a thick voice. “Not who… What…”

Echoes of Pain

Professor Victoria Thomas paced the front of the building, and ran through her speech for the thousandth time since she mustered up the confidence to set foot back on the mind-numbing encounter with Darnell and his friends four days ago. Overcome with fear, she started to pack up her things and leave Harmony Heights for good, but another deep-rooted fear kept her glued to the place. Several seconds later, Victoria sat down on the steps and whispered to herself, “I can’t let her die too.”

She shoved her shaky hands deep into her coat pockets and moments later she jumped back up and resumed her pacing. “No, no, I can’t do this,” she whispered, descending the steps to leave, but stopped at the bottom and dropped her head. Everything in her was telling her, pushing her to run and never look back, something she should have done fifty years ago, but deep-down fear and worry for this child she knew nothing about made her pullback. Taking quick and short breaths, Victoria climbed the steps that led to the dorms and swallowed past the lump of fear that formed in her throat. She quickly pulled the door open and marched in.

She was halfway down the dimly lit hall when she heard a soft cry and hushed voices coming from a room with the door slightly opened. Following the sound, she tip-toped and rested against the wall to listen to what sounded like a very intense conversation.

“We have to tell somebody,” Daniel urged, his voice laced with concern, or fear, or maybe both.

“Who?” Darnell barked, slapping his hands to his legs. “Who in their right mind is going to believe this shit? Hell, if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would tell y’all, y’all are batshit crazy and need to be in somebody’s looney bin,” he explained. “Nobody’s going to believe this!”

“You don’t know that!” Daniel argued. “If we go to Dean Harold, he’ll hear us… I mean it’s a bit much, but he’s understanding.”

Taking a deep breath, Victoria pushed the door open and stared into the fearful eyes of four students. “No, you can’t do that,” she stated.

“Professor? What are you… Wait, why we can’t?” Darnell asked, rushing up to her. “What are you doing here?” Darnell gestured for Daniel to close and lock the door as he allowed the professor to claim the spot on the edge of the bed next to Cheryl as she continued to cry.

Voice filled with compassion; Victoria gently touched Cheryl’s hand. “Look at me, honey.”

Slowly, Cheryl raised her head and allowed Victoria to see the cuts and bruises on her otherwise flawless face. Lingering just a few more moments, her eyes dropped to the necklace still around her neck. “Have you tried taking that off?”

“Ye… Yes… It’s like it’s glued on me or something,” she muttered.

Victoria dropped her head and decided to share what she had a feeling they already knew. An unsettling truth she’d been living with for two decades now. “There is a spirit attached to this necklace… The last person that found this and put it on, jumped off the roof of this very building ten years ago.”

“Oh shit,” Darnell groaned, dropping his head.

Like kids surrounding the teacher at storybook time, the foursome listened intently as Victoria told them about the rumors and the haunting history of the school. “So, this girl… the one the necklace belonged to, was your friend?” Meka asked, once she finished.

“Yes! We were so close, you might as well have called us sisters,” she replied sadly. “I always thought the rumors of that room and that necklace was just something made up by a bunch of kids, until ten years ago, a student named Amy jumped to her death.”

Confusion written all over his face, Darnell sat in silence trying to piece together the information like a puzzle. “But, wait, you just said you thought it was a rumor,” Darnell questioned. “But now you’re saying it was truth, I don’t understand.”

Letting out a heavy sigh, Victoria eyes affixed on a spot on the wall. She thought about that night so many times before, but as she sat there, in her old room, she started to feel like she was actually there. For years, even now, she tried to understand or make sense of it all and still had not come anywhere close. “Let me rephrase, it’s not that I actually thought it was a rumor, it was just so many different things that happened, it all sounded so… so… bizarre, like something from one of those weird horror movies. Hell, I didn’t want to believe it.”

“How did it all start?” Cheryl asked, softly, still holding Victoria’s hand.

Victoria gave her hand a soft squeeze. “So, fifty years ago, I had a friend, Lorraine. She worked at this late hour diner right outside of the campus called Harmony Eats. Normally I would meet her half way or wait with her until she finished up, but on this particular night, she had to work much later than usual. So, when it was time for her to get off, I got up and waited outside on the stoop for her to come in. We walked through those doors together. We walked down that hall together, like always and then we went our separate ways into the dorms. I was in this room, and Lorraine was in room thirteen. And… everything was all good, at least that’s what I thought until I woke up the next morning,” Victoria paused to gather her emotions. Shaking her head at the piss poor job she was doing, she continued. “I woke up to somebody banging on my door and a lot of noise in the hallway… turns out our old girlfriend Shirley, who was in room eleven, saw Lorraine’s door wide open and found a large pool of blood in the middle of the room, but Lorraine… she was gone. The entire school and buildings close by went into lockdown while they combed every single inch of this place and everything in a two-mile radius, searching for her. They searched for weeks until finally, they just gave up. The amount of blood they found, plus with no signs of her body, and nothing to further help locate her, they just let the case go cold.”

“Wow,” Cheryl sighed, shaking her head in disbelief. “What about the necklace? How does this play a part in what is happening? What does all of that have to do with this necklace?”

Victoria gently touched the necklace. “While her body was nowhere to be found, her necklace… this necklace was found in the room, right next to the pool of blood… Afterwards, they cleaned up the room, cleared out all of her things and eventually it was locked up so no one would be tempted to go in or move in. As for me and Shirley, we asked to be moved to a different dorm altogether. It was too much for either of us to handle, one because of what we saw and two because our friend, our best friend was murdered right down the hall from while we slept. All was good, no incidents or anything up until… me and Shirley’s senior year. The days leading up to summer, someone that was living in one the rooms near thirteen, said they heard moaning and then at one point furniture being moved around. The campus officials went in to the see what was going on, they claim they found nothing, but they came out ordering everybody in the building to pack their things and evacuate, not long after they shut the entire building down until ten years ago.”

Air filled with tension and fear, Darnell and Daniel stared at each other, both trying to make sense of everything they heard. The entire thing seemed made up, like the ramblings of an old crazy woman, but judging from the terror on her face and the tremble in her voice as she spoke, they knew better than to call her a liar.

Finally, Meka broke the silence and jumped up from her spot. “This… that is completely insane.”

“Nah, what’s insane is that they kept that part of the history out the brochures or in the school archives,” Darnell hinted, crossing his arms. “So, what happened after that? You said the building was locked up for forty years and they just suddenly opened it or what?”

“And why if they knew all of this?!” Daniel asked

“There was a sudden increase in the enrollment, so they reopened it and did a full renovation. Don’t get me wrong the school looks like it did all those years ago, but they made some big changes, some for the better, others… well not so much,” she hinted, looking back up at them. “After Amy… the young lady that jumped off the building, I fought tooth and nail to have them close it again. I didn’t even have to step foot in this place to know something still wasn’t right about it. I never seen or heard anything myself, but it was just something… something off. But Dean Harold shot down the idea with a quickness, said the building was needed so we could maintain the number of students we were getting. So instead, we settled on just having the room taken off the list. I don’t why it changed this year, but… but it did and now here we are.”

Meka ran her finger through her hair as she tried to process everything she was hearing. Her grandfather had been the dean of the university for almost fifty years and had not once mentioned anything about a haunting or anything somewhat close to what Professor Victoria was revealing. While everything she was hearing was running through her mind, it was one more thing she couldn’t quite wrap her mind around and that was… “If you knew all of this… Knew this school was haunted, why did you even come back here to teach? Why put yourself through unnecessary grief?”

For a brief moment, Victoria sat quietly as if to ponder on her question. Slowly she stood and walked over to an old photo that was hanging in every door of the university from its conception. “It was my dream. Even after losing my best friend being professor here, at this school, was always a dream of mine.”

The room fell into a contemplative silence, the students absorbing the weight of Victoria's commitment to her dream despite the haunting history of Harmony Heights. The past and the present intertwined in the dimly lit room, with lingering questions and a sense of unease that wouldn't easily fade away.

Light in the Darkness

A few days later, Cheryl rested her head against the top of the cool, fake oak wood desk and sighed. After hearing the story Professor Victoria told her and the others, every chance she got, Cheryl visited the library in the hopes of finding anything remotely close to what she said. Here she was a whole week later running on 3 hours of sleep and still coming up empty.

“You should really try to get some rest,” Darnell hinted, reaching for her shoulders. She slightly jumped a his touch, but not from his. The smell of his cologne, though faint wafted through her nose as he walked up on her. Darnell gently massaged her shoulders and lowered his head to whisper in her ear. “You been looking over this stuff for days.”

“I know, I know… But I can’t help it,” she replied softly, slowly picking her head up and looking up at him. She pushed her hair back from her face. “You find anything on your end?”

Claiming the chair next to her and glancing around to make sure no one was within earshot; he pulled a folder out of his backpack full of old newspaper clippings. “No, but Victoria gave me these after class today. Looks like the story made the news, made it outside the campus, but it’s like somebody made it disappear immediately right after. Whoever or whatever this is made sure nothing could deter people from enrolling.”

“Why would they even think something like that would happen?” Cheryl quietly asked, reading an old newspaper article that spoke of the student that went missing on campus. “One murder wouldn’t have shut down the entire school.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that… According to Victoria, Lorraine was white. If word got out that a white student, especially a white female had been killed at an historically black college, they would have lost all kinds of funding and sponsors. Don’t get me wrong segregation ended, but you know even after that, they were still dead set on making sure black people didn’t get the same support as the others.,” Darnell explained, before pointing to a sentence on another article. “It says here the student was of African American descent, so whoever made all of this go away, made it to look like it never even happened went through great lengths to change the narrative all together.”

Looking through everything Darnell gave to her, Cheryl found herself in disbelief at the information. “This is crazy,” she sighed and then looked over at him. “Thank you… thank you for bringing me this.”

“Anytime.” He gave her a wink and started rubbing her shoulder. “Listen I know with everything going on, you’re tired and stressed, but I was thinking that maybe… if you want, we can get off campus for a few hours. Go do something fun to get your mind off of what’s been happening.?

Cheryl reared her head back in disgust. “Fun? What is this word, fun, you speak of?” She asked and then giggled when the look of dismay melted from his face and was replaced with a smile.

Leaning closer, Darnell looked into her eyes. “Oh, you just wait and see. Where I’m going to take you is going to be so magical, that you’ll forget everything you’re going through and then some.” His voice carried a bit of drama like he was announcing something from Disney World.

While in hindsight it all sounded good, Cheryl couldn’t see herself doing anything other than trying to get to the bottom of what was happening and how to stop it. With a sad smile, she placed her hand on top of his and shook her head. “I can---”

“Nope!” Darnell yelped, jumping to his feet and shoving the folder he gave into his bad and grabbing the item she had sprawled out on the desk. “Not taking no or can’t for an answer… We’re going!” Not giving her any room to further decline, Darnell pulled her up from her seat and practically drug her out of the ranky dank library all the way to his car, laughing the entire time. With no care in the world, he threw all of their stuff in the trunk and moments later he was peeling out of the lot and heading straight to the center of downtown.

Cheryl wanted to be mad, wanted to beg him to just let her rest, but seeing the excitement on his face and unable to ignore the good feeling finally running through her veins, she sat back in the passenger seat while he held her hand with his free one and drove them only God knew where.

“Where are we going, D?” Cheryl asked after about thirty minutes of cruising through Houston’s streets listening to music and singing along every now and again. Having never been to Houston, Cheryl took in the sight. Even as the sun settled behind the tall buildings, the city was huge and seemed to forever be bustling, even as the sun was settling behind the tall buildings. Everybody just seemed to keep going on about their evening. Finally, they pulled up to their destination that was surrounded by water, boats and flashing lights. “What is this?”

“Welcome to the Kemah Boardwalk!” He revealed. “It’s a mini amusement park, aquarium, restaurant city all in one.”

Eagerly grabbing Cheryl’s hand, Darnell led her through crowded boardwalk that had people from all walks of life enjoying themselves. Despite her fear of heights, with Darnell at her side and holding her hand every step of the way, she got on every ride and tried her hand at various games the pier had to offer. Everything was fun and beyond relaxing, but the best thing about the trip was when he introduced her to beignets. Moaning at the taste as the hot treat melted in her mouth, Cheryl threw her hand over her mouth.

Laughing, Darnell bit into his second one. “See! See I told you they were the shit! This is a New Orleans staple!”

Confusion written on her face, Cheryl asked, “Wouldn’t it be a Louisiana staple though? I mean New Orleans is just a city, right?”

Drawing his head back, Darnell started schooling her on the real difference. “Yes, Louisiana is the state that New Orleans is in, but it’s a place of its own. The music, the food, the culture as a whole is something no other place can match!” He explained. “I’m only telling you that because I don’t need you getting the look from my momma.”

“Your momma?” She asked, taking a sip of her drink. “Why would your mom look at me like that? How would she even meet me?”

For a brief moment Darnell averted his eyes and tried to figure a way out of the hole he just walked in to. “You know, if she was to ever come up this way or something… You know?” He shrugged, quickly changing the subject. “Yo, you want another order?”

Cheryl smiled and nodded instead of pressing the issue, though she knew exactly what he meant. From the moment everything started going down with the haunting and letting her sleep in his room several nights, he had been extra gentle with her. They’d spent hours just talking and getting to know each other. Though he tried to hide it, Cheryl couldn’t help but notice from the way he looked at her and when he touched her. But little did he know, and oddly enough with her fear of each passing moment, she felt the same way.

After Darnell returned with their third order of beignets, Cheryl looked up and gazed into Darnell’s eyes. In the midst of the hauntings and fear of the unknown, it was as if it was all bringing them together. A connection she didn’t go looking for was starting to form and part of her feared that as well, but it was something she was willing to try.

Breaking the silence and the stare down, Darnell pushed a smile to his face and cleared his throat. “You think you ready to ride some more or play a few more games?”

Cheryl smiled, her world suddenly not feeling so dark as it had been. “What you wanna do, I’m down.”"

“Bet!” Like it was second nature, Darnell grabbed her hand and they exited the café. In the darkness that surrounded them, with each other there was some sort of light.

Haunting Revelations

“I found something!” Daniel called out, rushing into his brother’s room.

“Shhh!” Darnell hushed, as he held his phone up to his ear. “Yes ma’am, I’ll let him know. Okay… okay… okay…” Darnell turned to his brother and rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. “Okay, alright ma, I gotta go… I gotta get to my next class… Okay, yea, I love you too.”

Finally, Darnell threw his phone on the bed and sighed. “That woman there, boy I tell you!”

“Everything alright?” Daniel asked.

“Yea, just checking in and talking about how daddy been bothering her for one thing or another,” he replied, waving off the conversation and giving his brother his full undivided attention. “What’s up? What you found?”

Daniel put a sheet of paper on the bed for Darnell to see. “If this isn’t a smoking gun, I don’t what it is!”

Scoffing, Darnell looked over the single sheet of paper for whatever he was talking about and found nothing interesting. “What… What’s this?”

“A paranormal specialist. This guy talks to dead people and judging from his yelp reviews, he’s the best.”

“Bro! A paranormal specialist? C’mon now man, that ain’t gone help her right now. The last thing she need is some crackhead to tell her what she already knows, the necklace that won’t come off her neck is haunted.”

“You don’t know that for sure, besides what would it hurt getting some extra help. We been staring at old ass newspapers and searching through dusty ass records and found nothing and she’s still having attacks almost every night.”

“I don’t… I don’t know man, it doesn’t seem right,” Darnell said with a sigh. “It’s bad enough Professor Victoria involved, the last thing we need is to bring more attention to this crazy shit. Cheryl’s just gotten to the point where the looks, giggles and pointing have finally stopped. Bringing this fool in is only going to make it worse.”

Daniel took the paper from his brother. “Doesn’t really matter, I already called him and he’s going to be here this evening. First consultation is free.”

“Of course,” Darnell smirked coming to his feet and walking over to his desk to start putting his books in his bags so he could get to class. Just as he was lifting his head, movement outside his window caught his attention leading him to zero in on none other than Cheryl walking into the woods in the back of the building. “Where is she… What is she doing?” He fussed grabbing his cell and trying to call her.

The phone picked up, but the voice that greeted him was not that of Cheryl’s. “Go away!” The voice gutturally whispered before shrieking and disconnecting. A shiver ran down his spine, as he looked over at his brother who was just as stunned.

“Tha… That wasn’t Cheryl!”

Shaking from whatever the hell he was feeling, Darnell grabbed his keys and Daniel’s hand and ran out of the room. “No shit, Einstein.”

Following the same path he saw Cheryl going, Darnell and Daniel trekked through the woods until they saw her kneeling in the middle of a circle and roughly pulling grass and dirt from the ground. “I gotta find her,” she kept chanting.

“Cheryl,” Darnell quietly called out, slowly stepping towards her. “Cheryl, it’s me D… Can you hear me?” He asked.

When Cheryl kept digging and chanting louder instead of turning around he grew disturbed and he gestured for Daniel to continue standing behind her and he carefully moved around until he was standing in front of her. As he got closer, the woods seemed to start closing in around them causing a shadow to cast over them with intent on alarming. “Cheryl… Baby, this isn’t you. It’s the necklace, it’s the thing attached to that necklace! You are not this person,” he told her, his voice quaking with fear but also determination. His legs were shaking like Jell-o with each step he took but he couldn’t find it in his heart to leave her there and let whatever was happening take over her for good.

“Go away!” She shrieked, her voice echoed and pierced through the trees like an ominous life-force as she gazed up at him with frightening, red eyes.

“What do we do?” Daniel fearfully asked.

Darnell shook his head as he lowered to his knees and held a hand out to her. “C… C, this isn’t you. Don’t let this take you over,” he begged. “What would your grandmother say if she knew this was happening? How would Madear’ feel?” He asked. During the many hours they stayed up talking and getting to one another, she mentioned her grandmother who was more of a mother to her than her own mom and how she was the reason she was the woman she was today.

Voice cracking with emotion, he boldly extended his hand towards her. “She wouldn’t want this for you.”

For a brief moment, Cheryl’s eyes flickered and her chants began to slow down and grow quiet. He didn’t know what it was, but it seemed at the mentioning of her grandmother whatever was currently happening to her or whomever had possessed her, was losing its strong hold on her. Time seemed to stand still as the darkness began to recede and Cheryl’s movements became still.

“That’s right… C’mon back,” he whispered, taking a chance gently touching her cheek. As he kept talking, Cheryl started to shake less and less, and her red eyes were starting to return its normal color of brown.

Blinking rapidly, Cheryl looked around to figure out her surroundings and when her eyes fell on Darnell’s eyes filled with fear, her words fell from her mouth like a jumbled puzzle... “D… What… What happened? Why am… What happened?” She asked.

Letting go of the breath he’d been holding; Darnell pushed a smile to his face and wrapped his arms around her. “It doesn’t matter anymore…”

“D…” Daniel hinted.

Darnell nodded and eventually helped her to stand. “C’mon, let’s get outta here.”

Little did the group know the spirit did exactly what it meant to do...

* * *

Meka who had been MIA since Professor Victoria told them the story about her old friend, marched out of her room and met Daniel in the hall. For the past two hours they had been calling and texting her like crazy. She been able to ignore it due to her being in class at the time, but now that she was back in her room and saw Daniel posted at her door, she knew she had to say something. “What? What is going on? Why do y’all keep calling and texting me?”

“We thought you would like be included in what was getting ready to happen,” Daniel hinted, gesturing toward Cheryl’s room. “The paranormal specialist is here to check out Cheryl’s room.”

“Oh my god, y’all are still on this?” She sighed. “I thought y’all finally gave up this sham of a story and moved on with your lives.”

“Well, if you would answer your phone sometimes you would know it’s far from that.”

Meka rolled her eyes at Daniel and looked down the hall as Cheryl and Darnell walked hand in hand. Anger, hurt and confusion and more feelings she couldn’t describe coursed through her body as she watched them hang on to each other like a couple. Before she had a chance to question them, a guy dressed in all black walked out of Cheryl’s room shaking his head.

“The aura in there is dark and powerful!” He spoke. “Just based off the feeling, the vibe I’m getting from it, someone died in there and it was not in a positive one.”

Professor Victoria who had been standing outside with Daniel since the beginning reached into her purse to give the paranormal expert the old newspaper article she shared with Darnell and Cheryl. “My friend… My friend was murdered in that very room fifty years ago.”

The guy grabbed the paper and groaned. “No, no, she wasn’t just murdered. She was a sacrifice.”

“A sacrifice?” Cheryl questioned, stepping up. “Excuse me, Mr. Luther, you mean like an actual sacrifice to the devil or something?”

“One in the same…” The guy reached out to Cheryl and paused when her body became stiff. “Sorry, may I?” After getting an approving nod from Cheryl and a haunting look from Darnell, he examined the pendant closely. “She’s attached to this necklace… Probably what she was wearing when she died. Where was she buried?”

Victoria replied sadly. “We never found her body and they eventually closed the case.”

Luther nodded and continued to look at the necklace. “I’m going to be honest, with a malevolent spirit like this, it’s going to be a great feat to give her any peace without finding her remains and the person that did this to her. She’s bursting with anger and rage. For some reason she has attached herself to you, probably for help,” he concluded, pointing at Cheryl. “H, G,” he mumbled, when he flipped the pendant over.

“Who?”

“It’s faint, but this gem is engraved with the initials, H and G… I thought you said her name was Lorraine?” He questioned, looking toward Victoria.

“Yea, it is. Lorraine Westbrook.”

“Not sure who this H.G, person is, but she… or he may be who you need to speak to.”

H.G, Cheryl thought, even hours after Luther left and she laid wide awake next to Darnell who was sleeping peacefully. The initials that were found on the back of the pendant remained on her brain, haunting her every thought. Glancing over at Darnell, she carefully slid out of the twin sized bed and put on her tennis shoes before sneaking out of the room and slowly making her way to her old room. After the first official attack she hadn’t stepped foot inside. Had barely looked at the door, but after Luther did his… whatever it was he did, something was drawing her to it. Taking a deep breath, she slowly slipped the keycard in to unlock the door and as she pushed it in, prayed and prayed like it would be her last prayer before she closed her eyes to darkness forever. Once she was inside, she flipped on the light and looked around. Everything was as she found it when she first moved in with the exception of the vanity which had been moved back into the closet.

Taking slow and careful steps towards the closet, Cheryl continued to be aware of her surroundings and the atmosphere that was quickly changing with each step and each breath she took. As if the closet door was suddenly automatic, it slowly creaked opened, quietly calling for her, and revealing her reflection in the mirror as it did the night she was attacked. But instead of the haunting smile, there was a look of grief. No longer feeling fearful, she sat on the bench and started opening the drawers attached.

Upon reaching the last drawer, something unusual caught her attention. Wrapped up in a red silk scarf was a old, worn leather-bound journal. With piqued curiosity, and a careful touch, she pulled the journal from its old,dusty home and unwrapped it. The pages were aged, some pieces falling apart like dust and ink fading into the pages. With steady and careful hands, she opened it and started to read as much as she could until she reached a page that took her breath away.

“Maybe it was not meant to be. Today he told me there was no way we could continue our relationship... But he couldn’t tell me why, other than it wasn’t me but him... But how can he say something like that and not allow me the chance to decide.Now I don’t know what to do! How do I tell mama and papa that I’m pregnant with a black man’s baby and he’s nothing more than a janitor with a pipe dream of being a dean one day but has no desire to learn and work to get the title? How do I tell them I gave my heart and my virginity to someone forbidden? And most importantly how do I tell Esther, the best friend I've ever had the only person to ever make me feel welcome in this strange place that I betrayed our friendship by being involved with her boyfriend? How could Harold do this to me...”

* * *

Rain pouring from the night sky of Houston, Cheryl rushed into the Waffle House right outside of campus and sighed with relief when warmth greeted her.

“Hey sweetie, table for one?” A lady with full gray hair greeted her from her spot behind the register.

Before she could answer a hand raised up from a corner table. “She’s with me.”

Cheryl stared at Luther as he came to his feet and waited for her to come join him at the table.

After spending countless hours reading the journal she found in the vanity, she reached out to the only person she knew that could truly help. While the journal didn’t reveal anything about the sacrifice or the hauntings it did reveal enough for her to know this wasn’t something she could continue figuring out alone. And after Daniel and Darnell explained to her what happened in the woods the last thing she wanted to do was further involve them. Thinking back on it, she realized that could have gone down a different way.

“So, what do you think?” Cheryl asked after giving Luther sometime to read over a few pages in the journal. “Is there something we can do with this? Is it anything in there that can help stop this?”

In deep thought, Luther stroked his chin as he mentally tried to piece together what had been brought to him. Finally, he looked up at her. “Possibly… We first have to find out who this Esther and Harold are.”

Looking down, Cheryl went into explained about the identity of Esther and how she was the reason she dreamed of only ever enrolling and graduating from Harmony Heights. “Towards the end of the journal she mentioned something about her that only I knew.”

“That would explain why her spirit has formed such a strong attachment to you. Your and her share a connection,” he concluded.

After taking a breath, Luther sat up and started explaining to Cheryl how they could use the journal to summon the spirit and try to get some answers about her passing and who could have been responsible. In the midst of talking, their conversation was cut short by red and blue flashing accompanied by blaring sirens as they sped pass the restaurant and into the campus gates. At the same time the lady that initially greeted her started heading to the window to see what was going on. Cheryl’s phone started ringing.

“Hello?” She answered.

“Cheryl, where are you?” Darnell asked in a rushed tone. “Are you safe? Did they find you?”

“Did who find me?” Cheryl asked as a coroner van rushed by. “Darnell, what’s happening?”

Darnell sounded like he was shuffling around before finally whispering. “They found remains in the woods.”

Shocked at what he was telling her, Cheryl motioned for Luther to follow her back to the school. They pushed through the crowd of people that had formed around the building she stayed in as bright lights shone in the direction of the woods where Darnell and Daniel said they saw her go into. Moments later three large black dogs came out along with two men pulling a gurney with a large black bag tied down on top.

Concerned students and staff pushed each other forward, straining against the yellow caution tape. “I said step back!” A police office barked to them. “Put those phones away!”

Visibly shaken by the scene unfolding right before her eyes, Cheryl’s heart began to beat uncontrollably against her chest, leading her to stumble back. Trying to get her bearings together, Cheryl looked around for her friends, her feet feeling heavy with dread. As she continued to push past the crowd, she ended up on the side of the coroners’ van and her eyes fell upon the black bag settled on the gurney. Resisting the urge to touch the bag, the pendant she fought so hard to remove, fell from around her neck. Bending over to pick it up, she caught the sight of something floating next to her as she slowly rose.

“Oh my God,” she whispered, seeing Lorraine’s spirit floating alongside her and the bag that more than likely held her remains. Her eyes were filled with sadness and grief.

Frozen in place, Cheryl was unable to tear her gaze away from the woman that haunted her for weeks on end. She was nothing like what she imagined. From the time everything started, Lorraine’s spirit made her feel evil and angry, but as she stared at her all she could feel from her was a profound sadness, sorrow and pain.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Truth Revealed

For hours, after the cops and school officials had been made aware that Cheryl, Darnell and Daniel had been in the woods earlier that day all three had been taken to the Houston Police department for questioning. The cops interrogated them as if they had been the ones responsible for the remains unearthed in the woods. It seemed like no matter what they told them, they wanted to pin this on them and get it over with, but they didn’t have enough evidence to make it happen.

“Go! Get out of here!” A cop told Cheryl.

By the time Cheryl was released it was well into the next day and the campus was in an uproar about everything that was happening. Once again, all eyes were on her and they were going on and on about how before she arrived the school was peaceful and there had been no such thing as ghosts and possession. Cheryl once again began to feel like an outsider in a foreign land and was all set to pack her things and go back home to where she belonged. She too felt the same as them, before moving to Houston she had experience nothing remotely close to what had happened to her. She was a happy, smart young woman who caused not one ounce of trouble, yet here she was in the center of it all.

Keeping her head down, Cheryl made her way back to her dorm building and into her room away from prying eyes and pointed fingers. With her back against the door, she scanned her room, the room that was meant to be her home away from home and tears began to fall from her eyes. This was not at all what she had envisioned for her freshman year, yet here she was seeing absolutely no light at the end of the tunnel.

Cheryl eventually crawled into her bed and for the first time in weeks, fell into a deep, peaceful and dreamless sleep. Hours later after Cheryl had been given the unspoken permission to get some much-needed rest, she began to stir. Disoriented, she took a minute to collect her thoughts and gather her wits about her. The room was nearly dark, letting her know it was now late in the afternoon and a heavy silence hung in the air like a cloak.

Head pounding or so she thought, Cheryl slid from the comforts of her bed and moved around like the dead. The pounding started up again, this time harder and louder, leading to her zone in on the fact that it was not all in her head, but there someone knocking at her door. Slowly she shuffled over and after taking a deep breath pried it open. A pair of warm and familiar eyes greeted her, leading more tears to fall from her already heavy eyes. “Darnell,” she whimpered falling into his arms.

With her in his arms he walked them back into the room and closed the door. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

“No, they didn’t… Did they hurt you?” She asked, giving him a once over.

He shook his head. “Nah, I’m good baby girl,” he held her close again and placed a kiss on her forehead. “Listen, I know the last thing you want to be bothered with right now is this mess, but… We found something.”

“No… No, no, and no! Darnell I am tired, and I just want to go home! This… This was not what was supposed to happen!” She cried out. “I was just supposed to go here and follow in my grandmother’s footsteps, but all I’ve done is fallen into a horror story where she played some odd part in it all and I don’t want anything else to do with it!”

“I know, trust me I know and if I thought for one second this was going to do more harm than good, I wouldn’t be coming to you with this,” he assured, taking hold of her hands and gazing into her eyes. “But trust me… Trust me when I say this is going to help you and help Lorraine.”

“Help Lorraine? She’s gone, D! Now that her body had been found, the mystery has been solved, she’s gone. Her business is finished and at the expense of me!”

He stared at her for a long moment and pondered whether to tell her the entire truth or just let her wait and find out on her own. “She’s not gone,” he finally admitted. “She’s just not bothering you anymore. Look she… Just come with me, please!”

Cheryl watched him closely before letting out an overly exhausted sigh and turned to put on her shoes and hoodie. “Fine, but I’m only going for a few minutes.”

* * *

Because they were obviously being watched like a hawk, Darnell made quick work of her sneaking her out of the building and through the courtyard to the old gym that was due to be renovated in a few weeks. “Why are we here?” she asked as they walked into the dark building and led her through some doors until they were in a locker room. Candles sat in a circle in the middle of floor and Luther was standing in it. Aside from the flickering lights of the candle the entire room was dark and the faces that were in there she could barely recognize. “Darnell what is this?!”

Meka held up her hand to calm her down and handed her a black leather-bound journal. “I found this a few days ago… I didn’t… I didn’t want it to be true, but after they found Lorraine’s remains and the guys here told me about the journal you found, I knew I had no choice but to come out with it.”

“How did… How did y’all find out about that?” Cheryl asked, taking the journal and with hesitation opened it to reveal its contents.

“Luther told us as soon as they let us go,” Daniel replied. “And he was able to summon Lorraine.”

Shocked by the sudden skepticism she was suddenly overcome with because of everything that’d happened, Cheryl turned to Luther who was still standing in the circle of candles. And as if to push the envelope of her feelings to the edge, a gust of cool air blew past her making the flames fall completely to its side and then shoot up straight and still. Luther stepped out the circle and placed the necklace in the spot he had just vacated.

“Everybody hands and make a circle,” he ordered, reaching for Cheryl and Meka’s hand. With his eyes closed, he leaned his head back and started to roll his neck and shoulders as words no one could understand, spewed from his lips before he straightened his head. “Lorraine, we summon thee. Reveal the truths of our pasts. Lorraine, we ask for your gift to allow us to see into the past to answer questions that we are forced to leave buried.” He started chanting some kind of spell or incantation before opening his eyes and sinking to sit on the floor.

As he continued to chant the same gust of wind from earlier returned but instead of leaving it lingered above them and something else lingered behind Cheryl. Her grip on Darnell hand grew tighter as something gently touched her shoulder. Fear coursing through her body, she slowly turned to look over her shoulder and saw the last person she ever thought she would see again, her grandmother Esther Dunbar. “Madear?” She questioned, her voice quivering.

Esther’s ghost smiled and floated to the middle of the circle where she grabbed the hand of none other than Lorraine whom no longer appeared angry, scared or mournful. It was as if she was finally at peace.

“Holy shit!” Darnell hissed when he opened his eyes and saw the same thing. “Is that what I…”

“This is some freaky shit,” Meka interjected, her knees buckling at the sight.

Esther and Lorraine smiled at the group of friends before looking over to Professor Victoria and nodding. “Thank you,” Lorraine finally spoke.

With tears streaming from her eyes, Victoria could only nod as seeing both of her friends from the past standing or more like floating right before her very eyes.

Luther motioned for the others to sit down with him and without saying another word, gestured for Lorraine and Esther to tell the story of what happened fifty years ago.

It was fall of ’73 and Harmony Heights was growing more and more popular every day. Four friends, Lorraine, Victoria, Esther and Shirley were as thick as thieves, each of them promising to remain the best of friends even long after they graduated from college and went on to start their new lives. Esther the oldest of the group was engaged to a janitor named Harold Grimes. Everyone in the group knew of their relationship, but because of how her parents would have reacted by him being common, they agreed to keep it a secret. But what the group didn’t know was that Harold and Lorraine had been messing around and she became pregnant. Harold begged her to get an abortion or to do something with the child because he refused to ruin the relationship he and Esther had, and he also had plans for himself that did not include an illegitimate biracial child.

Despite his constant begging, Lorraine remained determined to give birth to her child whether he was there with them or not. It broke her heart knowing what it would do to her best friend, but she could not stomach killing her own child because of what he felt. As the weeks turned into months and Lorraine’s belly continued to grow until she was unable to further hide it, Harold who constantly stayed on her about her horrible decision took fate into his own hands. Driven by fear and ambition, Harold visited Lorraine’s room one fateful night and did the unthinkable.

“He tied me down, gagged me and cut my stomach opened. I remember how his hands felt moving inside of me as he dug around for my baby and ripped him out,” Lorraine cried. “I never heard the baby cry, never seen what he did, but in my heart of hearts I knew he’d killed it… Some kind of way I was able to remove the gag from my mouth and I begged him to just let me go. I cried and pleaded for him to let me go. The baby was gone, the painful reminder of my betrayal, my stupidness was gone, there was no need to kill me… But I saw something in his eyes I’d never seen before. It was like something had taken control of his body, his soul and the last thing I remember was something hard and cold driving into my chest.”

Esther looked over at her friend. “I heard through the grapevine that she and Harold had been seen together, so I went to confront her about it, hoping it was just foolish gossip, but when I got to her room and saw the blood on the floor, I felt sick! I was getting ready to call for help when I heard a soft whimper from under bed. I thoug… I thought it was her, I thought she had managed to get away from her attacker! I rushed over and I found… I found a baby boy covered in blood wrapped up in a blanket. I sat there crying for a while before I grabbed him and left. Without saying anything to anybody, I packed up what I could, ran to the bus station and with the baby in tow I hopped on the first Greyhound bus available… A few days later, I saw the news about Lorraine being missing and I wept because part of me wished I would have stayed behind to help her, maybe my going to the police would have helped her some kind of way, who knows they could have found her alive, but the other part of me… The part that knew better because of the amount of blood I saw on the floor, knew I did the right thing. Weeks later the baby started to come into his features, and it was then I knew the rumors were true, Harold and Lorraine had been messing around and had created that little bundle of joy.”

Esther stared at Cheryl as she spoke. “I wanted to be mad at her! Wanted to hate her even! But I couldn’t find it in my heart to do that. I knew the type of man Harold was. I loved him, no doubt, but I knew he was a charmer, and he was going to do whatever to get what he wanted. I hated Lorraine had to go through what she went through, I could only imagine the terror she felt, the pain she endured that night, but I was grateful that I was the one that discovered her child because for twenty-three long years he was the apple of my eye before he gave me the apple of my soul,” she hinted, her hand gently caressing Cheryl’s tear-stricken cheek.

“Wh… What?!” Cheryl whimpered.

Lorraine smiled sadly. “The very blood that courses through my veins, now courses through yours.”

“That explains why she was attached to you the way that she was,” Darnell concluded.

That would also explain the reason why she felt the way she did the minute she set foot on campus. She felt a sense of welcoming, a sense of belonging, but deep down she felt something else she couldn’t explain. She chalked it up to being afraid of being away from home and grief of having just buried her grandmother, but as she stared up at the floating women, she now knew it was because this was practically where her life started and almost ended in one night.

“Did you know about Lorraine and Harold?” Daniel asked, turning to Meka who was also crying and looking on in disbelief.

Meka shook her head. “No… No, I didn’t,” she whispered. “I realized after I mentioned the room to him, he started acting different and after Professor Victoria came by to tell us what happened. He came to my room later that night and demanded I stopped hanging out with y’all. I didn’t understand why, and I asked him, but he just shut me down and told me if I didn’t listen, he was going to have me removed from the school and his will without question. I… I… I didn’t know what else to do, so I backed away… And then last night, after they took y’all downtown, I went to his office with questions and I overhead him talking to himself, talking about he regrets it ever happened and how he should have hidden the body better… Just rambling,” she explained. “Once he passed out from the alcohol I snuck into his office and found this journal and some kind of weird looking knife hidden in one of his drawers.”

“Meka called me, and we met up and I immediately knew what it was,” Luther added, pulling a perfectly plastic wrapped knife from a bag and putting it in the middle. “It’s a dagger. Usually someone who wants to have nothing but Good luck without working for it and with an intent to do whatever it takes to get it done will sell their soul to the devil and get this. I don’t know many in Houston who practices this type of witchcraft, but it is definitely known in New Orleans. My guess is he decided to kill three birds with one stone, get rid of Lorraine and their baby so she wouldn’t be a hindrance and get that title as the college’s dean without having to put in the work for it.”

“But why… Why do all of this just to be the dean of some school?” Darnell asked. “Meka, your pops was buggin’!”

“Greed and power… Harold was nothing more than a janitor, a black one at that. He was so wrapped up and not being another white man’s trash or boy, he wanted to be in a place of power where he had the ability to determine whether a white student graduated or not. He wanted to be in control of somebody’s education,” Lorraine concluded. “It was all he used to talk about, getting ahead of the white man.”

“Cheryl,” Lorraine called out, realizing she hadn’t said much since her true paternity had been revealed. “Are you okay?

Shaking from her trance, Cheryl looked up. “Madear… Why didn’t you tell me?” She cried, coming to her feet. “We used to talk about this place from sunup to sundown and not once did you mention this to me. Why?”

“I wanted to, I truly did! But baby the cancer spread so fast; I didn’t get the chance to. I never told your father because I was afraid of what he might have done or said, and I didn’t want him to hate me and I… It was bad enough he was getting ready to lose me, the last thing I wanted to do was tell him when he had already lost his mother years prior.”

The Confrontation

Later on that night as Cheryl and Darnell slept peacefully in his bed, Lorraine who watched over her, wishing she could console the granddaughter she had only dreamed over, drifted away. Despite her spirit being somewhat at peace now that her body had been found and her truth had been revealed, she was still angry. She couldn’t find the peace she so desperately craved because there was still one matter she had yet to deal with. For years she haunted student after student looking for peace, looking for the truth she could not remember and each time Harold made it all go away. Something he was good at doing…. Until now!

Lorraine drifted through the poorly lit hallways, a mixture of sorrow and anger pushing her to move quicker to her destination as memories of her younger and live self-bouncing up and won the corridors of the that very hall plague her mind. Her life had been cut short all because of one man who one couldn’t keep it in his pants and two, was so selfish and full of himself he couldn’t just leave well enough alone. She told him time and time again after he repeatedly told her how he wanted nothing to do with her that she would take this punishment and do what she had to do for her and her child. Told him she wanted and needed nothing from him. She was all set to take the heat from her parents and be disowned for the bed she decided to lie in, but even that was not enough for him.

Approaching the door that led to Dean Harol Grimes office, Lorraine hovered a few minutes, contemplating if this was too much. Just like he could have left well enough alone, she could too, but then the image of her granddaughter Cheryl flashed before her eyes. She missed out on seeing her son grow to be a young man, hearing his voice, burning the image of his face to memory, she missed the joys of being a grandmother to a wonderful young woman who, she saw so much of herself in. That alone was enough to drive her to do what she longed to… get her revenge. Lorraine emerged through the door of the office and locked eyes on Harold as he laid asleep on a beige leather couch with a large bottle of brown liquor clutched to his chest. Aside from grey scuffled patches that was on his balding head, the bags that rested under his eyes and the slight wrinkles that was beginning to appear, Harold looked the same. His Hershey chocolate skin was free of blemishes, his lips were still smooth as the first day she kissed them and decided it was the only thing she ever wanted to do for the rest of her life. His muscles were still there, not as pronounced as before, more than likely due to aging, but they were there. Reaching out, she caressed his cheek and smiled, if only he hadn’t been so twisted in the head.

“Harold,” she called her, her voice wavering in and out. “Harold, baby wake up.”

Harold waved his hand, as if to swat away a fly and turned over, leading his liquor bottle to fall and shatter to the floor. Jumping at the sign, Harold sat straight up and looked around. “What the hell?!” He barked. As he looked up his breath was caught in his throat and his eyes grew wide. He started to panic as his gaze motionlessly stared upon an unearthly form of Lorraine as her spirit loomed before him like a cloud. He rubbed his eyes several times, trying to convince himself this was all just a dream, that this was all just a product of his inebriated cognizance, but no matter how hard he tried nothing could explain the sudden feeling of regret and anguish he felt as he continued to stare at her. “Lorraine,” he questioned. “Is this… is this a dream?” He asked and then jumped up to find the cause of what he was seeing. “No, no, no,” he rambled. “This is just a joke… A sick and twisted joke!” He yelled, rushing to his desk and searching for a projector or some kind of weird electronic that would explain this weird image of his misdeed haunting him.

No words came from her lips as Lorraine’s soul rushed over to him, knocking him into his chair. Her hand moved closer; her touch was cold as ice. “You thought you could obliterate me, Harold,” she hissed. “But I never left… I have always been here. Waiting and hoping that one day I would get to do to you as you done to me.”

Harold’s heart started to race as he became fully aware of what she was doing. “This is… Lorraine, this doesn’t have to happen!” He cried, his lips quivering. “I’ll… I’ll… go to the police, I’ll make this right! Just please, please don’t do this!”

“What good would that do me?” She asked, still hovering over him, now so close to his face she could feel the warmth of his breath against her face. Sweat dripping from his brow, drool spewing from his lips, terrified was too small of a word to use to describe exactly how he felt. “I missed out on life! I missed out on our son’s life! I missed out on our granddaughter’s life! And all because of you and your selfish and evil thoughts!” She screamed, her voice so strong it rattled the walls and made pictures drop from the nails.

“I’m so… I’m sorry.”

“It’s too late for that, Harold.” Moved by the need for justice and closure, Lorraine pressed her spectral hand to his chest and let out a surge of energy that flowed through his body. His heart began to beat uncontrollably; his pulse began to rise to an all-time high. Lorraine stared in his eyes that appeared to be stuck open from shock and pain, she felt his body convulse beneath her hand and his breath becoming harder and harder to take with each second. Mere minutes later, his body grew ridged as his face contorted from fear and regret to anguish as the life drained from his eyes. She stared at him, making sure her face was the last one he saw, as a deep and hard brutal last breath fell from his lips and his body went limp.

The man that was tormented by his own selfish needs and activities, now laid unmoving, his face petrified in that twisted look of grief and anguish, his face furrowed with deep guilt and regret. Oddly satisfied at the sight before her eyes, Lorraine slowly receded back from his lifeless form, her visage trembling with peace and finality. Not only had she gotten even, she also protected her family from any future damage from a man who meant them no good.

The room now empty of any life, held a sense of heavy righteousness that had finally come to pass after fifty years. A reckoning now only owed, but justified. Not only had Harold’s misdeeds taken the life of Lorraine and altered the life of Cheryl and her family, it had also taken the life of Amy, an innocent student who was haunted by a restless spirit and several others he made disappear without a second thought for the deceased or their families.

Smiling, Lorraine’s unearthly silhouette continued to float away until it was no more. The gut wrenching ties that kept her bounded on the earthly realm had finally been severed and the peace she’d hoped for had finally welcomed her and despite her current action of revenge, allowed her to move on to a world only many had dreamed of.

Epilogue

3 ½ YEARS LATER

“Congratulations baby girl!” Anthoni Dunbar shouted as Cheryl rushed to him and flew into his arms. “I am so proud of you,” he gleamed, holding her tight.

“Thank you, daddy,” she whimpered into his neck He held her for several minutes before letting her down to her heel covered feet and caressed her cheek.

“Can I get some love from my daughter?” A soft voice asked from behind Anthoni’s large towering frame. He reluctantly stepped to the side to reveal his wife of twenty-nine years and Cheryl’s mother, Melissa Dunbar. Melissa was short much like Cheryl with long black and brown hair. Her dimples, though not as deep, winked at her as she looked her baby girl up and down. “I had my reservations about you being so far from home… But as I look at you… As I look at the bright and extremely beautiful woman you’ve become, I’m glad you did. I can’t express how proud I am of you and your accomplishments, Ms. Valedictorian!”

Already emotional, Cheryl went into her mother’s arms and held onto her like she would drift away. Though she was a daddy’s girl through and through, she valued her mother’s approval just as much and to hear that she was not only proud of her, but also happy, made her feel good and warm all through her body. “I love you!”

As her and her parents walked away from the crowd of graduates and their families, Cheryl heard very familiar voices chanting her name from a distance. Smiling, because she already knew who it was, she looked over and saw Meka, Daniel and Darnell marching up her with a bouquet of balloons and shirts with her face and name printed on the front. “Oh my god!” She squealed. “Y’all do the most!”

“Anything for our best friend!” Daniel shared, giving her a hug.

“Congratulations sis… Or should I say cousin,” Meka hinted, reaching for a hug. Cheryl shushed her and slightly threw her head back. “He still doesn’t know?”

Lowering her voice, Cheryl replied with a shake of her head. “They promised me not to.”

“They came back?” Daniel asked softly. “I thought…after they found their peace, they were gone.” She gave him wink before turning to Darnell and giggling when he gave her a look and opened his arms.

Two days after finding out the truth of Lorraine and the dean Harold Grimes, cops once again rushed onto the campus. Same as before a crowd began to form, but outside of the admin building. Cheryl and Darnell had been pushing towards the front, when Meka was escorted from the building in tears. She went in to visit her grandfather and found him deceased in his office. The trio did their best to help her with the grieving process, but eventually she just wanted to be left alone. So, for months she kept her distance from them until it passed. It took sometime for them to reach the level of friendship that was once there, especially after she had to give up the fact that her and Darnell would never be the couple she dreamed of. During a night of partying, Meka finally opened up to Daniel about her true feelings for his brother and how she hid it for years because she wanted to wait until the time was right. Daniel told her he already knew, especially when she saw how close Darnell and Cheryl had become, but he left well enough alone. “Sometimes, it’s best to let things happen on their own.” He told her. She was heartbroken to say the least, but she let it go and focused on being a supportive friend.

Cheryl herself had to work through grief on her own. She had to come to grips with losing the only grandmother she ever knew. She had to come to grips with having to know there was someone else that was meant to be her grandmother whose life had been taken too soon and losing the grandfather responsible for that life. She only met and spoke to Harold Grimes once and at the time he appeared to be a cool person, but after hearing about what he did she saw him in a completely different light, but still wanted a chance to know him. She wanted to know why. Yeah, they told her he was selfish and ambitious, but there had to be something else under all of it that drove him to do what he did.

“So now what happens?” Meka asked, once Darnell and Cheryl finished playing kissy face and her parents stopped looking like they wanted to pound him into the very spot he stood.

Cheryl smiled and shrugged, “I have no clue, but I do know whatever the future holds, I hope the four of us face it together.”

“Bet!” Darnell yelped.

“Yo!” A deep voice called out from the crowd. “H.H…”

“U!” everybody shouted.

“H.H…”

“U!”

Giggling, Cheryl looked around at the three individuals that instantly became her friends and smiled. The beginning of her college experience had appeared to be everything but promising. She thought with certainty she wouldn’t have made it, but with them at her side and never letting her go at it alone, she not only made it, she soared through with flying colors and legacy like no other.

THE END…