Attention Students: Beware of Ghost on Campus
By: Sabrina Martinez
Tags: Short Story, Ghosts, Fiction Writing, College, Fiction

Alexei woke up from a nightmare it was 6am. He was trembling from a variety of things he couldn’t quite remember; all he knew was something extremely sketchy was going on.

The sunrise was enough to get Alexei in a brighter mood, drinking a cup of coffee to warm him up from the morning chill. Allowing himself to calm down and reasonably think about what happened. Alexei couldn’t remember the last time he had a nightmare like that. Actually, he could, and it had to be when he was thirteen.

Alexei hated going to sleep when he was little, but more specifically he hated the night. The shadows and the voices came out. He could never understand where they were coming from, and he never understood why no one else could.

Ever since he could remember, he always told his parents and his classmates of all the bad things the shadows were saying. He can’t recall what they said now, but with years of back lash from his parents, and teasing from the other kids, he assumed that he repressed it far enough back in his head.

Ghosts aren’t real. Alexei knew this, would swear up and down he’d never seen one. Whatever he might have seen or may have caught in the corner of his eye had a completely logical explanation. But as he recounted all that had happened over the weekend, he began to feel sick.

His first mistake was when he decided to stray away from his group of friends after a Halloween party, and found himself in a memorial, hidden away in a garden like cave. The next things happened in the span of a few minutes and they were still a muddled mess hours later.

Yes, it was a war memorial. Yes, it was for a horse named John William the hero of Palmito Ranch. Why? Who fucking knows? Alexei slightly intoxicated, mocked the damn thing out loud. And no, he was not expecting a flash of lightning, the sound of neighing, a distant smell of hay, and of course the overwhelming dread that something bad just happened.

But upon further inspection, he realized he was just imagining things, and promptly went back to his dorm to enjoy the rest of his weekend. Indoors.

Life went on as normal: Alexei went to class on time and made extra time to bug his favorite professors. That lasted about a good twenty-four hours before everything went to shit. With the weird epidemic of the student body falling ill and the random destruction of University memorabilia, Alexei was surprised the school didn’t cancel class.

Unfortunately, to top it all off, a strange young man had wandered onto campus carrying with him an array of creepy things, including a belt with a collection of knives, a dark satchel at his side with weird glowing bottles in the pockets, and dangling fluorite earrings. The fact that campus police hadn’t stopped him for carrying so many weapons, he should at least be detained for looking like a reject goth Indiana Jones.

Though this was a big concern for Alexei, it seemed not to be a problem for everyone else. Beside the fact that the guy didn’t seem to have any classes, he gave off a really bad vibe.

When Alexei had the displeasure of meeting him, he happened to be washing his hands in the restroom.

“Beautiful day, huh?” Alexei refused to make eye contact with the dark spikey haired kid, and only nodded his response.

Despite it already being creepy that he seemed to be waiting for him after he got out of the bathroom. He would not stop staring at him. Instead of trying to decipher what the hell was going on, Alexei dipped the hell out of there making an exit to the stairwell.

Alexei only managed to get a flight down before someone called out to him. Alexei held back a groan as someone tapped on his shoulder.

“Yes?” Alexei managed to bite back his rudeness.

“Genevieve, pleasure to meet you.” He held out his hand and Alexei took it with some reluctance.

“Alexei.”

“Lovely name. I didn’t mean to run after you, but I just had a question if you don’t mind me asking.”

Alexei lied through a fake smile, “No, of course not.”

“Great! Have you noticed anything a little off or strange going on around here?”

Alexei looked at him skeptically, casually looking round to see if anyone was around to get him out of the situation. “This is a college campus; I saw a girl sobbing in the stair well this morning.” Alexei responded curtly and began making his way downstairs, hoping that was enough to appease Genevieve.

“Ha! Yeah, totally! Thanks Alexei, have fun in Physics!” Alexei missed a step of the stairs and whipped his head around to see that Genevieve had vanished. How had he known what class he had next?

Alexei went on with the rest of his day in the gloomy, cold, and rainy weather. There was a tight knot in his stomach from the earlier conversation. It was so bizarre he could almost convince himself it wasn’t real. That is until later that night when Alexei was heading into his dorm, he saw a familiar spikey haired kid standing underneath the shadow of a streetlamp.

Alexei booked it towards his dorm. Once in his room, he locked the doors, closed the curtains and hid under his covers. That seemed to be his go-to for every remotely sinister thing that occurred, from the horseshoe prints that seem to follow him around, to his picture frame of his family being shattered while he was away.

When Alexei saw Genevieve following him after lunch the next day he had enough of the bullshit. With a polite goodbye to his lab partner, he swirled around and stomped over to a falsely innocent looking Genevieve.

Alexei slammed his books on the table, “What are you doing?”

“Why, I’m enjoying my mocha cappuccino. What are you doing?” He countered back, taking a delicate sip from his cup.

“Cut the crap. Why are you following me?” Genevieve had the gall to look shocked.

“Following you? Sir, it is by mere coincidence that we just so happen to run into one another.”

Alexei watched him skeptically before he decided this wasn’t worth his time. “I’m going to campus police.”

Alexei picked up his books and stormed off, leaving Genevieve to scramble after him.

“Hang on a second! I haven’t been doing anything.”

Alexei rolled his eyes and stayed a few good paces in front of him.

“Alexei, slowdown will you!”

Genevieve pulled back Alexei, Alexei managed not to slap Genevieve’s hand away. He really didn’t want to get police involved either, but he needed to scare the kid away somehow.

“Okay, look. I’m not supposed to be telling you this, but-you’re in danger.”

Alexei pursed his lips with distaste before making his way back to the police building.

“I’m serious!” Genevieve shouted at him, causing a fair number of students to stop and stare.

“Stop yelling.” Alexei hissed, Genevieve grabbed at his elbow and gestured to follow him. Alexei was going to pull away and hope the kid would leave him alone, but there was an urgency in his eyes Alexei couldn’t shake.

Alexei heaved a heavy sigh and managed to follow Genevieve through the plaza of school buildings, and down a hiking path of pine trees. To Alexei’s horror, Genevieve took him back to the same place he first encountered the horse memorial.

“You know, I can think of less creepier places to have a talk. Unless you’re trying to kill me then this is pretty spot on Genevieve.”

“I’m not going to kill you, and just call me Gen. I don’t like the way you say my full name.”

“Ah, do excuse me, I will try and keep the disdain out of my mouth when referring to my stalker.”

“I’m not stalking you, just give me a second.” Gen began to rifle through his bag for what Alexei assumed to be the murder weapon.

Alexei took a few steps back towards the opening and was ready to make a quick exit if necessary. The place was already foreboding, having Gen here, and the damn horse he’s been feeling off about, wasn’t very welcoming.

He tried to pretend like he wasn’t scared. There was no reason to be afraid. Alexei could take Gen, maybe? But whatever danger he was rattling on about, which was probably nothing, he wasn’t sure about.

“I’m going to be honest with you, this is going to sound crazy, but your school is being haunted and it’s your fault.”

Alexei mulled that over for a bit and placed a caring hand on Gen’s shoulder. “Yeah buddy, alright, you know what, why don’t we take a nice walk on over to the infirmary and get this figured out.”

Gen slapped away Alexei’s hand in irritation. “This isn’t funny. Your school is in danger and so are you!”

Alexei tried to smile but thoughts of that night played back, the lightning, the horse noises. He looked to the horse memorial and felt that same dread wash over him.

A sudden chill gave him goosebumps, “Oh, no…” Gen mumbled under his breath. Reaching around for his bag and putting himself in between Alexei and the horse memorial.

“What’s going on?” Gen didn’t respond pulling a bottle with a glowing blue liquid inside. “What’s that?!”

“Shhh!” Alexei scoffed as Gen hushed him. A distant rumble of thunder shut him up pretty quickly.

A neighing made Alexei jump and run over to cower behind Gen. A swirling of dark clouds merged taking away any sight of the pale blue sky. A rush of wind pushed past them, knocking Alexei off his feet. Gen managed to stay up opening up the bottle, holding it like a gun in front of a shadowy cloud. Out of the mist a brown war horse barred its teeth, and angrily whipped back and forth.

Alexei almost cried out, too scared to even move. “What the fuck?”

Gen didn’t answer, instead throwing the illuminated contents into the air, the horse turned a staggering shade of blue it’s eyes glowed red like fire. It circled around them like a bright merry-go-round of doom. It slowed and angrily stomped at them like it was going to charge.

Alexei looked to Gen, who narrowed his eyes, a knife in his hand ready for a fight. Though Alexei’s heart was in his throat, he didn’t want to see Gen get hurt. Pulling his books into his hands, he grabbed Gen with the other and dragged them out the way they came.

Despite Gen’s protest Alexei held onto Gen’s arm desperately and didn’t stop until they were all the way back to the civilization of the school.

“What? Answers Gen or I’m going to start freaking out.”

Alexei loosened his grip on Gen’s arm who seemed more annoyed than terrified. “That was a ghost. A ghost I probably would have caught then and there if you hadn’t pulled me away!”

“Ghost? You honestly want me to believe that, that was a horse, a really, big, scary horse.”

“Ghost horse.”

Alexei opened his mouth and closed it before he could throw a mouthful of insults at Gen. “Don’t mess around, Gen.”

Gen ignored Alexei’s glare much to his annoyance, instead looking through his bag, half mumbling to himself about his next move. “Don’t worry, Alexei, I’ll protect you. We’re going to have to set up shop somewhere. Let’s go back to your dorm, I know you don’t have a roommate- it’ll give me time to properly go through my things.”

“You almost got killed back there, I don’t think I’m the one who needs protecting. More importantly how do you know I don’t have a roommate.”

“I did my research.”

“You stalked me.”

“I had to know who I was dealing with, and who was stupid enough to cause a haunting. Surprisingly, it’s always the smart ones. Alexei Daring, an only child. STEM major, with a focus on engineering. Honor Society and the Engineering Student Organization. Parents, Doctors Belinda and Adam Daring, quite the gene pool you got, all of you so smart, and yet you refuse to see what’s right in front of you.”

No one should know that much about him. And he was being insulted. Alexei was many things, but he was not stupid. “Ghosts aren’t real.”

“Sure, buddy,” Gen echoed back at him, Alexei blushed angrily and was determined to give Gen a piece of his mind, but a flash of lightning shook him to his core. Those dark clouds were getting awfully close.

“Damn ghost is getting impatient. Come on, the further away we get the harder it’ll be for it to follow us.” Gen walked off towards the direction of Alexei’s dorm, giving him no choice but to follow him.

It took a lot of arguing but eventually the two ended up back in Alexei’s room, where Gen began to tinker with all of his little odd gadgets. “That blue mixture was just to make sure the ghost is easy to spot. I have an incantation that will send it back to where it came from, but I also need to have you near the origin point where it was conjured. Which we could have done.”

Gen gave another pointed glare at Alexei. He refused to encourage him with a response and instead studied him from across the room. He took the desk chair as Gen decided he wanted to make himself comfortable atop Alexei’s bed.

He looked young but could pass for being in college. Probably of Asian descent, dark hair, almost somewhat styled. “How old are you anyways?”

Without bothering to look up, Gen shrugged. “Not important.” Alexei tossed a pencil at him which Gen caught with scary accuracy.

“You know my whole life story, yet you can’t be bothered to tell me your age?”

Gen tossed the pencil back at him, which Alexei did not catch, the pencil hitting him on the forehead. “If I tell you, will you tell me why you don’t believe in ghosts?”

“You don’t already know that?” Gen shook his head, looking disappointed he didn’t manage to find out.

Alexei didn’t even want to amuse the idea of ghosts being real but was fairly curious enough to agree. Gen sighed before responding, “I’m nineteen, going to be twenty in a few months.”

“Oh my god,” Alexei gasped.

“What?”

“You’re a baby!” Alexei breathed out in disbelief; Gen did not take to that at all, tossing Alexei’s pillow at him with full force. Alexei blocked it, trying not to choke on his own laughter.

“There’s nothing funny about that! You’re only like two years older than me!” Gen shouted at him; Alexei cracked another chuckle before he could stop it, causing Gen to throw another pillow.

“Shut up! I answered; now tell me why you don’t believe in Ghost.”

Alexei wiped at his eyes and managed to catch his breath, “Ghosts aren’t real. They’re used as a raft for those who are grieving or aren’t smart enough to realize that there’s a scientific explanation to explain everything they call ‘evidence’.”

“That’s wrong.”

“How are you going to ask me why I think ghosts aren’t real, and then tell me I’m wrong? Quite frankly I believe you’re wrong.”

“How can you say that? We were just attacked by said ghost that you managed to conjure?”

“Like I said before, that was a horse, and we should probably tell the authorities about it.”

“Ghost! Horse! You’re going to tell campus police you saw a glowing blue horse, is that it?”

“The horse wasn’t blue until you threw that blue stuff on it! It was just a regular brown horse when it showed up.”

“What do you mean?”

“The horse was brown.”

“You saw the horse? How’s that even- how did you manage… what are you not telling me?” Gen hoped off the bed and went to interrogate Alexei in closer proximity.

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“Not even I could see the horse without the luminescent.” Gen paused for a moment, studying Alexei with newfound curiosity. “Oh, don’t tell me, I swear to the gods, Alexei, if you’re sighted and you don’t believe in ghosts!”

“So, I’m a little far sighted, what does that have to do with ghost?”

“No, not that. Sighted. As in, can see the supernatural. I can’t even do that!”

“I’m not sighted. We both saw the horse.”

“No, you saw the horse, way before I did. You’re joking, you believe in ghost, right?”

Alexei pushed Gen back with his sneaker, shaking his head in disbelief. “I don’t believe in ghosts. I’m not going to say it again!”

Gen exhaled and made his way back to his things. “Fine, you’re right it, it doesn’t matter. I just need you to be there for my spell to work. I’ll put you at a safe distance away and I can handle the situation on my own. Okay?”

“I think that we should at least call — “

“We are not calling anyone, the most they’ll do is get in the way. If you can’t trust me when I say ghosts are real, at least trust me when I say I can handle this situation. Think of me as a horse tamer if it makes you feel better. Come on.”

It was already beginning to get late and with the sun not high above in the sky, it made the thunderclouds that much scarier.

Gen was terribly quiet, Alexei couldn’t help snapping at him earlier, he’s spent so long convincing himself that ghost aren’t real and he would gladly die on that hill. He was angry that he himself was bullied for even mentioning the word ghost and yet Gen can do it as much as he pleases and thinks he has the authority to belittle Alexei.

Alexei had a right to be upset. He shouldn’t be here parading around looking for a horse, he should be in his dorm finishing up his essay for bio engineering. Gen had eventually brought them to a little cliff that jutted out of the walls of the memorial, where he placed Alexei down on a rock. “Just sit here. Here’s a flashlight to keep you company.”

Gen began making his way to the edge of the cliff, that was well off the ground, and Alexei had to stop himself from reaching out to him. “What are the odds that I’ll make it to the ground unscathed?”

“Not very good.”

“Hmmm…” Gen pondered if that was worth listening to and instead decidedly jumped down.

Alexei’s scream echoed across the garden and he stumbled forward, leaning over the edge, sure he’d see a Gen pancake at the bottom. He peeked over and found Gen casually dusting himself off. Alexei almost cried with relief, which quickly turned to anger.

“You could have died!”

Gen laughed, waving up at him with a bright smile. “I’m okay! I’m pretty good at this stuff!”

A crash of thunder almost had Alexei stumble off the edge. He rushed back to his sitting place as the dark clouds became pitch black. A luminescent shape from before shone through the sky, skittering like a lightning bolt. Alexei shivered. The temperature drop.

Thunderous neighing kept Alexei hidden, it’s just a horse, just a really big scary horse that was not very happy. Alexei could hear Gen giving a range of commentary about the situation, which was very stupid to Alexei considering Gen was about to die via horse.

“Circa quem tectumque cum spiritus sanctus- shit! Ah!” Alexei popped up at Gen’s scream but refused to look. Afraid to see what he might have believed in all along, he couldn’t afford a shake in his foundation right now.

“Alexei!”

“Fuck me!” Alexei shouted, finally pulling himself up out of his hiding spot.

“Gen!” The poor kid had managed to get a rope around the horse’s neck but was way too small to hold him down. He couldn’t repeat any spell as it dragged him through the brush.

Alexei did what he could from the ledge. He threw his flashlight, which missed and hit Gen, but it got the horses attention.

Its red eyes bore into him. It didn’t have to speak to know that it had a bone to pick with him. It darted back and forth with Gen for a brief moment before shooting up into the air, leaving Gen behind in the dust. It landed with harsh clack of its hooves against the stone ledge, electricity sparking in out of its body. Alexei wondered if he’d throw up. This wasn’t any horse Alexei had ever seen. On all accounts, it could actually be… a ghost.

The thought was enough to bring Alexei to his knees as he tried desperately to not have a panic attack. He felt himself begin to cry. He was wrong, no, even worse, he was right. He was always right and that scared the hell out of him.

The horse trotted to him. Alexei was ready to take whatever punishment that it wanted to give, but it kneeled down to nudge at Alexei’s blonde curly hair. It made him freeze, praying the horse wouldn’t chomp him up into tiny pieces. Alexei peeked through his hands to see the horse had faded into a periwinkle instead of the harsh blue of lightning, it’s eyes a brown like Alexei’s.

“I’m sorry,” Alexei began, sensing that the horse was there to listen. “I shouldn’t have said all those awful things to you. I didn’t believe that you were there and I’m sure that pissed you off. I know what it’s like to be ignored. I apologize for waking you up. I hope you can forgive me.”

It lowered its muzzle to his face and neighed appreciatively as if saying ‘thank you, took you long enough’. It left Alexei in a mist of nothing. He exhaled and reveled in the moment.

“I’m here!” Gen rolled over to the top of the ledge, looking exhausted and covered in mud. He saw Alexei alone; smiling he walked over to help Alexei to his feet. “Nice job.”

By midnight they arrived back on campus, Alexei was starving and offered to take Gen to his favorite twenty-four hour pizza joint.

“You really did a great job out there.” Gen congratulated with a raise of his pepperoni pizza.

“Ha, I guess.” Alexei swirled his soda around trying to piece together what happened.

“I’m serious. Ever thought about doing ghost hunting professionally?”

Alexei laughed, “I can’t say that I have.”

“Would you like to?”

“Ghost hunt? No.”

“Why not? That was stupid bravery, but you did well, and I think your pretty chill. How’s about it, let’s ditch this place, go out and have an adventure!”

Alexei hushed him, giving glances to the drunk patrons around them. He smiled at Gen’s enthusiasm, patting his hand gently. “As much ‘fun’ as that sounds, I never want to do this again. Thanks for helping me out though. Let me know when you’re in town, we’ll get another slice of pizza. Come on, I’ll walk you out.”

Alexei placed a twenty on the table, beckoning Gen to follow. “Are you sure?”

“Positive. Thanks again man.” Alexei gave Gen a small hug. “Be safe wherever you’re headed.”

“Uh-okay. Let me know if you change your mind!” Gen shouted, as Alexei made his way back to his dorm.

“I won’t, bye!”