Saving The Girl I Killed Three Years Ago

I was scrolling through the Eastwood University online forum, The Campus Confessional, in the pre-dawn hours when a new thread popped up.

“Does anyone know this girl? She’s been sitting there for three hours without turning a single page! It’s seriously giving me the creeps.”

A reply: “Is that the girl in the fourth row, far right, wearing the old uniform?”

The poster: “That’s the one.”

“Holy sh*t! Wait a minute! Fourth row, far right?!”

“Haven’t you heard the rumor? Three years ago, there was a fire in that study room—faulty wiring in the library!”

“A senior was trapped in that exact seat, she couldn’t get out… she was burned to a crisp!”

“The school sealed off that row. It’s supposed to be empty.” 1

The thread continued to pile up. A photo was attached: a girl in a faded blue uniform, sitting at a library table, reading. Her hair covered most of her face.

“What’s the big deal? She’s just reading, she’s not bothering anyone.”

“Yeah, what’s so weird about that?”

“You’re a total creep for secretly taking pictures of women.”

The poster: “No! She hasn’t moved for three hours. Not one page turned. I’m honestly freaked out.”

“Maybe she’s just spaced out?”

“Three hours of spacing out without moving? Poster, can you check if she has feet?”

The poster: “Um… I really can’t see her feet… she’s wearing a really long black skirt that covers them.”

“Well, then check for a shadow. No shadow means she’s a ghost.”

The poster: “The lighting in the library is dim, and where she’s sitting… I don’t think she has a shadow.”

“Whoa. I’ve got goosebumps now. Seriously, is it a ghost?”

“Don’t say that word in the middle of the night! Scaring me to death!”

“Poster, what are you doing staring at her in the library so late?”

The poster: “I’m working on my final paper! Why else would I be in the library at this hour?”

“What? Now? It’s past 1 AM. The library closed hours ago.”

“Exactly, the library locks up at 10 PM. Nobody’s there. Poster is lying. Confirmed.”

The poster: “No way! The reading room is still open! I swear, look!”

Another photo appeared, clearly showing the study room with a clock in the corner: 1:09 AM.

Looking at that photo, a sudden chill crept up my spine, and my fingers nearly lost their grip on my phone.

Stiffly, I lifted my head, inch by painful inch, and looked out the window.

2

The library was directly across from our dorm. It was pitch black, not a single light on. Empty.

My scalp prickled, and I tried to close the thread.

But the unread notifications were flashing, and within moments, another dozen replies had stacked up.

“All the libraries close at ten. The poster must be having a breakdown.”

“Zoom in on the photo. That uniform is ancient, right? They changed the design years ago.”

“Poster, look closer at the book she’s holding. Is it a dark red, thick hardcover? Is the title Tectonics and Terrestrial Shift?”

“No way! I’m a Geo-Sci major! That book is a textbook from five years ago. It’s completely out of print.”

“Poster, are you still there? Say something!”

“Hello, Poster?”

After a long few minutes, the poster finally replied.

The poster: “Don’t, don’t talk about it… I just pretended to go get water and glanced over. That book is Tectonics and Terrestrial Shift.”

The poster: “And her uniform is definitely the old style.”

The poster: “Oh God, am I in a study room with a ghost?”

The poster: “Can someone please come over? I’m terrified. I can’t move!”

“Dude, it’s 1 AM. The dorms are locked. How are we going to get there?”

“Yeah, not everyone is a night owl like you, sleeping out of their room.”

The poster: “Please, I’m begging you, I’m a girl… I’m really scared. I’m shaking.”

“Oh, you’re a girl? Sorry, I thought you were some weird guy taking pictures.”

“If you’re telling the truth, my roommate and I will climb out the window and come take a look. We live on the first floor in the South Wing.”

The poster: “I swear, I promise! Please hurry…”

I couldn’t take it anymore.

I quickly typed out a message: “Don’t go, this person is a liar! Our graduate dorm is right across from the library. It’s been locked and dark for hours.”

I snapped a picture of the view from my window and posted it.

In the photo, the Hartley Library was a black silhouette, its four stories of windows like countless empty eye sockets, devoid of any light.

Me: “Look, does that look like a place where anyone is working?”

My message instantly set off the poster.

The poster: “Ah! Don’t scare me! I am in the study room on the fourth floor.”

The poster: “All the lights in the study room are on! The hallway and the bathroom lights are on too!”

The poster: “I’m going to walk to the window and wave outside. Can you look again?”

3

Puzzled, I sat up, leaned forward, and peered out the window again…

The four-story library across the way remained completely dark, exactly as it had been moments ago.

I bent down and started typing furiously: “Stop lying! There’s not a soul near the fourth-floor window, not even a gh…”

My head was down, and my fingers were flying, when I suddenly felt a cold dread.

There was a dark shape by the ladder to my bunk.

Thump-thump-thump… My heart went wild, practically jumping into my throat.

I nervously lifted my head.

Finally, I saw it: a disheveled black shape with hair covering its face.

One eye peered out from the tangled strands, staring intently at me.

Just as a scream was about to tear from my lungs, a hand clamped over my mouth. “Shh, Anya, it’s me.”

It was Jade, my roommate.

We were both first-year grad students and had moved into this double room three months ago.

“You, you’re up in the middle of the night. Why are you standing by my bed?”

Jade brushed back her messy hair. “I wasn’t asleep. I saw you keep looking out the window, so I got up to see what was wrong.”

“I…”

I was figuring out how to explain when she spoke again.

“Anya, I saw the thread too. That girl sounds so convinced, and the photo she took is the study room.”

“You think she’s not lying?” I challenged.

Jade nodded.

I shook my head. “But I’ve checked multiple times! There is absolutely no one over there!”

Jade coughed. “Isn’t that suspicious? Whether it’s true or false, we’ll know if we go look, right?”

Curiosity battled with logic, but in the end, I agreed.

Before going downstairs, I sent a final message to the thread: We’re on our way to the library now. If you’re playing a sick prank, we’re calling campus security on you!

The graduate dorms didn’t have a strict curfew, and two minutes later, we were standing at the base of the library.

The main door was locked. I peered through the crack, and the hallway inside was completely dark.

We found an unlocked window near the ground-floor restrooms and climbed inside, then headed toward the stairs.

The building was pitch black. The only sounds were our muffled footsteps.

Finally, we stopped outside the door of the fourth-floor reading room.

Just as I was about to reach for the handle, Jade glanced at her phone. “Anya, look at the thread… it updated.”

4

I looked, and my eyes nearly popped out of my head.

The poster: “Hurry! Please believe me, I’m not lying.”

“Oh, a grad student is coming? Be safe, everyone.”

“Yeah, let us know what happens, I’m glued to this thread.”

“What? I’m not sleeping either, waiting for the update…”

The poster: “Are they here? It’s been a minute…”

The poster: “Not here yet?”

“Chill out, they can’t fly, can they?”

The poster: “I’m scared… I feel like something is wrong. I must have hallucinated, that girl was in the fourth row, far right, but now she’s in the fifth row…”

“What? Are you losing it? Didn’t you say she hadn’t moved for three hours?”

The poster: “Yes, yes. But she really did change seats… look, look at the photo.”

In the photo she sent, the girl in the blue uniform was indeed closer.

But her head was still bowed, staring at the red book, completely motionless.

“You’re crazy. This is getting too freaky. Did she teleport?”

“The poster definitely just got confused.”

“Wait, I checked the earlier photos. She does look like she shifted by one row.”

The poster: “I’m staring at her now, frozen. I’m terrified she’ll suddenly turn around…”

The poster: “Senior, are you here? Please hurry, I don’t think I can hold out much longer.”

The poster: “My eyes are so tired…”

“HOLY SH*T! Wait a minute! The fourth row, far right seat?! Poster, are you sure the girl was sitting there?”

The poster: “Y-yes, why?”

“Haven’t you heard the rumor? Three years ago, the library had a fire, faulty wiring in this study room! A senior was trapped in that seat, she couldn’t escape… she was burned… burned to a crisp! The school has kept that row empty ever since. It’s off-limits.”

“Seriously? Is that true? Don’t start a fake rumor!”

“It’s true! It’s in the old school forum archives! Go look! They say the school covered it up, but the older students know.”

“Right, I heard that too. They said the senior was wearing her school uniform when it happened. She was rushing a thesis and using a rare, out-of-print book called Tectonics and Terrestrial Shift!”

Reading this, the hair on my arms stood up.

I had seen that rumor on the old forums, but I’d dismissed it.

Every university has its ghost stories; I’d always assumed they were made up.

But combined with what was happening tonight, this felt… real.

The poster: “Don’t, don’t say those things, please don’t scare me…”

The poster: “H-help! I just blinked, and she moved again! Look!”

In the latest photo, the girl in the blue uniform had moved to the sixth row!

5

“What the hell! How is she moving? A new seat every time you blink?”

“This is definitely not a person! Holy sh*t, dude, run! That’s a ghost!”

“Run, Poster, run! Get downstairs now. The grad students should be close. Take the stairs, don’t take the elevator.”

The poster: “I… I can’t move…”

The poster: “I tried to turn around just now, but the second I moved, that girl got so much closer…”

The poster: “She’s only about fifteen feet away from me now. Wh-what do I do!”

The poster: “Help! Her head is moving, she’s… she’s slowly, slowly looking up! I can see her eyes!”

The poster: “Her eyes are empty, they’re black holes! Th-there are no eyeballs. She’s staring… staring at me!”

A terrifying image filled the screen: a disheveled, horrifying woman taking up most of the frame. Her face was deathly white, and her hollow, blackened eye sockets were chillingly clear.

I shrieked, nearly dropping my phone. “Ja-Jade, the burnt senior is in there!”

But Jade stared intently at the photo. “Is she? Well, I want to see for myself.”

Before I could stop her, she walked right up to the reading room door, pressed her face to the narrow crack, and peered in.

I backed up against the wall, my body rigid with fear.

I had no idea Jade was this brave… Was she not afraid of a ghost?

As I stood there, dumbfounded, her voice drifted back to me: “Anya, there’s… nothing in this study room.”

“Nothing?”

“Nope. Come see for yourself.”

I hesitated. Despite my fear, intense curiosity finally dragged me forward.

Cautiously, I peered through the door crack…

The desks and chairs were neatly arranged. The room was empty.

Just like the view from our dorm window.

The deeper we thought about it, the stranger it became. We opened the thread again, and the comments had stacked up even more.

“Poster, Poster, are you okay?”

“Is that photo real or fake? I dropped my phone!”

“Don’t freak out people late at night! You’ll give me a heart attack, and you’ll be liable.”

“Did the grad students go in? It’s been ten minutes. Did everyone just vanish?”

“Ugh, never mind. It’s probably just a troll. Treating us like fools.”

As everyone was debating, the poster sent a few new messages.

The poster: “I’m s-scared to death, I just…”

6

The poster: “I got out of the study room. I’m hiding in one of the stalls in the fourth-floor restroom. Th-that thing won’t come here, right…”

The poster: “That thing must still be looking for me… I can feel it…”

The poster: “Why haven’t the seniors arrived yet? Please, hurry up. If you don’t, I’m going to die!”

Jade looked down at her phone. “That’s too weird. We’ve been standing right by the door. Nobody came out.”

“R-right.” I nervously glanced down the hallway. “The restroom is dark, too.”

To verify, we walked to the women’s restroom, opening and checking every stall. Not a shadow.

Furious, I hammered out several replies on the thread: “Are you still going to lie? We are here, in the restroom, right now. What’s the point of this sick joke in the middle of the night?”

“There’s no one in the restroom, and no one in the study room. We’ve already contacted campus security. Get ready to be reported!”

“Is it fun to mess with people? When the school finds you, you’ll be expelled!”

I expected the person to be terrified and disappear. Instead, her emotions shattered.

“If I’m lying, may I be struck by lightning and hit by a car the second I step outside!”

Jade stared at the phone. “Hmm.” She began typing rapidly. “I have to figure out what’s going on.”

A moment later, she posted: “Poster, if you’re not lying, what college are you in? What year? What is your name?”

The poster: “Huh? I’m Autumn Harper, a sophomore in the Engineering program.”

Jade posted again: “Everyone, does anyone know this student?”

“I don’t know her. I’m in Computer Science.”

“I’m in Public Administration in the South Campus. I wouldn’t know.”

Finally, a useful piece of information appeared.

“I’m a sophomore in Engineering. We don’t have a student named Autumn Harper in our program.”

The poster: “How is that possible! My classroom is in Crestview Hall 404, and my dorm is next to the sports field. Here, I’ll show you my student ID…”

She quickly sent a photo: a round-faced girl with a ponytail.

The Engineering student replied: “I helped the professor organize the sophomore student files. I have definitely never seen this girl.”

The poster exploded: “How can you say that! Don’t lie to me!”

She posted several angry messages, but no one was engaging with her anymore.

I took Jade’s hand and led her back the way we came. “Forget it, we met a lunatic. Let’s go back to bed.”

“Anya…” Jade stood still, her eyes strange. “She’s not lying.”

“But her own classmates said there’s no Autumn Harper!”

Jade slowly shook her head. “What if she’s not a current sophomore? What if she’s from a few years ago?”

I stared at her. “Jade, what are you talking about?”

Jade’s expression was serious. “Did I ever tell you I transferred to the grad program from the undergraduate Engineering school?”

“You did. So?”

“I was an Engineering undergrad.” Jade’s eyes were unsettling. “Our classroom was in Crestview Hall 404. Our dorm was next to the sports field. And the library was open 24 hours back then.”

“So… you know her?” My voice trembled.

Jade nodded hard. “Yes, we were on the same floor in the dorms. I saw her a few times! Then I got sick and took a semester off. After that, I never saw her again.”

“But… that can’t be right. That was years ago. Why would she still… still be at the university?”

Jade’s face was pale. “Exactly. She should have graduated. Why is she still here? No, I have to ask her.”

She bent her head, tapping at her phone. A moment later, her finger shook. “She r-replied.”

“What did she say?”

Jade looked up, her face ashen. “I asked her what year it is. She said… it’s December 2022.”

A cold shiver ran down my spine. I couldn’t believe my ears.

Jade was the same; her body was trembling like a leaf.

After a long moment, I finally found my voice. “Do you know any of her former roommates? Let’s find out what actually happened.”

“I’m in an alumni group. I’ll ask now!”

The response nearly scared us both to death.