Lily

As Lily Marsh closed the closet door, she felt an unsettling tingle run down her spine. Something about the atmosphere inside the tiny room made her constantly look behind her shoulder, expecting some spook or ghost to pop out at her.

Part of her fear came from what she overheard as she knocked on the door of the closet just minutes earlier. Lily knew she must have been mistaken, but she swore she heard chanting from the other side of the door.

Then the door opened and it was just Mary Anderson looking back at her. That had brought a little relief to Lily.

Mary and her went back far, having met on the first day of kindergarten. They were never close but always friendly. In high school especially, the two women had diverged in interests and groups of friends, but still found time to catch up every once in a while. Mary was a good soul even if she tried to hide it under black clothes and at times frightening makeup.

Still, Lily couldn’t shake the feeling that the two girls had been doing something they shouldn’t have in the closet and that energy seemed to linger.

There was a loud knock at the door, shocking Lily out of her funk. She cried out and stumbled backward. The door opened and Lily half expected a monstrosity on the other side, ready to devour her.

Instead, it was just Helen Caraway, senior class Vice President standing there with her head cocked to the side, her short brown hair looking as neat and proper as always.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s totally fine,” Lily said, tossing back her billowing mass of red hair and tying it into a loose bun. “What’s up girly?”

“I have to head out. Are you good to work on this stuff alone?”

Lily’s heart sank. That meant the hour she was planning to spend after school had turned into two hours.

“Sure thing! Sorry you have to leave!” Lily said, forcing herself to smile.

Helen nodded and turned around to leave. Lily, feeling the drag of loneliness as she watched her friend walk away, called out to Helen.

“Hey, Helen. Does this place feel, I don’t know, creepy to you?”

Helen stopped and looked around. After a few moments, she shook her head.

“Nah, it’s just the plain old resource room. Why? Are you creeped out?”

“I was getting a weird feeling. Maybe I’m just jumpy from end of the year stress.”

“Maybe,” Helen said. Then she turned around and left.

As soon as the door closed with a neat click, Lily felt the familiar creepiness return.

Stop being a silly bitch and focus. Do you want to spend three hours here because you’re a scaredy-cat? Lily chided herself.

The type-A in Lily took over then. She stormed into the closet as if she were hitting the beaches of Normandy. She seized markers in her hands and carried them out to the broad table in the center of the resource room. She snatched up scissors and glue and boxes of staples. Lily was a woman on a mission, **** to finish her work and escape the pervasive fear she felt in the closet.

The horror came when Lily grabbed a big piece of poster board from one of the higher shelves, barely reaching it on her tippy-toes. Lily was not a short girl, but she wasn’t tall either.

As Lily pulled down the oversized piece of white cardboard, a tin can of paper clips fell to the floor and clattered loudly, causing Lily to yelp in fright for the second time since entering the closet.

The paper clips scattered, covering the entire floor of the small closet.

Lily sighed and bent over to pick up the hundreds of paper clips, kicking herself for adding another several minutes to her workload. As the young woman scrambled on her hands and knees, she suddenly heard a deep, inhuman growl from directly behind her.

Lily’s blood ran cold, her worst fears suddenly confirmed.

The closet door slammed shut on its own. It would not reopen for several hours.

Something had been waiting, looking for the right opportunity, but it could wait no longer.