The Ghost of Girl’s State
Rachael Zmich From the Town of Jones and Sophia Anderson From the Town of McDermott
It was room 201. Gertrude grabbed her suitcase and backpack full of glitter glue and bright poster board. Alyssa, the counselor she had been introduced to, led her down the carpeted hall, with fluorescent lights shining down upon her. She walked by other girls who she did not recognize but waved to regardless. This week would be her best, and last, week.
As she walked through the door to her dorm, she felt that she was not alone, but her roommate was not there yet. Alyssa had already walked away to help the next eager delegate, so despite Gertrude’s unsettled feeling, she began to unpack her luggage. Suddenly she heard footsteps behind her and she jumped to her feet. She laughed off her fright as she realized it was only her father bringing in her sheets.
“Dad! You could’ve knocked, you scared me half to death.”
“Sorry Gerty, I didn’t mean to be a ghost,”her dad replied.
The two put together the room and in five short minutes, followed by her dad was saying goodbye.
“Have fun and be safe, kiddo. If anything happens, I’m always just one call away.”
Her dad waved from his car as he passed her dorm window and she waved back. Gertrude’s roommate still wasn’t accounted for, but she would soon learn that she was not the only one in that room.
Gertrude continued to unpack her clothes into the dresser and that’s when she heard it, the sound of the door slam. Her heart stopped the moment the lock clicked; she was frozen in her own tracks, she could not even turn around. As she slowly built up the courage to move her head around the room, she tried to rationalize the door slam with the slight breeze coming through the window. But that still didn’t explain how the door locked. She tried her best to shake off the experience she could not entirely explain, so she walked over to her bed and flattened out her blanket. Suddenly, she felt a chill roll up her back and turned to the window. There was a girl walking along the road, her green polo faded and her old-fashioned skirt ripped at the bottom. She seemed to be marching, as if she was trying to stay in line with other people, except there was no one else there. The sight of this mindless girl gave Gertrude an unsettled feeling, she walked over to the window to close the curtain. As she started walking over, the girl on the road turned around suddenly and started staring straight at Gertrude, who was also on the second floor of the building and practically unnoticeable. Gertrude stopped in her tracks and the girl with the tattered uniform began running, straight towards the Old Dorm, straight in the direction of Gertrude’s room. Gertrude ran to the window and pulled the shade closed right before the girl outside could get to the building.
Gertrude wasn’t someone who usually got frightened easily, but at that moment she was petrified. She ran down the hall to find Alyssa, but she couldn’t be found, she assumed she was still going around helping other girls find their rooms. Luckily, Gertrude did run into another delegate on her floor. She calmed down and introduced herself with the warmest welcome she could muster.
“Hi, I’m Gertrude! Do you know where your room is yet?”
“Yeah, I already unpacked and met my roommate, I am just walking around and meeting other delegates,” the girl answered.
“Oh, well my roommate hasn’t gotten here yet and I just didn’t really want to wait in my room alone. Just out of curiosity, has the wind made your door move at all?” Gertrude asked.
“No, it doesn’t seem very windy today, not even the paper on my desk has moved,” the delegate replied.
“That’s good, maybe the wind is just stronger on my side of the hall. Have you seen anyone outside of the window, like any delegates that were walking on the road?”
“No, I haven’t seen anyone except for the other girls walking in with their luggage but nobody on the road. We aren’t really supposed to be walking around alone anyway. Our counselors are afraid we might get “kidnapped”. I heard a pretty crazy scary story about some delegate back in 1941 who was walking around by herself, even though the counselors warned her not to, and she got kidnapped and was never seen again. Apparently now, she walks the halls at night and haunts the room she stayed in… but I don’t remember the room she stayed in. I think it started with a 2…”
“Room 201?” Gertrude whispered, eyes wide.
“Yeah, that’s it! How’d you know?”
“Lucky guess.”
“But it’s totally ridiculous, I haven’t seen any ghosts yet so I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“Oh I’ve seen it,” Gertrude mumbled under her breath, but the girl did not hear her.
The two walked backed to Gertrude’s room and Gertrude said “see you soon” to the friendly delegate.
Gertrude walked through the door, shaking with paranoia but then she thought, “she’s right, there’s no way that’s true. I’m just being dramatic, that’s probably just a scary story counselor’s tell to make sure delegates don’t walk alone.”
But Gertrude shut the door and there, right behind her in the mirror, was the girl from the road, staring at her with the eyes of a lonely, departed soul.
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