Chapter Text
Morgan disables the home security system with practiced ease. They step into the night with their backpack a duffel bag and two suitcases. There are times they imagined leaving with the clothes on their back and nothing else so this feels like an improvement. They lock the door and shut it. They slip their house key into the mail slot.
This is goodbye.
Morgan takes their stuff down the driveway to the beat up car they bought themself as soon as they had their first paycheck. In fact everything on their person they paid for with their own money except for a few gifts from their siblings. The phone their parents got them is sitting on their bed with a note that says ‘Goodbye! Might see you for Christmas. Might never again :)’ in sharpie.
Morgan quietly closes the trunk of their car and gets in the front seat. They put on their seatbelt and look towards their parents’ house. They take a slow breath of relief. This is the starts of a new chapter. Morgan slides their key into the ignition and starts up their car.
They waited until today because it’s their 18 birthday. Their parents no longer get a say over their future. The road ahead looks like an invitation. The night sky promises to keep their escape secret.
—
Alex grabs all the books she has yet to read and puts them in a box neatly. She returns to her shelf and picks a few of her favorite novels she might want to reread.
“Alex, we need to hit the road in 30 minutes or we’ll be late,” her dad shouts across the house.
Alex looks at the empty space still in her last box. All her essentials are packed and some decor for her dorm room. Her eyes scan around the bedroom until her eyes land on Gibbles. She gasps in realization that he hadn’t been packed along with the rest of her essentials. She promptly tucks him into the box. She tapes the box shut.
Now she’s all packed for college. Alex carries the box out to the truck. Her dad had hosed down the bed of the truck last night so none of her boxes track in hay or dirt to her dorm. For that very reason, her dad throws a tarp over everything. He secures everything in place and Alex hops into the truck with her mom.
“You excited, dear?”
Alex grins. “Obviously! This is college! I’m going to study hard!” She pumps a fist. “And maybe meet the love of my laugh.” She adds more bubbly.
“School before boys.” Her mother reminds. “But there’s no harm in a little fun.”
Alex takes her mom’s hand and squeezes it. She’s just as nervous as she is excited. “I’m glad both of y’all could make it to my orientation.”
“Of course.” Her mom assures.
He dad hops into the truck. “Alright, we’re ready to go.”
Alex let’s go of her mom’s hand so she can start the truck. “Dibs on the radio!” Alex needs tunes to help ease her nerves.
—
Morgan steps out of the shower and sighs in relief. They’re so glad they finally have a space to call their own, well mostly their own since there’s another bunk in their room and three other rooms to this unit. In any case, living in their car for a week was miserable but there was no way Morgan was going to pay to move in early. They’re dipping into their savings until they find a new job here in the city.
Morgan gets dressed and exits the shared bathroom just in time for the door to fly open.
“Dad, I found the right room!” A tall sculpture of a woman walks in and stops at the sight of Morgan.
Morgan is so startled by the sudden company that they just stand there holding their bundle of dirty clothes and cheap plastic caddy of toiletries.
She looks to her key and they back at Morgan. “Do I have the wrong room?”
Morgan hates the embarrassed heat spreading across their face. “You ticked the coed option. Probably without knowing it.” They suddenly remember that they have a bedroom to retreat to and immediately scurry to the door.
“Sorry!” The girl follows after Morgan.
Morgan shuffles into the room and tries to close the door and hide.
The girl stops the bedroom door from closing with her foot. “I’m Alex, she/her.”
Morgan takes a breath before setting down their stuff and opening the door to properly meet their roommate. “Hi.”
She looks to the bedroom door and sees the letter B. “I’m in room A. Looks like we’ll be sharing a common area.” She extends out her hand for Morgan to shake.
Morgan shoves down their panic and takes Alex’s hand. “I’m Morgan, they/them. It’s fine, your reaction, I mean. I think half of our roommates are girls from what I saw in the contract and it’s hard to tell just by my name that...” They’re rambling. “Sorry.”
She laughs. “You don’t have to—“
“Hey Alex,” a voice interrupts, “next time demand a ground level dorm.” The man huffs at the door.
Alex turns towards the door. “Dad! This is Morgan!” She looks back to them. “Morgan, this is my dad and my mom should be just behind him. They’re going help me bring everything up.”
“Four flights of stairs is ridiculous.” A woman that resembles Alex appears at the door.
“Mom, this is Morgan.” Alex leaves Morgan’s door to open her own bedroom.
“It’s lovely to meet you, Morgan.” Her dad gives a small wave of his hand while still hugging a box to himself.
“This is going to be my room, you can bring that stuff in here.” Alex goes to pick up the box she had been holding when she first came in. She apparently dropped it by the door when she rushed to introduce herself to Morgan.
“Hello, Morgan. We’ll be as quick as possible but those stairs might slow us down.” Alex’s mom smiles as she enters.
“Hello, it’s nice to meet you,” they reply politely. Morgan debates whether they should retreat to their room or offer to help. They’re going to be living with Alex for the whole school year. It would be nice to be on good terms with everyone they have to share a common area with.
They retreat into their room and slip on their sandals and grab their room key. They come back out and close the door. “I can help too and save you a trip or two up the stairs.”
Alex smiles. “Thanks. We parked a bit far so we could definitely use the help lugging everything in.”
—
Alex stares at all the boxes and sighs. Thanks to her parents and Morgan’s help, she was able to get everything to her room quickly. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough time to start unpacking before the freshman orientation ceremony.
She knew unpacking would be a lengthy process but it’s already getting late and she’s been busy with all the orientation activities. She digs around her stuff to find her bedsheets.
The ceremony at the event center was interesting. There was a boring welcome speech. Then a showcase of the school’s mascot and clubs like the marching band and the dance team. They also made all the attendees take an oath to be good and honest or whatever.
She went to lunch with her parents and Morgan (she insisted Morgan couldn’t skip orientation). She was getting teary eyed saying good bye to her parents. Somehow her dad insisted she and Morgan had to look out for each other. Alex called him embarrassing but she was kind of comforted when Morgan agreed to have her back.
After she and Morgan returned to campus, she dragged Morgan along to all the new freshmen activities. She enjoyed getting to meet new people while Morgan greedily accepted every free thing they could get their hands on. She exchanged numbers with a few people in her major to hopefully have some study buddies.
By the time the two returned to their dorm, most of their roommates had started moving in. The person meant to share her room is actually the last one who hasn’t appeared yet. Seeing as there are two non binary people in room B, two girls in C and two boys in D, Alex can guess that her roommate will in fact be a girl.
She finds the new bed sheets and opens the pack. She climbs up her weird bunkbed-desk combo to get her bed sheets laid out. The mattress isn’t the most comfortable looking thing but it’ll do for now. She lays out her sheets and realizes she has no pillow for her pillowcase. She sighs. She could probably use a jacket bundled up for now.
She climbs back down and starts looking for her pajamas.
The bedroom door slams open and Alex looks over to see a mean looking girl. “Hey, I’m Alex.” She moves to greet her.
“We’re not friends.” She huffs.
Alex stops and levels a glare. “I promise you would much rather we be friends than enemies.”
“Whatever.” She looks to the pile of boxes Alex has on her side of the room. “I wanted that side of the room.”
Alex crosses her arms. “First come first serve.” She can’t get herself expelled for beating up her roommate before classes even start.
She stares at Alex before huffing. “I’m bringing movers tomorrow. Don’t be in the way.” She leaves.
Alex rolls her eyes. All bark and no bite. As mean as she sounds, she probably won’t be much of an issue.
There’s a soft knock on the door. Alex moves to be able to see the door. Morgan is politely standing at the open doorway. “You can come in.” She smiles.
“The dining hall closes in an hour, did you want to go with us to get dinner?”
“Yeah. Let me just grab my stuff.”
She grabs her phone and room key and wallet. She follows Morgan out to the shared living room space and sees the other two girls, one of the boys and the other enby ready to go as well. Alex realizes she’s terrible with names. Everyone introduced themselves earlier but none of the names stuck.
“The other A girl won’t be back until tomorrow with movers. I didn’t catch her name.”
The boy shrugs. “Let’s go see how bad the grub is.”
Alex follows her roommates out of the unit and down many fights of stairs. She’s starting to wish she would have tried to get the singlet dorm option. She doesn’t want to get along with so many people for the entirety of the school year. It’s already going to be impossible getting along with the one bitchy girl.
There’s a line out the doors of the dining hall. It looks like all the students were busy unpacking. The other enby asks everyone if they have a favorite genre of movie. It works as an ice breaker and the group starts chatting about movies.
It takes 10 minutes to reach the door. She hadn’t paid much attention to what the meal plan would look like but there are a few food options, almost buffet style. Most of the foods have been picked clean. Alex goes to the cereal bar and helps herself to a bowl of sugary cereal.
She goes over to the seating area. It’s quite cozy with deep browns and and warm lights. The blinds are drawn now but the whole place is surrounded by windows, suggesting there will be more than enough natural light during the day. There’s a salad bar, ice cream machine, soft drinks and over there must be where she takes dirty dishes once she’s done. She gets herself some orange juice and finds an empty table.
The boy roommate sits down across from her. “Breakfast for dinner? I like how you think.” He winks.
The girls, who seem to have become fast friends, join the table. The other enby stops at the table just to say they’re going to sit with other people.
Morgan sits down in the seat next to Alex. “The worker said they’ll keep the dining area open another hour but kitchen’s closing after the line ends.”
“I guess I should stock my mini fridge with snacks in case I get the late night munchies.” One of the girls sighs.
The lights flicker.
They flicker again and stay off for a very long moment.
The whole dining hall quiets. Alex feels goosebumps as she gets anxious.
“This place is too damn expensive to not be paying the light bill.” Someone shouts.
Some people laugh and then conversation continues.
Morgan hums. “That’s weird.”
Alex still feels on edge but she nods. “Yeah.”
“What if this place is haunted.” The guy chuckles.
“It better not be.” Alex huffs.
—
Morgan knocks on room D. Gus answers it. “Hey, you mentioned liking horror movies, right?”
“Got something spooky to watch?” He smiles.
“Better.” Morgan smiles. “I want to see what was up with the lights in the dining hall.”
“I am so in.” He chuckles.
“You’re breaking into the dining hall?”
Morgan turns to see Alex standing at her door. She’s dressed in red silk pajamas. A part of them wants to hate the luxury sleep wear, it reminds them of the life they ran away from. The rest of their mind is convinced that Alex is too pretty to be real. “Wanna come with?”
Alex purses her lips, likely considering the offer. “I’m not trying to get kicked out before classes even starts.” She pouts.
“Don’t worry, I’ll let you know if we find a ghost.” Gus teases.
Alex frowns. “There’s no such things as ghosts.”
“You won’t snitch on us, right?” Morgan asks.
“No. Just don’t mention me if you get caught.” She slips back into her room.
Morgan leads Gus down the hall.
“Hey, are you and Alex… friends? Or is she off limits?” Gus whispers.
“She is way out of your league.” Morgan rolls their eyes. “Plus dating a roommate is more trouble than it’s worth.”
“So you do like her?” He nudges them with his elbow.
“I’m not immune to people being hot.” Morgan scoffs. They open the door to the stairway.
Gus crosses his arms and raises a brow.
He was going for friendly teasing and Morgan just snapped at him. They sigh. “Sorry. I take it you also noticed that she’s hot? You can try to woo her. I’m not… it’s going to take a while before i’m ever ready for a relationship.”
He smiles. “Glad to have your permission, boss.”
Morgan snorts. “Boss?”
“You are recruiting me for ghost hunting.” He chuckles as he enters the stairway.
Morgan laughs. Maybe having 7 roommates to share a bathroom with won’t be so bad.
The pair make their way down the stairs, quieter now that the conversation has stopped. They stop at the bottom of the stairs when they hear voices outside the doors. They look at each other, quietly asking if they want to avoid being seen. They peek through the door window and see a group of people.
“Maybe others decided to investigate the dining hall?” Morgan asks quietly.
Morgan and Gus panic when the group turns towards the stairs. They both duck down and search for a hiding place. Morgan notes the crevice under the stairs and yanks Gus with them under. They settle just before the door opens.
“Coast is clear, Jay. The freshmen are all tuckered out after moving in.” She cackles.
“Quiet.” A guy hushes. “Don’t give us away.” He snickers.
“Guys, I’ve been practicing all summer for this.” A girl interrupts.
“Oh, this is going to be so good. I’m recording it.” Another voice answers.
“Jay, you ready?”
“Stop using her name.” Hisses the guy.
“Got the camera on? Cool. I’m ready.” Jay takes a deep breath.
The whole group falls quiet.
Morgan grabs Gus’ mouth when he’s breathing too loud.
The Jay person lets out a blood curdling scream.
It makes Morgan tense despite knowing it’s an act. The group runs out of the stairway. Morgan looks to Gus who just looks disappointed. Morgan lets go of his face. “Is this just upperclassmen hazing us?”
“I thought it was suspicious that the lights didn’t flicker until the dinner line cleared up.” Morgan sighs.
—
Alex holds her taser as she listens. That scream was terrifying. There’s no fire alarm. There’s no police sirens or ambulance in the distance. Nothing. She hears her unit’s door open and she scrambles down her bunk to see if it’s Morgan. She tosses open her door. Morgan and the boy walk in.
The guy looks at her and laughs.
Alex glares. “Why are up you laughing at me?!”
“Scared of a little haunting?” He teases.
Morgan elbows him. “Be nice.”
Alex huffs.
The guy clears his throat. “Sorry.”
“We saw the culprits. Some upperclassmen went to the staircase and screamed to scare the freshmen,” Morgan explains.
Alex feels the tension leave her body. She crosses her arms. “I told you ghosts aren’t real.”
“We are being hazed.” The guy shrugs. “That doesn’t mean ghosts aren’t real.”
“I’m going to bed.” She backs into her room and closes the door.
Alex sighs. At least she knows it was a prank and not something scary. Hopefully the upperclassmen aren’t planning on keeping this up for long. Even knowing it’s not real, waking up at midnight to the sound of screaming is horrible.