Chapter Text
Chapter one
I’ve seen this building go through everything with most of my time spent here – and I mean a lot of time. Even though I had to admit that it only occurred to plague the Oakhurst floor this semester, it was more intense than normal. Both me and M. had been traveling throughout time i was born around 1905 but that doesn't matter as i had just been put in the academy for the 13 it felt like. Three weeks ago, the doors started locking on their own, those clicks echoing through the hallways at very odd hours – 3:47 AM, 2:13 AM. I recognized it almost immediately; the security system was acting up again, just like in 1947 and 1998. But the cold spots that spread from the common room into all the individual dorms other than mine. It was leaving frost patterns on the windows even in late spring, that was new though. That concerned me. And the weird rhythmic thumping noises coming from within the common room walls during finals week? I knew what they were, but I kept it to myself.
When the hauntings first started, I did my best to play it cool
“Old building must have long and old memories” I said, hoping that would satisfy everyone’s curiosity
“But Scott, the doors fucking locked us IN for the last week” Owen protested, running both hands through his hair. “That’s not just ‘old building quirks’”
Legs had leaned against the doorframe of Scott's room, arms crossed. “Yeah, and explain the bloody frost on the windows. It’s may”
“Could it be a climate control malfunction?” I offered weakly
“From a building from the twenties?” Pyro raised an eyebrow. “Man, try again.”
“I’ve seen worse,” I said no thinking, the words slipping out before I could stop them – though it was technically true, but it did earned me some looks that i didn’t fully want
Cleo's eyebrow arched. "Worse than being trapped in our own dorm?"
“Well.. I mean… you know, other campuses must have way creepier stories, truely” I backtracked fast.
“Name one” Pear had exchanged a single glance with cleo
"There's that place in Massachusetts—"
“The real specific details, Scott,” Pearl pressed, and I recognized the journalistic instinct within her tone.
Most dismissed it as me just being pretentious about living a one of the most historic dorm (with the best wifi)
Everyone just dismissed it as me being pretentious about living in a historic dorm. Good. Let them think that.
Then Truffle when missing, all hell broke loose.
I’ll admit that I didn’t expect a stuffed pig to be a catalyst for a full-scale investigation. But Apo’s blood-curdling scream that Monday morning. It woke half the floor – including me, but I’d been awake anyway, reading through some of the old building plans that I’d… acquired over the years. Truffle wasn’t just any plushie to Apo, it was a gift from her girlfriend, complete with embroidered hearts and partly fading initials.
Apo + Cherri
(this was meant to be in the fount calligraffitti)
And somehow Pyro got attached to Truffle as well, that surprised everyone.
“TRUFFLE IS GONE!” Apo’s voice was somehow being carried through the walls.
I opened my door to find half the common room full, with Apo and Pyro at her side looking really uncharacteristically serious. Not one other person wanted to be up at 8 am when classes started at 12
“When did you last see it? I asked, genuinely half awake.
“Last night before bed. She was right next to me,” Apo whispered, tears somehow were threatening. “Someone took her. Or something.”
Shelby emerged from her room, her notebook already in hand. “Did you lock your door?”
“YES! I always do!” Apo’s voice cracked.
Owen suddenly just appeared, bleary-eyed. “What is going on? I just woke up. What's going on?"
“Truffle’s gone missing…” I explained
“The stuffy pig thing?” Owen blinked. “Seriously? The Pig. The dam pig”
Pyro rounded on him. “Don’t dismiss this. That ‘dam pig’ is very important.”
“I’m not trying–” Owen held up his hands defensively. “I’m only trying to understand what is happening”
Pyro cracked his knuckles. “If anyone is messing with us, they are about to learn what happens when you steal from a major in chemisty…”
“Pyro, please no chemical warfare” I ask firmly, though part of me – that one part the happened to remembered the Great Prank War of 1962 – that was impressed by not only the pettiness and the commitment
Cleo stepped between them. “Let’s all calm down, okay. We’ll find Truffle.”
“How? I need to find…” Apo asked desperately, “If I don't…”
“Then we’ll investigate,” Pyro declared. “Properly”
Legs nodded slowly. “Well actually that’s not a bad idea. Somebody knows something.”
When they started threatening chemical warfare in earnest, I knew that this wasn’t going to blow over quietly. I have watched residents begin barricading their doors and here I was have the thought of, Here we go again
My dorm room, my sanctuary that I’d somehow managed to get as a solo despite being called “officially” a sophomore. I became the investigation headquarters for what everyone started calling “The Coven.” I tried to be safe and careful about what was left visible. The victrola was easy enough to explain as “vintage collecting”. But the photographs that I kept in my desk drawer, not that easy, so I made sure to bury them all under mountains of textbooks. But i got careless with one of my first-edition book from 1928.
Queen of the School by E.M. De Foubert
First Edition 1928
Property of S. GollSmith ,Oakhurst Academy
(this was all so ment to be in calligraffitti)
But burning a late-night study session, that just turned into a gossip girl chat. Cleo spotted it. One of the only five with “Property of S. Goldsmith, Oakhurst Academy” on the bookplate
“Scott, whose book is this. I can’t be yours?” She held the book up, with her finger tracing the bookplate
Pearl, no longer interested in her laptop. Looked up. “Let me see that.”
“It was a lucky thrift store find…” I said quickly, my lying skills were great.
Cleo’s eyes lingered just a moment too long. “That must be a really specific thrift store find. Isn’t this a first addition? But also the same last name”
Pearl was photographing the bookplate with her phone. Then jumped in with, “And the same school. What are the odds”
“The Gollsmith family is very big so it’s not exactly uncommon,” I said with a shrug.
“Yeah, but 'Property of S. Gollsmith, Oakhurst Academy' is pretty specific, you have to agree.” Shelby interjected, looking up from her notes.
Owen frowned. “Wait, when did Oakhurst become a college? I thought it was always–”
“It was an Academy up until 1965…” I added subcontinually, then I started cursing internally. As the room went silent.
“How did you know that?” Cleo asked slowly.
Only one word came to my mide “Wikipedia–” I lied.
Pearl was already typing on her laptop. “No, it doesn’t say that on the Wiki. Or anywhere online that i can find”
She was filing in the gaps. That was bad, I’d have to be careful around her.