Two Faces in the Dark

In the end, I let Leah stay in my bed. On one hand, I was still shaken by what had happened and was too scared to sleep alone. On the other hand, I didn't want to make a fool of myself by making a big deal out of nothing if it was just a hallucination.

However, I couldn't go back to sleep. I lay with my back facing Leah. I stared at the wall, my mind a complete mess.

My head was filled with thoughts about the wound I had felt, the story Emily had told us about this place being a mass grave, the Ouija board's prophecy, and the eyeball found in the hallway.

I felt goosebumps all over my body. Then, something possessed me to pull out my phone and type my university's name and "mass grave" into the search bar. To my surprise, I stumbled upon a post from five years ago.

The person who posted it claimed to be a student of my university. He had read through historical records and the university's archives to prove that Crown Residence Hall used to be a mass grave centuries ago.

There was even a photocopy of the yellowed pages of an old newspaper article. The article recorded an unsolved case that occurred in that year.

A little girl had gone missing near the mass grave. Then, her body was found a few days later with her eyes gouged out by something sharp.

I broke into a cold sweat. Emily's story wasn't unfounded. It really did happen!

As my heart raced, I continued to read the rest of the article. I wanted to find out more about the little girl, but the comments were all unrelated. I didn't get any more useful information.

Dejected, I closed the post, set my phone aside, and forced myself to go back to sleep. Suddenly, I heard a persistent noise behind me. It sounded like someone's nails were scratching the bed frame!

Was it Leah? What was she doing?

All of my hair stood on end. I was too scared to turn back. The sound went on for around 30 seconds before stopping.

I heard the sound of a pair of footsteps that slowly grew louder as they approached. Then, they stopped outside our door.

The door opened with a creak. Cold air gushed into our room, blowing down my neck.

In the dark, a figure felt around for the way to my bed. Perhaps not wanting to wake me up, she moved very silently.

"Julia," she asked softly, "why haven't you gone to sleep?"

I wanted to say that I was too scared to go back to sleep, but the words died in my throat. I couldn't bring myself to speak because I suddenly realized something terrifying.

If the person who just entered the room was Leah, who had woken up to use the bathroom… Who was scratching the bed frame behind me just now?

As she spoke, I turned around. The light from my screen illuminated her face and the rest of the mattress beside me.

The person who had been sleeping next to me had disappeared at some point. All that was left was an empty space.