Chapter 1: Midnight Visitors

My best friend Natalie was convinced our dorm room was a magnet for bad vibes. She told me, "Everyone knows ghosts can’t step over a real threshold. It’s like... supernatural law or something. You should put one at your door."

That night, after my roommates came back, they all rolled their eyes at me for being superstitious. But right after we turned off the lights—bang, bang, bang—the sound of something kicking the door echoed through the room.

It was the kind of noise that makes you sit straight up in bed, heart pounding in your ears. The darkness pressed close, thick and suffocating, and for a moment, I wondered if Natalie was right after all.

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The first night after moving into the new dorm, I woke up needing to pee. My feet hit the cold linoleum, and I squinted at the pale sliver of moonlight sliding through the window. That’s when I saw a man walk in through the door, turn around, and climb onto my roommate Tanya’s bed.

My chest locked up—I was so terrified I couldn’t move. My fingers clutched the blanket so tight my knuckles ached. I could barely catch my breath.

Then I heard Tanya making weird, indecent noises.

Heat rushed up my neck. Was I really hearing that? Was this a nightmare, or was Tanya really sneaking someone in? Should I say something? My mind spun: Was I hallucinating? Sleepwalking? Or was Tanya really sneaking someone in? My mind raced, grasping for any normal explanation.

But the dorm door was locked from the inside. If someone picked the lock, I would’ve heard it for sure.

A chill shot down my spine. That old Yale brass lock rattled if you so much as breathed on it—no way someone could slip in without waking me.

So Tanya must have secretly opened the door at night and let the guy in.

I felt a sting of betrayal. We’d just met, and she was already breaking the rules, sneaking guys in? That was seriously not cool.

The next day, I pulled Tanya aside by the vending machines, arms folded tight across my chest. "Seriously, Tanya, what the hell was last night about?" My voice was sharp, probably too sharp.

She looked totally blindsided and dragged me straight to the RA’s office to check the security footage.

We squeezed into the tiny RA office, the stale smell of instant coffee and microwave popcorn hanging in the air. The old monitor flickered like a bad horror movie as the footage scrolled by, each second crawling past. No one had come in at all.

How was that possible?

That night, again, I woke up with a full bladder, my nerves already on edge. I stared at the ceiling, stomach twisted. Sure enough, the man appeared again.

I grabbed my phone to record proof, hands shaking so badly I almost dropped it. This time, the man climbed onto Aubrey’s bed.

I yelled and snapped on the lights.

All my roommates sat up, groggy and confused.

There was no man in the room.

I checked my phone—no video, nothing at all.

"Are you kidding me? You think I’d risk getting expelled for some guy?" Tanya snapped, her eyes flashing. Aubrey rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath. Lillian just shook her head and walked away, leaving me standing there feeling crazy and alone. My cheeks burned as their laughter echoed, colder than I’d ever expected.