By Bertie Blueberry 

“Come on Bertie, time to get up!” Zap’s voice trilled in my ears.

I slowly opened my eyes, I couldn’t make out much because it was dark and my eyesight sucks. My sight is too shit to see the time on the alarm but something in my body knew it was too early.

“What time is it?” I muttered.

“Don’t you remember what we told you last night? Dad and I have an early morning meeting, so we need to leave early.”

I squinted, “Can’t you just leave me here to sleep, then pick me up when you’re done?”

“Nope, we don’t want to do all that extra driving. It’s much easier to have you come with us.” I heard Zom chime in like I didn’t know he was also there. Suddenly, I felt the rush of the sheets being ripped off of me.

The room filled with light, it stung my eyes. I was then pulled upright, which I tried to resist by going into ”ragdoll mode”. Though Zap has quickly learned all my tactics and found a way to prop me up. A finger started poking my side.

“Dad, look at this! Bertie has a huge dry patch.” Zap pulled me up from the bed and dragged me across the room. Dry patches sometimes form on my skin because I’m part Mer-people. Mer-people have to stay moisturized or else you get these horrible dry rashes.

“Oh god, look! There’s another one on his left foot.” Zom responded, pulling up my pajama pant leg. “Jesus, it’s up his whole leg. Bertie, did you bathe last night?”

Ah, shit. He found me out. “Nah, you told me to go to bed early, so I did.” I muttered.

“Liar,” Zap chimed in, “you just told me you forgot about the morning meeting. Besides, I saw you up last playing video games.”

“God damn it, we don’t have time to get him in the shower.” Zom said frustrated.

“Maybe I can stay here and…” I started but was rudely cut off.

“Couldn’t he use the ones in the locker rooms?” Zap suggested.

“At this point, that might be our best choice.” Zom said back.

“I don’t feel comfortable being naked at school.” I’ve been homeschooled for most of my life. So my only knowledge of locker rooms is from shows and movies. Their whole concept gives me the creeps.

“Then shower with your clothes on. The whole point is to rehydrate your skin.”

My glasses were pushed onto my face, not that they do much for my crappy vision. I saw Zap shoving some clothes and a towel into a bag. Zom handed me my tablet and a plastic bag with a Pop-Tart, a banana, and a Gatorade.

“Wow, really healthy breakfast I got here.” I said sarcastically.

“Mr. Robin can give you something else from the school’s pantry if you don’t want it.”

I sometimes hate that Zom always has a quick comeback to whatever I say. He says he learned it from growing up with my dad. However, Uncle Ted also grew up around my dad, yet he usually responds by telling me to “shut the hell up!”

Zom hurried me into the back of the pickup truck despite still being dressed in pajamas. It was still dark out, being up this early should be illegal.

***

When we got to school, Zom led me to a pair of doors near Zeta’s room. How long have these been here? Maybe in some ways, I just assumed it was a closet and paid it no mind. Zom pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the right door. He pulled it open. I peered through it and saw a dimly lit hall. It had an unsettling aura to it, definitely big creepy vibes. It almost felt like I unlocked a bonus area in a video game and the video game in question was most likely a horror.

“What in the liminal space, creepypasta shit is this?” I asked.

“It’s a hallway.” Zom mocked me.

Zom led me down the hall, we passed several rooms, all of them dark and empty. We got to the end and stopped in front of a door with a lady sign next to it.

“Here you go. You only have to be in there long enough to hydrate your skin. And when you are done, you can go to my office and chill on your tablet.”

“This is the girls’ room.” I pointed at the sign.

“We can’t use the boys’ one, unfortunately. Besides, there are no girls back here, you will be fine.”

I slowly wandered into the room and flipped the light switch on. So this was a locker room, it wasn’t as nice as the ones on TV. The floors were much dustier, lockers were missing doors, and the walls were chipped and covered in graffiti. I wandered to the back and found the area with the showers. It was a large room with shower heads lined up against the walls. Insane to think that all the girls had to shower in here together. The floor tiles were cracked and the ceiling was covered with spiderwebs. There was a small colony of camel crickets just hanging out. After assessing each showerhead, I picked the one closest to the doorway.

I stripped down to just my boxers. I know they are just bugs but I didn’t feel comfortable with them watching me while I shower. Unfortunately, I had to also remove my glasses. Hopefully, Zom was telling the truth about no one else being here. I felt my hand along the wall to the shower knob and turned it. It was a bit stubborn but I did eventually get it to budge. However, no water came out, so I kept turning. There was a swishing sound, and then suddenly ice-cold water. It felt like needles against my skin.

“AUGH! STOP!” I yelled, trying vigorously to turn the water down. Tho, I quickly learned that the shower only had two settings, needles and off.

Part of me wanted to just leave but I knew Zom would get on my case. So I going to have to just work with it. I scrubbed my body the best I could but I was pretty sure the sharp water was making it worse.

Suddenly through the sound of rushing water, I heard a splash. It was almost like someone stepping in a puddle. I did notice that the water splashed against my ankles.

I followed along the wall back to my glasses and put them on. The water was definitely pooling, and spreading out. The drains must be backed up. I had to move my stuff into the main locker room because I didn’t want them to get wet.

But, from outside the showers, I heard the splashing again.

I went back in, my shower was still running. The room was completely empty except for the crickets. The creatures were definitely way too small to make such a sound. If anything, it sounded like a person walking around.

“Hello?” I said.

No response.

“I can hear you. Show yourself.”

Still nothing.

I wonder if I could weed them out by turning on all the showers. It might make the splashing more obvious. So one by one, I did just that. Some of the handles were even more stubborn than mine, but I eventually got them to budge. After doing my deed, I stepped back and observed the full room. There was something off about the shower at the furthest corner. I didn’t notice it at first but seeing it next to the others, it just didn’t look right. The water domed out instead of falling straight down. It was almost like an invisible force field was placed underneath it. The water on the floor also rippled. How strange.

I’m not sure what compelled me to reach out to touch it. In some ways, it was important for the sake of science and discovery. I thought the invisible object would be solid, however my hand just passed straight through. My mind was racing through what something like this could possibly be. Like a gas leak or air from a vent. Or maybe, just maybe it was a ghost!

This just can’t be some random event, I tried my best to piece everything together. The locked doors, the off-limits hallway, the empty classrooms, the abandoned locker room…these are all connected! They want to keep everyone out of this part of the school because it is haunted! Not only that, but Zom must have known this and willingly sent me in here. Was he trying to scare me? A punishment for being disobedient? Or maybe he knew I would find this sort of thing cool, and needed an activity to occupy me while he was at his morning meeting.

“Oh my god, Bertie! What the hell are you doing?!” The mysterious voice behind me nearly made me jump out of my skin.

I turned around and saw Zap standing there, he was in a state of shock and confusion. Zom must have sent him to check on me.

“I’m done.” I said.

“That’s great to hear but did you have to turn on all the showers?”

“I heard a noise and…”

“And look at the floor! There is water everywhere!”

“The drain’s backed up.”

It seemed that Zap was already clued in on this. He pulled a pen out of his pocket and started stabbing at the holes in the drain. Fortunately, this worked. The draining water formed a little whirlpool, which was hypnotically cool to watch. 

Zap then started turning the showers off one by one. He was trying and failing at not getting splattered by them. When he got to the back corner with the haunted shower, I abruptly stopped him.

“Do you notice anything weird about this one?” I questioned him.

“It looks like the shower head needs to be cleaned.” He turned it off and pointed up at it. He was right, part of it was crusted over.

“That sucks, I thought it was something cool like a ghost.”

“Ghost…” Zap looked disturbed.

“This part of the school is so eerie. I can see why it’s behind locked doors. I can sense a ghostly presence in here.” 

“Um, the school doesn’t have ghosts, instead it has…well a curse.”

“Cool, I want to be cursed!”

“You can’t catch it. It’s more that odd stuff tends to happen here and no one knows why.”

“What kind of stuff?”

Zap whispered something under his breath and turned on the shower again.

The water flowed out straight.