Dorm Party

It was already 7PM when Rudy finished all his houseworks. He really made sure that all his works are well done because it's the key for his mother to allow him to go to his friend's mini party.

After doing so, he changed his clothes and wore black shirt and an old blue jeans. Before going straight to his friend's dorm where they will drink liquors and have a mini party, Rudy dropped by at the nearest store and bought a hard drink and few junk foods. Then after that he rode a jeep and went straight to his friend's place.

Manny invited Rudy, and two other friends Mikko and Arnold to his dorm because it's his birthday. And since Manny is a student and his family is in the province at the moment, he decided to celebrate with friends instead. The four of them are engineering students.

Rudy arrived at Manny's dorm. It was a big, old building near their university. From the outside, you would have the impression that Hitler once lived there. The white painting of the building looks like it was painted during the birth of world war II and now covered by moss. The dorm entrance is only a small door and has no door bell at all. "This is an old dorm, indeed. I wonder if Rizal saw this place since this is near to UST." Rudy thought.

Rudy knocked. After knocking for five times, still, no one opened the door for him. Rudy tried to open the door but it's locked. Then he decided to send a text message to Manny and inform him that he has arrived. But as Rudy type in the words in his cellphone, he was flabbergasted by the unexpected creaking of the old door. It opened instantly without anyone inside! Rudy was crept out. The door continues to creak as it opens. The door pivot is very rusty, making the unpleasant sound when opened or closed.

Rudy set aside the eeriness of what had just happened and entered, trying to forget the incident. When he tried to open the door earlier, it was locked. But then it opened later automatically. Rudy tried to think that it was an automatic door but then he realized that how can there be an automatic door in a very old dormitory?

When Rudy entered, he noticed that in the first floor of the four-story dorm building is already the corridors of different dorm rooms. There are three different corridors and a small table in front of the entrance. Rudy thought it must be the security guard's or the receptionist's table. There is a record book in it. Rudy thought that he must wait for the guard or the receptionist, but when he realized that the floor is completely deserted and the lights are dim and all the room doors are closed and it is very quiet, the eeriness and creepiness he is feeling rose up. That's when Rudy decided to skip registering in the record book since no one is manning it.

He then moved up. The room of Manny is in the 3rd floor. As he steps on the stairs, he feels that it shakes every time he moves. The stairs, too, are very old. And because of that, even if he wanted to move faster because it's quite creepy being there alone, he slowed down.

When he reached the second floor, the corridors there have no lights at all! But in the first room in the left from where he stood, there is a lit room. Rudy can see the light coming out from the slightly opened door. Rudy stood there, looking and wondering why the corridors aren't lit and the floor seemed abandoned but there's a lit room. Then Rudy looked at the lit room, as he stares at it, the light changed. From being a plain white light, it then turned into something like a disco light. Rudy was drew by what he's seeing. He's been there staring at the lights from the room for a minute and like he was enchanted or something. Then he stepped slowly, moving towards the door, his eyes still on the room lights, not leaving it.

TAP. "Dude, where are you going?" Rudy was tapped at his shoulder and he acted as if he was just awoken from dreaming.

"Hey." Rudy said. It was Manny who tapped him. He was with Mikko and Arnold. All of them were puzzled.

"Where are you going dude?" Manny asked again, still looking puzzled. Rudy pointed to the lit room, but when his friends looked at it, there was no light anymore.

"Okay? Anyway, we're going down to buy something. I thought you weren't coming." Manny said.

Rudy didn't understand what just happened. A moment earlier, he was at the second floor, staring at a mysteriously lit room that has lights that enchanted him. But when he tried to show it to his friends, the lights went off.

***

A few hours later, they were at the room of Manny and are already quite drunk after drinking a few bottles of rum and beer. That's when Rudy opened up. He told them everything he saw a few hours earlier. But he didn't expect what happened next, Manny, Mikko, and Arnold were rolling on the floor laughing at his story.

"HAHAHAHAHA! Did you take drugs or something like that?"Arnold asked as he continue to laugh.

"Dude, I'm not kidding." Rudy insisted.

"Or maybe, you're already drunk a few hours earlier? HAHAHAHAHA." Mikko said.

"I'm not! I'm certain to what I saw! And the door that opened automatically! It's not part of my imagination!"

"Okay then. Forget about it. My stomach is already aching laughing at you." Manny said. Then Mikko and Arnold laughed even more. But Rudy thinks that Manny knew something..that Manny's laugh weren't real and he's trying to change the subject and make all the things that Rudy saw a joke.

A couple of hours later, they were already sleeping at the dorm room of Manny. All of them were drunk. The dorm room has four double deck beds. The room mates of Manny, luckily, weren't around that night. Nevertheless, to respect Manny's room mates, they did not use the beds. Instead, the four of them slept in the mat laid in the cold surface of the room. Manny slept at the mat too to join his friends. All four of them were already deeply asleep. Others are snoring when Rudy was stuck in th middle of a dream and reality.

He can see now but his view is blurry and he can't move. It felt as if his body was frustrated. Later on, there's a man standing at his foot's end. He was wearing white shirt with blood splatters and his eyes are firing red, staring directly and Rudy's eyes. Rudy felt fear rush through his body, but he can't move! The man in white bloody shirt neared Rudy and then choked him. Rudy is now looking eyes to eyes to the man. It looks like as if the man were some kind of the devil. Rudy tried to move and save himself but he can't! He's still stuck in the nightmare.

1 second, 2 second, 3 second. Luckily, Rudy was saved. Manny slapped him. He woke up. It seemed that he wasn't seeing the reality earlier at all. When he was awaken, the lights are on, different to what his nightmare has shown that the lights are off. His friends are around him, again looking puzzled. Mikko and Arnold tried to ask Rudy, but Manny gestured his hand saying that it wasn't the right time. They all got back to sleep. Luckily, the nightmare didn't continue.

The next thing in the morning, Manny told them the story.

"I'm sorry, Rudy, if I just laughed at you last night and didn't tell you the truth." Manny confessed as they eat breakfast in the nearest fast food chain from Manny's dorm.

I knew it, Rudy thought. But even though he already know what Manny means, he asked "What do you mean?"

"What you told us last night is valid. Many people experienced what you've experienced. But I thought it wasn't real and I thought that I don't need to tell you the story of the dorm. Besides, I don't want to scare you."

"Okay? Then what's the story?" Rudy felt goosebumps through his body, but he's eager to know. Arnold and Mikko listened.

"20 years ago, there is a 19 year-old college student who lived in that dorm. Just like what I did, he was alone in his birthday and he invited his friends. According to the story of the landlord, the next day after his birthday, he was found dead in his room. He was stabbed 10 times. He's lying in the floor, bathing in his blood. After the initial reports, it states that he was killed by his friends. A few grams of drugs were found in his room. After the whole investigation, it turns out that the man was offered to take drugs by his friends. But instead of trying the drugs, he refused and even told his friends that he's going to report them to the police. And that's what forced his friends to kill him brutally."

"Creepy. Is that real?" Arnold said.

"Yes. And that's the reason why the second floor was closed. The suspects flee to different countries. And because of money and influence, they weren't jailed, they overpowered the justice system of the Philippines. The family of the murdered man is poor and wasn't able to continue the court battle. And after that, the second floor was believed to be cursed. New tenants in the second floor, if not going crazy, are killing themselves or killing each others."

"What the hell. You should've told us!" Rudy said.

"I'm sorry. I thought it wasn't real." Manny apologized.

"But..but how about the lights I saw?" Rudy asked.

"As I've said, they were partying that night. Maybe what you saw is the reenactment of what happened the night he died. According to the police reports, there is an improvised party light that was found in the crime scene."

"Holy shit." Mikko said.

"But there's more. No one dares to look at the corridors in the second floor because of the belief that the whole floor was cursed. During the time that you were like walking to the room when I tapped you, Rudy, you were spelled. All of the new tenants are told not to look at the corridors when walking upstairs because when you do, you'll be spelled or cursed or something like that. When we didn't arrive and didn't tap you, you would continue to walk to the room. And according to the stories, when that happened, the ghost will curse you and you will experience what he experienced the night he died. That's when the cursed victim will go crazy or will want to kill himself."

"But why are you safe then?" Rudy asked.

"The evil ghost doesn't touch tenants if they are not living in the second floor. It's like, he wants the second floor to be his place and only his. And the reason why he visited you in your nightmare last night? It's because he hates visitors. It's his visitors who killed him. And maybe, you dared him too when you looked at the corridors."

After that, neither Rudy or Mikko or Arnold visited Manny again in the dorm. And after a year, Manny moved to a new place.

-PandemiC-