| Fantasy Fiction posted September 15, 2019 |
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Are there really ghosts?
Do They Return?
by HarryT
The door slammed, echoing down the long hall. I had just finished gathering my things and stood at my classroom door, when the noisy shock wave assaulted my ears.
“What the heck,” I said to myself, "I thought I was the last person in the building."
The head custodian had come by and reminded me to be sure to lock the outside school door when I left. He wished me a merry Christmas and said he would see me on January 2.
It couldn’t be true, I thought. No such thing, I thought. But I decided to investigate; maybe someone had broken into the building and wanted to steal equipment. I walked by empty lockers down to the end of the hallway where the Chemistry lab was situated.
Ten years ago, the day before Christmas vacation, there was a horrible accident. A first year chemistry teacher was said to have been preparing a complicated experiment to share with her students on the last day of class. Unfortunately, the experiment blew up, hot boiling acid seared her face, ignited her clothing, and she burned to death. Rumors circulated that the young chemistry teacher returned to her lab every year on the night before Christmas vacation.
I slowly approached the lab and looked through the lab door window. I stepped back, surprised at what I saw. There were ring stands, two Bunsen Burners, flasks and pipettes stretching from flask to flask. The equipment look like a Rube Goldberg arrangement.
Again, I heard a door slam. It seemed the sound came from the door immediately in front of me, but I was positive the door had not moved. Then, through the window, I observed a shadowy specter that appeared to be a young woman wearing goggles and dressed in a lab smock. She seemed to rise out of the floor and float toward the chemical experiment. She struck a match and touched it to one of the Bunsen Burners. A flash of bright light and then an explosion. The door blew open, barely missing my face and banged against the wall and closed. I grabbed the fire extinguisher on the wall and threw open the door.
When I entered, the lab all was quiet, the lab stools were up on the tables and the equipment was gone. However, the acrid smell of burnt meat lingered in the air, and what appeared to be a small piece of a charred lab smock lay on the floor. As I bent to pick up the cloth it disappeared and the odor of burnt flesh was gone. I backed out of the lab and closed the door. After clicking the extinguisher back into its holder, I turned and walked down the hall pondering whether my imagination was hard at work or if ghosts really do return to haunt a site where they died in a traumatic manner.
The Door Slammed writing prompt entry
The door slammed, echoing down the long hall. I had just finished gathering my things and stood at my classroom door, when the noisy shock wave assaulted my ears.
“What the heck,” I said to myself, "I thought I was the last person in the building."
The head custodian had come by and reminded me to be sure to lock the outside school door when I left. He wished me a merry Christmas and said he would see me on January 2.
It couldn’t be true, I thought. No such thing, I thought. But I decided to investigate; maybe someone had broken into the building and wanted to steal equipment. I walked by empty lockers down to the end of the hallway where the Chemistry lab was situated.
Ten years ago, the day before Christmas vacation, there was a horrible accident. A first year chemistry teacher was said to have been preparing a complicated experiment to share with her students on the last day of class. Unfortunately, the experiment blew up, hot boiling acid seared her face, ignited her clothing, and she burned to death. Rumors circulated that the young chemistry teacher returned to her lab every year on the night before Christmas vacation.
I slowly approached the lab and looked through the lab door window. I stepped back, surprised at what I saw. There were ring stands, two Bunsen Burners, flasks and pipettes stretching from flask to flask. The equipment look like a Rube Goldberg arrangement.
Again, I heard a door slam. It seemed the sound came from the door immediately in front of me, but I was positive the door had not moved. Then, through the window, I observed a shadowy specter that appeared to be a young woman wearing goggles and dressed in a lab smock. She seemed to rise out of the floor and float toward the chemical experiment. She struck a match and touched it to one of the Bunsen Burners. A flash of bright light and then an explosion. The door blew open, barely missing my face and banged against the wall and closed. I grabbed the fire extinguisher on the wall and threw open the door.
When I entered, the lab all was quiet, the lab stools were up on the tables and the equipment was gone. However, the acrid smell of burnt meat lingered in the air, and what appeared to be a small piece of a charred lab smock lay on the floor. As I bent to pick up the cloth it disappeared and the odor of burnt flesh was gone. I backed out of the lab and closed the door. After clicking the extinguisher back into its holder, I turned and walked down the hall pondering whether my imagination was hard at work or if ghosts really do return to haunt a site where they died in a traumatic manner.
“What the heck,” I said to myself, "I thought I was the last person in the building."
The head custodian had come by and reminded me to be sure to lock the outside school door when I left. He wished me a merry Christmas and said he would see me on January 2.
It couldn’t be true, I thought. No such thing, I thought. But I decided to investigate; maybe someone had broken into the building and wanted to steal equipment. I walked by empty lockers down to the end of the hallway where the Chemistry lab was situated.
Ten years ago, the day before Christmas vacation, there was a horrible accident. A first year chemistry teacher was said to have been preparing a complicated experiment to share with her students on the last day of class. Unfortunately, the experiment blew up, hot boiling acid seared her face, ignited her clothing, and she burned to death. Rumors circulated that the young chemistry teacher returned to her lab every year on the night before Christmas vacation.
I slowly approached the lab and looked through the lab door window. I stepped back, surprised at what I saw. There were ring stands, two Bunsen Burners, flasks and pipettes stretching from flask to flask. The equipment look like a Rube Goldberg arrangement.
Again, I heard a door slam. It seemed the sound came from the door immediately in front of me, but I was positive the door had not moved. Then, through the window, I observed a shadowy specter that appeared to be a young woman wearing goggles and dressed in a lab smock. She seemed to rise out of the floor and float toward the chemical experiment. She struck a match and touched it to one of the Bunsen Burners. A flash of bright light and then an explosion. The door blew open, barely missing my face and banged against the wall and closed. I grabbed the fire extinguisher on the wall and threw open the door.
When I entered, the lab all was quiet, the lab stools were up on the tables and the equipment was gone. However, the acrid smell of burnt meat lingered in the air, and what appeared to be a small piece of a charred lab smock lay on the floor. As I bent to pick up the cloth it disappeared and the odor of burnt flesh was gone. I backed out of the lab and closed the door. After clicking the extinguisher back into its holder, I turned and walked down the hall pondering whether my imagination was hard at work or if ghosts really do return to haunt a site where they died in a traumatic manner.
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Writing Prompt Write a story that starts with this sentence: The door slammed, echoing down the long hall. Don't add to the sentence. The catch is this must be flash fiction. So the story should be between 100 and 1,000 words. |
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