Midnight {*COMPLETE*}

T W O

  I felt a tingling again, like that feeling when you know someone is watching you. No freaking way am I staying in here! I shut the door quickly and had to force myself to walk instead of running like hell down the hallway to the common room.

I lay for what seemed like hours on the disgusting old common room couch, trying to fall asleep. I couldn't even get my heart to calm down, couldn't get that whispering voice out of my head. I was still scared by whatever had just happened in my room. If this did end up being a prank, someone was going to get their ass kicked tomorrow. I didn't even want to think of another possibility.

 I practically crawled into the kitchen the next morning. I was tired as hell and my body was aching from the hours spent on the couch. I needed some food and a major jolt to my system if I was going to make it through my test. I was actually glad I had to pull a shift at work later. I'd probably be mainlining double shot americanos the whole time. Free coffee was probably one of the only perks of working at one of the busiest Starbucks in the university district.

I heard the quiet shuffling of feet coming over the threshold onto the cold tiled kitchen floor. I jumped a little, then called myself an idiot under my breath. I turned and saw Jason, a senior and my big brother from freshman year eyeing me strangely.

"Dude, you look like shit. What happened to you?" Tactful as always, bro.

"Rough night. I couldn't sleep." He gave me another strange look

"You're in the corner room right by the back stairs, right?" He asked. We had just moved in a few weeks ago, and no one had gotten used to the new arrangement.

"Yeah, why?" The way he had asked made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Was I being paranoid, or did he look like he knew something?

"No reason," He answered quickly.

"Seriously, what?" After the night I had, I didn't need any more strangeness.

"Wasn't that Adam's room last year?" Adam had moved in with his girlfriend somewhere before Thanksgiving last year. He had been two years older than me. I didn't know him that well. I thought someone else had taken the room over after Christmas, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember who.

"I think it was, why?"

"Never mind, Carter. Just go to class." I shook my head, basically at my limit for weird creepy events. First last night, now this cryptic conversation. Whatever. I had a test to take and a five-hour shift. I didn't have time for this crap.

I had plenty of time to think at work while I was foaming lattes and bagging overpriced scones for the hoards of pink-cheeked students. I tried to rationalize the night before, think of a reason that I could have heard someone whispering my name. I didn't want to include the obvious but impossible explanation. That someone was in my room whispering. Someone invisible. Don't be ridiculous.

But honestly (and here's where I really start to feel nuts) fairly often in the past few weeks I had come back from class to find my stuff in slightly different places. Like someone curious had come in and looked through it while I was gone. Nothing was ever missing, so I hadn't said anything, but I could swear someone had been in there. And that feeling was there. Not as strong, but it was there. A milder version of that 'I'm not alone' chill I had gotten the night before. Yeah, right, Carter. You have an inquiring poltergeist.

I shook my head and poured one of the bubbly Kappa Pi's a non-fat white mocha.

"Thanks, Carter," She purred, smiling at me. I hated the fact that she knew me only because I was in Sigma Epsilon. It was kind of a trophy thing for a sorority girl to end up with one of us. How long was it going to take those girls to realize I really wasn't interested?

I continued my shift, my tired brain still sorting through all of the slightly weird events that had happened in my room since term started. My books moved, mail shifted through, my bed being made (which I never do). That last one was really kinda creepy. Let's just say I was starting to see why Adam had found his girlfriend's apartment so...appealing.

By the time my shift was done, I was worn out, and my mind had been spinning in circles for hours. I hadn't had a chance for a nap earlier, and I was so desperate for sleep I nearly curled up in the stock room. With a sigh, I zipped into my fleece and headed for home.