Our vehicle drove slowly towards the entrance of The Edwin Teachers' College. I began to tremble and my heart pounded hard against my chest. Suddenly, I felt my heart stop beating when a wiry old man dressed in a blue uniform crawled towards our vehicle and tiredly said, "Good morning, what do you want? How may I help you?" with piercing, sunken eyes he observed our faces. His thin-brimmed hat partially hid the jagged scar in the centre of his protruding forehead and as he pointed towards the main building, I wondered what had caused his frail hand to lose its melanin.

When I saw the main building, I thought it was a castle surrounded by acres of radiant flowers, luscious fruit trees and extended fields of pure, green grass. However, there was no sight of living beings around. Our vehicle continued along the Boulevard. I looked back at the security post and there was no one there.

Then I said to my parents, "I hope my first day at Shortwood will not have such a dreary start like this."

My father responded good-naturedly, "You have a very vivid imagination, Charmaine. You are going to be a good English teacher."

"Of course she's going to do well. After all, I'm her mother and I'm an Edwinite too."

"Have you told her about the stories surrounding this place?"

"What stories? Don't frighten the poor child!"

"I want to know, if I'm going to be here you may as well tell me. I do not want any surprises."

My mother had a faraway look in her eyes and she reluctantly began.

Nineteen-year-old senior student Sandra sat on her bed sweating profusely over a most mind-boggling assignment. She pondered what strategies to use to introduce her lesson on dangling participles. "I know," she said, "I'll use -."

Her words were drowned by an ear-splitting scream that made her hair stand on end. This was followed by a patter of footfalls as people rushed out of their rooms like mad ants. Frantic cries of 'What was that, what's that?' could be heard bouncing off the hollow wall and echoing in empty, eerie hallways.

Another ear-shattering scream pierced the air and the blood froze in her veins. Standing at the entrance, she was almost bowled over by a black object shooting out the door like a cannonball. Regaining her balance, she saw that the black object was her room-mate Diana who was dressed in a black nightgown.

Her face was drained of all colour and she opened her mouth in a futile attempt to speak. Just then, Sandra saw the source of her friend's fright and nearly got a heart attack herself.

On the ground in the corner of the hallway, a girl of about seventeen was crouching on all fours (on hands and knees). She had a wild devilish gleam in her eyes and it was evident that some force of evil had overtaken her. With her lips pulled back in a fierce snarl, she crept about stealthily like a tiger on the prowl. With a sound that hovered between a roar and a howl, she proceeded to climb up the wall. To everyone's horror, she scratched at the hard surface and tore away a part of it with her nails, which seemed more like feline claws. Her face contorted grotesquely and she rotated her head a full 360. Then she snarled again and began licking herself with her tongue, the way a cat would. Having finished this, she lifted her head and looked towards the door with a roar that shook the foundation of the hall. Sandra opened her mouth to scream but failed as the creature's wild eyes burned straight into her, immobilising her.

"My God, mummy!" I exclaimed dismally. "Yu kno all a dis and yu mek me come here. Mi a go back home right now. Mi nuh want com yah at all. Suppose e happn agen?"

In no time, we approached the gate and I clutched the back of my father's seat. My mother tried to reassure me, "Don't look so worried, Charmaine. Nothing like that is going to happen again. Besides, that was decades ago."

Before long, my parents had deposited me and my luggage at the front of the great Elizabeth Bromwell Hall. As they drove away, I waved madly to them until they were out of sight.

No sooner had they disappeared from my view than a ghastly figure materialised out of thin air. He stood about five feet from me and was dressed in an ugly blue uniform. I watched with my heart in my mouth as he offered me a toothless grin and beckoned to me, his bony hand flapping pathetically. I dropped my bag and bolted towards the gate hollering at the top of my voice, "Wheii, mummy, wait fi mi!"

- Daneika Brackett