I decided to peek behind the desk looking for whatever was making the rummaging sounds. I could feel me long lost fear of scary things come back full force that very moment. Every scary movie with similar scenes I had ever watched flashed past me. I inched closer holding my breath. My heart pounded wildly as with every step I took towards the desk.
Finally, I reached the desk and started taking a peek.
"Eeeeh...! Ah...!" I squealed in an unsavoury voice and fell on my butt. Yes, I know it's very shameful, but I couldn't help it! I can't control this body!!! It's totally not my fault!
Behind the desk was a six or seven-year-old boy, crouching in front of some shady book. Shady because it looked like it should not be allowed to be read by a 7 years old child. It literally looked like a book on black magic.
But anyway, how cute!! My maiden heart calmed down on the cuteness I had just discovered.
Just as I was given a fright, the little boy seemed even more spooked. As if someone had caught him red-handed doing naughty things. He hurriedly closed the book, hid it behind his not too robust body and looked at me with a (forceful) stern face. Yes, I can still see him panic.
"W-who are you? Why are you sneaking around here?" He stuttered hurriedly shifting the blame. I also notice a faint golden glow around the boy's body.
'The breath of the Living'!!!!!!!! I exclaimed to myself. Ever since I had been transformed into a ghost, I could see this faint light around people. I didn't notice it at first since everyone around me except myself had it. But as I kept observing others, I noticed this lack of glow in other undead like the receptionist. Hence, I asked them about it and thus was introduced to 'The breath of the living'.
It was basically an aura. Everything living has it. The younger and more lifespan they have, the brighter it is. Most undead can see it, and few living people can see it too.
The young boy was looking at some sort of complex inscriptions in the shady book previously. Something a six or seven-year-old boy should not be reading? But this boy had the brightest breath of the living I had ever seen. He was glowing like a tube light in the dark.
Ah, yes! A tube light would be an exaggeration, but you get the point. It was bright! clearly indicating this young boy was no undead, but was still crouching under the desk of the undead dorms.
"Mmm... Helloooo?" I greeted doubtfully at the glaring child.
"Yes?" A mature voice replied, unlike his previously childlike and age-appropriate voice. Though I could still see the little fluster in his eyes, and please don't forget that he was still hiding that huge book behind his little chubby body.
0.0
That startled me! Does the young boy have the voice of a middle-aged man? Nevermind! Let's just get to the point and get things over with.
Focus! Focus!
"E-excuse me! can you tell me where the warden of this dorm is?" I asked politely. When in doubt always be polite. No use in offending people with rude behaviour.
The child seemed surprised. He solemnly put down his black magic picture book which seemed half his size and stood up. His head was barely above the level of the huge table.
"I am the Warden of this Dormitory. Please state your purpose." The boy replied.
"O-oh?" I replied in shock to which he raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.
"Well... I was sent here from the academy's office. The secretary said to give this to you?" I forcefully ignored everything else and tried to get on with the point. Good thing I am bad at controlling this body. I can't show any expressions and would just stare blankly no matter what.
I handed over the documents and waited patiently as he looked through them. He promptly nodded after looking through them. He then moved towards a drawer in the huge table and pulled it open. I too peeked in curiosity only to discover that it was filled to brim with miscellaneous items. Then he proceeded to pull open another drawer to discover the same. In the end, he just shoved it into one of the full drawers and looked at me with the same deadpan expression.
"Alright!" He stepped out of the huge messy area behind his desk and said, "Follow me."
The boy was barely tall enough to reach my waist. He was wearing a dark blue cheongsam with a light blue lily pattern. he walked towards the statue and raised his right hand as if beckoning someone or something.
Suddenly, the seemingly stuffed toy owl sitting on the statue's arm flew and sat on his arm. Honestly, the bird looked like a stuffed toy since it didn't have any breath of the living, but it could move. So it is an undead?
Pondering over the purpose of miscellaneous items scattered on various corners of the hall, I followed the boy onto the spiral staircase. The carpet looked old and was dusty and torn in various places. It was in worse condition than the corridor I had passed earlier.
I followed the boy clumsily through the huge door in the middle. I noticed there were also two other comparatively smaller doors at either side of the balcony like structure above the stairs. The whole place was dark, but I could feel a slight chill in the air.
Passing the beautiful light blue door with golden vintage designs, we arrived in a lobby. There were few doors by the sides and at the end was a beautiful gold plaited elevator door. I have no idea with the obsession with the gold of the people. Still, at least not as boisterous as the main office building!
As I was mulling over the golden doors we were already in front of the elevator door. Apparently, the elevator was already on this floor. The little boy opened the golden elevator door and entered. I followed him silently as I looked at the pretty decor inside the elevator.
"Creaaack!"
"...."
The elevator shook violently as it slowly moved downwards.
"Creak... creeeak..."
My non-existent heart started pounding wildly. I recalled every single elevator accident story I had ever heard at that moment. I positioned myself to the farther corner hoping to safely arrive on whatever floor we were supposed to go. It was then I noticed, the number of floors on the elevator seemed off.
The needle was pointing at 0, indicating this was the ground floor. but the needle wasn't the thing that moved, but it was the dial showing numbers. The dial kept rotating backwards instead of forward. To be exact, it was -1, -2 and so on. So we were going underground?
The elevator shakily continued downward despite the ominous creaks and soon stopped at -13. How ominous, the number of death! The door creaked open and before me was a dimly lit corridor. The little boy started walking as I dutifully though clumsily followed him.
The carpet on the floor was red, or maybe brown? I couldn't tell since it was very dirty. even dirtier than the previous areas. there were even multiple cobwebs on the ceilings. The chill was pretty apparent here and I could see white fog coming out of the little boy's mouth as he exhaled. The doors on either side of the corridor were numbered.
The little boy led me to Room number 303 and stopped. Again, how ominous! At least it was not 333. I placated myself.
"This is your specially allocated room." He said in his mature middle-aged man voice and handed me a bronze key indicating to open up the room myself. Hesitating for a second, I proceeded to open the room.
As soon as I opened the door, the first thing that hit me was an overwhelming stench. The stench of rotting stuff. As if I just walked into a room full of rotting corpses, not that I ever had a chance of smelling one, other than occasional small animal remains in the local park.
I took a step back and took a deep breath. Meanwhile, the Little boy warden had already walked into the room. I took a look inside the room. It was dark, very dark. It felt as if someone was peering at me from the other side of the room. Then soon I could faintly see a silhouette. A humanoid one. I could roughly make out the fae and some pretty gruesome red eyes.
Soon it became bright in the room and the silhouette became clearer. And an emaciated corpse, probably male was staring at me with its mouth wide open.
"EEEPPPPPPPPPPPP..........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Sorry for the unladylike scream. I can't help it. Again, not my fault! It's because I can't control this body!
The obvious commotion alerted the little boy warden. He looked at me with a very disapproving and blatantly judgemental look.
"Those are the things of the previous tenant. You can just throw them out?" He calmly explained.
"And.... where is the tenant?" I asked hesitantly
"Probably dead?" He answered tilting his head slightly. As if he was stating the very obvious answer.
How can someone possibly so morbidly cute? But anyway, I am supposed to occupy a dead person room? Focus! focus!
Probably guessing my thoughts, the warden replied, "Most rooms are like this. This facility is really old after all. Most ghosts don't make it to graduation due to some reasons."
"I see..." I replied not really knowing what to reply after a pause. Let's just go with the flow. I can do it! focus! focus!
I took a deep breath and started inspecting the room ignoring the dead body in the middle of the room.
Gold! more gold! the room was littered with chests full of gems and gold. These people surely are obsessed with gold. other than gold coins, there were also some pieces of jewellery, some gold inlaid lanterns, a golden skull? with a candle on the top? Some fancy candlestand I guess. There were also various books littered on the floor and some ferocious animals skin on the floor. The previously seen body was actually kept in a glass coffin, just like the ones in Bodyshop.
I also noticed a lantern on the top of the coffin, apparently not lit. The coffin was not glowing like in the shop. probably the reason for the emaciated state.
Other than the glass coffin in the middle of the room, there was a heavy wooden table in a corner with few heavy dusty books on the top. There was also a well-cushioned chair before it. Beside the table were an unlit fireplace, some more portraits and stuff decorating the walls. Other than that there was also an opened Almira with clothes and random things spilling put of it.
And on the left side of the door, there was a bed. But there was no mattress, and beside it was a shelf filled to the brim with thick books, or are they tomes?
The warden was checking up on the coffin as I was observing the room. He commanded the owl sitting silently on his shoulder in some unknown language. The owl flew onto the top of the coffin and took the lantern and flew back to the boy.
So that's why he has this owl? Because he is short? Life must be hard for him too. Let's not judge.
The boy promptly took the lantern and took out a small pouch from his lapel. He opened the blue silk pouch with a white lily embroidered on it and took out a crystalline coin. He took the greenish glowing crystalline coin and put it inside the lantern through a small hole on top.
Soon, a greenish light encompassed the area of the room and the coffin also lit up. The boy handed the lantern back to the owl, which put it back in the previous place. Then the boy took out a small vial, opened it up and poured the content onto the rotting body in the coffin.
The body made a sizzling noise like when one fries stuff and started emitting green fumes. Slowly the flesh and bones of the corpse started to melt and decompose. Within a few seconds, the only things left behind were two grey stoned artefacts, just like the one I had inside my own body.
The boy turned to me and said, " You can have everything inside this room. Also, pour some of your spirit energy into the key, it will give you the ownership of the room. It will stay yours until either you die, or you graduate. Hope to see you around more." Then the boy finally gave a small smile on his stony face and left.
I sighed in relief as soon as the boy was out of the room.
"Dorm sweet dorm I guess... At least I am not dead. and I also have all this gold?