After signing up for a night class out of curiosity, Elena is now stuck listening to a chilling lecture from her mysterious professor. What started as a playful whim quickly shifts into a tense, bone-chilling experience. You can find part one here.  

Ever since she was little, Elena always liked horror stories. The chilling mystery of the supernatural that makes your skin crawl and your heartbeat faster fascinated her. Nothing, however, could prepare her for the bone-chilling feeling creeping down her spine while talking to her professor in the middle of the night. It’s not like he himself was creepy, but the circumstances of their class made her feel like the star of her own little horror show.  

The teacher on her phone cleared his throat and crossed his arms on his chest, smiling. 

“As I’ve been saying, the influence of cemeteries on local urban design has always fascinated me. There is something so intriguing in how the dead keep on influencing the living even after their passing. I would’ve asked how many of you thought about the connection between urban planning and cemeteries, but since it’s only you, Elena, I’ll just continue further with my topic. It’s such a shame no one else showed up.”  

If she wasn’t as freaked out as she was, Elena would’ve felt bad for him. It seemed that this topic was something he was truly passionate about, even though from the first glance she could’ve never guessed that. Who would ever think that a young Dutch professor that gets along with students and goes out on the weekly would teach a free elective about death?  

Surprisingly, though, the class itself went on fairly normal. There wasn’t anything mysterious or out of place, just a man talking about urban planning with a lot of enthusiasm. Well, aside from the time, of course, and the whole “closed classroom” thing. Suddenly Elena wasn’t feeling that cold anymore. Her fingers weren’t stiff, and the jacket slowly fell from her shoulders sometime during the class without her even noticing. It was comfortable, talking to someone who seemed so unattainable during the day. It felt like she even forgot for a second that teachers were human beings, with their own lives, passions, and interests. Perhaps she could even become friends with many of them, if it wasn’t for the fact that they were her teachers, of course.  

It was already five in the morning when her screen went dim and Elena ended up all alone in the hallway once again. She sat there, blinking at the dark screen, trying to come to terms with everything that had happened these last three hours. Elena dusted off her jacket and slowly got up from the floor, struggling to balance just a little from how long she’s been sitting in the same position. Ignoring the ache in her legs, she swiftly grabbed her backpack and looked around for the last time before going back down the dark hallway. There was still not a single soul in the building, not even security. All lights were turned off, with the exception of an emergency exit light shining somewhere in the distance, like an anchor reminding her that it was still, in fact, her campus.  

Each step she took sounded louder than the one before. Frontier building’s hallways seemed oddly long and even the layout seemed unfamiliar. Distant even. Maybe she was just so exhausted that she couldn’t even recognize her own campus building anymore, and that feeling of unease from before was starting to creep up her spine again.  

Something wasn’t right.  

Suddenly her hone buzzed in her pocket, jolting Elena out of her daze. It was another message from her professor:  

“Elena, I forgot to mention, there is a place I would like for you to check out before our next class. Can I trouble you with going to the attic in the Horizon building and retrieving something for me? You will know what it is once you find it. The janitors can give you the keys. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to come by their station this week, so if you could do that, that would save me quite some time!”  

A wild request from someone who just gave a lecture at two in the morning, Elena thought, but who was she to judge, being the only one crazy enough to actually attend it? Luckily, she had quite some time the next day, but even if she didn’t - she would never decline a request so intriguing. 

It felt like the longest time before she managed to find her way back to the bathroom stall. There were at least three more hours before the campus officially opened, and as much as Elena wanted to take a shower and get into her warm, fresh bed, she couldn’t risk the chance of getting caught. So, she waited it out.  

As the hours dragged by, Elena drifted in and out of light, uncomfortable sleep, her mind buzzing from new information. She dreamed of something, even though she couldn’t clearly tell what exactly it was. A mix of unsettling, disfigured images kept coming up in her mind each time she closed her eyes. At some point she could swear she witnessed a few zombies come out of a cemetery and instruct the construction workers on how to build the roads around it. When the campus finally opened, Elena was even more weary than before. She managed to sneak out of the building unnoticed and went home. 

Exhausted from the night before, Elena ended up skilling all of her lectures. Still, her professor’s request lingered on her mind. It felt like his words had a grip on her consciousness; no matter how hard she tried to distract herself it was all she could think about. By the time she came back to campus it was already three in the afternoon. She quickly made her way towards the Horizon building, red leaves falling on her head and rustling under her boots as she walked. There were still a few days before Halloween, but she could already see many students dressed as creepy ghouls and fancy vampires, and Pitbull for some reason.  

The janitor stared at Elena like she grew a second head after hearing the request. He looked her up and down, before taking his glasses off and leaning back in his chair.  

“Is there any proof of what you just told me,”he asked, voice full of skepticism.  

“Oh, yes, of course!”  

Elena fumbled with her phone, trying to pull up the professor's message as proof. Her hands were shaky, both from the lack of sleep and the unsettling nature of her task. To her surprise though, after she finally found the chat window with her professor, she couldn’t find anything she could actually show. The message was gone. Elena felt her knees shake as she stared at the screen, both embarrassment and fear settling somewhere under her ribcage.  

“I swear it was there this morning,” she mumbled while frantically scrolling up. The janitor rolled his eyes. “Maybe I deleted it by accident?”  

“Listen, I can’t just let you go there without any proof by yourself. If I remember correctly, though, your teacher was actually the last one to go up there on Friday… Now that I think of it, I don’t think he ever brought the keys back, hm.”  

Elena stared at the janitor with round, helpless eyes.  

“Does that mean that you can’t open it?”  

“I have another set of keys. I’ll walk with you, but only this time. And tell your teacher to bring the keys back.”  

The janitor grumbled as he rose from his chair. He wasn’t particularly happy with having to make a detour, but he led Elena to the attic anyway. After going up a few flights of stairs, since the elevator wasn’t working for some reason, they ended up right in front of a white, wooden door. The space around them was pretty crumpled, with no windows or other doorways - only an elevator shaft and a stairway leading down to the third floor.  

“Is there a festival or something? You second-year students have been asking for the keys quite often lately. Maybe you should store the equipment somewhere closer, eh? Since you need it this often,” the janitor complained. Elena didn’t know what to say, so she just laughed awkwardly.  

After fumbling with keys for a few seconds, the door was finally unlocked, opening a way into a dusty space with loads of boxes scattered around the long hallway.  

“I don’t know what you need from here, but I’ll stay outside. Don’t take too long,” the janitor said. As soon as Elena stepped her foot into the hallway, she felt a gust of wind from the nearest window rush past her, closing the door to the attic with a loud bang.  

The echo of the door slamming reverberated through the musty air, and Elena’s heart raced as she found herself standing alone in the attic. Still, she tried to gather her courage and walked towards the next door that led even deeper into space. Every time she took a step, dust rose from the floor, and the room appeared cloudy and murky. Elena couldn’t help but cough as she made her way forward. It became so bad at some point that she had to cover her mouth and nose with the collar of her shirt.  

Unfortunately, not even a gas mask, if she had one, could have prepared her for the stench that engulfed her as she opened the next door.  

Elena felt her eyes watering from the smell as she searched around. There were carts standing along the walls, making the space feel even more crumpled and claustrophobic. Initially she couldn’t find anything that would grab her attention, since it was so hard to focus on something specific with so many boxes and wires laying around. That is, until she looked across the room and saw something lying in the far-right corner. It was something large, the size of a very big dog, and it seemed so out of place that Elena immediately knew it was the reason she had come there in the first place. There was nothing else they could possibly store here. 

“Professor, is that you?”  

To be continued...  

The third and final part of this story will be out in a few weeks. What do you think happened on that attic?  

Does it feel like traveling is way too expensive these days? Well, luckily for you, Annebelle has more than enough tips for broke students! Don’t forget to check out “Ready to Travel? Here’s How to Do It on a Budget!”