The Corner (3 page)

Reading about the horror and
hardships endured by the people of turbulent times helped me to
feel better. What I had gone through was nothing as compared to the
sufferings of many others.

Alice, a bespectacled redhead,
joined in the discussion, “Yeah, my sis, a senior here, told me
that this place used to be the headquarters of a guerrilla
organization. There’s another story: a group of spectral-like
soldiers march around the basketball court at midnight.”

Both Mandy and Kelly widened
their eyes in horror. I fervently hoped that all those talks about
ghosts weren’t attracting the attention of the standing girl.

Kelly cleared her throat. “No
wonder they can’t get most renovation works done. There were
rumours spreading in my elementary school … awful accidents always
happen when the contractors try to do their job in Lawson’s school
compound. Must be the curses of those slain yet violent souls.”

Alice adjusted her spectacles
while rebuking, “Could be just the Principal’s excuses for not
doing a good job on the maintenance of the building.”

“That reminds me—her office
seems newly renovated,” said Kelly while folding her arms.

Alice smiled. “See what I
mean.”

Mandy then whispered, “Hear me
out, Cindy mentioned that when they camped overnight in one of the
classrooms, her friend had heard a woman crying … there were wails
in the background.”

“Which classroom?” asked the
nervous Alice.

Mandy replied, “2/8.”

The other two girls breathed a
sigh of relief, but I wasn’t feeling any better.

“There’s one about our classroom
…” added Mandy.

I froze up. An eerie presence at
the back was crawling towards me as I waited for Mandy to continue
her story.

Should I stop her?

It was getting nearer.

With a look of suspense
plastered onto her face, Mandy revealed, “Corner—”

The clogging sounds of the
teacher’s heels sent us scampering back to our seats.

“Good morning, class,” greeted
Ms. Fairfield, our Mathematics teacher.

I had good impressions of Ms.
Fairfield. From my observations on yesterday’s lessons, I could
tell that unlike other teachers who had that lazy vibe, she was
alert and focused, conducting her lessons with deadly precision.
She didn’t simply read to us what was written on the textbooks.
Highlighting the fundamental concepts was her way of getting us to
understand the topics. In fact, she was the only teacher whom I
paid attention to for more than fifty percent of the time during
lesson.

While Ms. Fairfield was delving
into the concepts of Trigonometry, her mention of mirror sparked an
idea in my mind. If the corner girl was a ghost, she shouldn’t have
a reflection.

After the Mathematics lesson
ended, I took out my compact mirror. It was more for the purpose of
checking if there was any food stuck between my teeth after meals.
I felt uneasy about looking at myself in the mirror when in front
of others. My preferred way was to do it in the privacy of the
cubicle. So no one could judge me for what I was doing.

The thought of finding out the
truth was daunting and scary, but I really needed to know. It might
just put me at ease upon understanding the nature of that standing
girl.

With my
forearms rested on the desk, I held up the mirror to have it facing
me. I was ready ... maybe.

Gripping the mirror in my
trembling hand, I used it to get a view of what lay behind me.
First, the reflection of the wall appeared in the mirror. I slowly
tilted it towards the corner.

The edge of a white object
showed up at the side of the mirror.
Her uniform?

The mirror was tilted further,
then I saw her image.

She was
staring back
at
me. Her eyes were covered by her long centre-parted bangs.

She was supposed to be facing
away from me!

I flung away the mirror in
alarm. It smashed into the cement flooring and shattered into
pieces. On the retrospective, I was glad that it didn’t hit
anyone.

Several girls whirled around to
glare at me. Kelly appeared to be shocked and unpleased about the
furore I had stirred up. There were many narrowed eyes and frowns
among my classmates. Some of them were whispering to each other,
but all the while, they didn’t take their eyes off me. They must be
thinking that something was wrong with me. Perhaps they hated me
for the disturbance and mess I had caused.

Mandy ran to my side. “You
really look … uh … not in a good shape. Let’s go to the nurse’s
room.”

After hearing what Mandy had
said, Kelly grimaced and then offered to help, “You guys go ahead.
I’ll clean up the mess and inform Mr. Schmidt when he comes in for
lesson.”

I didn’t expect them to be so
thoughtful towards me. Kelly was appointed to be the class monitor,
but still, it was surprising that she had bothered to help me.

“Come on.” Mandy stretched out
her hand.

I smiled and shook my head.
“Thanks. I can manage on my own.” I felt awkward to be treated like
a princess.

Ignoring the presence behind me,
whose chaotic aura was getting stronger as seconds ticked by, I
headed to the door. Before going out into the corridor, I used the
corner of my eyes to catch a glance of the corner girl.

She was hunching forward instead
of standing up straight like she usually did.

Was she depressed?

At that moment, I felt a slight
pity for her.

On the way to the nurse’s room
on the third floor, I decided to take a step out and asked Mandy,
“Uh … you had mentioned something about ‘corner’ just now …”

Mandy’s eyes widened. “Oh, that.
Cindy told me while we were walking back home yesterday.”

It meant both of them lived in
District 9—the area where our school was located in. It was
well-known to be the high-end residential district.

Then Mandy continued, “There’s a
ghost standing at the darkest corner of our classroom. A girl in
our school uniform”—her voice became tense—“only someone special
can see her. She needs to feed …”

I gathered the blazer around my
body as my mind ran through the possible reasons on why I was the
special one. “What does she feed on?”

She shrugged. “No one knows. But
it can’t be anything good.”

“How can we be sure?” I thought
that it was unfair to judge that corner girl based on what little
facts we knew about her. I was so acquainted with the feelings of
being wronged.

A huge grin spread across her
face. “Maybe we can try the Ouija board to find out?”

I shook my head in staunch
disagreement. “What if we can’t handle this properly? The spirits
can end up following us …” I had read too many horror stories about
Ouija boards to know that those stuff couldn’t be touched.

Her lips scrunched up. “Don’t
worry, we can keep them away with our willpower and courage.”

I tilted my head sideway, trying
to understand the logic behind what she had said.

“I heard this from my aunt: the
greater the fear, the weaker you’re against them.”

I wasn’t convinced at all. “Is
she a medium.… Does she know whether ghosts have reflection?”

She laughed and made a waving
gesture. “Nope. Just a goth obsessed with occult stuff. She had
proclaimed that ghosts don’t have it.”

I wondered if what I had
encountered was something else.

She went on to add, “There are
some who’re powerful enough to project their images into the
mirror”—she lowered her voice to a whisper—“need to steer clear of
those. Even common ghosts are afraid of them. It’s hard to get rid
of those once the connection is made.”

Was I doomed already?

Mandy took a long hard look at
me before replying, “You’re looking paler ... let’s drop this.”

After I let out a soft sigh of
relief, she asked, “Hey, which ECA are you joining?”

Actually, I had no clear idea on
which extra curriculum activity to sign up for. My choice would be
none if I had a choice. Too bad that it was compulsory for us to
join at least one ECA group. I would choose the one requiring
minimum interactions.

“Mathematics club, I guess.” It
sounded like the best choice among all the bad ones. Mathematics
was one of my favourite subjects after all.

“This only?”

I nodded in response.

Mandy’s jaws went slack. “You’ll
get a C for your ECA score. To get an A, we need to join at least
two that require high level of commitment.”

“Well ...” I didn’t really care,
but I kept my mouth shut on that thought.

ECA score was for bragging
rights only. It might help one to gain entry into prestigious
universities, but wouldn’t contribute to our total scores for the
national examinations. I had flunked all the Social Studies tests,
but that didn’t stop me from becoming one of the top students in my
elementary school.

However, I had serious doubts on
whether I could even be in the top ten percent of my cohort in
Lawson. Competing with the best was just different. The dream of
getting into Elisa Bennington University, the best Engineering
school, seemed to drift further away. University of Accastle was an
impossible dream in the first place since it was renowned for its
Law faculty. I couldn’t hold a decent conversation with anyone,
much less a debate.

I tried to change the topic,
“Have you decided already?”

She began to walk with a light
bounce in each step. “Yeah. NPCC. Kelly is joining it too.”

NPCC: National Police Cadet
Corps, a group that expected its members to devote ample amount
time into those marching exercises and practise absolute teamwork.
It was for the fittest ones to join. So I didn’t bother to take a
peek at their booth during orientation.

“That’s cool.” In spite of my
lack of interest in that ECA, I really meant it since NPCC’s
performance during the welcoming ceremony was very impressive.

“I’m also signing up for
gymnastics”—she walked closer to me—“want to join?”

I already had a tough time doing
basic exercises. Jogging was one prime example. Not to mention that
my limbs had serious coordination issues, like how I couldn’t
immediately tell right from left. Gymnastics was definitely the
last sport I wanted to try.

My brows furrowed together.
“Don’t think so.”

She waved off my negative reply.
“Hey, come on. Accompany me to give it a try?”

“How about Kelly?” I hoped to
get off the hook by dragging the class monitor into it.

“She’s joining the netball team
instead. You can join us for one practice and see how it goes. Plus
…” Then she chuckled. “It’s held at St. Andrew’s Institution.”

I wasn’t taken aback by that
fact. A modern gymnasium would look so out of place in our almost
crumbling, antique-like school building. I guess that there was no
other option, except to use the one nearest to our place: St.
Andrew’s Institution, which was a bus stop away.

“So?” Mandy probed for an
answer.

The prospect of travelling down
to there sounded more repelling than enticing to me. It seemed so
troublesome. And it wasn’t for any good reason, other than to make
a fool out of myself.

“I’m not into sports,” I
confessed, with the assumption that she would back off.

“Gymnastics is a different kind
of sports. It’s not only about being sporty. It’s the grace.” She
balanced on one foot and went on to do a twirl, looking like a
ballerina. “I think you’ve that quality.”

Touched by her kind words, I
found myself having difficulty in outright rejecting her request.
“Uh ...”

She jumped in excitement. “I
take it as a ‘yes’! I’ll help you to sign up later.”

Throughout the rest of the
journey, Mandy gushed about the beauty of gymnastics, her favourite
gymnasts and how excited she was to have me joining her. The more
enthusiastic she was, the more nervous I got, due to the increasing
apprehension of disappointing her with my potentially disastrous
attempt at trying out the sport.

When we reached our destination,
the school nurse, June, was standing at the doorway, which was
partially blocked by a stack of cardboard boxes. Being busy with
the checking of the medical supplies that had just arrived, she
told me to wait inside for a while.

Before entering the room, I
turned to Mandy. “I’ll be fine here. You can go back to class.”

She smiled and patted my back.
“Okay. Take care, ya?”

“Sure.”

After Mandy headed back to the
classroom, I went into the nurse’s room: a quiet place that had a
tall, old fashioned cabinet filled with medicines and first aid
kits, and a single size metal frame bed placed near the opened
window. The atmosphere there felt cold and sterile.

I sat on the bed, facing the
window, and my legs were hanging off the side of the bed. I felt
lonely in there, but I appreciated the tranquillity.

Then I heard the sound of the
door opening.

Chapter 6 Evil?

I spun around to see June
shoving the boxes into the room. A woman in the mid-forties, her
well-groomed outlook and serious demeanour were flashing red lights
about the dangers of messing with her.

“What’s wrong?” asked June. Her
expressions seemed to indicate that she wanted me out of there.

Feeling a lump stuck in my
throat, I saw no good reason to tell her the truth. “Feeling weak,”
I stuttered.

The woman walked over to my side
and then pulled a nearby foldable plastic chair to the side of the
bed, right beside the window, before settling down in it.

Staring at me in the eyes, she
remarked, “If you keep this up, it’ll become a bad habit.”

I blinked my eyes in
bewilderment.

She grimaced. “You can’t be
using this kind of excuse to skip classes.”