9 Chapter 9: The Elevator

You know what? Miracles really do happen. The elevator is actually working this time. Mark this day, 10th of December, Tuesday, 10:26 in the morning, the elevator is not dead. That is good news after a stray dog chased me the moment, I set my left foot outside the bus. I could still save a few minutes even though that's not really going to do much change. This is my today's fate and unfortunately being late is one of them.

I entered the elevator. I was the only one inside. I pressed the button to the 6th floor and the elevator went off. Being alone in the elevator is all good until you remember horror movies involving one. You know, when the elevator stops on a floor when no one was actually outside but you felt a presence that entered before the door closes? That would be another perfect reason to piss my pants again this morning. Or that elevator game that they were talking about where you will basically open a door to a different dimension. Should I try that? Hell no, my last night's dream is enough scary experience.

Speaking of ghosts, one thing I noticed about them is that I can't see them. I can see souls and soul aura, but I can't see ghosts. I haven't done much research about them, but I think they don't have souls, or that they are not souls. But one thing's for sure, ghosts are different than souls and humans, and I don't want to mess with them.

A faint elevator sound broke the silence. The door opened on the 2nd floor and for a split second, I got scared and propelled myself backward with the back of my head hitting the wall of the elevator. I told myself, if there's going to be no one physically visible on the other side of the elevator door, I am going to take my leave and run the hell out to the stairs to the 6th floor. I am a strong independent young adult but when it comes to things that I can't see, it's a completely different story. Especially since this building has so many "spooky" background.

"Oh, you okay?", a voice on the other side has called for me. The voice of the guy seemed vaguely familiar, but I just ignored it due to my mini head injury.

"Owww", convinced that I am not dealing with a ghost. I slowly moved my head forward while scratching the back of my head.

"Y-yes, I-I'm sorry", I slowly opened my eyes while blushing, trying not to feel embarrassed and keeping myself from laughing.

"Haha, that was so emba-", when my eyes were fully opened, the first thing I saw was a white aura engulfing his entire body.

It was Garfield boy. Small world isn't it, but wait until you see the elevator.

My eyes were fully locked on him as he entered the elevator. I felt like I just saw something worse than a ghost.

"I'm sorry if I scared you", he said while trying not to laugh.

"Hi, my name is Rohan, nice to meet you", he reached out his left hand trying to initiate a handshake.

Before I accepted his handshake, I quickly examined his face. He has ginger-colored hair and he's wearing glasses. I don't remember seeing him with glasses last night, that's probably the reason why we bumped into each other. Another thing I noticed from him is that he's probably obsessed with the color orange. He's wearing an orange blazer and his backpack has an autumn-inspired design in it with a strong emphasis on the large maple tree design on the back.

"Hi, I'm Nick, and… I think we actually met last night", I accepted his handshake trying to keep my composure.

"Nick?", he suddenly stopped, still holding my hand he looked like he was trying to remember something with my name. The calmness in his voice is enough for me to relax after all of the things that happened.

"Why? Is there anything wrong? Do you despise people who have Nick in their name? Oh, trust me, we don't bite", I jokingly told him.

"In fact, we are nice people. Do you know that Santa's name is also Nicholas? We are very generous people and are definitely on the nice list", I added.

The elevator door suddenly opened. We made it to the 6th floor and he still hasn't let go of my hand.

"Oh, I'm sorry I got to go. I still need haven't finished my homework for my first class", he let go of my hand and walked out of the elevator first.

"See you around… Nick", he said smiling

"Yeah", I said slowly walking out of the elevator.

His loud footsteps of running away were the only thing I heard after that.

He seems to be a nice guy. But why was he more intrigued with my name other than the fact that we literally bumped within each other last night? Whatever, I got to go.

His class was on the left side of the floor while mine was on the right side. We would probably not see each other for a while then. I still couldn't find a solid explanation of why his aura is neutrally pure white.

There are 15 rooms on the left side and another 15 on the right side, and since I'm very lucky my class is on the rightmost side, room 630.

Time check: 10:32 am. I was lowkey hoping that maybe Mrs. Hudkins (or as my classmates like to call her, Mrs. Mudkins. They call her Mudkins after somebody from her class threw a ball of mud on her face about a year ago.) would be feeling nice today and would let me enter her class, but I already saw 6 people outside our room, in the hallway. The usual late students. I was expecting more but the other ones were probably in the canteen skipping classes.

"Sup", Justin the troublemaker of the class greeted me with a smirk. His aura is glowing yellow. This guy just doesn't feel anything other than fun.

"Yeah whatever", I annoyingly replied

I sat down as far as possible away from him. The others completely ignored my existence and continued using their phones. One of them looked at me, giving me, a disgusted facial expression and I can see it very well from her aura.

I hate being with these people, and I don't want others to see me as part of them. So instead of waiting, I decided to spend the next an hour and a half in the canteen. Mrs. Hudkins didn't see me anyway so I could just pretend that I was absent today.