There's a scream. It's a girl, I think. It's heartbreakingly tragic and shrill, reverberating off of the walls, rising from the floorboards, and pouring in from the windows. It's the sound of pure pain. I cover my ears as the sound intensifies, with more voices and higher actives adding in. An icy wind tears throughout the room, blowing my curly hair around my face.

My blood is ice in my veins, and I whip around in circles, looking for the source of the noise. There's nobody here. I squeeze my eyes shut and wrap my arms around myself in terror, adding my voice to the cacophony of others.

Then, nothing.

The screams stop, the wind stops, and the room starts to feel warm again. I slowly open my eyes and relax my tense limbs. My cheeks redden, and I feel a little silly. I straighten my shoulders and force a sigh of indignation.

"Must have just been the open window," I say to myself, making an attempt at reassurance. I glance toward the windowsill. It's closed.

I let out a shaky breath. "Yep, just as I expected. It was the window," I lie to myself, biting down on my lip hard.

I sit back onto my master bed, trying to calm myself down. "See? Nothing to worry about." I nervous laugh, running a hand through my hair and laying back down on the bad.

My door slams open, and I jump three feet in the air, eyes popping out of my skull. The door frame is empty. There's no one there. I hiss air in between my teeth.

Confused, I slowly stand up and make my way over there. I stand at the edge of the hallway, looking both ways. No one to the left, no one to the right. I furrow my brows.

Then, I look straight ahead. There, etched onto the wall on the other side of the hallway in scrawling, white letters, the words 'get out'.

My heart collides with my tailbone. "Don't have to tell me twice," I whisper, dumbstruck, before racing down the hallway to the staircase that I came up from.

"Kasper! Ezra! Emerson?" I yell, jogging down the hallway of the third floor, where I know the three of them live.

"Kasper! Ezra! Emerson!" Now, I realize my plan is flawed, but I don't know what else to do to find them, so this is the best I can do for now. I turn around and run back the other way.

"Kaspe-" I crash into his firm body, as he steps out of his room, and I race down the corridor at the same time.

"You rang?" Kasper asks, looking down at me in surprise.

"You assholes!" I scream, pushing his chest.

"What?" He is the picture of confusion as he stares down at me.

From the room behind him, Emerson pokes his head out. "Why is she yelling?"

"You guys are messing with me, and I want to know why," I say through gritted teeth. On the way down the stairs, I had decided the three of them definitely had something to do with whatever the hell just happened to me upstairs. "If this is some sort of hazing thing, I promise I will ruin all of you."

"Dude, whatever happened I swear we had nothing to do with it!" Emerson argues. I turn on him, shoving him as hard as I can.

"Fuck all of you," I spit, spinning on my heels and fleeing the scene.

I don't know where I'm headed since I don't know my way around yet, but all that I know is that I can't spend another minute in these creepy old dormitories.

The second I've cleared the doors and entered the fall air, I hear a voice behind me.

"Crimson! I trust you found your room alright?" It's my godfather, waving his hand at me from across the clearing.

"Yep, real great," I huff without slowing down.

"Everything okay?" He asks, speed walking across the grass as he struggles to catch up with me.

I turn and spread my arms. "Peachy keen!" I sarcastically shout.

He stops in his tracks and swallows hard. "Um, alright then. I will see you later."

I continue in my rage until I reach the library. It's a spacious, old building, with several small 'research rooms' along the back wall. I storm into one and slam the door shut behind me before plopping down into a chair, kicking my feet onto the table, and whipping out my phone.

"I already hate this fucking school," I grumble.

I'm cruising through social media, trying to rid my mind of whatever happened in my dorm earlier, when there's a bang behind me. I drop my phone on the table and squeeze my eyes shut.

"There's no such thing as ghosts," I whisper, turning around to face the noise as slow as possible.

It's a book on the floor in front of a bookcase. "You weren't there before," I say to it, wrinkling my nose.

I cross the room and kneel in front of it, opening the front cover. It's an old yearbook, from the year 1955. "Don't mind if I do," I laugh to myself, pulling the book into my lap. I flip through pages of poor quality, black and white pictures of boys. There seemed to be much more students back then than there are now. At the back of the book, I find pictures of the sports teams. And on the final page, there's a picture of about twelve solemn looking boys. They're not holding any sports equipment or anything like that. I frown and peer closer at the inscription beneath the photograph. It's titled 'The Green Snakes'.

I turn the page to its backside, hoping for some more information about this group, but there's nothing. There's something about the way the boys stare at the camera, or maybe through it, that raises goosebumps on my arms. Something makes me take it with me, when I head out of the library. My fear has mostly been replaced with curiosity, so I head back to the dorms.

On my way in, I'm bombarded by boys pouring out of the building. I see Kasper and the twins, and Kasper and Emerson each loop an arm through mine, dragging me backwards along with them. "Where are we going?" I ask, stumbling as I get myself going in the right direction.

"To dinner, silly, then we'll give you a little tour of campus," Kasper answers.

"Nah, my godfather already showed me around, so I think I'll pass on that one."

"But you haven't gotten our tour yet, and that's the one that really matters," Emerson says.

"Oh yeah? What's so special about your tour?" I roll my eyes uninterestedly.

"They're going to point out spots on campus at which they've done idiotic things or major social events have occurred," Ezra explains.

"Well, when you put it like that, it doesn't sound so fun," Emerson pouts, crossing his arms.

I clap Ezra on the back. "You know, you're a weird dude, but I'll let you guys take me on your stupid little tour."

"How very gracious of you," Kasper says, as we enter yet another dusty old building. It's a large room, and we wait in a long line heading towards the front, where a self-serve buffet of mediocre-looking food sits.

I pile whatever looks most edible onto my tray, before we take a seat at one of the round tables near the back. I take a bite and grimace. "Ugh, is it always this bad?" I ask.

"Yes," Ezra answers immediately. "Sometimes worse." I groan, but take another bite regardless.

"Whatcha got there?" Kasper asks, gesturing toward the yearbook.

"Just something that caught my eye in the library, you know, after I screamed at you guys."

"Oh, yeah, that was weird," Emerson says, like he just remembered that it even happened. "Are we gonna talk about that ever?"

"Probably not." I slide the book across the table and open it to the last page, turning it around to show it to the boys.

"Oh, yeah, I think I've heard of these guys. Apparently, they were a big deal back in the day," Kasper says, taking a bite of his liquidy mashed potatoes.

"Ezra, what you got?" I ask, hoping for the spew of information that I assume will be soon to follow.

"Elite society, very secretive. Started in 20's, ended in 50's with the school. Not much else is known." He stares through me when he speaks, as if reading from a book over my shoulder.

"Hmm, interesting. I don't like secrets," I say, furrowing my eyebrows and waiting for the people in the photo to explain their little boy's club to me.

"I don't like secrets either, so why don't we close this book," Kasper slams the book shut in front of me, "and you can tell us what the hell happened earlier."

"You're not gonna believe me. Something weird happened, so if you guys had anything to do with it, you're gonna tell me now, or I will hurt you," I say, narrowing my eyes and glancing from boy to boy, impatiently waiting for one of them to break.

Emerson holds his hands up in a display of innocence. "Hey, judging by how freaked out you were, I wish I could take credit for whatever happened, believe me. Seems like a fantastic prank."

"Do you know anyone else that could have pulled something crazy off?"

"Probably not, I'm the biggest prankster around here," Emerson answers.

"Maybe it would help if you told us what happened?" Kasper asks.

"You're not gonna believe me, but here goes," I say, before divulging the day's events.

"Impossible. Ghosts aren't real," Ezra says definitively.

"I didn't say they were. That's why I asked if it was you guys," I say, glaring at him.

No one can give me any real answers, so we finish up eating and head back outside. "So, that's the arts and humanities building, we once pushed each other down the stairs in a rolling chair," Emerson exclaims proudly.

"Limit your definition of we. I brought the first aid kit," Ezra says seriously.

"And we needed it," Kasper laughs, blowing air out of his mouth and shaking his head.

"I've still got scars," Emerson agrees, before the two idiots high five.

"So, let me get this straight, you guys have done something incredibly stupid and dangerous in every building on this campus?" I ask, looking between the two of them.

"That about sums it up," Kasper agrees.

I nod slowly and smile. "I found my people."

After the tour, I head back to my room. I pull the package of cigarettes out of the secret pocket of my suitcase and open my tiny window, sitting at my desk chair by it. I stick my head out and look out into the dark night. I flick the lighter open and take a long tug, kicking my boots onto the windowsill. Then, something catches my attention. It's a group of boys out in the night, walking in a single file line across the grass. They are dressed in the school uniforms. I blink my eyes and lean farther outside. The boys march into the library and disappear. As the last one heads inside, something on his chest glints in the moonlight. A silvery pin in the shape of a snake.

"What the hell?" I whisper. I wait a few more minutes, but nobody comes back out. Now, I'm a curious person, so I try to convince myself that I'll be able to forget what I saw and just go to sleep, but I quickly fail and hurry outside.

I creep through the night, stepping lightly on my toes, even though there's no one around to hear me. I cross the wet field to the library and try the door, but it's locked. I frown, but I'm not about to give up this easily. I bend down to my knees and pull a Bobby pin out of my hair. I don't even use them to hold back my hair, I just store them there for times like these. For someone like me, times like these happen a lot. I shove the pin into the lock and jiggle it around, before I hear a satisfying click. I smirk and push the door open a crack.

I don't see anything, so I step inside. I use my phone as a flashlight and scan the room. Something disappearing around the corner catches my eye, and I quickly move to follow. As I round the dark corner, I see a boy disappear out of sight through a doorway. And no, I don't mean he opens the door and walks through it. Instead, he passes right through the closed door.

My eyes widen, and I almost drop my phone. "I must be going crazy," I whisper to myself. I open the door, revealing a set of stairs leading downwards. "Library basement?" I wrinkle my eyebrows and shake my head, convincing myself that my mind must be playing tricks on me again. I rush out of the library and practically run back to my room. Once back on the fourth floor, I stare at myself in the deserted communal bathroom's mirror.

I point and glare at myself in the mirror. "Get it together, you psycho," I say aloud. I turn to leave, but whip back to myself again. "And stop talking to yourself while you're at it."