"Shit!" I jerked my leg away from the table and wobbled backwards, the stinging pain from the impact making my head buzz.

        "Are you alright Claire?" I heard Aspeth ask from the other side of the room. I couldn't see her but I could hear her rummaging through her trunk.

        "No," I felt around for the desk chair and gingerly sat down, "I just hit my toe against the desk."

        "I can't even find the torchlight!" Aspeth cried.

        I touched my toe and felt some thick liquid running down it. When I brought it to my nose, it smelled of blood.

        "I'm bleeding. Have--"

        "Found it!" Aspeth blurted, her tone one of relief more than triumph.

        I heard her flick it on, off and on again but no light shone.

        "I think the batteries died."

        "Girls, all of you should stay in your respective rooms. Lock your doors and stay in bed," We heard Miss Ivory, Matron's Assistant announce in the hallway. "The lanterns are over here, if you don't have a torchlight, quietly step out of your room for one."

        "Aspeth, quick!"

        There was no response.

        "Aspeth?"

        No response.

        Every organ in my body flipped, but my heart flipped twice over.

        "Aspeth?"

        I didn't get any response for the third time. All I could hear were the shuffling of feet in the hallway and the voices of some of the girls wishing Miss Ivory goodnight.

        All sorts of thoughts started zooming into and out of my head as my breathing pace quickened. "As--"

        I heard a knock on our door and startled, I could've sworn I nearly fell off the chair.

        "Who's it?" I tried to focus my eyes to see something, anything at all, but all I could see was nothing.

        "Emily." The knocker answered.

        Relief washed over me like a flood.

        "Emily?"

        "Yeah. Can I come in?"

        "Yeah. Yeah," I searched my eyes around the room, my stomach prickling with anxiety. Where was Aspeth? "Come in."

        The door clicked open and the soft glow of a lantern was what came in first. It illuminated everything in the room and then I saw someone leaning against the wall beside Aspeth's trunk.

        When I saw who it was, "Jesus Christ, Aspeth!"

        She burst into an unbridled fit of laughter. I had gotten so alarmed that the laughter sounded like music in my ears.

        "Hey Claire." Emily entered, holding up a lantern.

        "Hey." I tried getting up but my knee almost gave out. I sat back down.

        Aspeth was still laughing, and I was beginning to get annoyed.

        "Hey Aspeth." Emily looked amused.

        "H...hey Emily." Aspeth choked on her own laughter and started coughing. Even as she coughed, her laughter grew more intense.

        "That joke you told must have been very funny Claire," Emily said as she set the lantern on the desk. Her eyes darted from me to Aspeth and back to me, her lips twisted in a grin.

        "Cut it out Aspeth!" I made no effort to control my irritation.

        Aspeth stopped laughing instantaneously. "I'm so sorry Claire," I didn't mean to scare you." Her voice was low, like a repentant sinner confessing her sins to a priest.

        She walked over to her bed, sat down and buried her face in her palms.

        Emily could sense the tension and awkwardness which filled the air, I could tell from her confused facial expression.

        "So um," Emily rubbed her neck. "Maybe later," she added, picked up her lantern and left.

        The darkness returned and somehow, it had grown thicker than before.

***

        Sally had been the one screaming earlier, I'd gotten to know. Her wheelchair had ran down the stairs during the outage and she'd hurt her waist.

        Aspeth had not said a word to me and I'd not said anything to her either. I'd heard her sobbing earlier and minutes after, she'd began singing a hymn.

        Not knowing how to go about the situation, I'd written a letter of apology. But after re-reading it, it'd sounded like the pathetic mea culpa of a terribly disgraced politician and so I'd ended up tearing it into pieces.

        "Sweet sacrament divine," I joined in her hymn but she immediately stopped singing. "Beneath thy Heavenly home, low round thy lowly shrine," I continued, in hope that she'd sing along but she didn't.

        I stopped, the faintest flicker of remorse  wilting away from my heart and being replaced by anger. If Aspeth wanted to be petty about the situation, she could go right ahead. I didn't care anymore.

        The small flashlight which I'd been using started to dim, so I turned it off completely and hid myself under my blanket, falling asleep almost immediately.

***

        I bolted upright, my heart pounding wildly in my throat.

        "I...I didn't mean to...scare you Claire." Her voice was quiet, like a whisper and shaky, as though she were trying to hold back tears. She shifted the torchlight off my face and focused it on the ceiling, a dim circle of light illuminating the room. Her pyjama shirt was drenched in sweat and she looked pale white, sick.

        "What the hell is wrong with you?" A scorching ravenous anger blazed forth from my very core and I couldn't stop myself. "You were shining a torchlight on my face while I was asleep and you say you didn't mean to scare me?" I could hear blood pounding in my temples.

        A tear run down her cheek, her lower lip quivering as she spoke, "everywhere is so...so...d...dark and...and...I'm sc...scared C..Claire,"

        My anger instantly dropped to absolute zero. "Scared of what?"

        "Gho..sts..and.."

        I took a deep breath, but it did little to quench my exasperation. "Ghosts don't exist Aspeth,they--"

        "Can...can I just..just sleep beside you Claire?" She begged, her eyes gleaming with babyish fright and panic.

        "Aspeth--"

        "Pl..ple..ease." She gripped my shoulder and swallowed, hard. "Please Claire, I beg you in the name of God."

        Seeing the profound terror cemented on her face, my heart broke into two pieces. There was no way I could say no. Aspeth looked scared to death.

        I sighed. "Okay."