As Mrs. Lennox walked Bertha up to the lobby of the dormitory, she started to get a strange feeling. She couldn't exactly define this feeling as comfort, because it wasn't. Instead, Bertha was feeling a bit odd.... and scared.

Her feeling was quite unreasonable as nothing had happened at all. But her instinct told that her parents had made the wrong choice by sending her here.

"What happened?" Mrs. Lennox said interrupting Bertha's thoughts again, "Why are you so lost? Is there something I can do for you?" "Oh nothing, Mrs. Lennox. I'm simply missing my family back home in my village." Bertha lied.

"Feeling homesick already? Well, I can deal with it." Mrs. Lennox led Bertha gently by the hand and made her sit on one of the couches lining the walls of the lobby. Then, Mrs. Lennox walked away outside and came back after with two tall glasses of lemonade.

"Uh, there's really no need for this...." "Now please don't tell me that you hate lemonade. I've brought this especially for you. And for me, of course." Bertha found it rude not to accept the drink and so she took a glass and took a sip. It was the most delicious lemonade she had ever tasted.

The dorm-keeper sat down beside her. She drank a bit of her own drink and said, "Wonderful lemonade, this is. I don't always get the opportunity to feast my tongue with this elixir. It's only when new homesick students like you come that I am allowed to drink this. And I'm thankful to you for the same." She smiled and finished her drink. Then she looked at Bertha who still had the lemonade in her hand. Mrs. Lennox sighed. "So, you don't really like lemonade after all."

"What?! No!" Saying so, Bertha quickly gulped down her lemonade. Mrs. Lennox laughed. "Okay." she said, her face suddenly becoming serious. "I have to tell you the truth."

Shivers ran down Bertha's spine as she said it. Mrs. Lennox held her hand. "Well, nearly ten years ago, there was an uneventful incident in this school. In this very dormitory, actually." She took in a deep breath breath and continued, "It seemed that some terrorists wanted to destroy this school part by part. So, they began with the girls' dorm. They somehow managed to break in one of the rooms while everyone was in school. Unfortunately, it was room no. 407, the room which we are about to give you."

Bertha was suddenly taken up by interest on hearing the mention of the room she was about to get. "Then?" she asked. "Then, the terrorists planted a bomb below one of the beds. And when the girl dwelling in the room came back from school and reached down to her bed, the bomb exploded right on her face." Mrs. Lennox said, shuddering at the memory.

Bertha tried to imagine the entire scene, while Mrs. Lennox continued, "The girl died on the spot, while the fire that the bomb caused, engulfed the entire room. Slowly, after that, the fire began to spread in the entire dormitory."

"Oh damn!" Bertha exclaimed, "I just flinch imagine how many deaths the fire must have caused." Mrs. Lennox smiled. "Not really." she said. "Everybody survived. Except the girl in room no. 407, of course." Bertha let out a sigh of relief. "Don't look so relieved." The dorm-keeper said. "They say that the ghost of the dead girl still haunts the room."

Bertha grinned. "Oh god Mrs. Lennox, you have a good sense of humour." "I'm not joking. Its true." Mrs. Lennox looked very solemn.

The young brown-haired girl stared at the dorm-keeper for a while. Then, she burst out laughing. "Oh my god!" She didn't think that it was rude to laugh on the face of Mrs. Lennox at that moment. All she could think of was the stupidity that Mrs. Lennox was speaking.

"I'm glad that you are enjoying yourself" Mrs. Lennox said sarcastically. She stood up. "If you're not feeling even a slight hint of fear, should we head on?" Bertha stopped laughing abruptly. "I'm sorry...." she said, feeling guilty. Mrs. Lennox smiled. "Its okay. Now let's make a move."

......................................

The elevator stopped at the 4th floor. Bertha stepped out of it and Mrs. Lennox gave her the room keys, which Bertha put in her pocket. "Should I help you find your room?" Mrs. Lennox offered. "No, Mrs. Lennox. I'll manage." Bertha assured. Mrs. Lennox smiled for the last time before the elevator door closed. But as it closed, Bertha, saw an expression of guilt wash over her face.

Bertha grimaced. But she allowed that expression to pass. Instead, she looked at her surroundings. It was a long corridor with beautiful and modern wood doors lining its walls. She began to walk and look around. She could hear loud, teen pop music coming out from some rooms, whereas soft and romantic love songs coming out from from some. From some rooms, she could hear irritating and nonstop blabbering of some gossipmonger girls, whereas, from some, she heard nothing but utter silence. It was either that the girls were talking in a low voice or they weren't talking at all.

The girl marvelled at these things. This place was so unpredictable. People here had completely different personalities from each other. You can never predict anything about anybody.

As she was walking, she didn't realise that she had come to the end of the corridor. As she looked at the right hand side of the corridor, she realised that she had found it. She smirked.

She had found room no. 407.

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I'm really sorry for not updating for so long. I really am.

Anyways, I plan to end this short story in the next chapter. I hope that's fine with you :)