Prologue
No one remembers who first locked it.
Some say it was a prank gone wrong. Others whisper about the girl
who vanished mid-semester, the one whose name was scratched
into the paint before the janitor tried to cover it up. There's even a
story about a boy who dared to open it on Friday the 13th and
never came back to class.
Locker 13 has always been a rumor with a hinge.
It stands at the end of the north hallway, where the fluorescent
lights flicker like a failing heartbeat. The rest of the lockers are
dented and scarred with years of teenage vandalism, but 13 looks
untouched-like time skips over it. Teachers pretend not to notice.
Students walk past it faster than they mean to, as if something
inside might hear them.
On the morning of the funeral, the locker stood ajar. Just a crack,
as though someone had been inside.