Now do you believe in Ghosts, Miss Chambers?

“Come on now, girls”, said Miss Chambers, a PE instructor to her 6^th form class, “This is ridiculous; out of your P.E. kits and into the showers”.

 

“No, Miss Chambers”, said Susan Elmtree, one of her star athletes looking more distressed than she had ever seen her, “There’s something in there. It’s haunted”.

 

Valerie Chambers started to laugh but stopped herself when she saw how frantic Susan was becoming.

 

“Now come on. You don’t really believe in Ghosts, do you girls?”, she said turning round and looking at the whole class and realising that they all had that same worried, fearful look on their faces.

 

“You go in if you want to, Miss Chambers”, said another girl, Stephanie Hughes, “But you won’t get me to go in there”.

 

Miss Chambers was speechless for a moment, then she asked,

 

“Well, why do you all think the shower room is haunted? Have you actually seen a ghost? Has someone in a white sheet…or maybe a towel jumped out at you?”.

 

“We don’t see anything”, said Susan, “You can’t see it but we’ve all felt it; its presence. We’ve all felt something watching and Jennifer Mullins even said she heard something breathing”.

 

“Jennifer Mullins?”, asked Miss Chambers, “Is that why she’s not here today?”.

 

“She’s too afraid to come to school”, said Susan, “She asked her mother to say she had a stomach bug because she didn’t want to have to go to her gym class”.

 

Miss Chambers shook her head,

 

“Well its obviously something else. I refuse to believe there is a ghost in the shower room. Ghosts do not exist. It’s obviously just a noise in the pipes or something. There’s always a rational explanation for these sorts of things”, she said.

 

“Well you take a shower, Miss Chambers”, said Stephanie, “See how you like it”.

 

“I will”, said Miss Chambers, determinedly, sitting down and untying her trainers, “And then I’ll show you girls what a silly fuss you’re all making about nothing”.

 

The girls all watched with interest while Miss Chambers removed her PE instructor’s uniform and underwear and then went into the shower room by herself and then the moment she was inside they all crowded round the entrance to watch.

 

“Ridiculous”, said Miss Chambers, shaking her head again as, standing beneath one of the showers, she started to wash herself.

 

“Do you hear anything, Miss Chambers?”, asked Stephanie.

 

“No Stefanie" she said, "Of course I don’t hear anything because there is no such thing as Gho-”.

 

But she did hear something. What was that? She held her breath and listened.

 

“Do you hear it, Miss Chambers?”, asked another girl.

 

“Shhh”, she said, “I’m trying to listen. If you would just be quiet”.

 

There was something else, she thought, besides the sound of water coming down from the shower heads, like a sort of deep, slow breathing but what was it?

 

She looked round about her at the room covered in ceramic tiles.

 

“It must be coming from somewhere”, she thought.

 

But then the sound of the breathing seemed closer than it had before, as if the source that was producing the sound had moved.

 

“But that can’t be”, she thought, “Unless the thing making the noise is moving”.

 

She looked round her again but there was nothing in the room except silver coloured pipes and drains and beige coloured ceramic tiles and the ceiling lights overhead.

 

“There’s nothing in the room that could be making the noise”, she thought.

 

Then the sound of breathing shifted again until it seemed close to her ear and, in spite of the warm water pouring down on her and the steam rising, she felt a chill run down her spine.

 

“No. It can’t be”, she said, pulling herself together, “It can’t. There’s no such thing as ghosts”.

 

But the breathing continued and now it felt as if something was touching her on the back of her left shoulder.

 

She couldn’t take it anymore. She rushed towards the door of the shower room, feeling her heart pounding. She had to get out of there and the breathing seemed to be following her.

 

But then she felt her right foot slip and suddenly, she was falling backwards, everything seeming to turn over as she fell back onto the tiled floor.

 

She let out a short scream like a PE teachers whistle.

 

“We told you not to go in there, Miss Chambers”, said Stephanie Hughes, laughing.

 

How could she be laughing at what was happening to her; how could anyone laugh at it?

 

She looked over at the door to the shower room but it was dark outside, like the lights had been switched off in the changing room and the girls were all gone.

 

“Where have they all gone?”, she thought, “What’s happening?”.

 

Her head was spinning and there was a sharp ache in her lower back from where she had fallen on it but she had to get back up onto her feet, she had to get out of there somehow.

 

Holding onto the wall she struggled to get back up but she felt something reach around her waist, touching her.

 

“We told you not to go in there, Miss Chambers”, she heard Susan saying as if she were smirking, “Now the ghost is going to get you”.

 

“What cruel girls”, she thought; she’d never thought they could be cruel like that, like they were enjoying watching her suffer.

 

She kept moving in the direction of the shower room entrance and bumped into a wall.

 

Where had it gone?

 

She looked at what was in front of her; there was no entrance; she must have gone in the wrong direction.

 

“That’s not the way, Miss Chambers”, said Stephanie, “You’ve gone the wrong way. The door is behind you”.

 

And the arms of the thing; the ghost were around her now; she could feel its hands moving over her.

 

She turned round and tried to reach the door again; her hand stretching out to touch the darkness of the changing room beyond.

 

But then her fingers touched beige coloured tiles as if she had gone round in a circle and come back to the same wall.

 

“There is a door; there is a door”, she yelled to herself, “There’s a way out if I can get to it”.

 

“There’s no way out, Miss Chambers”, said Stephanie, now, laughing.

 

“No way out”, said Susan, joining in.

 

Then she saw something, just out of the corner of her eye, a form like a shadow with its hands extended, moving towards her.

 

“Now do you believe in ghosts, Miss Chambers?”, she heard Susan say.