Block C Doesn’t Lock - by Onlyreal

Everyone in the hostel knew Block C had issues. Not bad water.Not bad electricity. Doors. The doors never locked properly. No matter how many times maintenance fixed them, the locks would work for a week… then fail again. By mid-semester, most students just stopped bothering. Except Daniel. Final year. Computer science. Quiet guy. He liked control. Systems. Certainty. So when he moved into Room C12, he replaced the lock himself. Solid steel. Heavy bolt. No one was getting in. ⸻ The first night was normal. The second night, around 2:28 a.m., he heard footsteps in the corridor. Slow. Measured. Not the usual loud hostel running. These were… careful. He ignored it. Then came a soft metallic sound. Click. Like someone testing his door handle. He sat up. The handle stopped moving. Silence. Daniel checked his phone. No missed calls. No notifications. He told himself it was just someone drunk. He lay back down. Then he heard it. A whisper. Right outside his door. “Open.” His throat tightened. He didn’t respond. The whisper came again. “Daniel.” His blood ran cold. No one on that floor called him Daniel.Everyone called him Dan. The whisper scratched across the wood. “Open. I’ve been locked out.” He slowly got out of bed and walked toward the door. His hands trembled as he leaned closer. “Who is it?” he asked. Silence. Then— “Your roommate.” Daniel didn’t have a roommate. Room C12 was listed as single occupancy. He stepped back. His phone buzzed. Unknown number. Message: “You locked me out.” The door handle began to turn. Slowly. Deliberately. The steel bolt didn’t move. But the handle kept turning. And turning. And turning. As if the door was unlocking from the inside. Daniel stared. His bolt was still in place. Locked. Then the whisper came again. Not from outside. From behind him. “Why are you facing the door?” His body went numb. The air in the room felt thick. Wrong. His phone buzzed again. “You always forget to check under the bed.” He didn’t want to look. He didn’t want to breathe. The door handle outside stopped moving. Complete silence. Then— A soft exhale. Right by his ear. He ran. Flung the door open. The corridor was empty. Lights flickering. No footsteps. No one. He ran downstairs to the security post. Panting. Shaking. He told them someone was in his room. They followed him back up. Room C12. The steel bolt was still locked from the inside. They broke the door open. The room was empty. Bed untouched. Windows closed. No one. One of the security men frowned. “Why did you lock yourself in?” “I didn’t,” Daniel whispered. The man pointed. The bolt wasn’t broken. It wasn’t forced. It was turned inward. Locked. From inside. Daniel looked at his phone. One last message. Sent at 2:29 a.m. “Next time, don’t run.” ⸻ The next week, Block C maintenance removed the bolt. They said it was a safety hazard. Room C12 is still available. The door still doesn’t lock. But sometimes, around 2:28 a.m., students in the corridor hear someone inside… Testing the handle. Slowly.

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