*You must read the following anecdote in a scary voice with a flashlight under your face*
It was the Thursday before Halloween. The Editor-in-Chief, Jiya, had spent nine hours in The Stute Office laying out that week’s issue. With the Stute Speaker at maximum volume, Jiya did not hear the soft scratching at the doorway. Focused on submitting the newspaper to her printing press on time, Jiya blindly stared and focused soley on her laptop.
It was her pure dedication to The Stute that led to her downfall.
She quickly looked up as she saw something move in front of her. She had assumed it was the school dog, Tillie, running around. It was then that the lights outside the office shut off. Thankfully the office lights remained on, keeping Jiya’s unease at bay.
All of a sudden, the speaker began to play “Ring around the Rosie,” the popular nursery rhyme. Startled, Jiya checked her phone and realized that it had disconnected from the speaker all together.
“Hello?” Jiya called out, positive that it was one of her friends toying around with the lights and the speaker.
Silence.
The scratching continued, finally catching her attention.
“Tillie? Stop scratching at my doorway. Are you hungry?”
Jiya threw the door wide open, and to her surprise, there was nothing there. The scratching became increasingly louder, but closer to her laptop. She rushed over and saw that her screen was flashing red. Trying to troubleshoot the issue and recover the newspaper, Jiya realized that her entire computer had been thrown into disarray.
There was nothing. Her personal files, her school documents, and the newspaper. It was all gone. It was as if someone had wiped her entire computer, within the few seconds she had walked away to open the door.
The scratching sound progressed and became more intense, but from the far left corner of the office. Confused and horrified, she began walking slowly toward the sound and finally found its source.
Written in what looked like blood were the words, “The Stute is done.”
Jiya began screaming when the lights in the office began to flicker. Blood started seeping out of the walls, almost as if they were crying. She rushed to exit, but legend has it, she never made it out of the building.
Jiya Jaisinghani, Editor-in-Chief of The Stute, was never seen again.
