The Echoes of the Dormitory

In the heart of the sprawling university campus, nestled among the towering trees and the echoing silence of the night, stood the Boys' Dormitory. It was an old, three-story building, its walls weathered and its windows often left ajar, inviting the chill of the night air. The dormitory was a place where secrets whispered through the corridors and the echoes of laughter turned into ghostly murmurs at midnight.

The story began with a new batch of students settling into their rooms on the third floor. Among them was Li, a quiet and reserved young man who had just moved from a small town to pursue his studies. He was soon joined by his friends, Wang and Zhang, who shared the same sense of excitement and trepidation about the new place.

On their first night, as the stars began to twinkle in the vast expanse of the night sky, Li, Wang, and Zhang lay in their beds, their minds racing with thoughts of the unknown. The dormitory was eerily quiet, save for the occasional rustling of the leaves outside the window.

It was then that the first whispering began. It was faint at first, a soft murmur that seemed to come from the far end of the corridor. Li's heart pounded in his chest as he turned to his friends, their eyes wide with fear and curiosity.

"Did you hear that?" Li asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

Wang nodded, his face pale. "Yes, it was like someone was whispering, but there was no one there."

The whispers grew louder, more insistent, as if the voices were chasing them. Li's mind raced with questions: Who was there? What did they want?

The next night, the whispers returned, but this time they were accompanied by cold drafts that seemed to come from nowhere. The temperature in the room dropped rapidly, and the students could feel the chill in their bones.

Li decided to investigate. He tiptoed down the corridor, his footsteps echoing in the empty space. He reached the end of the corridor and stopped, his eyes wide with fear as he saw the source of the whispers.

In the room next to his, the door stood ajar, and the faint glow of a light emanated from within. Li hesitated for a moment before pushing the door open. The room was empty, save for an old, dusty mirror that stood in the center of the room.

As he approached the mirror, he noticed a strange mark on the wall behind it. It was a symbol that seemed to be carved into the wood with great care. Li's heart raced as he recognized it—it was a symbol he had seen in the local legends of his hometown, a symbol that was said to be a gateway to the supernatural world.

He turned back to the mirror, and as he looked at his reflection, the whispers grew louder, and the room seemed to vibrate with an unseen force. Suddenly, the mirror began to glow, and a face appeared in the glass, a face that was twisted with anger and sorrow.

"Help me," the face said, its voice echoing in Li's ears. "I am trapped here, and I need your help."

Li was frozen with fear, but the face's plea stirred something deep within him. He knew he had to help, even if it meant facing the unknown.

The next day, Li and his friends began to piece together the story of the dormitory's silent witness. They discovered that the room had once belonged to a student who had disappeared mysteriously years ago. The whispers were his plea for help, and the symbol on the wall was a key to unlocking the door to his past.

As they worked to uncover the truth, they faced a series of supernatural events: ghostly figures appearing in their rooms, cold drafts that seemed to carry voices, and the sense that something was watching them at all times.

Finally, after days of investigation and fear, they found the missing student's diary hidden in the old, dusty mirror. It was filled with stories of the student's last days, of the struggles he faced, and of the betrayal that led to his death.

The diary revealed that the student had been killed by a rival group of students, who had used the symbol to seal his spirit within the dormitory. Li and his friends realized that they had to break the seal to free the spirit and put the dormitory to rest.

With the diary in hand, they returned to the dormitory, the echoes of the whispers growing louder with each step. They reached the room, and as Li placed the diary in front of the mirror, the room seemed to shake, and the symbol began to glow with an intense light.

The face in the mirror turned to them, its eyes filled with gratitude. "Thank you," it said. "Now, I can move on."

With a final burst of light, the symbol shattered, and the whispers faded away. The room was quiet once more, save for the soft hum of the night air.

Li and his friends breathed a collective sigh of relief as they stepped back into the corridor. They had faced the unknown and won, but they knew that the dormitory would never be the same.

The echoes of the whispers had become a part of its history, a reminder of the supernatural forces that could still lurk in the most unexpected places. And as they left the dormitory that night, they carried with them the knowledge that some secrets are best left buried, even in the quietest of places.