“Hey, you know how my parents have a Post box?”

Shannon, my best friend sat in front of me idly picking at her fingers.

“Hm.” I spared her a glance, relinquishing the death grip that a video of a dog singing to ‘Abba’ held on my eyes.

“Annika I need you to actually listen dude,” the girl had died her hair blue last fall, and a few faded strands fell to the table as she ran her fingers through it roughly.

“Yeah, I’m hearing you.” I looked to her, again. Shannon was practically vibrating with nerves,

“woah hey what’s going on?”

The girl looked nervously around, the mural on the big cafe chalkboard wall catching her eyes for a moment before she spoke,

“I’ve been trying to tell you- look my parents need me to pick up their mail this week since they’ll be on vacation and I feel really dumb asking this but, will you come with me? I’m convinced the place is haunted!”

Shannon looked at me with the biggest watery-est green eyes I’ve ever seen and all I could say was :

“Uh yeah- sure why not?”

I was a weak, gay fool.

The ride to the post office the next day was spent with Shannon telling story after story on why she thought her parents neighborhood U.S postal service was haunted.

“No. Dude listen, I used to grab their mail with them when I was a kid, and this place used to freak me out! I saw faces in the carpet pattern,”

I took a bite out of my breakfast burrito, supplied by the rambling woman behind the wheel, “ahuh”

“They have creepy dark corners, “

“Ahuh”

“And hallways on hallways of P.O. Boxes that look like they’re going to fall on you! I mean- someone could die from something like that, right?“

Shannon finished with a huff, her face was red from the stress she was putting herself through.

I patted her on the shoulder in sympathy. “I’m not gonna lie, these just sound like things only a kid would notice. I think once you get in there, you’ll realize that the difference between being five foot-something tall, versus 3 feet makes a huge impact on how you process your surroundings”

She thought for a moment, letting the silence drag a bit as she parked. Then she sighed,

“I think maybe you’re right.”

I nearly choked on my burrito.

“Are you actually taking my advice right now? There must be a flying moose somewhere too!”

Shannon rolled her eyes as dramatic as she could and got out of the car.

“I’ve never been more excited to go to a post office,” I was grinning cheekily at Shannon “cmon you can’t be mad, I’m just living for the moment.”

She laughed into her arm, trying to hide her mirth.

Shannon was right, the place was dark and cramped. The entire office was also completely quiet, the only signs of life were one woman writing something furiously on a clipboard behind the customer service desk.

“We go this way..” Shannon pointed at an even darker hallway that led to rows and rows of lockers crammed into a stuffy room.

“Uh…kay…” I was slower getting a worse and worse feeling in the pit of my stomach .

“26G, we’re looking for 26G” The woman said, mostly to herself, I trailed behind her feeling the hairs rise on my arms as we walk closer to the back.

“Annika are you coming?” My eyes snapped towards her voice, Shannon was waving at me from the end of the hall, a good few feet away from me.

“Hey… how’d you get so far?” I laughed nervously, shaking my head.

“What do you mean? You said you needed a second so I ditched your ass.”

“Rude” I chuckled at her, jogging to her. I don’t remember saying anything in the last five minutes, but whatever.

“Annika.”

I turned towards the opposite direction, back towards where I had stopped earlier, standing there was Shannon.

I stopped.

“Shannon? Wha-“ I turned again, back towards, well, the other Shannon only to find an empty hallway looming mysteriously.

“Dude stop messing with me, that’s just cruel” The woman waved the parcels she had retrieved from the box at me.

“I uh, yeah… haha you fell for it.” I scrambled back towards her, seeing faded 54G, 53G, etc.. etched into the lockers I was passing, counting back towards the 20s. Where Shannon had found her parents box and locked back up before finding me down the hall.

“You we’re right, though Annika.” Shannon smiled warmly at me. She grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the exit.

“This place isn’t haunted at all.”

-fin