Prompt: Write a fictional 3000 word horror story about an audiovisual scenario in higher education. Give it a beginning with characters, build the problem, scary climax, and conclusion.
“Echoes in the Auditorium”
It was mid-October, and the campus of Eldridge University was already buzzing with excitement for the annual fall symposium. This year, the keynote speaker was a renowned scientist, Dr. Margaret Byrne, who had made groundbreaking discoveries in cognitive neuroscience. The university’s main auditorium, a state-of-the-art facility equipped with the latest audiovisual technology, would be packed for the event.
Henry, the head audiovisual technician at Eldridge, had seen countless events come and go, but there was something about this one that made him feel uneasy. He had been with the university for over ten years and had overseen the installation of the latest AV systems. Henry’s team was responsible for making sure that every microphone, projector, and sound system worked seamlessly. They couldn’t afford any mistakes, especially not with the spotlight on them for such a prestigious event.
Henry’s team consisted of Lauren, a sharp-eyed assistant technician in her late twenties who had a knack for troubleshooting, and Tom, a student worker who was eager but inexperienced. Together, they were responsible for running the entire AV setup for the symposium. A week before the event, they began the process of checking the systems, running tests, and making sure everything was in order.
As they ran their first full system test in the empty auditorium, something strange happened. A faint, garbled sound came through the speakers—a voice, low and distorted. Henry paused and looked at the others.
“Did you hear that?” Lauren asked, her face pale.
Tom, who had been adjusting the microphone levels, froze. “Yeah, but there’s no one else here. What was that?”
Henry shrugged it off. “Probably just some interference. We’ve had issues with the wireless mics picking up radio frequencies before. Let’s keep testing.”
But something about the voice didn’t sit right with him. It had sounded too close, too personal, like a whisper directly into his ear. They continued the tests without further incident, but the unsettling feeling lingered in the back of Henry’s mind.
As the symposium drew closer, Henry noticed more strange occurrences. Lauren reported hearing footsteps in the projection room when no one was inside, and Tom swore he saw the lights flickering in the control booth during a routine check.
“We need to get this under control,” Henry said, trying to keep calm. “We can’t afford any surprises on the day of the event.”
Lauren looked troubled. “Henry, it’s not just the equipment. It’s the whole auditorium. It feels… off.”
Henry had to admit he felt it too. The air in the auditorium seemed heavier than usual, like it was thick with static. The odd sounds continued, with faint whispers filtering through the speakers at random times. Each time they checked the equipment, everything appeared normal. There were no faulty wires, no loose connections—nothing that could explain the strange phenomena.
One night, three days before the event, Henry stayed late to do one final sweep of the system. Alone in the darkened auditorium, he adjusted the sound levels and ran another test. As he sat at the control board, a cold breeze swept through the room, though no doors or windows were open. The hair on the back of his neck stood up.
Then, the whispers returned.
This time, they were louder, clearer. They seemed to echo from every corner of the room, overlapping and blending together in a cacophony of voices. Henry froze, his hand hovering over the soundboard. His pulse quickened as the voices grew louder, and one word became distinct from the rest:
“Leave.”
Henry jumped back from the board, heart racing. The lights in the auditorium flickered violently, plunging the room into darkness for a few seconds. When the lights came back on, the auditorium was silent again. Henry was alone, standing in the empty room, but he could still feel the presence of something unseen, watching him.
On the day of the symposium, the auditorium was filled with students, faculty, and visiting academics. Henry’s team was ready, despite the strange occurrences leading up to the event. Henry had made sure every system was thoroughly checked, and no one had mentioned the eerie happenings to anyone outside the team. They couldn’t afford any last-minute panic.
Dr. Byrne began her presentation, and for the first half hour, everything ran smoothly. The microphones worked perfectly, the projector displayed her slides without issue, and the audience was completely engaged.
Then, without warning, the lights in the auditorium began to flicker again. The microphone picked up a faint buzzing sound, and the whispers returned, louder than ever before.
“Do you hear that?” Dr. Byrne asked, pausing mid-sentence. She looked around, confused.
The audience shifted uneasily, some looking around for the source of the noise. Henry, sitting in the control booth, frantically adjusted the audio levels, but nothing seemed to stop the sound. The whispers grew louder, more insistent.
“Leave. Leave now.”
Suddenly, the projector screen flickered, displaying images that were not part of Dr. Byrne’s presentation—grainy, distorted images of people, shadowy figures moving through a dimly lit space. The audience gasped as the images morphed into something more grotesque—faces contorted in agony, their mouths open in silent screams.
Panic began to spread through the auditorium as the lights went out completely, plunging the room into darkness. The whispers became deafening, echoing off the walls, filling the air with an oppressive weight.
Henry grabbed a flashlight and ran toward the stage, shouting for Lauren and Tom to help. As they tried to reset the system, the temperature in the room plummeted. The breath of every person in the audience became visible, fogging the cold air.
On the stage, Dr. Byrne stood frozen, her face pale with fear. Then, without warning, her microphone crackled to life, and her voice came through the speakers, distorted and layered with the whispering voices.
“Do not—” her voice cut off abruptly, replaced by a low, guttural growl.
Henry raced up to the soundboard, pulling cables and trying to shut everything down, but the system had taken on a life of its own. The speakers blasted the sounds of screams and cries, the whispers blending into a nightmarish symphony of terror.
Suddenly, a shadowy figure appeared at the back of the auditorium, tall and faceless, its presence immediately commanding attention. It stood still for a moment, watching the chaos unfold, before slowly starting to move toward the stage. The figure seemed to absorb the light around it, casting an unnatural darkness in its wake.
The audience, now in full panic, rushed for the exits, but the doors wouldn’t open. The figure continued its slow, deliberate approach, the whispers growing louder with every step it took.
Henry, desperate, grabbed a crowbar from the AV storage room and began prying at the control booth’s paneling, trying to cut power to the entire system. As he pulled open the panel, sparks flew, and the lights in the auditorium flickered one last time before everything went dark.
For a moment, there was silence.
Then, the doors burst open, and the remaining audience members flooded out, gasping for air, desperate to escape whatever horror had taken hold of the room.
The symposium was canceled, and the auditorium was closed indefinitely for investigation. Official reports cited a “technical malfunction,” but no one who had been there believed that. Henry, Lauren, and Tom were questioned, but they had no answers for what had really happened that day.
Dr. Byrne, once the center of attention, had disappeared immediately after the incident. Rumors circulated that she had been hospitalized, suffering from some form of psychological breakdown, but no one could confirm her whereabouts.
Henry couldn’t shake the feeling that the auditorium wasn’t just malfunctioning—it was haunted by something far darker than faulty equipment. As he packed up his tools and left the control booth for the last time, he caught one final whisper through the now-silent speakers.
“See you soon.”
The whisper echoed in his mind as he walked out of the building, leaving behind the eerie, empty auditorium that would forever be etched in his memory.