Published: October 31, 2009 11:09 pm      

A night with the school ghosts

The three winning entries pick up below.



I knew I’d made a bunch of mistakes the second I heard Big Jim, the maintenance guy, lock the door behind him as he left.

I knew I should have had my friends park my car within walking distance.

I knew I should have charged my cell phone before I left the house that day.

I knew I shouldn’t have lied to my parents.

I knew all these things, but too late. I was stuck in the school. Alone. For the entire night.

OK, I have to admit, that was my plan. I had climbed on top of the PE lockers and slid way back into the shadows for the express purpose of getting myself locked into the school.

But now I was having second thoughts. Third thoughts, actually, because there were three things that scared me.

One, I was afraid of getting into trouble with the police. Pretty reasonable fear, right? Student found lurking in school after closing. Yeah, that might be a police matter.

Two, I was afraid of getting into trouble with my parents. That’s a reasonable fear, too. I had told them I was spending the night with my friend, trying to finish up the social studies project we were supposedly working on together. I clearly wasn’t.

And three. ...

The third thing was the one that scared me the most. I was suddenly afraid that the stupid ghost stories that had been told about the school for years might actually be true. Ironically, that was the thing I had been least afraid of before hearing those doors close behind Big Jim.

It was as if the click of the lock triggered the one unreasonable fear of the three.

What had I gotten myself into? And why? Well, I knew why. I was trying to prove that I was braver than all my friends, that I would actually spend the night alone in the school and perform the ridiculous midnight ceremony that was supposed to make the ghost — or ghosts — go away forever. Other people had tried it through the years, the stories went, but no one had had the guts to actually get it done. They had either run screaming out of the school in the middle of the night, or they had been found the next morning huddled in some corner somewhere, shaking and sobbing.

At least that’s how the stories went, but I didn’t believe any of them. Everybody knew someone who knew someone who knew someone who had tried it, but I’d never talked to anyone who actually claimed they had done it themselves.

I was determined to be that person.

Listen to how easy this sounds. At the stroke of midnight (of course, clocks don’t strike these days, but that’s always how it’s told), you’re supposed to walk backward, three times, around the four hallways that form the main square of the school. Then you’re supposed to say, “I release you, I release you, I release you.” And, voila! The school is ghost free.

Nothing to it, right?

Oh, wait, one more thing. You’re supposed to start and finish in front of the bronze memorial plaque. You know the one. It’s for some guy named Stockton, and his face is staring out at you all metallic and creepy. I guess he was principal for, like, a hundred years or something, way back when.

So, is old Metal Face the ghost? Most of the stories say he is. They claim he died from a heart attack while he was yelling at a student, and his spirit never left the school.

But there are a lot of other stories kind of jumbled up in with his. There’s the one about the Library Woman who moves books around, even with kids in the room. There’s the Jolly Janitor, who supposedly laughs when someone slips and falls in a puddle of water that wasn’t there 10 seconds before. There’s the one about a little girl, the daughter of a teacher, who fell down the main stairs while her mom was grading papers. They say you can hear her scream as she falls.

Stupid, right? Well, the stupider the stories got, the braver and mouthier I got, until I found myself hiding on top of the PE lockers and listening to the click of the doors as Big Jim, the very unjolly janitor, locked me in for the night.

The first order of business was to find out what time it was. I wanted to know how long I’d have to keep myself entertained before this midnight ceremony. If my cell phone wasn’t dead, I could find out from up here on the lockers. I could also set my alarm and take a nap. But I didn’t want to take a chance of sleeping past midnight, so I decided to go find the nearest clock.

If I had seen the puddle of water on the floor, I wouldn’t have jumped down from the lockers. ...



First place

Janeth Vargas, 15, Logansport



But there I was, on my back, realizing that I had just slipped on a puddle of water. My back started hurting as I stared at the ceiling. Then I began to hear some sort of noise. It sounded like someone was laughing and it was echoing throughout the hallways. The voice grew louder and the laughter gave me goosebumps. As the laughter got louder and louder, I thought, “Could this be my imagination?” At that moment, I realized that I wasn’t alone in the school.

Or maybe I had just hurt my head and was hearing things. I slowly stood up from the ground and I looked around to see if anyone was around. All I saw was darkness and I convinced myself that I had heard no such things. So I went along looking for a clock. I found one at the end of the hallway on the wall. The clock read 11:30 p.m. Thirty minutes before the ritual was supposed to begin.

To kill time, I decided to head for the library to read a magazine. But, the library was closed. As I stood outside the library, the door opened by itself. The lights turned on by themselves. It was as if someone was inviting me into the library. I walked in with astonishment. Could it be the Library Woman who opened the door for me?

As I walked into the library, I headed for the table that was in the middle of the room. I picked up some magazines and I set them on the table to read. As soon as I sat down, the magazines started floating in the air. A shiver ran down my spine. I was surprised to sea all the magazines and books floating in the air as if they were clouds.

All of a sudden, the magazines and books fell to the floor. A book landed on my head, but I caught it before it fell to the ground. The title of the book read, “Do You Believe in Ghosts?” It appeared as if the Library Woman wanted me to read the book. What I had just seen, could not have possibly been my imagination. I do believe in ghosts, because how else could have all of the books been flying around the room?

The lights in the room started flickering on and off. I ran out of the library. I didn’t know where to go or where to hid. I arrived at the nearest locker and pushed the lock upwards to open it, but it would not open. I could hear my own breathing and I could feel myself starting to sweat. My heart was pounding very fast and I didn’t know whether I should go on with the ritual.

As I stood there trying to open the locker, I felt a cold breath blowing down my neck. I quickly turned around and saw nothing. I new that I had to go on with the ritual. I ran down to the end of the hallway to find the clock and see what time it was. It was 11:57 p.m. I had three minutes to get to one of the four main hallways that form the main square of the school.

I arrived at the first hallway at exactly midnight. I started walking backwards passing through each hall carefully. Once I had gone around the four main hallways three times, I yelled, “I release you, I release you, I release you,” an the doors of every room started opening and closing in a rapid movement. I fell to the floor, onto a puddle of water. Jolly Janitor came swooping towards me from the janitor’s room, laughing louder and louder as he got closer. I started running the opposite direction from where he was coming, but ghosts started popping out of every classroom. I fainted and awoke to Big Jim’s mop being swept over my face the following school morning.

“Go to the cafeteria and eat some breakfast, I’m sure the ghosts will reward you someday,” he said smilingly.

It was as if he knew what I was up to all along.



Second place

Kristen Minglin, 17, Logansport



I almost slipped and fell! I thought I heard someone laughing but I knew these ghost stories were just getting to me. Right when I was getting enough guts to walk out of the locker room, I heard a loud, high-pitched scream! Now I was getting scared.

This was going to be harder than I thought. I grabbed the bat the PE teacher had in his office and ran up the stairs as fast as I could. For a minute, I thought I saw a little girl turning the corner. But once again, I wasn’t going to let this get to my head. I needed to do what I came here to do.

I turned the corner and passed the library. When I looked in the dark room, at least 10 books fell at the same time. Now I was really scared! I needed to get the ceremony done as soon as possible. I ran to the memorial plaque as fast as I could. Once I got there, I could have sworn Stockton’s eyes were staring me down the whole time I passed. I was just getting paranoid ... I hope. I had five minutes left before it was midnight. What was I going to do in pitch black for five minutes? I decided to just walk around to keep my mind off how scared I was. But once I started walking, I stepped in another puddle and slipped. I fell right on the back of my head. This night was not turning out good at all! Right then, I heard someone laughing hysterically.

I turned around to see who it was ... but no one was there. All of a sudden, the laughing started to get closer ... and closer ... and closer. I got up and ran as fast as I could to the memorial plaque, but the laughing still followed me. I was losing my mind! But, right when I got to the middle of the school, the laughing stopped and everything was still and quiet. I looked at my watch ... it was midnight.

I then started to walk backwards around the hallways. For some reason, it seemed like someone was behind me. But I had to keep going. I turned the next corner, I went around the hallways once ... twice ... three times. Now all I needed to do was say “I release you!” three times.

“I release you, I release you, I release y ..” All of a sudden, I hear the doors open. Someone big is walking straight at me. The person steps into the light to be ... Big Jim.

“What are you doing in here?” Big Jim says. I was speechless. “You better get home,” he says again. He walked past me before I could say anything. I watched him walk in the dark hallways alone. But, before he turned the corner of the hallway, he disappeared.



Third place

Alexis Lane Lytle, 11, Logansport



The next thing I knew I had slipped but not exactly fell. A huge gust of wind came and blew me back onto my feet. I soon regained my balance and thought “That isn’t normal ... MOMMY!” At first I thought I was a big macho man but I soon realized that there was another puddle on the floor, except for that time it wasn’t water. Then, I headed tot he bathroom to clean up and there was a little clock and it said 7:05 p.m. I came to the conclusion that I had about five hours until I would have to perform the spell.

I wasn’t so sure if I wanted to do it because what if I was the type of person that would get scared and go huddle in a corner somewhere. And the next day, someone would find me at the school. At what I just thought, I pressed my hands against my cheeks and dug my face into my sweatshirt.

“Oh no,” I cried. “Today is a Friday and that means no one will be here tomorrow or Sunday.”

I started to cry and say to myself, “Not three days. It’s all just a dream and that’s it. There’s nothing to be scared about. I mean what’s so bad about being alone for three days in a dream with a cafeteria full of food.”

I soon opened my eyes and saw books flying around. “That silly librarian can’t keep anything from flying can she!” Haha. I shut my eyes quickly in hope that when I opened them back up that I would see nothing out of the ordinary and that’s is just what I saw. I went to the bathroom and checked to se what time it was and this time it said 10:49 p.m.

Soon I would have to figure out if I was going to do the spell or not. So I decided it was time to be a man and take chances. Time flies when it’s all fun and games you know. This was a game but it was certainly not fun. I then went back to the bathroom for the third time and then it said 11:56 p.m. I ran down to the bronze memorial plaque and sat down to wait for the clock to strike midnight.

I suddenly heard the strike of the clock so I took an enormous breath and started walking around the four hallways that formed the main square of the of the school backwards until I finished that small section of the spell. I was then in front of the bronze memorial plaque and started saying “I release you. I release you. I release you.”

Just then a goblin popped out from behind the corner and snatched me up. He had on a ragged shirt and scruffy pants. The next thing I knew I couldn’t breathe and I tried to get away from the grasp of his hands, but found myself paralyzed. I sighed a breath of relief as my parents opened the door to the school. I was no longer paralyzed and I felt the grip on me loosen. I could breathe once more. I then ran to my parents and told them I never wanted to experience anything like that again. As we walked out the door I looked back and thought to myself “What a very scary memory.”