The Schools

Welcome to Scary Story Podcast. In today's story, a group of teens as a hangout spot by the edge of town. What they discover will make headlines. Literally, here's your Halloween story, and I hope you enjoy it. My name is Edwin, and here's a scary story. It was like a rite of passage, that first bonfire out on the field at the edge of town, by the creek and at the start of the hills of Hatford that liked to cast those wavy shadows across the mp areas. I had heard about it in junior high. Even my parents used to go when they were younger. They would casually mention what it would be like. Once I was in high school and always wanted to be out with my friends. Mom would squish my face and comment on how fast I grow. But times must have been different when they were younger, because they would see it as just a casual thing. But I had heard now the place was made for teenage just trying to get away from their parents for bonfires. Some would sneak in cigarettes and energy drinks and crank up the music and sit on the back of the trucks they borrowed from their parents for hours, especially on Fridays. It was time to change schools again, and before I knew it, I was in high school and figuring everything out. I got bored of the barren area out by the edge of town pretty quickly, so whenever word got around that everyone was going to go hang out there, I would skip out and play video games in the basement instead. A couple of my friends that would come over and play desperately wanted to go, and I still remember that conversation that got us into everything. Why do they call it the schools? Jason asked as we were choosing our Mortal Kombat characters. It was a good question, and one I had asked my parents a long time ago, but they didn't know the answer either. I thought it was a play on the words, like the way you would say when you were going to school but instead go out there to hang out, or maybe the school of life, a place about things nobody teaches you but you'll learn Anyway. We quickly forgot about the question and just kept playing as we got older. Heading into our junior year in high school, my dad started letting me borrow the old truck after I got my drivers permit, and then my temporary license and we would head out to the arcade. Sometimes it would go fishing by the creek. But as soon as girls started getting into the picture, things changed. It was like oxygen to high schoolers getting to go to the schools on Friday nights after the football games, crushes and friends trying to get rides for me to get there. I would go, but I always knew there was something off about the place. Maybe it was how dark it would get, even with such open clearings. The tall hills right next to it would block out the moonlight. On some nights, the orange globe of the fires would bounce off the rocks and cast shadows on each other until they disappeared against the US guy. But like with most students, as senior year came around, that was all about the schools, rallying up people to go there with us, especially the new ones, scaring them, showing them the rules of the place, and having a good time. But like with everything again, I started growing tired of it. One night, we were all around some of the palette fires others were starting when a group of the cool kids like we called them, came up to us and asked us to move the truck I never wanted any trouble from anyone, and I had managed to stay away from bullies for most of elementary and junior high, so I wasn't about to let it happen now, especially in senior year. I acted like I didn't care and got on the truck while my other three friends helped guide me to find a new spot to park on the other side of the fire. It was a cold October evening, almost Halloween, and that fire was helping. The group that had just arrived opened up some cans of coke and some glass bottles, being obnoxious with their music. We stuck around for another hour or so, and then Mike and the others got on the truck with me to head down the road to look for another place to hang out. It was a dark and long road that would lead us back to town, the lights of the streets barely visible in the distance through the trees. Her other friend, Jason asked what we were all thinking? So where do we go go? It was like admitting we had gotten kicked out of our own game, not like we ever owned it, but we had her in that spot at the schools, and now we were there on a lonely road, sitting in the car with nowhere to go. We could go get a burger, Mary told Mike. Both were sitting in the back seat, and between arguments of we can go get a burger any day of the week and yes, let's go, I just kept staring out the windshield, and then I watched a small figure that seemed to be crawling from out of the bushes went onto the road some one hundred feet in front of the car. It stood in the middle of the road and then went back to the bushes, where my eyes kept scanning to see when it would come out again. And it did, this time a little bit closer. Jason looked at me while the two were arguing in the back and looked in the same direction. Suddenly his gaze froze. He had seen it too. It was like a mist, except they was able to move along the ground crawling. What is that? He said, getting the attention of my and and Mary, who immediately turned toward the area between our seats to get a better look. The mist rolled toward the truck for another ten feet or so, and then instead of going back to the bushes, we went to the opposite side of the road. We're all quiet for a few seconds before Mary kicked the back of my seat, nearly knocking out the bottle of water I was holding in my hand. Jason and Mike started laughing, but I kept my eyes out toward the empty road through the windshield, knowing that it was very much possible that we had all just seen a ghost. Right then the laughter died down. I asked Jason what he thought it was, and he sounded a little nervous when he said that he didn't know that maybe it was just missed from the creek. But mists don't form into figures that roll around the ground and cross the street, So you think it was a ghost? Mary asked from behind me, a serious question. This time, we all looked out in front of us in silence until we noticed movement again. This time I was able to look in the rear room mirror to see headlights in the distance, along with faint music approaching us. It was one of the trucks coming from the schools. They stopped right behind us before they passed us, yelling and laughing before the red tail lights passed right by. For we had seen the mist form just a few minutes before the lights and faded among the trees once they turned farther up ahead. Halloween was a few days away, and of course the typical scary stories were circulating around town on the radio, the news, and even the high school newspaper. Mary was a writer for the newspaper club at school and had been complaining about how they always interviewed Missus Becker from down the street about her house. It was an old wooden mansion looking place that was long rumored to be haunted by the ghosts of the family that died mysteriously. Missus Becker would tell anyone who was willing to listen about the ghosts she would see in her house, but it was always the same story. A man and a woman that danced in the living room and two children that would roll them toys around in the attic of her house. It was like candy for reporters on Halloween, and the advisor for the school's newspaper had asked her to write it this year again. Mary was one of the popular kids at school and I don't know what she did hanging out with us, but she was the one that got us out of uncomfortable situations or answer our questions about girls and stuff whenever a situation would come up, or so we like to call them. And it was in that truck that night when she got the brilliant idea to tell the story of the ghost we had just seen. Not before investigating a little bit more, she said, there was another spot east of the hills and still part of the schools, but no one would go there for whatever reason. Maybe because it's haunted. Mike blurt it out without missing a beat. It might be, Mary said with a straight face. Either way, we can go check it out and then get a If we find a ghost, I'll give you all of my fries, Mike joked. Jason looked at me from the front seat as Mike and Mary leaned forward waiting for me to start the truck. All right, let's go, I said, as the engine rumbled to a start and shifted into gear. I turned it around and started heading back to the schools. And even now I wonder why we ever went. We're about to have the most terrifying night of our lives, something we still talk about to this day. Silence took over the inside of that truck, with only Mary's directions about where to turn. As we drove past the people by the bonfires at the schools. The music still blasting and bouncing off those hills, but the sound started to fade and lights started to dim as we got to the end of the dirt road. From a certain point forward, the truck stopped rattling so much from the tires being on cracked pavement instead of dirt. On that open field. No matter where I turned the car, it felt like road, and yet all I could do was follow those headlights in front of me, although if I looked hard enough, the rolling mist seemed to move from the edges where the darkness started. Part two of the schools is coming up right after this. Stay with him. We're here, Mary whispered, are you guys ready? There's a story about this place, and no one talks about it. Jason and I were both distracted by something in the distance right before I shut off the headlights. It was only the green light of the clock of the radio inside the car. Now, what's the story, Mike asked, as you were all interrupted by a sudden tapping on the truck. It was like the wagging tail of a dog against the rear bumper, or like the way someone taps on your car when they're trying to tell you to stop, as they're helping you part We all stayed quiet, afraid to say anything. Remember that nothing could be seen outside of the car because of how dark it was, except for maybe some faint silhouettes of the hills and a distant glow from the fires at the schools. Then the tapping grew to knocking, and the knocking grew to straight up beating on the truck. My hands were shaking as I turned on the headlights and started it up, flooring almost immediately. Unsure of where to go, Mary yelled out directions as I finally felt the dirt road against the tires and kept driving, rushing past the dying bonfires and back to the road we had been waiting on. I drove past the creek and around the trees until I started seeing the houses of town again. The whole way, we struggled coming out up with something to say, although Jason and Mike kept asking what the heck that was. We finally pulled up to the main street, and a few blocks later we had got into the parking lot of Jimmy's Burgers. It was around eleven by this time. The burger plates will be opened for another hour, and we sat there for a bit before Jason opened the door and stood outside, asking if we were going to get anything. We all got out and walked up to the takeout window. We ordered our usuals and then started leaning against the truck as we waited for our orders. That wasn't hungry. That feeling of wanting to vomit and adrenaline were still rushing through my body. Maybe it was a dog, Mary said, waiting for our reactions, or some animal of some sort, an animal like what a bear that knocks on a car politely before trying to break it apart. Mike said to her, try again. He talked about every single thing that it could have been as we ate, until we saw a truck pull up then stop right behind us. The dad of one of the guys from school nearly jumped out and walked straight to me. Do you know where David is? Was looking at everyone, but pointing at me. We all knew David. He was one of the guys that hung out with the kids with the truck that made us leave our spot at the bonfire. We used to be friends with him back when we were in chess club and we would play games after school at each other's houses. That was before he started hanging out with that crowd. Someone say something, The man snapped, calming himself down as his wife stepped out of the passenger side of his truck. Everyone says, he was with you, he said, catching his breath. Another car pulled up next to us, and I recognized the obnoxious group from the schools. They were calm now and came up to Jason and I to tell me that he had stayed with us as a prank while we were hanging out on the side of the road. We all looked at each other and then ran to the bed of my truck a white mask and a plastic knife. Mary was the one that got it first before we all realized that those were the sounds we had heard that night. In that panic, nobody turned to see what had been making the noises, and we just stuck off and this other guy, David, must have gotten off the truck and we left him there. I tried explaining this to the man, but his wife was a more reasonable one, so she was relieved by the whole thing. As we told them we would go back to get him, we'll follow you, his wife said, as she walked back to their truck. Mary was quiet the whole drive back, obviously disappointed by the way her story fell apart in the span of half an hour, but she still guided us with directions until the tires ran smooth against that same pavement an hour do we go, Mike asked from the back seat. We were there with another truck behind us this time, and yet it still felt dark navigating this large empty space. We circled around and pulled up to David's dad and told him we had been around here somewhere. If David had started walking back, we would have a tougher time finding him, but they were relieved to know that he probably wasn't far. They said they would circle around for a bit and for us to hang out there with the headlights on in case David found his way to us. First, don't leave the car, he said, This place still gives me the creeps. He pulled away as he went straight ahead and then turned left. We watched him pull away, and Mike finally said, well, isn't it his fault? But it wasn't the time. The area was too dark to be able to find your way back just like that, and if he was hiding in the bed of the truck while we were driving, or fell off somehow, he might be hurt somewhere. Just the thought of that made us go quiet again. But not even four minutes after that, we all caught a glimpse of a mist of about thirty feet in front of us. It rolled out of the view of the headlights, but then it came back, stayed right in front of the truck, close to the ground for a few seconds before stretching out, taking the form of a small human figure. We were all holding our breaths as this thing simply walked off the right side and disappeared in the darkness. But then another figure appeared in its place, and then another one startled. Mary tapped me on the shoulder to have me look back, and even from the faint tail lights, with those reds and yellows, we could see another one for me. I was about to shift the truck into gear to drive to another spot when we heard the tapping again from the back sat David. The tapping again grew to knocking, and then something else started tapping on the front of the car, on the side, tapping against the doors and windows. There was no way it was only one person around us if it was a prank. But then it got worse. The truck started rocking with knocking even on the roof. Then Jason started screaming, saying to just drive, but the car wouldn't shift. The radio turned on and scans for channels as we heard music mixed with static, and the headlines struggled to stay on for what seemed like forever. We yelled as I tried to get the car going with those knocks all around the truck strong enough to break anything, but something about them felt desperate trying to get inside. Mary was screaming until everything finally stopped. The car was finally able to shift in the drive, and it drove a short distance away. The other truck could no longer be seen in a figure. They may have found David already. I was still shaking from the whole ordeal, but managed to keep calm enough to ask if we should get back to the schools and wait for David's parents. Nobody said anything, so I just started driving. This time, we really were speechless. There was no way anyone could have pranked us, not with the mists and the sounds, not like that, and there was no one around there. This time, no one had been on the bed of the truck and we were alone out there. We pulled up to where the other bonfires had been. Some wood had been left behind, and we got out now with the place completely empty, before voting two wooden pallets on the fire. It smoked for a bit before catching and turning into a large flame that lit up the side of the hills. Mike turned to the truck and grabbed my shoulder, his fingers shaking at the sight hands dozens of handprints all over the dirty truck's windows, over the sides and doors. We all gathered around the truck to get a closer look, with Mary making the observation that they looked like children's hands all over it. We spent about half an hour there coming up with theories as to what we had experienced this time, not doubting anything anymore. Were those misty figures and how we just seen with these handprints. Eventually a truck started coming from the same direction we arrived. It was David's parents. David's dad rolled down his window as he said that they had found him, but we're going to head back right away. His wife was leaning toward the back seat. David was looking straight ahead and did not acknowledge us without saying another word, pulled away. It had been a long night, and once I had dropped off Mary, she asked if we could wait while she got her camera. She took a bunch of photos of the truck and the handprints that were still clearly visible. With that, we said goodbye and I dropped everyone off. We rarely saw David at school after that, with some saying that he was homeschooled for the rest of the year, while others, including my parents, confirmed that his parents had moved away to another city nearby because the dad had gotten a new job. Mary had been trying to get a hold of David for her story in the school newspaper, but eventually, over the next couple of days, Mary put together her story for Halloween, keeping us updated with her research as she found new details about what we had experienced. In her final article, we all got to read the whole thing. The areas where everyone used to hang out used to be a part of a larger property that was eventually returned to the county, large empty fields that people started using for camping on the weekends, but the purpose of the property was for boarding schools back in the nineteen seventies. Hundreds of children attended the place, and the property owners hoped to build even more for older children, and rumor has it that they even wanted to build a university. She had interviewed a local historian and several of the oldest citizens in town, including Missus Becker, the woman living in the haunted house, who told Mary that the building had been built so quickly that they skipped on several safety features, and one night, a small kitchen fire expanded so quickly that it engulfed the dormitories. As part of the supposed safety features it did have, the building wouldn't open from the inside without a key, and slowly the desperate knocking and attempts to escape faded against the sound of the roaring fire. The schools were shut down and later demolished, with those in charge doing their best to keep the story under wraps. They say that on quiet nights, those that visit the area can still hear the desperate knocking and the hundreds of students that died that night. Scary Story podcast is produced by me Edwin Kovarubias. The ideas for stories you have been setting me will be put on a brand new Instagram. It's Scary dot Edwin and I'll link to it in my regular profile and hear in the description there's nothing on there right now, so don't freak out and hank tied as I also bring up a YouTube channel. I'll update everyone as you move along. In the meantime, be sure to tap follow and drop some stars for me. Also, Scary Plus is available if you want to listen to it without ads and help out the show at the same time. Happy Halloween everyone, and thank you very much for listening. See you soon.