THE HAUNTING OF HERALD HIGH

Herald High school was just like every other high school in the state of Nevada. Except for the undeniable fact that Herald held a dark secret. But it was just that- a secret. Few people in the school knew of it. And certainly none of the students did.

The Freshman boys bathroom was rarely used. It was too far out of the way, and normally most of the toilets in it were out of order. Due to an annoying schedule arrangement, the second semester found three boys -Terry, Seth, and Brandon - using the bathroom after lunch, as it was on the way to their next class.

No secret can be kept a secret forever.

Brandon had his drumsticks. His next class was band, after all. And he was a drummer. He would drum everything as he went down the hallway, from trash cans, to lockers, to short people. He and Terry stepped into the bathroom. Seth was late, as usual. Brandon started drumming the wall behind the urinals.

“Stop for a second,” Terry said. Brandon stopped, and an audible clicking could be heard from behind the wall.

“Woah,” Brandon said. He drummed several patterns into the wall, which clicked back in the same patterns. Then the bell rang, and the two reluctantly moved on toward class.

“We have to show Seth tomorrow after lunch,” Brandon said.

“Absolutely,” Terry replied. The two were so anxious, the day seemed to go by in slow motion. Eventually, they were back in the bathroom the next day with Seth accompanying them.

“You guys are full of crap,” Seth said. Brandon drummed the wall, and sure enough, it clicked back. Seth sat there quietly for a few minutes.

“What the Hell?” he asked. Brandon continued testing different patterns until the bell rang. These visits continued for a few weeks, until one day when Terry and Brandon entered the bathroom. Brandon drummed the wall, but nothing happened. He tried again several times.

“I don’t get it...” he said. Suddenly, the urinals and toilets all violently began flushing themselves. The two boys couldn’t believe it. The school didn’t have an automatic flushing system. They screamed and ran from the bathroom and down the hall, laughing as hard as they could. They ran into Seth, and told him what happened.

“That bathroom’s got some serious issues,” Seth said. The three settled down, and went to class. But the more they thought about the situation, the less funny it got. One Friday, after school, Terry entered the bathroom and Seth and Brandon were there along with Zach, Kenny, Tyson, and Jeff.

“You guys weren’t supposed to tell anybody,” Terry said.

“We have an idea,” Zach said. They closed the door and put a wooden doorstop on it to prevent it from opening. He turned off the light. Then, he shut the only window, which was a very small rectangular window. It was opaque, and only slid out a little bit. It would be big enough for a person to fit through, if there hadn’t been a tree trunk just outside.. It was now very dark in the room. Brandon drummed the wall. Nothing happened. The intercom crackled on.

“The school is now closing, all students and staff need to leave immediately for weekend lockdown,” it said. Terry and the rest headed for the door. They heard a loud click suddenly. Terry turned the knob, but it wouldn’t move. It was locked. He shouted, but nobody came to unlock it.

“The janitors must have all left by now,” He said. Suddenly, the wall clicked back the pattern Brandon had drummed onto it. Then, suddenly, the sprinkler system turned on.

“There’s no fire...” Seth said. Terry turned the light back on. It was blood pouring from the sprinkler system. A state of panic broke out, with a few boys frantically pounding on the door. Then, suddenly, it stopped and everything grew quiet. The door unlocked, and Terry quickly opened it and stepped out. The school was dark, there was no one in sight when Terry looked to the right. He looked to the left, and saw a young girl standing at the end of the hallway.

“Hello!” Terry shouted. She began to fly at a high speed toward him. He could see that she was rotting, and had an evil sense about her. He screamed, and closed the door. The girl slammed into it and it swung open, she reached for him, but screamed and pulled her hand back. Terry shut the door and stopped it with the doorstop.

“What was that?” Kenny asked.

“I don’t know,” Terry replied. Suddenly a terrible thought came into his mind.

“It’s Friday,” he said.

After about an hour the boys were beginning to get hungry. They assumed their parents were all looking for them by now, and rescue would come swiftly. But as a few more hours passed, they started to think the school was the last place on the search list. Finally, Kenny couldn’t take any more waiting. he got up and headed toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Seth asked.

“I’m going to leave. The front door is just around the corner, and I’m one of the fastest kids in the school. I’ll run for help,” He said. He opened the door and peered down the hallway. He didn’t see anything. Then, he took off like a jet and rounded the corner, not taking his eyes away from the hallway. Which is why he ran dead into the girl, and was hit so hard he fell down. She looked down at him with her cold eyes, and Kenny scrambled to his feet and ran down the hallway as quickly as he could. She flew after him at a terrifying speed. He darted up a flight of stairs, trying to lose the girl in a hallway, but no matter where he went, she was always right behind him. Then, he saw a horrific sight ahead of him: the hallway was a dead end, there was nothing but a window overlooking the school courtyard in front of him, and lockers to the sides. He stopped in front of the window, and as he turned to look behind he could feel the girl shove him. He went through the glass and fell a good twelve feet to the ground below.

“Kenny hasn’t come back with rescue. It’s been two hours,” Brandon said.

“We need food, and it’s getting cold,” Jeff said. Terry was contemplating what to do. The cafeteria was at the other end of the school, he doubted any chance of getting there and back with food before being slaughtered. He assumed that was the right word, slaughtered, as Kenny left before he could tell him that Fridays the school locks down and can’t be opened without a key from either side. So Kenny didn’t make it out of the school, but he didn’t make it back to the bathroom.

“For heat we can turn on some of the faucets, make the water hot. That’ll give us warm steam. The school’s water heater is huge, it should last all night and then some. But for food...” Terry trailed off.

“We can make it to the cafeteria if we run,” Tyson said.

“Suppose we don’t make it? Then what happens? Or what if we do make it, and the food storage is locked down? What then?” Terry asked. Tyson remained quiet. It was getting cold in the bathroom, so the boys turned on the three sinks, and warm steam began to fill the room.

“That’s a lot better, good idea,” Jeff said. Terry pointed to one of the mirrors.

“Look!” he shouted. The mirror was covered in steam, but there were areas where the steam was wiping itself off, and it soon began to reveal words:

I’M GOING TO KILL YOU

The words in the mirror were all backwards, but the boys could easily tell what it read. Terry then had an idea.

“I have a plan. We all run out at the same time. Just make a mad dash for the cafeteria, but we all go a different way. Then we hope there’s only one of those things out there. It can’t follow all of us. One of us has to get to the cafeteria, see if there’s any food. Anything at all, grab what you can and get back here as soon as possible,” he explained.

“It’s suicide,” Jeff replied

“It’s better than sitting in here and starving to death,” Brandon responded. The boys sat in silence for a few moments. It was dark outside. Finally, Jeff stood up and headed for the door. He stopped there, and the rest of the boys gathered by the door as well.

“On three,” Terry said. The boys nodded. On the mark, The door flung open and the boys darted in different directions. They sprinted down hallways and around corners, as fast as their legs would carry them. Tyson was the first to see the girl. She appeared at the end of the hallway he was running in. She flew toward him, but he turned a corner before she reached him. He headed for the cafeteria, and made it in. He ran toward the door into the back kitchen, but it was shut and probably locked. Tyson did the only thing he could think to do: he dove at an angle, feet first, into the sneezeguard. It shattered and he slid over the counter and landed on the ground in the back kitchen. He slowly got up and looked over the counter. The girl was standing at the cafeteria entrance. Tyson saw her turn her head in his direction, and he quickly ducked behind the counter. He was breathing so heavily he thought she’d find him for sure. He held his breath and slowly looked up. The girl was floating above him, looking from side to side. He almost screamed, but he managed to stop himself. After a few moments, the girl floated away. He sat there for a few minutes, then slowly stood up and looked over the counter. He screamed at the site of a person standing directly in front of him, but then realized it was Terry.

“Shh! She’ll hear you!” Terry shouted. Tyson nodded, and Terry climbed over the counter. The two started for the food storage area, but Tyson let out a cry and fell down. There was a large shard of glass in his leg, and he had focused so much on the girl that he hadn’t noticed.

“I can’t walk,” he said. Terry helped him to his feet, then helped him walk. The food shelter area was locked, but the snack foods weren’t locked away. Various types of chips and pretzels, mainly dry foods, but they were foods none the less. Terry and Tyson stocked up as much as they could, then the two lowly made it back to the counter. They climbed over it and then made their way to the door. Jeff stumbled into the cafeteria, out of breath.

“Jeff, Tyson can’t walk. We have to get him back to the bathroom somehow. I’ll try to distract her, and you take him back, along with the food I got,” Terry said.

“OK,” Jeff replied. He took Tyson, and Terry walked out of the cafeteria and ran down a hallway, shouting as loud as he could. The girl appeared from a different hallway and followed Terry. Jeff and Tyson headed for the bathroom, and after a few minutes of limping, they got there. Jeff put Tyson down, then went back to the cafeteria for food. he got there, went over the counter, and got some food. Then he headed for the bathroom. The rest of the boys were standing at the doorway, screaming for him to hurry. Jeff looked behind him and the girl was quickly gaining. He was almost at the bathroom. He dropped the food he was carrying in a desperate dash for the door, but he didn’t make it. Right as he reached it, he felt a shove from behind, and he continued on down the hall and fell down. Then the girl jumped at him.

“Close the door!” he screamed. Terry ran outside and saw the girl holding a piece of glass. Jeff wasn’t moving at all, and his eyes were closed. The girl turned around and saw Terry, and ran for him. He dove back into the bathroom and shut the door.

The boys ate, but not much. They were all afraid, and all saddened. Rescue seemed so far away, they didn’t even think of it anymore. They didn’t speak much. Eventually, they slept. Not a good sleep, and many of them would wake up every few minutes. Finally, morning came. But it was little comfort.

Jeff woke up with a start. He sat up and looked around. He was out in the hallway, and couldn’t see the girl anywhere. He had been cut across the stomach, but not badly. Jeff stood up and walked toward the bathroom, but suddenly he saw the girl standing by the door. Jeff ran in the other direction, and went upstairs. He dove around a hallway, and saw the girl rush past him. He got up and walked down the hall. There was a shattered pane of glass at the end of the hallway. Jeff looked out of it, and saw glass shards on the ground below. There were footprints that headed toward one of the walls, then stopped, as if the person had climbed up the wall. The way they were shaped, they were ruffled and not flat, and probably not hard at all to climb. Then, Jeff turned around and left the hallway. He walked over to a classroom door. It was locked. Jeff took off one of his steel-toed boots, and smashed it into the glass window on the door. Then he reached in and unlocked it, and went inside. He was certain the girl had heard the glass break, so he had to put his plan into action quickly. He ran over to the teacher’s desk and picked up a book, and went over to one of the windows. He threw the book into the window as hard as he could, and it cracked. He picked up the book and threw it again, and the window shattered. Jeff climbed out and stood on the window sill outside of the school. He planned to lower himself down to the window sill below and then run for help. As he turned to face the classroom, he saw the girl rushing toward him, ready to shove him to his death. Jeff jumped and grabbed the roof, and quickly pulled himself up. The girl flew out of the window, and floated up to the roof. Jeff was out of ideas, and if he didn’t think quickly, he’d be pushed over an edge and that would be the end of it. Then, he spotted a ladder. He ran for it and the girl followed. He reached the ladder and started climbing down. The girl floated toward him at a great speed. Jeff reached the ground and started to run, not realizing he had just climbed down the ladder and into a courtyard, and there was no way out. The girl came for him, and then he spotted a small, thin window. He ran and slid into it, and landed on the cold, hard tile of the girls’ bathroom. he quickly got up and ran for the door. The tile, among other things, looked a lot newer than they did in the boys’ bathroom. Even though it was right next to the Freshman Boys’ bathroom, this one was definitely used a lot more. Jeff headed for the door and tried to open it, but it was locked. The boys’ bathroom didn’t even have a lock on the door. Jeff frantically searched for somewhere to go, and then heard voices. He looked for a source, and found a vent above one of the stalls. He listened and heard the voices of his friends. Jeff tore the cover off of the vent and climbed in. It was horribly cramped, but he knew he could get through. About halfway through the vent the walls were scratched up, and there were small brown stains. Jeff thought nothing of it and crawled further. He could see the end of the vent, the light of the bathroom and safe haven.

“Guys!” Jeff screamed. He kept crawling, and reached the vent cover. He couldn’t move his hands to the cover to get it off. Then, he heard a shriek. The girl must’ve been right behind him!

“Guys!” Jeff screamed again. Then he saw his friends, and they started pulling the cover off of the vent. Jeff felt an icy cold hand wrap around his ankle and start pulling him through the vent. The boys ripped the vent cover away and grabbed Jeff, and started pulling. Jeff had become the rope in a life-or-death tug of war game. The boys overpowered the girl, and pulled Jeff through the vent. In the final jerk, he fell head first out of the vent, the rest of the boys acting as a pillow as the whole mass of adolescents tumbled to the tile below. The girl let out a scream, and then there was silence.

Night came and the boys were low on food. But they weren’t very hungry. They didn’t do much during the time they spent in the bathroom, there wasn’t much to do.

“So what do you think will happen?” Zach asked.

“We wait until Monday. School starts, we get out, tell everyone what happened,” Tyson replied.

“Supposing anyone believes us. Most likely we’ll try to tell someone, and they won’t believe us. They’ll think we killed Kenny, broke all the windows,” Terry said. A silence fell over the boys as they contemplated their grave situation. Then, they heard a low rumble, as if the bathroom itself were hungry. Then, the toilets and urinals all started to flush themselves. The sinks turned on, the lights flickered, and the sprinkler system turned on. The mirror above the sink exploded in a deluge of broken glass.

“What’s going on?” Zach yelled. The low rumble returned louder than ever, and the walls were clicking like a plague of locusts. Then, one of the toilets was ripped out of the ground. There was water spraying everywhere, and the toilet stood up. Some pipes attached to it acted like legs, and it seemed like a giant spider. It swung a pipe, and Jeff barely ducked in time to dodge it. The other two toilets rose out of the ground.

“Go!” Terry yelled. The boys ran out of the bathroom (Tyson galloped more than he ran, his leg was still injured, though not very badly). They ran down the halls, the toilets close behind them.

“Split up!” Brandon shouted. the boys split up and went down four different hallways. One toilet couldn’t turn down a hall in time, and ran into a wall. It shattered against a wall, leaving a mess of ceramic and water and a small crater where it had struck the wall. The other two toilets picked different hallways and pursued the boys, and the girl went down a third hallway. Tyson and Jeff turned a corner, and went right into a dead-end hallway. They stopped at the end of the hallway, and turned to see the toilet rushing toward them at immense speed.

“Jeff, you’ve always been my best friend. I’m glad that I get to at least die with you with me,” Tyson said. Jeff nodded, and the two braced for impact. The toilet raised two pipes and aimed for the boys. Then, as it reached them, it exploded with a large bang, and the pipes fell to the ground as though they were severed limbs. Jeff and Tyson, realizing they weren’t dead, pulled their arms from over their eyes, and looked at the policeman holding the shotgun, barrel smoking like a cigarette.

“What...?” Tyson said. The policeman ran up to the boys.

“Everything’s going to be fine now, we’re handling the situation,” the officer said. The three heard a gunshot, and ran to the source of the noise. A shattered toilet and broken pipes lay scattered across the hallway where Zach and Seth had been, and there were a few more policemen there. They evacuated the boys from the school, and on the way out, Terry saw five people run into the school with strange equipment. They had a logo on everything, but Terry couldn’t read what it said in the dim light. The boys were brought over to a bench, where Kenny was sitting.

“I’m sorry I took so long to get help, I couldn’t go very fast, the fall hurt me. And I had a Hell of a time trying to convince the police that I wasn’t lying,” Kenny explained. The boys reunited and told their stories. After a while, the people that went into the school came out, and one of them approached the boys.

“Hi boys. My name is Joe. I think you all have a right to know what went on tonight. A few years back, maybe a decade or so, a girl stayed after school for a joke. But she got locked in the bathroom. She climbed into the vent to try to get through to the boys’ bathroom, but some boys had rigged the vent cover, practically welded it shut. She couldn’t crawl back out of the vent, and she unfortunately died in there. The school found out after the weekend, and buried her in a nearby cemetery. The girl’s name was Mary Evans. Anyway, after a while people forgot about it, it was tragic but not a long-lasting case. What you encountered in there was what we call an Unrested. A ghost, if you will, that can’t sleep, because it has a strong connection to our world. Her connection was that she wanted revenge on the boys who locked her in there. If you notice, she couldn’t get into the boys’ bathroom. That’s because girls aren’t allowed in there, and her connection with our world was so strong that she couldn’t get in,” Joe explained.

“I think I get it,” Terry said. Joe smiled.

“That’s good. But I have a favor to ask you. See, the world we live in, our society... it’s just not ready for this kind of thing. I can’t force you to do anything, but it would be a big help to everyone if you didn’t tell anyone else about this,” Joe said.

“We won’t,” Terry replied, glaring at Seth and Brandon. The two looked down at their feet.

“Thanks a lot, it’ll help us all. I have to go now, and thank you again,” Joe said. He turned and started to walk away.

“Wait! What about Mary, she’s still in the school,” Terry said. Joe turned his head and looked back at the boys.

“We took care of it,” he said. Joe smiled, and walked away.