by Rick Suttle
“But we have tools down here to take the door pins out,” I said. Sarah nodded. “My sister the psychic. I’m really glad you came, sis.”
“Save your praise until we get out of here.”
“You got it.”
“Boiler room,” said Sarah. And that’s where we found an open cabinet of monkey wrenches, pliers, screw drivers and a hammer.
The ghost must’ve opened the cabinet and grabbed the wrench he’d thrown at Sarah. He wasn’t messing around and truly intended to harm us. We had to get out of the basement before he returned.
We rummaged through the tool cabinet and pulled out a mallet, crowbar and screw driver. Just then, the elevator door pinged.
“Let’s go,” I said.
We heard the elevator door open just after we rounded the corner. The REM-Pod beeped. It emitted a continuous shrill, indicating the spirit had stopped in the hallway. Perhaps he was listening to better locate us.
We scrambled up the first two flights of steps. Sarah tripped halfway up the third flight, but I grabbed her arm. She braced herself on the railing, regained her balance and then we clambered to the third floor landing. When I reached the doorknob of the metal door, it was locked.
“He stopped that elevator on us, didn’t he?” I said. Sarah nodded.
“Here,” said Mike. I grabbed the mallet from him, placed the edge of the screwdriver under the top pin and struck it. It took three blows but the pin fell out. Two were left.
I struck the middle pin four times, but couldn’t budge it. Just after the fourth strike, someone screamed below. Footsteps started ascending the steps, echoing through the stairwell.
“Hurry,” said Mike.
I hit middle pin three more times and popped it out. The bottom one was more stubborn because of the low angle. I tried to use the crowbar but the edge was too thick.
“Lie on the floor,” said Sarah. More footsteps; they were getting closer. And louder.
I lay on the floor, positioned the screwdriver and pounded the mallet against it. When I had moved the pin an eighth of an inch, I grabbed the crowbar off the tiles, stood, placed it under the pinhead and tugged up on it.
Something struck the wall and crashed against the steps. It clanged through the stairwell. Another object hit the wall beneath the third flight of steps, just fifteen feet away. Chips of wall cement sprinkled onto the stairwell.
“Hurry,” shouted Mike. “He’s coming.”
I repositioned the crowbar under the pinhead and tugged on it again. I pulled it lose with the next yank and heard the pin drop. But the momentum drove me backwards and I fell on my rear end. I hit Sarah with my head on the way down and she fell on the landing near the top step.
“Go back,” I heard Sarah yell, but she wasn’t talking to me.
I panicked. My hand trembled as I placed the crowbar behind the top screw casing and yanked on it. I heard the door shift at the top. I repeated the move on the middle casing and pulled on it as hard as I could. I did the same thing with the lower casing. I then moved up and down, tugging on the casings, trying to pull the door open. When I had yanked the edge of the door to the point it was separated from the jamb, I stuck the claw of the crowbar toward the middle of it and pulled with all my strength.
The door parted. Mike and I shot our hands through the one-inch gap and tugged on the door. It came loose from the casings and dropped to the floor. We dragged the door around and leaned it against the wall. That’s when I looked back and saw that Sarah was missing.
“Where did she go?” Mike’s throat churned as he pointed down the steps.
I ran down the steps and spotted Sarah on her side. She was lying near the bottom of the second flight of steps. She slapped at the ghost—her hand passing through the entity—as it yanked on her right leg and pulled her.
“Let go, you creep!” she shouted. “Dylan. Help!”
I grabbed Sarah’s arm and tugged. I couldn’t budge her.
“Mike. Help!” I yelled.
Mike ran down and grabbed Sarah’s other arm. We pulled.
“Let go of my sister, you jerk!” Mike shouted. We couldn’t budge her. Seconds later, the ghost was tugging all of us down the steps. We hit the landing and rounded the corner.
The entity pulled us down several steps. I tried to get to my feet but couldn’t. Mike was on his back hanging on to Sarah’s wrist. We bounced down a couple more steps. Then three more. That’s when I started praying—not out loud, but to myself. Mike seemed to be doing likewise.
I regained my footing and leverage, and so did Mike. And after several seconds of praying and tugging, we pulled Sarah loose. Mike lost his grip and fell backwards against the steps. He winced as he hit his back. I grabbed both of Sarah’s arms and dragged her up a half flight of steps on her rear end . . . and then across the landing. I lifted her up. She got to her feet. The ghost lunged for Mike, who was still on the steps kicking his legs out. He pushed himself up and got to the landing.
“Let’s go,” I said. Sarah ran up the steps ahead of us. I followed Mike. We were winded by the time we reached the landing at the top of the stairwell.
Sarah charged through the doorway, then Mike . . . and then me. I felt a hand grab my arm just before I slipped through the doorway and fell on all fours.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” the ghost shouted. Then all was silent.
CHAPTER 13
It was almost pitch black when I walked into a narrow hallway. My goggles were fogged up. I pulled them off and wiped them with the bottom of my shirt. I placed them back on.
“It looks like the corridor at the back of the annex,” said Sarah, as she pulled her goggles from her pocket and put them on.
“I think you’re right,” I said. I looked to the left and saw another door that led to the back hallway of the school—the right wing of it. But it was locked.
We turned right down the narrow corridor and made a left about thirty feet down. We then came to a door. I opened it.
We entered the opposite end of corridor in which Sarah and I been in earlier—the one that lead to the back classroom of the annex. The construction workers had knocked part of the wall down. Thick plastic and tape covered the opening, and the materials were fresh and emitted the smell of plaster and paint.
I kept walking, leading the way for Mike and Sarah. We had only taken a half dozen steps when I noticed a thin door on the left. I couldn’t peek inside because the door had no windows. I pulled the door open and looked inside.
“What are you doing?” said Mike. Sarah didn’t question me.
“Hang on.” I said.
The room smelled of must and mold. It measured no more than 8’x12’. The walls were padded and a half dozen chairs were stacked in the corner.
“What is this place?” said Mike. I had a hunch, and I’m sure Sarah did, too, but we didn’t say anything. We needed to get back to the office and wrap up the investigation.
We walked down the corridor and made a slight right, then a left. We approached the annex office forty feet up on the right. Sarah didn’t look in the office. She just kept walking.
“It doesn’t appear that there’s any other way out of this hallway, except through the annex building,” I said.
“No,” said Sarah. “And did you notice, there aren’t any doors or windows in any of these corridors either.”
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s very odd.” The configuration was weird. What kind of architect would design a school hallway with no doors or windows, even if it was an annex?
“Is the man still here?” I said.
“No. I don’t sense him anywhere. That’s why I didn’t stop in the office. But I do see someone approaching from the annex hallway.”
“Good or bad.”
“I think it’s the man who wanted to talk to me earlier, but didn’t. Spirit number two. Something’s holding him back here, too.”
We made our way through the narrow hallway to the back classroom of the annex. We then walked through the classr
oom doorways and headed for the annex door.
“Is he still there?” said Mike.
“He’s walking away,” said Sarah. “He’s got something to tell us about this place. I know it.” Just then, Sarah started running toward the back hallway. “Are you there? Who are you?”
Mike and I caught up.
“Did you see him?” Sarah turned with her hands on her hips. She looked winded. The dust in the annex and back corridor must’ve been affecting her. It certainly had cranked my allergies up.
“I thought I did, but it wasn’t him.”
We started walking back to the main office. That’s when I asked Sarah about her disappearance.
“What happened when you followed the guy through the fog? And why didn’t he talk then?”
“The evil man frightened him away. The guy seems to know every move the other spirits make. I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I’d be willing to bet something more sinister is behind this.”
“A demon?” I said. My throat churned. My gut tensed.
“I don’t think the man is a demon, but one might be influencing him.”
“That’s not good,” I said.
“No, it isn’t,” Sarah replied, “which means we really have our work cut out for us this coming week.” I nodded—glad that Sarah was finally taking the investigation more seriously. She usually came around sooner or later.
“So we have two frightened men, a couple scared women and nine kids who can’t move on because of one man?” said Mike.
“Yes,” said Sarah. “And there are dozens of others who haven’t revealed themselves. But I see three indistinct forms in the background.”
We made it back to the main office, sweaty, exhausted and in desperate need of a beverage. We were all glad to see the lights when we walked in. I pulled my goggles and camera off my face and wiped my forehead with my hand. Mike headed to the cooler.
“What do you want, Sarah?”
“A Coke.”
“Of course,” said Mike. He fished his hand around in the melted ice and pulled out a Coke. “This stuff will rot your kidneys out.”
“I’ll worry about that when I’m seventy-five.” Mike chuckled and then handed the cold beverage to Sarah. “What about you, boss?”
“Diet Dew. And don’t lecture me about it.”
“I won’t, and good choice.” Mike grabbed two Diet Mountain Dews and handed me one. I was seated at the table by my laptops.
“Any of the cameras still working?” said Mike. He walked over to the table.
“All the hallway ones are on,” I said, after I sat down and studied the laptop screens. “That’s odd.”
“What?” said Mike.
“The basement camera is facing the hallway again.”
“Maybe we bumped it when we ran out of the boiler room,” Mike said.
“No. I didn’t touch it. Did you?” I looked at Sarah.
“No.”
“And it looked like it was in the right location after we grabbed the tools.”
“Well, it’s almost five o’clock,” I said. “We need to check out the cafeteria and locker rooms. Those are the only areas left.”
“Mike, do you want to go with Sarah this time?”
“Yeah. We’ll check them out.”
“Good, because I want to review some of the images from the cameras.”
I had a feature on my laptop that enabled me to view the videos while keeping the cameras running. We needed to wrap up our investigation by six and collect the equipment, except for the basement camera and REM-Pod. None of us wanted to go back down there.
Once we met back up with Joyce, we could share some of our findings. But we’d have to come back to wrap up the investigation, get rid of the evil ghost and help the other spirits move on to the light.
The light was heaven—or at least the temporary one called Paradise. That’s what my dad always told me. And only those who had eligibility for the light could go there. I didn’t know where evil spirits went, but I assumed it was to some temporary hell.
Mike and Sarah performed a recorder and Ovilus session in the cafeteria—and in the boy’s and girl’s locker rooms. But didn’t feel they picked up any recordings. They returned to the office.
“The spirits hiding back there are the more timid ones,” said Sarah. “They’re not used to us.”
“You didn’t sense anything?” I said.
“Not really.”
At six-ten, we started gathering up the cameras. We left the REM-Pods in place for the next investigation. I would have to convince Joyce to let us return in several days—once we had completed our reviews of the equipment and did the necessary research. That was the original agreement with Joyce. But the school had sustained some damage during the night.
I reviewed my notes for Joyce and packed up the tripods and cameras. Joyce and Phil arrived at 7:33 a.m. We met them at the front door.
“Hi, kids,” said Joyce. “How was your night?”
Sarah looked at me shaking her head. Through some sort of telepathy, I understood that she thought it best not to discuss the basement and annex damage.
“Great!” I said. Mike rolled his eyes, and I think Phil saw him. He didn’t say anything.
“Let’s go down to the office and chat,” said Joyce, as she carried her brown satchel. She opened the office door and we all walked in.
The four of us sat at the table where Joyce and I had first discussed the school’s hauntings. Mike and I had pushed all the other tables—the ones I used for my laptops—back to their original spots.
“So, can you tell me what’s causing the hauntings?” said Joyce. She pulled the same legal pad from her satchel, clipped the case shut and placed it on the floor.
“First, I’d like to tell you that we’re not quite done,” I said. I held my breath, awaiting her response.
“Oh.”
“Yes. We finished the investigation, but we need to do a little research—like at the library. And Sarah has to determine how best to help the spirits move on.”
“Okay. We discussed that. How long will your research and planning take?”
“We’d like to come back next Sunday night and finish up,” I said. “You have a lot of spirits in this school. Fourteen that have revealed themselves to some extent?” I looked at Sarah.
“At least,” she said. “But dozens more are hiding.”
“Sarah believes the spirits are being held here by one entity. We need to figure out how to get rid of it. It’ll take us a week to get prepared.”
“Okay. I’ll check with the principal.”
“In the meantime, you may experience more activity in the school.”
“Why is that?” said Joyce—mouth open. I detected a slight quiver to her voice.
“We’ve disturbed the spirits here. It’s fairly common for that to happen.” I coughed, a late allergic reaction to the dusty annex. I looked Joyce in the eyes. “Besides, no one’s ever talked to them before. And they certainly haven’t met anyone like Sarah, who can see and converse with them.”
“Is it safe here?” I glanced at Sarah.
“I’d recommend keeping the school off limits until we get back,” said Sarah.
Joyce, who’d just closed her mouth, parted it again as she gawked at Sarah in amazement. She furrowed her brows.
“But I have construction workers coming in at eight.”
“I’m just warning you that it would safer to keep the school vacant until we get back,” said Sarah. She shrugged her shoulders. “Your choice.”
“But I can’t.”
“Joyce, Sarah is right,” I said. “If people are climbing on ladders or working around heavy objects, they could get hurt.” I didn’t mention our little venture to the annex—and all the objects that were thrown at us—because it was supposed to be off limits.
“Okay,” she said. “But I’ll have to pay them for the day because of the late notice.”
“It’ll be money well spent,” said Mik
e, who up to now had been dozing in his seat. We were all exhausted, which was another reason we needed a week. Kids were not meant to stay up all night. Nine hours of sleep was what my mom always preached.
The construction workers showed up at two minutes to eight. Phil buzzed them in. Joyce told Phil to direct the foreman to the office. He knocked on the door a couple minutes later, as we sat around the table sipping on soft drinks. Joyce clutched a bottled Dasani water, but set it down to answer the door.
“Something wrong,” the guy said, as he stood in the doorway. From where I was sitting, I could only see his clodhoppers and the pant legs of his jeans. Joyce held the edge of the door with her right hand.
“Yes, Jim. We need to shut the construction down until next Monday.”
“How come?”
“It’s relates to the incidents occurring here . . .” Joyce glanced back at us. The guy stuck his head in. He was about sixty with white hair and sun-toughened skin.
He stood and faced Joyce, disappearing from our view.
“Does Tanner know about this?”
“Not yet.”
“Then you can explain to him how I have seventeen men outside getting ready to work. If you want this remodeling job done on time, we need to keep working.”
“I know,” said Joyce. “We’ll pay you for the day.”
“Damn straight, you will.” He peeked his head back in the room. “Sorry, kids.”
“No problem,” I said. We’d heard a lot worse at school. The foreman pulled out his squawk box.
“Larry, I need you to tell the men to pack up their tools and equipment.” He paused. “Yeah, I told her. Uh huh. Great.”
Joyce followed the guy into the hallway. I heard him say, “Just call us when you need us.”
“Hey, stop that,” said Mike. Sarah had just placed her Coke can against his cheek. She laughed. “You almost gave me a heart attack. I’ve already gotten chilled enough, not to mention attacked, in this dump.”
“Mike, do have time to research this place today or tomorrow?” I said. “The sooner the better.” He touched his left cheek which was now red.