School Days

[00:00:02] Welcome to Tell Me A Ghost Story, the late night call in podcast where we delve into

[00:00:18] the world of the supernatural and explore the eerie and unexplained.

[00:00:23] I'm your host Michelle Newman.

[00:00:27] This podcast features true stories from our callers that will send shivers down your spine

[00:00:34] and leave you questioning the existence of the afterlife.

[00:00:39] So grab a cozy blanket, turn down the lights.

[00:00:45] This next story is from the Something Scary podcast, read by host Blair Bathory.

[00:00:52] Something Scary shares ghost stories, folklore, and other spooky tales from around the world

[00:00:57] every Tuesday.

[00:00:59] You can find them on YouTube where they do a weekly animated scary video.

[00:01:04] I'm so glad they were able to share their story with us today.

[00:01:07] I hope you enjoy.

[00:01:37] The four of us had been buddies since the start of middle school.

[00:01:40] Me, Jack, Theo, and Joey.

[00:01:43] We weren't popular, but we weren't misfits either.

[00:01:46] Just a group of friends who did okay in class, okay in sports and always had each other's

[00:01:51] backs, making our own entertainment.

[00:01:55] Somewhere along the line that moved from hiding the neighbors' newspapers or setting

[00:01:59] off the sprinklers to breaking into the high school the day before we started Freshman

[00:02:04] Year.

[00:02:05] It was Joey's idea.

[00:02:07] As the only girl in the gang, she held all the power and often led us astray.

[00:02:13] So when she told us she'd heard about a way to break into the basement, so we could carve

[00:02:17] our initials onto the gym lockers before anyone else and therefore beat de facto heroes,

[00:02:23] well of course we couldn't say no.

[00:02:26] She was right as always about the dodgy window and before we really knew it, we

[00:02:30] were crawling through the old dusty opening.

[00:02:34] But instead of looking for a lost sibling or pirate treasure, our prize was the kudos of

[00:02:39] being the first kids and the entire grade to deface school property.

[00:02:44] We roughly knew the layout, having been to the building for orientation and sporting events

[00:02:49] over the years.

[00:02:51] We knew we had to get across to the other side of the building, and the safest route

[00:02:55] was staying in the basement, which was easier said than done as it seemed to hold enough

[00:03:00] files, paperwork and even bizarre looking old fashioned medical equipment to span each

[00:03:06] and every of the 100 plus years the building had been standing.

[00:03:11] When I mentioned this, Jack informed us that when it first opened, the town was far smaller

[00:03:16] and so it served not just as a high school but also as a quasi-juvenile correction

[00:03:21] facility and a sort of halfway house for orphans.

[00:03:25] I stood still for a moment in shock.

[00:03:28] Why had I never heard the story?

[00:03:31] Joey and Theo claimed not to know either, and Jack shrugged his shoulders saying it wasn't

[00:03:35] talked about anymore because of an accident about 80 years ago where an orphan disappeared.

[00:03:42] He only knew because his mom was president of the local historical society and had been

[00:03:46] doing some research.

[00:03:48] We carried on navigating our way through decades of debris when I stopped and turned

[00:03:53] around to tell whoever was behind me to stop getting so close and breathing down my neck.

[00:03:59] But there was no one there.

[00:04:01] I was the last in the line.

[00:04:03] I chose not to think too much about that until Theo, who was in front of me stopped

[00:04:07] and asked why I kept kicking him and that was when Joey, who was a trailblazer as

[00:04:12] always, let out a tremendous scream.

[00:04:16] Can you see him?

[00:04:18] Even then we could.

[00:04:19] A small translucent boy around 10 years old, it seemed like he had been badly beaten in

[00:04:25] life and still carried the bruises and marks in death.

[00:04:29] Because Jack's mom was right, the school had housed orphans at the beginning and

[00:04:34] some of the faculty hadn't liked that one bit.

[00:04:37] They believed themselves above teaching waifs and strays.

[00:04:42] One teacher in particular was a nasty tyrant who enjoyed dishing out physical punishment.

[00:04:48] But Jack's mom hadn't been able to discover because it was one of the town's best kept

[00:04:52] secrets, was that one time one of those terrible punishments had gone too far and a boy had

[00:04:59] actually died.

[00:05:01] This boy now in front of us.

[00:05:04] He looked at us and then all of a sudden let out a scream even louder than Joey's.

[00:05:10] His eyes flashed through his ghostly pallor and we knew he was malevolent, hellbent

[00:05:16] on revenge.

[00:05:18] Run!

[00:05:20] shouted Theo, heading back the way we'd come and we didn't hesitate for one second.

[00:05:25] When Jack tripped, we quickly grabbed hold of him and pulled him along.

[00:05:29] I don't think I took a breath until we were on the other side of that window, out

[00:05:33] of the basement.

[00:05:35] The school and far away for whatever the hell that boy was now.

[00:05:39] But now we had a big decision to make.

[00:05:41] We had witnessed something truly terrible, but who would ever believe us?

[00:05:46] Was it worth the ridicule and harm it could cause to dig up the past?

[00:05:50] Especially a past that had been so well hidden for so long.

[00:05:56] Our answer came in the form of yet another scream from back inside the basement, one

[00:06:01] so loud and fueled with rage that the window we had just crawled out of almost shattered.

[00:06:10] We knew what we had to do to allow the boy to finally be at peace.

[00:06:15] And who knew what other secrets our town might be hiding?

[00:06:24] Thank you Blair for your story.

[00:06:27] And next week we'll be back to our regular scheduled program.

[00:06:32] Do you have a ghost story?

[00:06:34] Call 701-484-2666.

[00:06:41] That's 701-484-2666.

[00:06:50] Or go to tellmeagostory.com and leave your story there.

[00:06:56] Go ahead and leave me a five star review wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:07:00] Was something particularly scary in this episode?

[00:07:03] Or maybe you've had a similar experience.

[00:07:06] Leave your comments via our Spotify page.

[00:07:10] Thank you to all the callers who left messages this week.

[00:07:14] And as always, I'm your host Michelle Newman.

[00:07:18] Signing off. See you next week.