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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/exzakt99 on 2025-08-28 01:59:31+00:00.

My fascination with ghosts and the paranormal began 2 years ago. It was a cool summer night, and it was beginning to rain. Me and my friends, Dan and Todd, were walking back home from a ‘night on the town’, which isn’t saying much as we live in a small town with a population of 1,400 people.

We were walking down [Redacted] street, despite Dan’s protest. He hated taking this path home because of the decaying school that sat dormant on this street. Rumor around town was that the school is haunted. People say they have heard screaming and wailing from the school at night, but Todd says it’s all bullshit.

It’s a large modern brick building standing 2 floors tall and takes up the entire block. It was once a nice up-to-date school, but it closed down a couple years prior due to a dwindling student population. A year later it was bought by an old mechanic in town, and he intended to renovate it into a hotel, but the city said the school was on the verge of being condemned due to the west wing’s second floor being on the verge of collapse. So now it sits nearly empty, the mechanic Charlie lives alone in the school and works out of the old auto shop room, so his investment wouldn’t be a complete waste. Charlie denies the claims of the school being haunted.

As we walked closer to the school Dan and Todd were arguing about how ‘haunted’ the school was.

“I just don’t see why we couldn’t take a different route home”  Dan said “this area gives me the heebie jeebies”

“This is the fastest route home, and I’m not trying to get caught in the rain” Todd replied “It’s just a bunch of small town gossip is all, this town has nothing else going on so they make things up to stay interesting”

“I went here when I was a kid,” I added. “There’s nothing scary about it. The closest occurrence we had was me almost dying of boredom a couple times.”

“Yeah yeah very funny” Dan sighed “My dad says he refuses to step foot on this street after what he heard one night”

“Okay, but your dad is also a drunk, so who knows what he actually heard.” said Todd.

As Dan and Todd continued bickering about how scary the school was, I heard a faint tapping sound coming from nearby. I stopped dead in my tracks, it sounded like a hand tapping on glass.

“Guys shut up for a sec” I said “Do you hear that?”

They slowed to a stop, and I realized the sound was coming from the direction of the school. The tapping sound became louder as if someone was beating on a window. I didn’t see anything at first, but as I looked closer into the school I saw the outline of a girl in one of the lower windows.

“There! In-in the West Wing! Theres a- there’s a girl in the window on the bottom floor!” I stammered as I grabbed my phone from my pocket.

“Which window?” Todd asked “there’s a lot of windows dude”

“Oh Shit, there! I see her!” Dan yelled

I opened the camera on my phone to try record a video, but before I could I heard a piercing scream and I dropped my phone.

I bent down and picked my phone up off the ground, when I looked back up she was gone.

“Where’d she go?!” I asked frantically

“She dropped below the window” Dan responded “I don’t see her anymore!”

I continued looking around but Dan was right, she was gone.

“Dammit” I exclaimed “I should have got that on video!”

“I didn’t see anything” Todd stated “are you sure you saw a girl? That screech could have been anything.”

“Yes dude, I’m sure! That was the scariest moment of my life. Now I’m ready to get the hell out of here, let’s go” Dan said, while picking up the pace back towards home.

“Wait, shouldn’t we find out what the hell that was?” I asked

“How? Its private property?” Asked Todd “if you want to call the cops and tell them you saw a ghost girl in the school you can go right ahead, but I’m going to join Dan and get out of here, it’s starting to rain” As he turned to catch up with Dan.

I cursed under my breath again, upset that I messed up what would have been the best ghost evidence on the internet. I took one more look at the school before turning around to join my friends.

That moment sparked my inspiration to start a youtube channel, so Todd, Dan, and I launched a channel a few months after. We have been on a dozen ghost hunts by now, with little to no evidence to show for it, but we have amassed 60k subscribers.

The closest thing we have to evidence is a door closing on its own during our investigation of an abandoned mall. Todd is adamant that it was a draft, but Dan argues it was definitely something paranormal and that Todd is ignorant. Other than that though, all we have caught are some loud creaks and bangs while investigating abandoned houses, which I realize can easily be brushed off as nothing.

I am certain that our big break would be if we could investigate the school. Ever since word of our channel got around town, people have told me many stories regarding that building, and they insist that’s what we should investigate next. I’ve already tried asking the owner Charlie if I could, he said he would if he could but his insurance doesn’t want anyone else going in that building and that they are already opposed to him living there as is. So for now I have just been recording the neighborhoods stories to hopefully make into a video later.

I woke up this morning to my phone ringing. I rolled over disgruntledly to see Todd calling.

“What do you want?” I answered a bit harshly.

“Well good morning to you too, Sunshine” Todd responded

“Well excuse me, It is 8am on a Saturday, what is so important that it couldn’t have been a text?” I asked

“Well, I call with good news” Todd said

“Okay, well, what is it then” I replied curiously

“Charlie died” Todd stated a bit too excitedly

I paused before asking “How is this good news Todd?”

“Well it’s not, but it’s good for us at least. Because this means we can finally investigate the school,” he replied.

I took a moment, thinking it over, unsure what to say. I had only woken up moments ago, and now I’m being told Charlie is dead and that we should investigate his school.

Todd added “Abby just told me. His body is going to the coroner’s office this morning. An officer found his car wrapped around a tree, they suspect it happened last night.”

Todd’s wife Abby works for the city, so of course she has the inside scoop.

“There’s a slight hitch though,” Todd added.

“What’s that?” I asked

“Well Abby tried to notify the next of kin, but all that he had listed was some guy down south. She told him the news, and he told her that he would be coming up in a couple days and that he is going to buy the school when he gets there.” Todd said.

“That’s odd” I added “he has quite the list of priorities I guess. What would he want with a condemned school anyways?”

“I was wondering the same thing” Todd said “but regardless that means we would have to investigate it soon, before the buyer gets into town.”

Todd was right, we could investigate the school now that Charlie is dead. It probably isn’t very considerate but it’s a possibility nonetheless, and we wouldn’t get another possibility like this again.

“Okay, I’ll tell Dan,” I said finally “we will investigate the school tonight”

It was well after dark as we approached the school. It’s even more ominous when we are this close, especially when it is bathed in the night. The building looks weathered yet surprisingly current, and besides for the paint flaking and fading away, it looks just as I remember it from when I was a student. We crossed the empty parking lot and as we got to the front doors Todd spoke first.

“Sooo do we just walk in through the front door, or did anyone make a plan for how we get inside?” He asked

I looked over to Dan and he gave me a small shrug as a response.

I responded “I guess I didn’t consider that part. I put too much thought into whether or not we should and didn’t think about if we even could.”

Dan let out a light chuckle saying “I was more worried about if it’s more or less illegal to break into a man’s house after he is dead. Is it still breaking and entering if he is dead, or is this just trespassing?”

“I’m no lawyer, and I’m barely a ghost hunter, but from a legal standpoint, i’m gonna say maybe” I joked

“Well he did say he would be okay with it if it weren’t for his insurance” Todd replied “who would we sue now if we got hurt?”

“Okay, that’s a reasonable point I suppose” I said trying to make myself feel better about this potential crime “but we better figure out a way inside here soon, I don’t want any cops to see us. Anyone have any ideas?”

Todd bent over and grabbed a large rock.

“No, put that down dude” Dan said in a hushed shout “That would definitely be breaking and entering”

“Well, do you have a better idea?” Todd asked

As Todd and Dan squabble about the most acceptable way to break into the school, I approached the front doors. I put my hands on the doors and gave it a little push, and to our surprise they actually opened.

“He left them unlocked?” Asked Dan

“I guess” I responded “it is a small town after all, maybe he didn’t plan to be out for long.”

Todd and Dan entered the building behind me. The doors closed behind us and we could hear the sound echo throughout the vast building. We turned on our shoulder lights, the school still has power running to it, but we don’t want any neighbors to see the lights on.

The school has an odd aesthetic to it since it is now redesigned to be a hom…

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