Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-26893881-20150802175449

  I don’t really believe in the paranormal, but there was this one time I felt very ill at ease. It happened in September 2012 and my wife and I decided that we should go away for the weekend to see her family in Stoke. So we drove up from our house in Southampton at 5:00 in the afternoon and it was just my wife, our five-year old daughter and I. As we were on the motorway we got to see the beautiful English countryside, which made my daughter happy as she was pointing at the livestock and saying, “Ha-ha, look cows”. There was an accident on the M6 that slowed traffic to a crawl. My wife called her parents to tell them we wouldn't be arriving until well after dark.

So I drove through Stafford just so I could avoid the ongoing traffic as it was very irritating. It was then 1:00 in the morning with my wife fast asleep in the passenger seat and my daughter asleep in the back.

I soon found myself driving past a derelict school. Broken windows and clinging vines betrayed its once striking architecture. My daughter then called out eerily from the back seat. "Daddy, why are those burned people looking at us?”

I replied with, “Where?” In a terrified and concerned manner.

She then proceeded, “In the school playground, daddy.”

So out of curiosity and concern, I got out of the car I looked over the fence into the school playground and saw nothing. I then walked back to my car and just as I was going to say something to my daughter I noticed she was fast asleep. I noticed aswell that my car looked like it was about four feet from where I parked it and the handbrake was down. Which was worrying as there was a steep hill going down another four feet ahead. As I was driving to my mother and father in-laws house I decided to dismiss everything that happened due to exhaustion and stress.

I woke up the next morning and decided to get some breakfast for everyone, so as I walked to my car I noticed there were red childlike handprints all over the rear of my car. I then freaked out and as I was on my way to get breakfast I thought I’d go and investigate the school deeper, as it got me intrigued.

<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">As I arrived at the once functional learning establishment, I got a feeling of apprehension as I walked through the ruined school grounds which strongly resembled Pripyat. As I entered the building and walked through the ghostly corridor I had a feeling I was watched by someone or something. As I went on further I entered what used to be a classroom which had been set alight. I had chills racing up and down my body as I remembered what my daughter said about the people who were watching us, suddenly I heard an unexpected dropping sound coming from the hallway, and I then without any hesitation crawled out the window and ran towards my car riddled with complete fear. I looked back and I noticed a strange and heavily scared child’s face in the window staring.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">As I got to my car I felt overwhelming relief as I got in and drove off, I then decided not mention any of it to my wife or her family as they would panic.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"TimesNewRoman",serif">When I arrived back at house I decided to look up what happened there, and after a quick Google search I found the most hair-raising article I had ever read. There was a brutal massacre at that school in 1988 and the school has been sitting there untouched since. After reading the article I felt sick and ever since then I have never been back and I don’t ever plan on going back to that nightmare fuelled hellhole. <ac_metadata title="Academic Ruins (Final Piece)"> </ac_metadata>