Hanged Man Hall

My eighth grade school year was drawing to an end, we where finishing up the final projects and tests, and preparing for the next year. I had the usual round of classes that year, Math, Science, History and English. Most of the subjects where the usual everyday, boring classes, except for English.

My English class that year was probably the best I've ever had. Not because of the material I learned in that class but rather the teacher. His name was Mr. Rafail. He was the best, we hardly ever did any work in his class and he would just end up giving people he liked As and the people he hated lower grades. Well our final project in that class is something I'll never forget.

We put on a play; it was "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown". I was chosen to be one of the dancers in the play and it was absolutely great. The cast had so much fun putting on the play, even though it wasn't a Broadway hit. Since we where cast members in the play we got to get out of class and got to goof off in the auditorium instead of doing work. Well one day my friend, Maria and I had to run an errand for Mr. Rafail during an after school practice. He handed us the keys to his room, which was on the 7th grade (because there wasn't enough rooms on the eighth), and he told us to run up to his room and grab a bag of costumes. Well it was already about seven o'clock so it was dark outside and some of the school's lights where turned off, so it was kind of an eerie feeling. There was no one in the school any longer except for the janitor and the rest of the cast, which was down in the auditorium, which was quite a distance from Mr. Rafail's room.

Well Maria and me made our way up to the 7th grade floor laughing and joking all the way there. When we finally made it there, we quickly headed for Mr. Rafail's room. We were halfway across the hall when we heard this really loud bang; we both jumped and started looking around for the source. On the other end of the hall we realized that the janitor was there cleaning out a class room. She apologized for startling us, we had, in fact, caught her off guard too, making her drop a waste bin, hence the bang. She then went on to explain that she didn't like to be alone on this floor, she said she had heard stories about it that where very unnerving. Well Maria and me being scary story lovers convinced her to tell us the story. She went on to explain that a few years back it's said that a janitor committed suicide on the 7th grade floor. She couldn't tell us why she did it, she wasn't exactly sure but she showed us exactly where she did it though.

There was a set of steps on the floor, two sets took you up to the sixth grade floor and two sets took you to the eighth. She got a rope a tied it the top set of steps coming down to the 7th from the 6th, and climbed onto the railing and jumped.

The janitor had duties to be down and we had to get the costumes for Mr. Rafail so we parted in our ways. Maria and me continued on into Mr. Rafail room, and went into the corner of the room and grabbed the bag. We where walking across the room to exit it when we heard a big thump come from the hall outside, we bolted out to see what it was. We looked around and saw nothing, and concluded that it must of be the janitor again. We searched in all the rooms but they where all empty. We then proceeded to conclude that it was her down stairs. So we made our way back to the stair steps where, I stopped and waited for Maria to lock up Mr. Rafail's room. While I was standing on the steps something cold dripped on my arm from the stairway above. I looked down on my arm and saw, a big red spot of what looked liked blood. I looked above me and realized there was nothing there. It couldn't of be paint because the steps where painted white! Well I lost it then, I started to scream and freak out, I took off running and didn't stop till I had reach the hallway outside of the auditorium. Maria came running up a few seconds after me, literally bewilder. She asked me what happened I proceeded to explain about the blood. She was pretty freaked out but then tried to explain it with the janitor trying to scare us with the story, the thump and the blood. So I decided that maybe we should ask her. So we delivered the costumes to Mr. Rafail, and then told him that we had to go to the bathroom. As we where exiting the auditorium we saw the janitor come out of one of the classrooms down in the high school hall. I looked at Maria completely terrified. She could have never gotten down to that classroom if she was anywhere in the 7th, 6th, or 8th grade areas. She was the only other person in that building except for the play's cast and none of them could have beaten us up there.

Maria and I often talk about that night, recount the experience and try to explain it. We've been unsuccessful so far in explaining the strange occurrences. We didn't tell any of the other cast members or anyone for fear of being laughed at. Maria and I know that something weird was going on that night on the 7th grade floor and from then on we have been very weary of being on that floor after everyone else has left the building.