The Abandoned School

Hello again! Well I kind of feel guilty or weird or something because I have encountered so many strange things growing up. This story takes place in Dale Texas; it's about a 10 minute drive from Lytton Springs (where my last story took place).

Dale is an extremely small town. It consists of a locally owned gas station, a railroad track, and 2 roads that intersect right at the post office. That's it! Other than that it's a lot of land primarily used for livestock, some of it is heavily wooded and there are a lot of these DEEP ravines running through the woods. Oh I forgot to mention the old school that was converted into a town hall type of building.

This history of dale is pretty simple, it was where the black kids were sent to go to school back when everything was segregated. There are a lot of old abandoned buildings that are falling down, made entirely of wood and dirt floors, it's quite the depressing place.

My sister in laws dad had about 80 acres out there that he leased to cattle ranchers, and a small mobile home with a shed that was used to process meat (they were big on deer hunting) Well when my brother (who I lived with at the time) moved out of Lytton springs, his father in law said he could put a house on his land and we could live out there. Sweet deal! So I lived on this big chunk of land with not much to do but ride my 4 wheeler and go exploring in the woods and what not. We had 2 dogs, Chico and Annie, they would follow me everywhere.

One day while I was following the ravines deeper into the woods I came across a clearing. The trees in the woods were ancient, I'm talking over 100ft tall and had a diameter of 10-15feet, they were massive, and they groaned when the wind blew. I loved how big they were and I always thought of building the ultimate tree house in one someday. The only thing was they seemed to be rotting from the top down. Branches would fall all the time and the wood was very porous, not sturdy at all. Anyway, so I come to this clearing which seemed very out of place. There was a decent sized building slumped over in the center, with weeds and vines and tall grass all over. The Texas sun doesn't help plants thrive so almost all this brush was dead and dry and itched as I walked through it to check out the building. By the time I got to the building my socks were covered in dead seeds and grass etc... You know how it is.

The building was made of wood, the roof had collapsed and there were no doors. A small gravel path led off back into the woods, and there was a rusty sheet metal sign in the front that I couldn't read because it was so corroded. I was skeptical to go inside because it was falling apart and there were banana spiders everywhere (those big creepy yellow and black ones that make the zig zag pattern in their web). Then I thought to myself wow its not everyday you just find something like this in the middle of nowhere, so I carefully went inside. I was mostly walking on a powdery dirt floor and there were piles of wood in places where the roof had caved in. I was enjoying my little adventure until I heard the distinct sound of laughter.

Okay, who could that be? I knew there were no kids out here as I had to walk a good way to get to this place. I went back outside, into the hot sun and looked around... Nothing, no one at all. I shrugged it off and went back in.

My dogs wouldn't go in with me; they kept sniffing around the outside and peeing on everything. When you first go in there is a tall wooden counter near the wall with an old analog clock hanging on an old rusty nail covered in dust with a cracked face. I found some old papers that were so brittle if you touched them they would crumble into a dusty powder type substance. The papers were all so faded and must have been written in pencil or something because I couldn't read much other than a letter here and there. There was an old metal bell sitting on the counter, it still worked...sort of.

I continued through a door way into what I assume was a theater or something. There was a small elevated platform that looked like a stage; it had a poorly made podium and a lot of scattered chairs that were knocked over. It smelled really bad in this room, like an old library or something, it wasn't pleasant at all so I left and went to the room adjacent to the theater room. This is where it gets strange.

I heard the laughter again and a light banging noise. Ahh scared! I didn't know what to think so I just kept going, when I walked into this area, it appeared to be a class room. There was an old blackboard on the wall and a bunch of tiny wooden desks with scratches and stains on them.

All of a sudden I heard a light bang again and my dogs started to bark from outside. I could see slivers of sunlight coming in through the gaps in the wood of the wall. Then those gaps blacked out as if someone was walking by outside.

I said "hello?" loudly and asked if anyone was there. No response. I started to get a little creeped out now. When I looked away from the wall I noticed an eraser sitting on one of the desks. It wasn't there before... I turned around to leave and I heard the light bang again, I turned to look, the eraser was now on the ground under the chalk board!

Someone had just thrown the same eraser I was just looking at on the desk! Ok that's my queue to leave, I started heading for the way out again and that's when the banging started again repetitively. I heard the laughter again and as I looked back at the chalkboard, there were 3 or 4 erasers floating and being pounded on the chalkboard, like someone I couldn't see was holding them and playing around making chalk dust. At this point Id seen enough, I ran for the way out as the laughing and banging got louder.

My dogs were still barking with slight yelps at the end as if they were calling for me to get out of there. When I got to the lobby area the clock was spinning backwards! I saw the bright sun beaming through the door frame and headed for it, there was a loud scream and crying as I rushed out of the building into the brush. I didn't look back, my dogs ran to me and we all ran off into the woods and I followed the ravine back home.

I told my sister in law where I was and what I saw. She told me that it used to be a segregated school and was abandoned a long time ago. She told me her and her friends would go back there when they were kids and see who could stay in there the longest at night without getting scared.

I told her about the laughing and the chalk board and she confirmed that she had seen the same thing with the chalk board and erasers years ago. I decided it would be best to not go there again. I feel bad that there are kids still trapped in that horrible place, they seemed happy though. Any Ideas on why they are stuck in their old school? And what could that figure have been that I saw through the cracks in the wall?