The hallway

The beginning

Hi, my name is Jake Beckham, and I've spent my entire life searching and exploring the paranormal. I've always wanted to be like those guys in the movies catching and finding ghosts and I want to be like those guys in the games who go into abandoned houses.

This is an obsession for me since childhood. Every single time I've tried to track and find paranormal activity, I've failed, and to make it worse, my family was very against it and they always tried to prevent me from going out to explore. Thankfully, I've always had my best buddy Max, who's always supporting me in exploring the paranormal, even if it takes hundreds of dollars out of his gas money every year. He drives me all over the country to find the next supposed haunted house.

We have yet to find one. It's almost the end of the holidays and I still am waiting for a new paranormal sighting to show up on the r/paranormal subreddit. But then Max comes into my room.

"Hey, mate, I don't think I'll be able to drive you around today."

I look at him with an understanding expression,

"It's alright, mate. You've been a big help."

Max looks at me with a look of slight guilt, but then his face turns bright,

"Hey, Jake, did you hear about the rumours going around about your school?"

I looked at him with a slightly confused expression,

"No, I haven't."

Max illuminated with excitement,

"So what I've heard from the prior senior students that went to college is that there used to be a door on the side of the building that took you into the school, which they used to sneak in when they were running late to class and sneak out, etc. But for some reason, students that went in there started going missing or coming out completely exhausted."

I looked at Max to see if he was lying, but his expression showed both joy and sincerity.

In that moment, I just wanted to grab Max and run to the school to check it out, but it was late, and I could just go tomorrow.

So, I thanked Max and waited in anticipation for the next day.