TRUE story
Elizabeth's School Spirits
Magnolia Avenue Elementary in
California: for 12-year-old me, that
school was the furthest thing from
normal. Rumors flew thick and fast
about Magnolia - some people said
that before it was a school, it was a
mansion, later destroyed to build a
mental institution. Death seemed to
have its hand on the mental
institution, because it was soon
turned into a cemetery. Some tales
claimed that the school was built
right on top of the cemetery without
the dead bodies being removed.
The stories were real enough to me.
I avoided being alone as much as
possible, but for a shy, lonely fifth-
grader like me, it was nigh
impossible to always travel with
someone. Everywhere I went
through the hallways, I could feel
gazes on me. Sometimes, aninvisible hand would touch me, or a
voice would whisper my name. No
matter how hard I looked, I could
never see anyone there.
One day, I raised my hand in class
to ask if I could use the restroom.
No one was in the bathroom; I
made sure of that before I settled in
to relieve myself. As I was wrapping
up, I heard the door slam. I peered
around the edge of the swinging
door, but saw nothing - until the
lights began to flicker.
Then I saw the shadowy figure of a
girl. She began to talk in a sing-song
voice, and I stood there and listened
to her. Fear paralyzed me, but
curiosity kept me from overcoming
that terror. She told me how she
died, and then she moved her handto indicate the ceiling. I knew what I
would see there, and I didn't want
to follow her gesture, but it was as if
there was an invisible string attached
to my head. There she was, her
dead body, dangling in the middle
of the bathroom, swinging gently.
Footsteps interrupted my horrified
observation, and I jerked to see that
the girl was gone. Some of my
classmates came in, gossiping and
giving me strange looks. I hurried
back to class, vowing never to return
to that bathroom.
I found another restroom near the
cafeteria, and for a while, I was able
to go in peace. Then my friends
sniffed out the story about my
terrifying experience and, knowing I
was prone to such fears, decided to
dig up another tale of woe.They told me that a girl went crazy in
one of the bathrooms - though no
one seemed to know which it was -
and that before she hung herself in
the big tree right outside, she was
raped by the school janitor. The
cruel man then locked her in the
bathroom for a long weekend,
without food or water and only her
thoughts to keep her company.
Her thoughts became her reality:
soon after the janitor let her out
(after forcing her to swear she
would never tell, on pain of death),
she would scream randomly,
pointing at mirrors all throughout
the school. She saw something
there, she would desperately tell
anyone who would listen. After
everyone rejected her story, she
climbed into the tree, tied a rope
around her neck, and hung herself.
It was the story of the girl from the
first bathroom. I led my friends back
there and we scoured the mirror.
After a while, I spotted a black dot,
which my friends claimed shifts
spots every time you return and look
in the mirror anew.
We all had our own theories about
the spot. Some of us thought it was
the soul of the girl, trapped forever
with her demons to haunt her.
Others said it was the devil's spot,
trying to claim another young soul in
that bathroom.
At any rate, we stayed out of there.
