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So The Rumors Were True

 

This is yet another story from my childhood. Sorry in advance for the length!

My sister and I used to go to a small Chinese private school in Malabon before moving to Canada. It is a very long rectangular building with a mezzanine where the science labs, school clinic and library are located. The end of the mezzanine houses an expansive stairwell that leads from the upstairs classrooms down to where the washrooms are. Kids could hold full games of cops & robbers in these stairwells. To lessen confusion about this stairwell, there would be the classroom-level stairs, then you'd have to walk through an expansive landing to get to the last set of stairs to the washrooms. Whoever the architect was wasted a lot of space here as there are storage rooms located off to the side of the landing for extra desks and chairs. The mezzanine is usually quiet while classes are ongoing, as all four rooms were only ever unlocked when needed.

The end of the mezzanine and stairwell were rumored to be haunted for a few reasons: 1) the lack of constant human activity in this space, 2) some of our more sensitive classmates would swear they could feel things walking through there, 3) we'd always find random, unexplainably squashed kittens. I say unexplainable because the kittens' bodies would be the only things completely flattened; their heads would be fine, and there was never any blood/innards surrounding the poor things to suggest they've been stepped on.

I had two personal experiences with the mezzanine.

Stay Away

Wanting confirm the rumors, I somehow roped our class president into coming with me to investigate. I'd forgotten why we had to stay later that day. It must have been because of one of the after-school AP programs just because the class prez was there, too. Even most of the cleaning staff had all gone home. It was dusk (around 5:30PM). We'd asked the last cleaner if we could pop up into the mezzanine because "I'd lost my watch earlier and would like to look for it." Heh heh heh.

I mentioned the end stairwells, but there is a more normal-sized staircase at the front end of the mezzanine that comes up from the main quadrangle. We went up those steps and crept past the first science lab. So far so good. The class prez was squeezing the life out of my arm as we crept halfway past the second science lab when a loud bang that sounded like a chair being slammed down came from the end of the hallway. Class prez and I froze, and then she took off running back down to the quadrangle! I stayed for a bit to see if whoever it was might come out, or even cuss for dropping a chair. Nothing else happened to I took it as my cue to leave.

I realize this could be attributed to gravity, but that would have meant the chair fell pretty darn perfectly to not cause any other falling noises.

The Black Lady

Our mom was the head science teacher which sometimes meant my sister and I had to stay later at school with her.

One afternoon we were with our mom in one of the science labs when my sister needed to go to the washroom. She's about 9 or 10 in this story. We were hanging out and doing homework while mom did inventory on the equipment for her class the next day. She takes the stairway towards the back end of the mezzanine. A few minutes later she comes back to the science lab.

"There was a lady who came out of the storage room on the bottom floor as I was coming down the stairs."

"Oh? Was it Ate Beth?" I asked. Ate Beth was usually in charge of grabbing chairs and desks out of the storage rooms. I thought it was weird that she'd just say "lady"; everyone knew the cleaning staff by name.

"No, she was taller and skinnier. She had a black dress on." My sister's telling me this in the matter-of-fact, oblivious way kids do sometimes. I'm not even sure she properly processed what she saw.

"A black dress," I gaped at her. "Did she see you?" I'm trying to keep a level head because I'm familiar with the Philippine superstitions surrounding black ladies. Making eye contact with them usually meant you'd die in a matter of days.

"No. She moved very fast from the storage room and out towards the washrooms. I didn't even see her by the time I got there." She thought for a bit. "Hey, I don't think I even heard the storage door open. She was just already there."

The storage room door and its hinges are cast-iron.

At this point I decided to distract her with the displays around the lab before she starts thinking too hard about her black lady.

Thanks for reading!

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Comments about this paranormal experience

The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, en_chuu, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

LFrog1386 (1 stories) (73 posts)
+3
5 years ago (2020-03-18)
Well, being next to a mausoleum sure makes it creepier. I AM very sorry for the loss of your baby sisters, en_chuu. But I imagine those buried there must get lots of prayers said for them, especially being attached to the temple.

Hopefully the lady in black has since found her peace.
en_chuu (4 stories) (27 posts)
+3
5 years ago (2020-03-18)
Hey lady-glow!

That's a very feasible point with the maggots. I've never noticed when, but we eventually stopped finding them. Maybe they did have a natural predator that also died at some point.

Oh what; ghosts aside, that is a mean rumor to start about anybody!

It is joined to a Buddhist temple which has a couple of buildings used as urn graves. My stillborn sisters are buried there (it's a convenience thing, visitation wise, as we go to school there).

Thanks for popping by and reading my story! 😊
lady-glow (16 stories) (3186 posts)
+2
5 years ago (2020-03-17)
en_chuu.

The presence of maggots makes me wonder if the kittens died of a natural cause and the maggots had already eaten their innards, the bones of the head, being stronger, would have prevented the structure from collapsing.

Whatever it happened to them, I'm sorry for those poor little things.

I have nothing to add to the previous comments without being repetitive, only that I remember a rumour running among the kids in my elementary school that, supposedly, the gym was haunted by the spirits of the children the principal had killed by hanging.
The principal, though strict, was a very sweet lady.

Do you know if the building was used for some other purpose before becoming a school?
Melda (10 stories) (1363 posts)
+1
5 years ago (2020-03-17)
en_chuu & RC - I think that most of us on this site indulge in our "ghost breath" every now and then, regardless of our age and I don't mean the wispy cotton candy 😆

Regards, Melda
en_chuu (4 stories) (27 posts)
+4
5 years ago (2020-03-17)
[at] Ruskin: Mostly apologizing for giving everyone a bout of disgust and nausea. On that note, stay safe! 😊

[at] Melda: I love that candy floss is called "ghost breath" in afrikaans ❤

[at] sds: I get your point though; it is hard to stamp as truly paranormal with such little detail. I had the chance to go back and visit the school last summer (almost 12 years later) but did not venture towards the mezzanine. I've become a humongous chicken turd where paranormal exploration is concerned lol. All the same, thanks for reading! 😊
RCRuskin (9 stories) (847 posts)
+3
5 years ago (2020-03-17)
Also, [at] en_chu: you do not need to apologize for the kittens. Pretty sure you're not capable of such cruelty.
RCRuskin (9 stories) (847 posts)
+3
5 years ago (2020-03-17)
Hi, en-chu.

I am going to be physically ill, happily not with Corvid19... At least I hope not. Not been exposed yet and now self isolating, so...

Normally, I oppose the death penalty, but in the case of what happened to these cats, yeah... I'd willingly do it myself.

[at] Melda: Ghost breath. Poetic! I loved ghost breath as a bratty kid going to festivals in the summer. 😁
sds (14 stories) (1436 posts)
+4
5 years ago (2020-03-17)
Hi en_chuu, I have read the experiences in the school. The first one which you had, it is quite difficult to brand it as paranormal without more inputs. As far as your sister's experience is concerned, I would like to say it might be that she sighted something paranormal. But since you said that the stairs and mezzanine were creepy places and give you haunted feeling, it would rather have been better had you investigated more about the sighting of a black lady like if any of your classmates or schoolmates had seen a black lady. It would have given more credence or inputs. And you might have actually got more information about the creepy experiences.

With respects to you.

SDS
Melda (10 stories) (1363 posts)
+3
5 years ago (2020-03-17)
Miracles - I just had to respond to your "cotton candy" comment. I love it! In SA cotton candy is called candy floss. In Afrikaans it is called "spookasem" which means "ghost breath". So take ghost breath, floss, cotton AND fluff - quite interesting? 😆 I wish I knew what candy floss is called in all the other languages in SA but unfortunately I don't.

En_chuu - I hope you didn't mind that little interruption. In response to your comment, I can handle a lot but when it comes to kids and animals I tend to show my cracks.

Regards, Melda
en_chuu (4 stories) (27 posts)
+4
5 years ago (2020-03-16)
Hey Melda!

I know for a fact some of the kids I went to school with loved to exaggerate! Especially if they had an audience full of skittish girls. My sister rarely says anything of that nature as she's easily spooked, so I thought, "hey it may actually be true!"

Thank you for braving through the story even after the kittens' part. ❤
en_chuu (4 stories) (27 posts)
+3
5 years ago (2020-03-16)
Hey Ruskin!

They are very possibly just very nervous schoolmates. I recall being able to spook them with whatever acting 10-yr old me was able to muster. To be honest, the closest thing to a haunting I've ever experienced at that school was the first story with the chair.

Out of morbid curiosity my friends and I examined one of the poor things after our third encounter. To save you the grislier details, we found maggots popping in and out of the fur. Very unfortunate to find that it was an actual kitten.: (
en_chuu (4 stories) (27 posts)
+4
5 years ago (2020-03-16)
To everyone: I apologize for the kittens! I've seen them so many times while I went to school there that I may have become desensitized.
Miracles51031 (39 stories) (5000 posts) mod
+5
5 years ago (2020-03-14)
Melda, I like your "extra layers to the cake" 😆 I call if fluff or cotton candy LOL
Melda (10 stories) (1363 posts)
+4
5 years ago (2020-03-10)
Oh Silverthane the very thought of it is so horrific that I would prefer to believe that it didn't actually happen.

If we delve into the occult both human and animal sacrifices occur. But at a school on a staircase? To my mind that would involve satanism. All my instincts say no, different set of circumstances. To be very honest, I don't actually believe the "kitten" part of it. Perhaps a cat died there and the rest followed. As I mentioned before, the extra layers to the cake.

I hope I'm right. The alternative is a bit much to swallow.

Regards, Melda
silverthane61 (4 stories) (344 posts)
+4
5 years ago (2020-03-10)
Either those kittens were dealt with by physical, flesh ad bone creatures, or they were killed by spirits. In either case, whatever killed them was evil. Whether the 'Black Lady" was involved with that or not is another question I wish I knew the answer to.
Lealeigh (5 stories) (512 posts)
+3
5 years ago (2020-03-10)
Melda and RCRuskin,

I am with you on the detail about the kittens. After I read that part, I was extra nice to my cat. I cannot tolerate cruelty to any animals. Life is cruel enough for stray animals.
Melda (10 stories) (1363 posts)
+4
5 years ago (2020-03-10)
en_chuu - Just to correct something. Sometimes adults exaggerate more than kids 😁

Regards, Melda
Melda (10 stories) (1363 posts)
+5
5 years ago (2020-03-10)
en_chuu - I think that most buildings where a lot of human activity has taken place, especially localities such as schools and hospitals, will have a spirit or two, or three!

Your description of the kittens literally makes me feel physically ill. Like RCRuskin, I'm hoping some kids were joking around with toy animals because if I had caught somebody mutilating any animal like that I'd be spending a long time in prison. I prefer to opt for the "joke" scenario, sick as it might be.

I am inclined to believe that the school is haunted and that some of the pupils' experiences are true, including that of your sister. I know kids can exaggerate and add a few layers to the cake but nevertheless, the basic ingredients are probably there.

Regards, Melda
RCRuskin (9 stories) (847 posts)
+6
5 years ago (2020-03-10)
😨

Interesting, but the one thing I want to comment on is the 3 points of evidence for the stairwell being haunted. Lack of human activity, well it makes it more obvious when something is not right there, I suppose, but a place could be haunted even with lots of people about, and go unnoticed for years. Feeling things, well, what are people sensitive too, or maybe they're just nervous being in an empty, very open area?

Your third point really stood out to me. I do not care for cats, but want the death penalty for anyone who willingly harms animals, especially something in the way you described. But, and I hope this is the case, they might have been stuffed toys with the stuffing removed?

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