School Ghost Story by mr.vantablack

## The Silent Schoolhouse: I'm Still Here *A Short Horror Story by Thomas Bell* Thomas Bell was looking for a change of pace when he moved to a small, quiet town in Pennsylvania to teach fourth grade. He traded the roar of a large school district for creaking wooden floorboards and humming fluorescent lights. It was peaceful, until he volunteered to stay late for the annual Harvest Festival. By 8:00 PM, the buses were gone, the janitor had clocked out, and Thomas was alone in the multipurpose room—or so he thought. At exactly 8:47 PM, his radio cut to dead silence. The air grew heavy. When he stepped into the dim hallway, footsteps matched his own, pace for pace, stopping only when he did. Returning to his work, he found his neatly stacked paper decorations dragged across the floor in a trail leading toward the exit. Then, the PA system crackled to life with the sound of wet, distorted breathing and a child’s warped voice. Terrified, Thomas searched for the source, only to find a locked classroom with a single desk turned toward the wall. Carved into the wood were the fresh words: *"I’M STILL HERE."* When the lights flickered, the carving vanished, but the nightmare was just beginning. Locked inside by automatic timers, Thomas was hunted through the dark by the sounds of running feet and a lone basketball bouncing in a pitch-black gym. He barely escaped through a heavy metal crash bar, fleeing into the cold night. As he sat in his car, shaking, the faint sound of his radio began to play one last time from inside the darkened, "empty" building.