Chapter 116 – Autumn Eden – Holly Hayfield

Saturday morning was another cold and cloudy day for us. Lilith, Alyssa, and I were waiting at a public pond, resting on the bench. This place was across the street from a medium-sized retirement home. The senior citizens that lived there often came out here with their visiting family members to feed the ducks. Watching the ducks eat was all we could really do while waiting.

My mom thought we were loony for wanting to come here during this cold weather but she didn’t try to stop us. She dropped us off and went back home, saying she’d pick us up in a couple of hours. I was beginning to wish that I went back with her. My light jacket didn’t feel like enough to keep me warm.

“How’d I let you two talk me into this?” I asked as I rubbed my hands together, “This is a bad place to be in early December.”

Alyssa put her arms around me.

“It’ll be worth it to see a ghost.” Alyssa said as if that were a normal reason.

“Here, you can hold onto my hands.” Lilith said.

Lilith was the only one of us wearing gloves. She was more prepared than I was. When she first pulled them out of her bag I felt foolish for leaving mine at home.

I took Lilith’s hand like she offered. Only, I couldn’t help but to take advantage of the situation. I began rubbing and tickling her hand playfully. She stifled a laugh and yanked her hand away.

“Never mind,” She said, trying to maintain her composure.

I laughed at her as she looked away from me.

“That’s revenge for dragging me out here.” I said. “You were the one that was so determined to get Emma’s necklace back.”

She turned back to face me.

“What I really want is to explore Autumn Eden Elementary! I had no idea my great grandmother was involved in this! I have to know more about it!”

“You couldn’t just check out the book that Jay mentioned…?”

Lilith waved off my suggestion.

“Oh please, I already read through that not long after she mentioned it.” Lilith said nonchalantly. “It was sparse on the details. I want to see this place for myself.”

“And I want to see the ghost.” Alyssa added.

“We couldn’t just go to the movies instead?” I asked. “Imagine, a group of high school girls doing something normal on the weekend… We could’ve even gone to see that new horror film about poltergeists.”

“I’d rather see one in person.” Alyssa said.

“How else was I going to get the gang to come out here?” Lilith asked. “Sam may not be joining us but this bench warmer over here will fill out our numbers while she’s gone. Once Val and Jay show up we’ll have a good amount of people for a mystery hunt.”

“What do you mean bench warmer…?” Alyssa asked.

I pointed out to the motorcycle pulling up to the curb before Lilith could say anything more.

“Look! Val and Jay are pulling up. Let’s go say hi.”

Val and Jay were more bundled up than we were. Riding on a motorcycle everywhere somewhat necessitated the thicker clothing to begin with. When Val got off her motorcycle I planted myself against her. She happily drew me into a hug. Compared to me, she felt like she just walked away from a fireplace.

“What’s the matter? Miss me that much?” Val asked with a smirk.

“I’m freezing.” I said plainly.

“Now that you mention it…” She said.

“Sorry to keep you all waiting!” Jay said. “My little sister made a mess that I had to deal with before my parents let me leave. That girl causes so much trouble these days…”

“It’s no big deal. We weren’t out here that long.” Lilith said.

I pulled away from Val to give Lilith the evil eye.

“Say that again!” I dared her jokingly.

Lilith rolled her eyes.

“Let’s get going.” Val said. “It’s supposed to get colder later. Let’s try to wrap this up in a timely manner.”

“Fully agreed!” I said.

As planned, we continued on to Autumn Eden Elementary School on foot. It wasn’t far from the pond, which is why it served as our rallying point. The school was just a brief walk down the street from where we were. The distance was nothing to complain about, but the chilly wind was. I kept Val on one arm and Alyssa on the other. Alyssa enthusiastically holding my arm was appreciated for once.

Just like it’s sister school, Autumn Eden Elementary had an oversized lot compared to the size of the school proper. The yellow and black ‘Do not cross’ tape bordering the property was a joke. It didn’t even surround the entire perimeter of the building itself. We walked onto the premise without needing to hop any fences or sneak by any obstructions.

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Like Emma mentioned, there were still construction vehicles on site. It was like the company that operated them couldn’t even be asked to move their vehicles whenever they froze operations. One massive portion of the building was completely demolished, but most of the building still remained intact. It was tragically comical that the old building outlived the company meant to demolish it.

The front door was unlocked and we walked in without any trouble. The inside of the building looked like a normal elementary school with colorful paintings on the walls, a few large animal decorations adorning the sides of the entrance, and an autumn themed flower wreath hanging from the entryway ceiling.

There was broken glass practically everywhere on the floor. Some of the glass was from the partially shattered front door window panes, and some from the overhead skylights. I stepped beneath one of these skylights and looked up into the cloudy sky. I looked back down and could see proof of water damage where some of the floor tiles were coming up.

Plants were growing up from where the displaced tiles once were. The floor throughout most the hallway looked like an out-of-control garden filled with weeds and wild flowers. Any glass left on the ground was broken into miniscule fragments. Our steps made crunching sounds as we walked.

We walked slowly as we took in the surroundings.

The place wasn’t scary. It wasn’t even eerie. It just looked like an elementary school lost to time. In a way, it was fascinating to see a school that never made it past the final stages of development. There were boxes and boxes of school supplies, folded tables, and other knick-knacks lining many of the hallways. A lot of this reminded me of the detention hall back at our school.

Alyssa was still hanging onto me as we made our way through. She didn’t seem at all scared from what I could tell. Jay was the only one that looked troubled by our surroundings. Val was walking a few paces ahead of us, trying to take the lead. Lilith, however, was making that job hard. She was moving around energetically, taking pictures of anything that caught her fancy.

“Where do you think the ghost is?” Alyssa asked me.

“What makes you so sure there’s a ghost?” Jay asked from close behind. “That Emma girl could’ve been making things up.”

“She said it talked to her.” Val pointed out.

“She could be delusional.” Jay offered instead. “Maybe her friends were playing a prank on her.”

“Maybe…” Val said. “I want to look inside a few of these rooms.”

“There’s limited light down some of these hallways.” I noted.

Lilith activated her cell phone’s light.

“We have our own lights.” Lilith said. “The poor indoor lighting shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Until the ghost snatches your phone away,” Alyssa said excitedly.

“Ugh…! Please stop!” Jay groaned, “Don’t say things like that! This place gives me the creeps!”

“It’s not that scary.” I said. “Our school’s architecture is scarier than this. Besides, look at how nature has completely reclaimed this building. It’s amazing what happens when places like this are left to their own devices.”

“Let’s just find the necklace and leave.” Jay said. “If you want to see some plants visit your garden back at school.”

“I still regularly visit it in my free time.” I said.

We started down one of the dark hallways with our flashlights in hand. Our plan was to scan the area with our flashlights to search for Emma’s necklace. We were going with my theory that it got caught on something and fell down somewhere as Emma was running away.

There was no hint of a ghost to Alyssa and Lilith’s disappointment. I never expected one either but I was at least hoping to see something interesting. So far our trip was turning out to be just an unusual Saturday with my friends. That wasn’t bad of course, but I still wished we could’ve gone to see a movie together.

I walked down a flight of stairs leading into an old basement of some sort. There were footsteps on the stairs behind me that I assumed belonged to Alyssa. I turned to see that it was actually Jay standing behind me, looking as frightened as a pup.

“Jay, where did Val and the others go?” I asked.

“I don’t know. We got split up in that jagged hallway up there. This place is like a maze.”

“Jagged hallway…” I said, trying to recall what she was talking about.

This was actually near the area of the school that was partially demolished. It was hard to tell in the darkness with only our phones to guide the way, but it wasn’t an ordinary hallway. The hallway wasn’t jagged, just partially caved in on one section. It gave the illusion of multiple corridors in the darkness.

“We’ll go back up in a sec.” I said. “I just want to take a look at…”

Suddenly lights came on in the basement. Instrumental music began to play and Jay slammed into me so hard that we fell down the remaining flight of stairs. Luckily the fall wasn’t far, but Jay was heavier than me and landed right on top of me. Even worse, she refused to let go of me as I tried to recover.

I laughed.

“Don’t laugh!” Jay shouted.

“I didn’t suspect you’d be so easily scared.” I said playfully.

She glared at me angrily and squeezed me tighter.

“I was just surprised! That’s all!” She said defensively. “The ceiling lights and music turned on out of nowhere! How the hell does a place like this have electricity?”

“That’s what I’d like to know.” I said as I tried to stand up. “Do you mind getting up?”

“Sorry…”

Jay stood up and helped me stand up as well. We dusted ourselves off and looked around the room. The room was cleaner than anything we saw upstairs. In fact, this place wasn’t just clean, it felt inhabited. There was a long leather couch, a wooden coffee table, multiple book cases, a small TV, a couple of chairs, and a jukebox that was playing piano music.

I put my cell phone away now that I no longer needed the light. I walked towards the jukebox for a better look. Jay followed close behind, holding onto the back of my shirt. This wasn’t an old-fashioned jukebox like something out of an old film. This was a mostly digital device.

There were a few things around the room just like that. The television was a nice flat screen TV. The coffee table had brand name snacks on it. Even the lights in the ceiling were new looking LED lights. There was no way that Emma and her friends brought all of this when they came here.

Someone was living here.

Jay didn’t seem to pick up on everything I was noticing. Her teeth were chattering as she looked around the room suspiciously. She was tense and on edge, even though the situation clearly wasn’t what she feared. When a rat appeared from under the couch, hauling away an old slice of pizza bigger than its body, Jay flipped out.

Jay screamed in an uncharacteristic high-pitch and backpedaled dramatically. Her back hit a door and she panicked in place there. When that door began to slowly creak open she ran over to jump behind me, not that I could protect her. Jay was bigger than me. I should’ve been the one hiding behind her.

The room on the other side of the mystery door was completely black. It was impossible to make out anything inside with the door only cracked open. A grey skeletal hand reached from out of the cracked door, ominously reaching in our direction. Jay held onto me for dear life.

“Who dares disturb my slumber?” A feminine voice hissed from the darkness.

I, seeing through this act, took hold of the plastic skeleton arm and yanked it out of the woman’s hand. Jay froze in place, like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“This is a cute Halloween decoration.” I said and tossed the toy to the ground. “Why don’t you come out and talk to us? I think you may have something we’re looking for.”