I got into Urbex at an early age, middle school to be exact. This was long before it became popular on YouTube or TikTok. I was never outgoing, academically advanced, or particularly good at sports. Neither me nor any of my friends had much extra money to throw towards spending afternoons at the mall or arcade. My first experience with urbex started when some friends and I had a sleepover at Katelyn’s . Katelyn lived in a trailer in a rural village. A lot of the houses nearby were large and expensive, not quite mansions but pretty close. We were eating popcorn and watching a movie when Katelyn mentioned an abandoned home behind her house. She explained that the couple who lived there had a nasty divorce and the house was up for sale as a result. Katelyn had never seen the inside of the house but her mom had mentioned it being really nice.
I had an idea to liven up our night. “Why don’t we go see it?”, I asked. They all looked at me like I was crazy. “We’ve snuck out before… why not just go over, take a look then come right back?”. Katelyn shrugged. “I don’t see why not”, she said. Katelyn distracted the family dog with a treat while the rest of us crept out the back door. It took less than five minutes to reach the house. We tried unsuccessfully to pick the lock but luckily Jessie found an unlocked window.
The interior of the house was magnificent. The floors were all marble and there was an extravagant fireplace in the living room. We began to look around. Each room seemed more luxurious than the last. One of the more notable spaces was a hot tub- oddly placed at the landing of the stairs in the front room. After an hour or so of exploring we headed back to Katelyn’s. Luckily we got back in without waking her parents.
Since that night, urbex has been my passion. Katelyn and I explored many abandoned places together. Our selection of locations to explore expanded over the years as our curfew got later and we got our liscenses. Although Katelyn was adventurous, there was still one destination she avoided.
Oak River school was one of the most insidious yet least known scandals in my hometown. It seemed to be a typical high school. It boasted average academic scores and a great football team. But below the surface, something wasn’t right. A record number of graduates from Oak River were diagnosed with cancer-particularly leukemia. Some were diagnosed only a few years after graduation and others not until decades later. The school was abruptly closed and students were sent to temporary sites to continue classes while a new school was quickly rebuilt-several miles away from the old one.
Eventually the truth came out. The soil Oak River High was built on was used as a dumping ground for nuclear waste in the 1940s. The cancer rates weren’t a coincidence. The old Oak River was never torn down. My aunt, Cora, was one of the many unfortunate alumni who developed Leukemia. She passed away when I was 17. She was the stereotypical “cool aunt” who let me watch R rated movies and served me Pepsi in a wine glass whenever I visited. More than that, Cora was the only one in my family I could truly be myself around. From holding me as I cried when I wrecked my bike at six years old to helping me through my first breakup at fifteen, I could always count on her.
Losing Cora was the worst experience of my life. I’d always wanted to explore Oak River but for some reason her death made me fixate on it even more. I had to see what it looked like- the radioactive school frozen in time. I felt like if I walked through the same hallways or stepped into the classroom where Cora had been so many years before she would be there with me. Of course I was smart enough to realize this was just a morbid fascination from grief and that nothing would change once I left. But I still couldn’t let go of the thought of going to Oak River.
“Come on, Jess agreed to go and she’s bringing all her photography equipment”, I begged Katelyn during our phone call. “No!” She responded. “You know that’s the one place I won’t go”. I accepted her answer and called Jess to let her know we would be going without Katelyn.
We met at the back entrance of Oak River at eight that night. The school wasn’t as hard to break into as I expected and we quickly found ourselves in the hallway. Some old trophies and metals were still on display behind the dusty glass. “Why didn’t they take those?”, I wondered out loud. “They’re probably all covered in radioactive dust”, Jess laughed. Ron, Jess’s boyfriend, met us shortly after we found our way in. He’s into paranormal investigation and wanted to try out some of his equipment as the school was rumored to be haunted.
They proceeded to the gym and were messing with the EMF sensor for a while so I decided to look around on my own. The first few classrooms I looked at weren’t as bare as I expected. They still had posters on the wall and other equipment out. I found a globe and spun it, instantly regretting my decision as dust flewht into the air. Luckily we had worn masks and gloves to try to limit our exposure as much as possible. I heard a rustling noise. I turned around to see where it was coming from. Next to the boarded up window, I noticed a mostly wilted potted plant. But the plant wasn’t dead. It was moving. Very subtle movements, I had to do a double take to be sure of what I saw. “What the hell”, I whispered. The only way I can describe the movement is almost a sort of twitching. I got out my phone to record and picked up a ruler to poke it. The plant coiled around the ruler tightly, almost yanking out out of my hand. I yelled and jumped back.
Jess and Ron came running. I tried to explain what happened but they didn’t seem convinced. Ron found a pointer by the chalkboard and poked the plant again. It didn’t move. I stammered, trying to explain what happened. Jess and Ron exchanged glances. “Maybe you shouldn’t be walking around here alone”, suggested Jess. Ron nodded, “Let’s all just stay together”, he suggested. I reluctantly agreed. We took a look in a few other classrooms. Jess photographed each as we went along.
Eventually we made our way into the cafeteria. We found some old trays, glasses, and even unopened cans of food. As we ventured further into the kitchen, Ron halted, almost causing Jess to run into him. “Why’d you do that?!”, she snapped. “Shh, listen”, whispered Ron. Through the silence I could hear a faint chewing noise. It continued for a few minutes then came the clang of a can hitting the ground. A light rustling followed. We stood there, frozen. Ron involuntarily coughed. A figure emerged from the darkness. Jess turned the flashlight to it. It definitely wasn’t an animal… but it also couldn’t be human. It stood on two legs, was almost seven feet tall, emaciated, with yellow-tinged skin speckled with red boils that looked like they were about to pop. The figure let out a groan that sounded equal parts terrified and angry. Jess screamed, dropping her flashlight.
Ron and Jess took off in one direction while I ran in another. I ducked into a janitor’s closet. I tried to quiet my breathing as much as possible, even taking off my mask, trying to catch my breath. I sat against the wall, head in my hands trying to stave off a panic attack. I looked around the closet a bit, seeing if there was anything I could use for self defense. All I found was an old broom. I stayed quiet for a while then hesitantly stepped out of the closet when I was convinced the creature was nowhere close. I began looking for Jess and Ron. I tried calling Jess but my phone had no service. I heard labored breathing and trudging down the hallway. “Damn it!”, I thought. I noticed a door on my left. It was glass but was fogged up to the point where I couldn’t see through it. The hallway was a dead end & I could hear the figure getting closer. I opened the glass door and stepped into the room, the air was thick and humid. I struggled to keep from coughing. I put the broom through the door handles to barricade myself in. I hopef the figure would pass me by but then I heard a pounding at the door. I wasn’t sure how much force it would take to break the old glass and I had no interest in finding out. I panned the room with my flashlight, looking for another way out. My flashlight passed over a dark, reflective abyss. This was the old pool. The walls were covered in a mixture of black and green molds. I remembered Cora had mentioned being on the swim team years before. There was a door on the other side of the room. I began making my way to the other side, but quickly realized my way was blocked by some overturned bleachers. I tried lifting them up but it was no use.
“Harper!”, Jessie yelled from the door on the other side of the room. Noticing the predicament I was in, Jessie and Ron attempted to move the bleachers but weren’t able to either. At this point, the glass door was splintering from the humanoid monster pounding on it. “ You know how to swim, right?”, asked Ron. I nodded. “Are you crazy?!”, screamed Jessie. “She can’t swim through that radioactive bullshit!”. I’d already accepted my fate of having to wade through this disgusting abandoned pool and tried to reassure her I’d be fine.
I found a piece of wood to set my backpack on, trying to keep it as dry as possible. I stepped into the cold, dark, water. The water felt thicker than I expected, it was like moving through jello. The smell was a repulsive combination of decay and metallic. I swam as fast as possible. I’d almost reached the edge when the water began rippling. My right leg stopped moving. It was caught on something. Jessie and Ron noticed my struggle. Ron jumped into the water and tried to pull me forward. He shined a flashlight through the dark waters, revealing a labyrinth of dark green limbs. “What the hell…” Ron whispered. The water began to move rapidly. I felt the slimy substance tighten around my leg and screamed. Ron began thrashing around, cursing and yelling. I frantically grabbed for my backpack, retrieving my pocket knife out of the front pocket. I took a deep breath, went under water and hacked at the slimy substance trapping my leg. It began to twitch as the grip loosened and I got myself free. Jessie was pulling Ron out of the water on the other side, crying frantically. Something most people don’t know about Jessie was that she had an extreme fear of water and couldn’t swim. A near drowning experience when she was four had left her traumatized. I pulled myself up to the surface and we all ran out the door. Ron was limping. He had a nasty gash on his left calf. Once we got some distance from the pool, we stopped and Jessie tied her jacket around it to slow the bleeding.
Jessie’s phone rang, startling us. “Katelyn?”, she answered, placing it on speaker. A grainy FaceTime call lit up the screen. The background was dark but looked familiar. Katelyn was in the classroom closest to the entrance. “Katelyn, listen to me. You need to leave! There’s some weird shit happening here”, Jessie tried to explain. The connection wasn’t good. The call cut out every few seconds, making it difficult to understand. Jessie, Ron, and I all tried to explain what was going on but Katelyn clearly didn’t understand. The connection continued to get worse the further into the school Katelyn got. Eventually the call dropped completely and none of us were able to dial back out.
“Jessie, you and Ron get out and go find some help. I’ll find Katelyn and meet you guys on the other side”. Ron tried to protest. Luckily, Jessie was able to convince him that the bleeding was too serious to continue. As we parted ways, Jessie and I agreed that if Katelyn and I weren’t safely out in fifteen minutes she would call for help.
Katelyn!”, I called out as I reached the front of the building. “Help!”, I heard her yell frantically. I ran towards the sound and saw her. We sprinted towards each other but she tripped over something in the process. A figure donning an archaic gas mask emerged behind her, grabbing her ankles and dragging her away. “No!” I yelled. I tried to run towards the assailant, but someone grabbed me from behind. As I tried to fight my way out I flailed, slamming my head into the wall. I felt dizzy and everything went dark.
I saw a light. I knew what people always said about going into the light. Was this death? “She’s awake!” I heard. A paramedic was kneeling over me. I jumped. As I regained consciousness, I started stammering. “W-what’s going on? Where’s Katelyn?”. The EMT tried to calm me. My mom and Jessie were nearby. My head hurt a lot and my arms and legs were bruised. I was transported to the hospitial. That night, the only answer I could get as far as Katelyn’s whereabouts was that they were looking for her. The next day, I was informed by police that Katelyn’s body was found in the school. The stairs had collapsed, crushing her. I tried to tell police about the man in the gas mask but they clearly didn’t believe me. They pretty much nodded then had a social worker follow up with me with information on trauma counseling. What bothers me the most is I’m not even sure Jess and Ron believe me. Something sinister is still happening in that school. I’m going back. River Oak won’t take anyone else from me.