There is something wrong with Greenridge High School. After months of researching and planning, I’m ready to go back and find the truth. I need to know the truth about my missing sister and I need to find out how 13 teenagers were killed without anyone batting an eye.
-
I wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t remember me. When we first met it wasn’t my story you were hearing. The last time you heard about me was from Caleb. He was exploring the school because he felt drawn to it. He felt like he needed to be there.
I was exploring Greenridge for a different reason. I was searching for answers about my missing sister, Hannah. Hannah and my brother were attacked on the same day, but he wasn’t lucky enough to escape. My brother died in the boy’s locker room.
My mother told me that Hannah escaped from the girl’s locker room window and found her way home. I don’t know what happened before or after that. I was still attending college when I heard about what happened.
When I was able to come home the first thing I wanted to do was check on my sister. I was able to catch the first available plane back to my hometown. When I got home there was nobody at the house. My parents were gone, all of their stuff was packed, most of it was missing although there were some suitcases left behind.
At first, I thought maybe they had taken my sister to the hospital, I assumed they were staying there because of the attack. I called the hospital and they told me they didn’t have anyone from my family staying there.
I tried to call my mother and then my father, I left maybe 20 messages for my sister and no one got back to me. When it became apparent that everybody was gone I called the police and filed missing person’s reports.
In the meantime, I searched the house to see if I could find any sign of where they went. After a few hours of searching, I eventually found a piece of paper in my sister’s bedroom hidden where she normally kept her spare cell phone.
I’ve read over that paper too many times to count.
Hannah left me a note saying that our parents were taking her out of the state so that she could relax. I was confused for two reasons: The first is because my brother was murdered and I never heard anything about a funeral for him. The second was because my mom called me and told me Hannah wanted to see me, it was the whole reason I came home so soon.
-
It took the police weeks to get back to me.
They thought I was lying to them. They told me that I owned the house that my parents were living in. There was no record of anyone else living there and there was no record of Hannah ever attending Greenridge High School.
I was in a pretty dark place for a month before I eventually decided to go back and check the school. During my time exploring I ran into multiple killers, but could never find what I was looking for. It wasn’t until I met Caleb that things slowly became more clear to me.
It wasn’t just my brother and sister who were attacked. Dozens of teenagers were attacked and many were murdered on the school grounds. We later found out that Caleb could pull spirits from wherever they were. He was bringing these kids back to life. We saved two more together, and that’s how I ended up watching Kira, Hunter, and Coraline.
As we journeyed further into the school we discovered that I could talk to spirits: Specifically, I could speak with spirits who were glowing red.
We eventually finished our time at Greenridge and Caleb left. He had to handle some family business. But I didn’t leave. All this time I have been searching for answers.
-
Before I could return to Greenridge I had to make sure everything we found in the basement was sorted. It was a rough couple of weeks, especially without Caleb. Kira has been suffering from extreme nightmares, and Coraline was still keeping to herself. Hunter is the most normal teenager out of the bunch, you would never guess he had died.
Together, we sorted through everything that we brought back. I figured it would keep them occupied since they couldn’t leave the house.
There was a lot of evidence on the basement wall, so I’m just going to tell you about what was the most interesting.
The book that the boy was clinging to was a sketchbook. It belonged to someone named Liam. I assume that Liam was the spirit in the basement. Inside the book, there were a lot of drawings of the killer who wears the mascot head. Liam drew the killer on the football field a lot. The only other drawings of interest were of the groundskeeper.
I used the picture of Hannah that I pulled off of the wall to find her homeroom. Her homeroom was room 42. Finding this information gave me an objective, I was going to go there and see if I could find anything belonging to her.
Finally, whoever created the crime board in the basement was keeping track of the groundskeeper. We found multiple photos of him tending the grass. The person who was watching him made a lot of notes detailing that the school never hired a groundskeeper. They also noted that the groundskeeper wouldn’t speak to them.
-
Hunter, Kira, and I went over the details a dozen times. None of them remembered the groundskeeper. Even Coraline made sure to let me know that she had never seen him before.
Since we finally had a place to start, I decided to put the groundskeeper on the back burner.
Before leaving for Greenridge this time I made sure all of the kids had a weapon. A baseball bat for Hunter, a knife for Coraline, and a crowbar for Kira. I wasn’t going to take them into the school with me but I didn’t want to leave them defenseless either.
-
As I drove to the school this time a lot was weighing on me. Caleb said it felt like something was calling him to the high school like it was the place he was supposed to be. Meanwhile, I had no feelings for Greenridge.
I thought about how my sister escaped a murderer and there was no record of it. It’s like every mention of Hannah disappeared from public record. There were no newspaper articles, no online posts, nothing.
The more I thought about it the stranger it became. There were no records of any of these kids and no online profiles for any of them. None of the murders made the papers, and finding any information about Greenridge was impossible.
Once we got closer to the school a feeling of impending dread washed over me. I was hoping I could do this without running into any spirits. I don’t possess the power to bring them back and listening to them getting murdered was not something I wanted to do.
-
“Stay in the car,” I told the kids as I unbuckled.
“We can help you.” Kira protested.
“No. Listen, if I’m not back in four hours go home. I will walk back if I have to.” I explained as I grabbed my backpack.
“If something happens to you guys I can’t bring you back. We don’t know if you can die a second time, or what happens if any of us die inside of the school.” I said as I zipped my sweatshirt.
I turned back to grab something from behind my seat. Coraline looked nervous, she didn’t want to be there. It could’ve also been that she didn’t want me to leave.
“But I will be back,” I assured them before opening the car door.
“Cass.” Kira protested.
“No.” I paused, “Hunter is in charge.” I said with a small smile before handing Hunter the car keys.
-
As I approached Greenridge High School I made sure to stay as far away from the grass as possible. I didn’t know if the groundskeeper was going to come back or not and I didn’t want to take any chances.
I took my flashlight out of the side pocket of my backpack and reached for the door. I inhaled and slowly opened the door, every bone in my body was telling me to go back. My heart was beating so fast, I could hear it in my chest. I felt nauseous.
The lights were still on: The whole building looked different when it wasn’t dark. I kept my flashlight in my hand just in case the power went out.
I was expecting a killer to come running at me, especially as I walked toward the staircase in the front hall. Hearing my shoes squeak when they hit the floor made my skin crawl: It took me a minute to remember the janitor. He was probably still walking around, keeping the school as clean as possible.
Walking up the stairs felt like I was trudging up a mountain. Every time we saw the killer who wears the mascot head, he was standing up here. If I hadn’t gone through the basement evidence first, I would have been completely lost. All of the homerooms and the main classrooms were on the second floor.
-
I clenched my hand around my flashlight and made my way down the first hallway. Walking around upstairs felt completely different than exploring downstairs.
All of the lockers were still closed, and some of them were covered in stickers. Some of the classroom doors had decorations on them. As I walked by each classroom I tried to take in as many room numbers as possible.
Something caught me by surprise as I reached the end of the hallway. On one of the cork boards, there was a poster.
Class of 2013’ Orientation at 8:00.
My sister went to school here in 2015.
I reached up to lift the poster. The flier under it read:
Class of 2012’ Orientation at 8:00.
The posters went back to 2011. All over the corkboard, there were references to events happening in 2013. From prom cancellations to school events, and something called the Full Moon Parade: Attendance was mandatory for that one. It was celebrated during the school day.
I didn’t get any more time to look around before I heard whistling coming from behind me.
-
I moved faster down the hallway and pressed my back to the wall so I could listen to the footsteps.
My grip around the flashlight was so tight I thought that I was going to break it. As the whistling grew louder I could feel the hairs on my arms stand up.
“Hello?” A voice hissed.
I heard a door open and promptly slam shut. Whoever this was just entered the hallway. I couldn’t believe it, another new killer?
“I won’t hurt you.” The voice called out as another door opened.
I got as low to the floor as I could and crawled to the next hallway. I could feel sweat running down my face, my hands were shaking. Something about this guy was different, something about his presence sent chills through my body.
As I made my way down the next hallway I tried to check as many of the doors as possible. I eventually found room 42 halfway down the hallway.
-
I reached up with my free hand to grab the doorknob. I slowly tightened my hand around the doorknob and turned it, as I pushed the door open it squeaked. My heart was skipping beats.
The whistling stopped as I slipped into the room.
I took a glance around the room and my eyes landed on a familiar backpack. Hannah’s backpack was sitting right there. I couldn’t believe it. I tried to speed walk across the room and grab the bag. The moment I took the backpack strap in my hand, the whistling started again. It was much closer this time.
I took the bag with one hand and ran to the closet as fast as I could. I slowly opened the closet door and slipped inside, shutting it behind me.
The whistling stopped outside of the classroom door. Hearing the door creak open caused a wave of anxiety to wash over my body. When the doorknob hit the wall, I jumped. It took all of the willpower in my body to stay silent.
I could see the man walking around the classroom through the slits in the closet door. I knew that if he looked hard enough he would be able to see me here.
My heart sounded like a hammer hitting a brick wall. It was beating so fast, I thought that I was going to have a heart attack.
The man was wearing a black suit. His brown hair was neatly slicked back. I watched as he checked under the desks.
“If you come out right now I won’t call your parents.” He hissed as he searched the room.
Tears were streaming down my face. I didn’t know why I was crying. Listening to this man was the first time in a long time that I felt this scared. This fear was visceral, I felt it in my bones.
As he walked towards the closet I watched my life flash before my eyes. There was no way this guy wasn’t going to kill me when he found me.
-
“I found you, kiddo.” He said calmly.
I watched his eyes line up with the slits in the closet. We were making eye contact. His eyes were a deep black with a white dot right in the middle. It was like looking into the eyes of the devil himself.
The moment he ripped the door open I screamed and slammed my shoulder into him. It was like slamming into a wall.
I brought the backpack up and swung it as hard as possible at his head. I heard it make contact and took the opportunity to slip by him. I thought I had a chance to run but that was before something hit the side of my leg.
I cried out in pain and fell forward. I could feel the blood rushing down my leg.
“You’re going to detention.” He snapped.
I felt his hand grab me by my hood and drag me to my feet. I went to swing my flashlight at him but I had dropped in when I tried to get away.
“There’s no use struggling.” He said as he walked towards the door.
I was not going to find out what detention was.
I let my sister’s bag go and quickly moved my hand to unzip my hoodie. I fell out of the jacket and reached down quickly to grab the bag. This time when I ran for the door I made sure to move my body to the side before I could be hit.
I heard something break behind me but I didn’t stop to see what it was.
I ran out of the classroom door and screamed at the top of my lungs. I was hoping that the janitor would help me. Maybe another spirit would hear me and intervene. But something was different on the second floor, something felt wrong.
By the time I reached the staircase, I could hear the whistling again.
Someone screamed from my left and I quickly turned my head to see what was there. It was the killer wearing the mascot head. As he ran at me I tried to make it down the stairs as fast as possible. I nearly fell right over the railing.
-
“Follow her.” I heard the man call.
I turned the corner around the steps and ran for the front door. As I pushed it open something flew past my head and slammed into the door. It was a baseball.
“Start the car!” I screamed when I noticed the kids were still sitting in the parking lot.
The sun was already setting, we left around 11:00 AM. They should’ve left by now.
I ran across the parking lot as fast as I could. I was screaming and waving my arms.
“It won’t start!” Hunter screamed.
There was no way. There was no way that the first time we came here without Caleb the car broke down. I wasn’t going to accept that.
I ripped the car door open and told Hunter to get in the back seat. I jumped in and closed the door right away. The guy who was hitting baseballs at us was running towards the car.
-
I screamed again and hit the wheel. More tears ran down my cheeks as I slammed my foot on the gas.
“He’s coming!” Kira screamed.
“Fuck!” I cried.
Pain shot through my head. It was like a fire poker was being shoved into my ears. The pain was so intense it calmed me. As the tears streamed down my face and I watched the killer run across the parking lot, I took a deep breath.
I twisted the keys one last time and when the car roared to life, I slammed my foot on the gas pedal and drove out of the school parking lot as fast as possible.
-
Once we reached Caleb’s house I told the kids to grab their stuff and get back in the car. I rushed through the house and grabbed all of the evidence. It took multiple trips but eventually, I had everything packed.
The whole time I moved the pain in my head became more and more intense. Hunter asked me why I was shaking, but I didn’t have an answer for him.
Once I got back into the car I told Kira to check my sister’s backpack for any clues.
I clenched the steering wheel and closed my eyes.
I finally knew what Caleb was talking about. That feeling of being drawn to something, to someone. I could feel it too. It was like something tugging on me, begging me to follow it.
I decided to give in to the pull.
-
We drove for about four hours before I decided to find a motel room. The headache eventually subsided, though I could still feel it lingering in the back of my head.
Once I got the kids settled down and calmed myself down enough to assure them we were going to be fine, I sat down to look through the backpack. I didn’t find anything interesting right away and was going to give up. I gave the bag one last check and found a small compartment inside the front pocket.
I reached inside and pulled out a business card.
Clearview Clinic
The headache came back in full force as I read over the card. I knew that I had to go to this clinic, and there was an address written on the back. But I also knew I was going to have to go back to Greenridge, there was unfinished business there.