There’s a church not far from where I live. It’s practically falling apart, the stained glass windows are all shattered, their beautiful patterns no longer visible. Leaning at a precarious angle, the spire looks as though it’s inches away from collapsing, falling to the ground and crushing the neglected structures beneath. Maybe it would have been better if it did.
Sitting alone atop a large hill, it cuts through the horizon like an eyesore. It’s been that way for as long as anyone can remember, abandoned for years now. No one goes there at all, the place has been condemned but as of yet, there’s been no demolition crew sent to knock it down. It’s just been left, discarded.
You’d be forgiven for forgetting it even existed, sitting there silently. That is until around 11 pm. At exactly 11 pm each night, the bells in the abandoned tower ring out, resonating throughout my village, sounding exactly 11 times before being cut abruptly short.
Nobody talks about it, they just try their best to ignore it. I’ve asked my parents about it several times but each time, they’ve gotten cagey and told me not to worry about it, before quickly changing the subject.
When I was younger, my best friend Tod and I attended the local Catholic school in the village. Neither of us was particularly religious, neither were our families, but it was one of the best schools in the area. And more importantly, the closest.
We were playing in the playground one afternoon pretending to be explorers with a couple of sticks that we’d found. Tod was the lead explorer and I was his trust first mate, setting out on our epic adventure. Each area of the playground was a separate island, and we were determined to explore all of them before the lunch bell sounded again.
We’d explored most of the playground when we bumped into Johnny. Johnny was a few years above us in school, he was friends with Tod’s older sister. He was walking the other way towards a large group of his friends, waving as he saw us.
“What are you guys doing?” He said inquisitively, raising an eyebrow and casually gesturing to the sticks in our hands.
“Exploring!” Tod shouted back in a gleeful voice. “We’ve got hiking sticks and everything”
“You guys are so strange!” Said Johnny, rolling his eyes. “No wonder no one thinks you’re cool. If you’re going to explore, there are way better places than here”
“Oh yeah?” Said Tod, “Like where then, smartass?”
“Ever seen that abandoned church at the top of the hill? That one that’s collapsing? Well Gavin, the guy who works at the convenience store by the petrol station, told me that there’s something about that place. Apparently, some priest, Father Davis, went mad there years ago, you know, full-on insane. He started raving about demons in the walls and voices whispering to him at night, proper paranoid stuff.”
“Anyway, one evening, the bells rang at 11 pm. Davis apparently never normally rang them after 9 pm as he didn’t want to keep everyone in the village up, so everyone thought it was odd. They rang 11 times before stopping dead. A bunch of guys from the village went up there to check on him, to make sure everything was ok, I guess they thought he was calling for help or something..
They found him there, hanging, his neck tangled in the ropes of the bell pulls. He’d jumped from the platform at the top with them tied around his neck like a noose. The weight of his hanging body was what caused the bells to ring as it frantically flailed and jerked.
Anyway, Gavin told me that Davis’s ghost still haunts that place, wandering around, ringing the bells at 11 pm. He said that anyone who stays there till 11 pm is never heard from again! Pretty creepy huh?”
“What a load of bull!” Tod loudly interrupted. “Ooo, spooky Father Davis. That story’s older than me, everyone knows it’s made up!”
I’m not going to lie, Johnny’s story had unnerved me. As I said, we went to a catholic school so stories about the abandoned church were somewhat of a taboo subject. Everyone in the school had heard them though, rumours of suicides, something sinister living in the church, ringing the bells each night as though in eternal torment. They were kind of a local legend. But nobody seriously believed them.
Still, I’d not heard this version before, with the gruesome details about Father Davis’s demise, nor the warning about the people who’d stayed there till after 11 pm. The whole thing sent a shiver down my spine.
“Bullshit are they? Well if you’re so brave then I’m sure you’ll have no problems staying the night then will you!” Johnny leered, a smug grin flashing across his face.
“Damn right, I won’t!” Tod said defiantly. “But if I can stay the night there then…” Taking a moment to think, Tod continued “I get your PlayStation!”
“Haha, yeah, whatever. I’ll believe it when I see it. If you stay the night there you can have my PlayStation. You won’t do it anyway” Johnny laughed.
“Just have it ready for Monday, and bring your games, you won’t need them anymore” Said Tod cockily.
Just then the school bell rang, singling the end of our lunch break. We joined the throng of other children making their way back inside. As we walked through the corridors to our classroom, I shook Tod’s arm nervously.
“You’re not actually going to go to that church are you?” I asked, hoping that Tod’s bravado had all been for show.
“Erm yeah, I am, I’ve got a Playstation to win. Why, you chickening out?”
“Wait what, since when was I involved in this?” I asked, taken aback.
“Since one, you’re my best friend so I assumed you’d want in on this action, and two, I need a witness to prove to Johnny that I’ve actually done it” Said Tod, matter of factly.
“Can’t you just take a picture or something?” I asked, a pang of hope in my voice.
“You’re not chickening out on me now, are you? C’mon, you don’t really believe all that crap about that place. It’s not real. The place is just old and falling apart, there’s no such thing as ghosts or ghouls. There’s probably something living in the bells or something, not undead preachers’’ Said Tod. Although he tried to hide it, I could make out a slight tinge of annoyance in his tone.
A pang of guilt welled up in my throat. Tod was my best friend, he was determined to do this, and I was trying to worm my way out of going just because of some spooky, made-up story that I’d heard. I sighed heavily. “Ok fine, I’ll come, but I get a go on the PlayStation when you get it!”
We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to come up with a way that we could both sneak out without our parents becoming suspicious. After tossing several ideas back and forth, we settled on telling each of our parents that we were staying at the other’s house. That way they wouldn’t worry about where we were, and we would be free to go and stop in that church before making our way home in the morning.
The end of school came and went and before long it was beginning to get dark. Tod and I had agreed to meet at the entrance to the footpath that leads to the abandoned church at 5 pm. I’d made it there with plenty of time, telling my parents that Tod was expecting me at 4:30 pm just to make sure there would be no holdups.
I was standing waiting for Tod, fidgeting with the straps on my backpack, when I found myself staring at the church. Something about it made my skin crawl, I don’t know if it was the decaying appearance of the place, the eerie stillness in the air, or the oppressive size of the ruin. The story Johnny had told us earlier in the day floated to the front of my mind as my eyes traced their way over the leaning spire, images of a man hanging from the bell pulls, twitching and flailing filling my mind.
Shaking my head I tried to brush them off, but I still couldn’t shake the unnerving feeling I was getting. A voice from behind made me jump, snappy my attention back to the here and now. “What a shithole!”
Tod strolled up next to me, supporting a large backpack. “Well, let’s get this over with!” he said, before beginning to make his way up the path.
We walked for a short while along the neglected path, forcing our way through overgrown sections of brambles and weeds, before we came to a large, chain link fence.
It spanned the entire path, stretching on as far as we could see in either direction. A large yellow sign affixed to the closest panel read “Warning: Condemned. Keep Out!”
Another wave of apprehension washed over me as I read it. We really shouldn’t be here. Even if it wasn’t haunted, it wasn’t safe. I turned to voice my concerns to Tod, but he was already halfway up the fence, pivoting himself over before dropping down carefully on the other side.
“C’mon, get your ass over here!” Said Tod with a smile. Fighting with the warnings screaming around in my head, I tentatively climb the fence, swinging over and dropping down into the overgrown grass on the other side.
I could see all of the church clearly from here now. It’s large, imposing figure looming over us. The walls were crumbling, patches of bare brick and worn sculptures covering its surface. Gaping holes where its windows used to be were surrounded by vines, climbing their way up the walls and into the holes like veins snaking their way through skin.
As we approached the front of the church we could see the doors, heavy and wooden. One was wide open, the other hanging from a single hinge at the bottom, allowing us to clearly see the large open hall before us. Shattered wooden pews lay strewn across the thick wooden floor. Shards of the stained glass glinted in beams of sunlight from the roof cutting through the gloom.
Thin stalks of plants and grasses had wriggled their way up between the cracks in the floorboards, attempting to reach the delicate beams of sunlight that promised warmth in their otherwise bleak home.
The church is completely silent, I can only hear the sounds of mine and Tod’s footsteps, reverberating around in my eardrums, almost echoing. There’s a musty smell that seems to be emanating from beyond, the stale smell of age and stillness.
As we make our way through the broken doors, that stench getting stronger, I have to force myself to step over the threshold. There’s something about this place that feels oppressive. I’m not sure if it’s the rundown look of the place, the fact that I can see the spire through sections of the roof, leaning there, threatening to fall at any minute, or if it’s something else. Either way, I can’t help but feel like we’re not welcome, like this place wants to be left alone.
“Well, let’s have a look around. I get first pick of the bedrooms!” Said Tod jokingly as he set off deeper into the hall. At the end of the hall, some distance away from the back wall, was the crumbling stone altar. Much like the rest of the building, time had not been kind to it, wearing away entire sections so it now resembled a large boulder rather than a solid slab.
Still, my attention was focused not on the altar, but on the colossal structure behind it. At least 18 feet tall, made of what looked to be solid, thick wood painted a dark black, was a crucifix. As we got closer to the altar it seemed to loom over us oppressively. Something about it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
“Right, it looks like there are two doors” Said Tod, gesturing to the large wooden doors on the back wall either side of the altar. Imitating Fred from Scooby Doo, he continued “So let’s split up and look for clues!”
Eyes darting between the two doors, I couldn’t help the feeling of unease that had clung to me since we started up the path. “Do we have to? Can’t we both just check the same one?”
“What, you scared? There’s nothing here, listen” Tod held his hand to his ear and strained his face in exaggerated concentration. Silence. “See, nothing. If you see something just shout me and I’ll come save you”
“Whatever! Let’s get this over with then!” I said, exasperated. Tod was my best friend, but he knew how to push my buttons sometimes.
I tentatively made my way over to the door on the right of the altar, that feeling of apprehension growing stronger with each step. Reaching out my hand for the handle, brushing off a large layer of thick dust before grasping it firmly in my hand. The metal felt cold to my touch, rusted in places where the paint had peeled away over the aeons.
With a great deal of effort, I managed to convince my protesting hand to turn the handle. It didn’t budge, its round form staying perfectly still as though firmly locked. I tried again, jiggling it back and forth in case it was seized, after all, it must have been years since anyone tried to move it.
“Woah dude, check this out!” I heard Tod shout from the other end of the hall. Looking over, his door was wide open, his grinning face sticking out from just behind it. “You’re not going to believe this!”
Intrigued, I made my way over to his room, noting the smell of age and decay that seemed to have suddenly intensified as though it was cascading through the now unobstructed opening. Passing through the stone frame, I was able to clearly see what Tod was in awe of.
This was the ringing chamber. Looking up, I could clearly see all of the way through the spire as it loomed over us, leaning threateningly. The bells at the top were shining in the now-setting sun, their ropes dangling down like thick tendrils, time fraying at their edges.
As I stood there in awe, staring at the tower above me, I couldn’t help but notice the eerie feeling crawling across my scalp. Images of Father Davis floated to the surface of my mind, his lifeless body tangled in the snakelike ropes, bouncing to the tune of the bells.
“Pretty cool ey?” Asked Tod, expectantly. “What was behind your door anyway?”
“Ah nothing, I couldn’t get it open” I replied, not taking my eyes off the ropes above me.
“Ah that sucks, well looks like we have a choice of rooms tonight then. This one, or the big one. I don’t fancy staying directly underneath the leaning bell tower of pizza personally. Call me crazy, but I don’t want to wake up buried by crappy ancient churches” Said Tod, as he began to make his way back to the main hall.
Satisfied with our exploration of the only two rooms available to us, we set up in the main hall, ready to stop the night. I was less than thrilled with staying in here, to be honest. The main hall or the ringing chamber, they both had an oppressive, eerie feeling to them, like there was something watching me.
We set ourselves up by the altar, between the two rooms. We’d had to be careful exactly what we’d taken with us so as not to arouse suspicion from our parents, but each of us had managed to bring a lamp and some blankets, as well as a few snacks.
Pretty soon after that, it began to get dark. We could barely make out the end of the hall in the dim lamp light. The whole church seemed to take on an even more oppressive feeling in the darkness, the broken windows now looking like a portal into a dark abyss. It was still completely silent, other than the odd creaking of the wooden beams overhead or behind the jammed door.
The first time I heard them I nearly jumped out of my skin, a loud crack echoing through the dark silence. Tod was in hysterics as I jumped to my feet, looking around frantically for the source of the sound.
“It’s just the old building settling, either that or falling apart, either way” He laughed.
My heart rate beginning to slow down slightly, I sat back down, although I could still hear the blood pounding in my ears. We sat there for hours, passing the time by talking about what games we would get for our new PlayStation, or making jokes at one another. It was almost enough to make me forget where I was. Almost.
Occasionally, as we were laughing, I could swear I felt a cold whooshing of air rushing past me, causing the hairs on my neck to stand on end. The air in here was still and cool for the most part, so the freezing wind always came as a shock. I asked Tod about it, if he’d felt it too, but he just shrugged. “It’s an old building dude, all the windows are smashed”.
I opened my mouth to reply, when a sound reached my ears and stopped me in my tracks. It seemed to resonate through me as all of the colour drained from my face and I felt the cold wind again. The ringing of a bell.
I stared at Tod, wide-eyed, looking for some kind of reassurance. His face mirrored mine, shock and fear spreading across it, the sound of the clanging bells resonating through us. Before I could even think, Tod got to his feet, making his way towards the ringing chamber.
“What the hell are you doing?” I managed to force out in a whisper.
“I need to see what it is, this has got to be in our heads or an animal climbing the ropes or something” Tod replied, but the tremor in his voice betrayed his confidence. He turned and quickly began making his way to the door to the left of the altar, swinging it wide open. I was paralysed with fear, the bell tolling again, echoing through me.
Summoning a great deal of effort I forced myself to stand, and start moving towards the now open doorway. I needed to get to Tod, I didn’t want to be alone here in this decrepit place. I broke into a small run before rounding the doorframe and entering the ringing chamber.
What I saw made me stop dead in my tracks. The ropes, previously still and frayed, were now bouncing violently to some kind of sick, unknowable rhythm. A foetid stench filled the room, the smell of age and rot filling our lungs. I could see Tod just ahead of me, his face pale and his eyes wide, his gaze angled upwards, staring.
Against the screaming warnings of my mind, I could feel my vision slowly shifting upwards, further into the writhing ropes. As my gaze rose and the ropes tugged violently back and forth, my eyes locked onto the source of the movement and all of the blood drained from my face.
At the centre of the mass of flailing tendrils, I could clearly make out the puffy, blue face of a man. It was flailing and jerking erratically, throwing its limbs in violent, desperate motions. Wide, bloodshot eyes were rolling around, bulging in their sockets, a stream of blood trickling from the nose and open mouth.
A thick rope was wrapped tightly around its neck, causing it to jut out at an odd angle. Clad in a black Cossack, its withered blue hands were clawing at it, in a desperate attempt to get free. The corpse appeared to swing with the clang of the ringing bells, fuelled by its frantic, desperate movements.
I wanted to scream, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, didn’t want to believe it. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, get out of that place, and never go back. But all that I could manage was a pained whimper.
As soon as the sound left my lips, the corpse stopped its flailing, turning its decaying head towards me. Its eyes swivelled around and locked onto mine. I could feel the fear and pain in its gaze as it slowly opened its mouth to scream, but all I could hear was a strangled wheeze. It reached out a decaying hand towards Tod and I, before again letting out another wretched wheezing scream.
Screaming at the top of my lungs, I grab Tod’s arm, pulling him as hard as I could. He snapped out of his stupor, turning with me and running as fast as our legs would carry us, all the while that same wheezing scream echoed throughout our heads. We needed to get out, we just needed to get out and get home!
As we charged into the main hall I could see the broken doors leading to the outside, to safety. Then another sound cut through the wheezing screams. I was focusing so hard on running that I barely registered it. A deep, gurgling laugh came from the darkness to my right, just behind the altar.
In my peripheral vision, I swear I could see something just on the edge of the lamp light, touching the base of the crucifix. It was large, dark, with a red tinge to it. It almost looked like a foot, breaching the edge of the light before quickly withdrawing. It wasn’t any kind of foot that I recognised. I swear it had claws.
I was too scared to turn around and get a proper look, too focused on getting the hell out of here and away from this haunted place. I pushed forward, about to throw myself across the threshold and out into the outside world, when I heard a blood-curdling scream from just behind me before seeing Tod, his face a mask of abject terror, sprinting past me at a reckless pace. His face was deathly pale and his eyes were lined with tears. I could hear him mumbling something about a “thing” as he burst past me, looking over his shoulder.
We ran for what felt like hours, the overgrowth of the path blurring past us in a mix of dark colours, thorns nicking our skin as we forced our way along. We hardly registered them. As we burst from the path into the illuminated streets, our pace was still frantic and panicked. We hardly said a word the entire time that we were running. Eventually, we slowed down as we got closer to our houses, our lungs burning and legs protesting as the adrenaline began to wear off.
“What the hell was that?” I managed to utter. The images of the hanging priest whirled around in my mind as I tried to process what we’d just seen. Tod just started forward, his eyes unfocused, staring off in front. “……….that thing……nailed to it…….its face…….it’s fucking face!”
“What are you talking about dude?” I asked, concerned. “What did you see?”
But Tod just remained silent, staring off and mumbling the same phrases over and over about that thing. It was like he was trapped, re-living the moment in his head over and over, still trapped in that god-forsaken church. I shook his shoulder gently. “You ok dude? Talk to me”. He just carried on staring and mumbling.
Fresh panic welled up in me as concern for my best friend began to overwhelm my thoughts. I didn’t know what was wrong with him, or how to help him. I needed an adult, they’d be able to help. But if I went to an adult then they’d know we’d snuck out, and they’d ask questions.
I looked at Tod again, his blank expression causing a pang of guilt to rise up in my stomach. Sighing, I took him by the arm and started walking to my house. He followed with no resistance, letting me lead him, hardly registering that I was there.
Eventually we came to my house. I made my way up the steps to the porch and rang the doorbell. I had not been trusted with a key yet so I had to hope against hope that my parents were still awake.
I could hear the thudding of footsteps coming towards the door, then the key turning in the lock as the door opened and the confused, stern face of my dad poked out. When he saw Tod and I, his expression immediately dropped to one of concern and worry. He ushered us in, closing the door behind him.
My mother called Tod’s parents and sat with him, trying to comfort him while my dad gave me the worst telling off of my life. I could hardly register his words as he yelled at me, I was just focused on Tod, watching his still-staring face. He didn’t seem to realise my mother was there at all. Images of the hanging priest kept filling my mind, the flailing limbs, the staring, regretful eyes and the wheezing scream echoing in my head.
Tod’s parents quickly arrived and bustled him into their car as my parents apologised profusely for having to return him in this state. He was mumbling about that “thing” as they closed the door behind him. I watched as the car pulled away from our house, my eyes following it as it made its way down our street before rounding the corner and disappearing from view.
I didn’t know that was the last time I would see Tod. He wasn’t in school that week. When I tried calling him, his phone rang out, going to voicemail each time. No one in school had heard from him either, it was like he’d just disappeared.
It wasn’t until a few days after that that my parents told me that Tod wouldn’t be going to school anymore. His parents were moving house and so Tod would be going to another school. Tears welled up in my eyes and sadness washed over me in a crashing wave. My best friend, he was moving away. I wouldn’t be able to hang out with him anymore.
“Can I go and say goodbye to him before he moves?” I asked my mother, my voice shaking.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea buddy, he’s still not well. Maybe we can see about visiting after they move?” I could tell from the tone of her voice that she didn’t think there was a possibility of visiting, she was just trying to save me the hurt
To this day I still have no idea what Tod saw in that church, the “thing” that he was referring to. But I did finally learn the reason for him moving. After asking my mom again recently, she revealed that Tod had actually tried to return to school shortly before they moved.
His parents had driven him to school and were walking him to the main reception, when Tod’s eyes locked onto something and he began shivering, before falling into a full-blown panicked fit, screaming hysterically, his eyes wide with the same fearful expression he’d worn the night we’d visited the church. He was screaming about something staring at him, smiling at him. His eyes, my mom said, were locked onto the crucifix above the main entrance.