THE PERFECT DAY- by J. Paredes and B. Villacorta

Here's another story in our Halloween series. This story is the result of a creative writing project in which our students were asked to write a horror story set at our school, transforming our safe surroundings into unsettling places where the creepiest, most dangerous things could happen. 

Exams might be the least of your worries if you had a day like this... 

THE PERFECT DAY

7:30 am. The alarm clock was ringing. I woke up, like every day. I had breakfast and I went to brush my teeth, it was only one more normal day. I went downstairs to ask my mum what we were going to do in the afternoon, but she didn't answer. I supposed she was worried about work, she looked sad. I walked to the bus station. The bus was picking me at 8.30, and I was five minutes late.

When I arrived, the bus had already left, it couldn't be! As an alternative, I took the underground, which was full. Lots of businesspeople were running one way and another, talking on their phones, pushing me. Suddenly, somebody bumped into me and I lost my balance, falling down. This couldn't get worse. I got angrier as nobody even stopped to help me. Finally, I got into the carriage.

I had an exam first period and everything was happening so slowly, I only hoped I would arrive in time for the exam but they were only hopes. I managed to roll in La Moraleja, where my school was. I was only 10 minutes walking distance away so I decided to take a break and sat down. I took my notes out of my backpack to revise for the exam, I wasn't feeling very comfortable. Mr. Evans was going to give us a difficult exam, I was sure.

I saw Charles running to school, he was also late so I decided to call his name. He turned around in order to find out who was shouting for him. He saw me and he smiled at me, so I walked in his direction.

We finally arrived in school. Everybody was in class, the playground was empty. We went up to where our classroom was and we knocked on the door. We went in. Everybody was focused on their tests, I sat down at the only empty desk left and Mr.Evans gave me the exam paper. At first sight, it looked easy, Mr Evans was being generous. Obviously, he was only being so with the first exercise. I managed to answer all the exercises even though I knew I was going to fail. I gave the exam paper back to the teacher...he looked at me with a sarcastic smile and he asked me:

“Have you studied for the exam?”

“Of course, but I am feeling really nervous and I think I won't pass”, I answered

“Let's see when I give you your results.”

After this strange conversation I moved my desk back to its usual place. My classmate Tom asked me how I had done in the exam and I got ready for the next class: we were going to go up to the laboratory, I was really excited about it because we were going to dissect a cow’s heart, I hadn't done it before! We went upstairs, it was very cold even though we were inside. I rubbed my hands in order to create heat between them. They were cold, really cold. Tom lent me his gloves and we went into the laboratory. 

I had never seen a cow’s heart, I had never seen something dead. A chill travelled through my body. From my feet to my ears. The teacher, Mrs. Robinson told us not to touch anything as it was really dangerous. I sat down with Lily-she was really good at biology so she could help me. We started by cutting from up to down dividing the cold dead heart into two pieces. Blood was gushing out and my hands were getting red. I started feeling a little bit lightheaded, I had never thought that this could happen to me. Supposedly, I wasn't the typical girl afraid of this kind of things. Mrs.Robinson advised me to go out, take a deep breath and relax so I decided to follow her advice and went down to the playground. 

Nobody was on it. Crows were flying surrounding the school as if they were searching for a dam. I lay down and I started watching the sky. It was grey, it was going to rain. A thunderbolt rumbled inside me. I could hear little boys shouting. But … they were shouting for help. I sat up and searched for them… but no one was there. I was only really lightheaded. I lay down again. The crows were flying, two of them were also on the ground. I could feel heat from the ground… I was feeling even worse. It was 15 minutes since I had left the lab so I decided it was time to return. 

I went upstairs, this time it was warm so I took off my jacket and I entered the classroom. It was empty… where could they all be? I went all over the hall… nobody was there.I started feeling really distressed, I couldn't find them. I went downstairs, shouting the names of my classmates, with no answer when suddenly a door opened by itself. I entered. 

The room was burnt. Ashes were falling from the ceiling, I couldn't understand anything. I turned around and I saw it. I saw my name written in a headstone with flowers surrounding it. Time stopped. I closed my eyes and I could feel it, I remembered it...

7:30 am, the alarm clock was ringing. I woke up like every day, I had breakfast and I went to brush my teeth. I thought it was only one more normal day but actually, it wasn't. I went to school, I greeted Tom and I went into the classroom. Mr Evans was there, with his typical old shoes and his black tie. Everything was working out until it happened. A big fire crossed the windows leaving us in a circle without a way out, provoking big shouts and screams from all students. I started feeling really bad, smoke was invading me without letting me breathe, I turned around and I heard firefighters coming but I knew it was too late.

I opened my eyes with tears in my cheeks,Tom appeared and grabbed my hand.

“Now you assume it, don't you?” he asked me.

“I guess…”

“Don't worry. Now you can calm down.”

Suddenly, Tom disappeared. But... I couldn't calm down...why me? It was unfair, I wanted revenge so I decided to stay at school. Nowadays, I'm still waiting for the perfect day. The perfect day for your death.

UNTIL DAWN- by M. de Witte and M. del Burgo

Here's another story in our Halloween series. This story is the result of a creative writing project in which our students were asked to write a horror story set at our school, transforming our safe surroundings into unsettling places where the creepiest, most dangerous things could happen. 

There's a reason why kids are asked to go home after school, and if you knew it, you would never stay longer than necessary... 

UNTIL DAWN

It was a cold rainy day. I remember exactly how it all started. We were all at school, it was late and we missed the bus. We were waiting for our parents, Blanca, Jara, Marcos, Javi and I. Suddenly Javi broke the awkward silence:

“Guys, I left my Maths book in class!” Javi said. 

“Me too,” Blanca cried. 

Javi looked towards the school building. “Let’s go back to get them”, he suggested. 

Finally, we all went with them. We sneaked up the stairs, crossing a barely illuminated corridor. We were surprised when we saw the door open. As we entered, it closed. Then I realised we were locked in. A drop of sweat ran down my forehead. We tried to open the door, it was impossible. I screamed. High, very high despite the fact that no one could hear us. We panicked. We started looking for something that could set us free. While I was looking for something to unlock the door, my sight stumbled upon an old box. A shiver ran down my spine. This box had something that frightened me. However, I opened it. Inside the box there was a board with crimson red letters and a cracked glass covered in dust. I took a closer look , I didn’t know what it was. I asked with a trembling voice:

“What is this ? I’ve never seen it before” I asked.

“I have no idea” Blanca answered.

“Me neither” added Jara.

“If I were you I wouldn’t touch it, my grandfather had one” Marcos said.

“Why?” Blanca asked.

“It’s said that this artifact summons the spirits of the undead and brings the misery and pain from them”, he narrated.

“That’s rubbish, let’s play until someone finds us” said Jara.

“No way, I’m not playing with that thing” cried out Javi.

Jara, without listening to what Javi said, placed the board on a table. We all sat down. I noticed a strange feeling invading the place, it was colder and darker. We were all afraid. Then Javi said: “Guys, I really don’t want to play”. 

“ You’re such a coward” Jara said.

“Ok, ok…” whispered Javi in an insecure tone.

We all placed our fingers on the cracked glass. I was shaking in fear when Jara raised her voice: “Are there any spirits in here?”. No one moved, but the glass did. While it was moving we all screamed.

“Stop it Jara, it’s not funny” Javi shouted.

“I’m not doing anything” Jara replied-

The glass described a path to form the word yes. I couldn’t continue playing after that. I stood up, moving my finger away from the glass. It stopped moving. Then, nothing happened. Jara asked a lot of questions, none of them received an answer. After a while, she stopped trying. We were tired and it was 2 a.m. We lay on the floor trying to sleep, but I couldn’t. I was too scared. I saw a shadow flickering on the other part of the classroom, maybe, just my imagination but then I heard a creaking sound… 

We all stood up and searched for the source of the sound. My worst fears were coming true, the cracked glass was moving.

“Wanna play a game?” appeared on the board.

Nobody answered. We were petrified. Then the glass started moving again. 

“ Wanna play a game?” appeared again

And again, no one answered. Suddenly, every single object in the room started moving. Books flying, pictures falling down and windows opening. After a few seconds it all stopped. We all looked around in complete silence. The only thing that was making noise was the rain. 

After 10 minutes, Marcos tried to find something to talk about: “It’s started raining, have you noticed?”

“Am I the only one that heard something?” Said Blanca, ignoring Marcos.

“I heard it too, Jara was it you?” replied Marcos.

“ I swear it wasn't me” 

The lights went off and again someone whispered “ Do you want to play a game?” . 

When the lights went on again I was alone. I was so confused and scared I started screaming for help. “Where did my friend go?” 

The lights went off, this time I spent 5 minutes alone crying in the dark. Only half of the lights went on this time. “Peek-a-boo” I heard again. I turned and saw the ghost, then I woke up.

When I woke up I heard again a strange voice. I went to the bathroom and washed my face. When I got to bed again, peek-a-boo, I saw the ghost again.

DIARY OF A DEAD BOY- by J. Muñiz and A. Bragado

Here's another story in our Halloween series. This story is the result of a creative writing project in which our students were asked to write a horror story set at our school, transforming our safe surroundings into unsettling places where the creepiest, most dangerous things could happen. 

Imagine you find your signature at the end of a diary... now imagine you can't remember writing that diary... 

Diary of a dead boy 

It was a Friday afternoon and, like everybody else I was very excited about the weekend. The bell rang and Ricky and I ran to the school bus. I was just about to get on the bus when I realized that I had forgotten my computer on my desk so I went back to my classroom to get it.

While I was walking through the hall, I suddenly saw something strange. I didn't want to get into trouble so I ignored it. I entered the class and I only could think of the thing I had seen before but I just needed to get my computer and leave. The computer was on my desk so I took it, and when I was going to leave the classroom the door suddenly closed. At first I thought it was the wind but then I realized that it wasn’t a windy day. Then I thought of David, he likes pulling pranks on us, but when I called him so that he would open the door, he told me that he was at home already. It was at this moment I knew I had seen something I shouldn't have seen. I rushed to the door to see if someone was there but the hall was empty. I was starting to panic at this moment, I tried to call my parents but there was no service. I started to move around the room to search for service, when I finally got a signal my phone died.

I was waiting for someone to open the door, when I suddenly saw a shadow, I shouted so that he could hear me but he walked in the other direction. I thought that he hadn’t heard me. He looked back at me and then I realised something was wrong with him... he had a very strange look: his eyes were red, his hair was dirty and his clothes were ripped. He was carrying a bag. He suddenly dropped it and he started running towards me. When I realised what was going on it was too late.

The man was hitting and scratching the door to open it. I didn’t have any way to exit and I was getting really nervous… But then I looked at the windows and I thought of jumping off to escape. At first it seemed like a crazy idea but I realised it was my only hope. He had finally managed to enter the room, so I jumped off and landed on the dining room roof. As soon as I landed I got up and ran to the stairs to get down. I looked up to the window and the man wasn't there. 

When I finally got down from the roof I heard a noise. It was my girlfriend, Sally. I started to look for her. I searched in the gym, in the staffroom and in the cleaning room, but there was no trace of her. While I was looking for her I saw the silhouette of a girl in the bathroom. I wanted to enter to see if the silhouette was Sally’s but I was feeling wary because it was the girls’ bathroom and I'm not a girl. I was standing in front of the door. I grabbed the doorknob and turned it, opening the door. To my surprise, there was no one there: I was all alone. For a second I thought it was an illusion, but then I heard it again. I was getting really frustrated because I was hearing things but I couldn't see anything. I thought I was going crazy. 

After a few minutes thinking about the whole situation, I realised that if it was real I had to solve the mystery. I created a plan search for her: first, I would look for the kidnapper and then I would look for Sally. I had finished searching a couple of rooms when I realised that it was night time. I had to find her before it was too late. I ran to the playground and there she was… she was tied with ropes in the center of the basketball court. I went to get her out of there, she had scratches and even some wounds. I untied her and asked her what had happened but she was too scared to talk about it. We ran to the bathroom to talk and to see if she was ok. After she had calmed down, she told me everything that had happened. She explained that the weird-looking man was the janitor and that he was possessed by the teachers. 

While we were talking, the man came into the bathroom and tried to kill us. We escaped and hid in the gym. It wasn't the best place to hide from a murderer but it was the only place we could think of. When Sally and I thought there was no one watching, I told Sally to run as fast as she could and to never look back. This was the most terrifying moment, it was the time when everything could go wrong. We started running. Sally was ahead of me, we were almost at the school gates when suddenly something grabbed my leg. I turned back and the man was standing behind me. I closed my eyes and realised there was no escape, that that was how my life was going to end.

Suddenly I woke up. I was lying down on my couch. I could hear my mom talking, and she didn't seem to be scared of what had happened so I walked up to her and asked her. She either didn´t hear me, or she was ignoring me. I raised my arm and tried to touch her, but my arm passed through her body. I asked myself if I was still sleeping but I wasn't. The past day had never existed, like me.

These are the last pages from the diary I have found under my couch.I don't know why it was there or what it means. I just know the person who wrote it is Peter Stangle. But that can’t be true.




I'm Peter Stangle.

THE MYSTERY SHADOWS- by D. González and S. Barrios

Here's another story in our Halloween series. This story is the result of a creative writing project in which our students were asked to write a horror story set at our school, transforming our safe surroundings into unsettling places where the creepiest, most dangerous things could happen. 

Sometimes, it makes sense to be afraid of shadows. Read this story to find out why...

The mystery shadows

It was Monday morning. I was as tired as everyday, the reason for that was because I had been on a filming camp, where they explained to us how to take shots from good points of view, how to play about with brightness, contrast and lots of other specialized settings. The most important one was that they showed us how to see the thermal image with a special camera.

I got to school at half past nine, in a rush as always, thinking about the comment that my chemistry and maths teacher would come up with today. On Monday, my first three classes were the worst combination that I could have. After the break I had English class, in which we were doing video projects about bullying, drugs and eating disorders. I was the cameraman of my group, we were on the playground filming the video for the advert. We had been recording in the Triangle, the gym and also in the dining room, when we were going to go back in class and Arthur had the idea of filming on the playground next to it. I was filming the scene where Arthur and Jack had to go upstairs talking about bullying and go directly to class. The point of view I was recording was away from them, at the end of the corridor. When we got to class I connected the mobile phone to the computer to download the videos and check if they were correct. While watching all the videos, in the last one, we saw a spectre appearing behind Arthur and Jack. We ran out of the classroom to check who it was, but we couldn’t see anything…

While I was at home I thought about the video and the spectre, I checked the video again to make sure about what I had seen. When I saw the spectre again, a shiver ran down my spine. I was so confused that I created a Whatsapp group with Arthur and Jack to talk about it. The following morning, during the first break we talked about what we were going to do, so we decided to ask the English teacher to let us record that scene again. Our teacher let us do it, so we went outside to the corridor. In that video, no spectres appeared, so I got very disappointed.

In the end, we decided to finish the video and I didn’t insist investigating it. We presented the video and got a very high mark. Things happened as normal, as always, for the next two months. But at one point, after they gave us the final marks I had lot of free time and I was fed up of youtube so I decided to look at my old photos and videos. When I got through the videos of the project, I got very frightened and I started to edit the video and applying the techniques I had learnt at the camp: I tried to discover what the spectre of the video was. I played with the lights, the slow motion, the sharpness, the different layers of the image… When we started the second term our English teacher assigned another group project in which we also had to make a film. First of all we planned the video and the presentation, then we started to record it. I was with Bianca and James, recording the first scene, I managed to get rid of them for some minutes so I could investigate the frightening spectre, I started to record in lots of parts of the school with the intention of recording the spectre and finding a solution. I was so focused that I didn’t realise that English had finished, when the teacher called us to go back to class. I was sharing the videos with my computer when accidentally I opened one video from that day. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The spectre appeared also in this video. I was so surprised that I went running to Jack and Arthur’s group, when I showed them the exact second of the video in which the spectre appeared they couldn’t believe it. We were so shocked that we decided to investigate it. During the break, we went to the library, we knew that in one of the shelves there were a lot of books about the history of the school so we decided to investigate by reading books full of horror stories and paranormal activities in schools. We didn’t find anything, so we talked to the teachers, they didn’t tell us anything but they seemed to know more about it because they got very nervous when we asked them. We got to a point that none of us wanted to continue investigating because it all was so serious and so strange that it could be dangerous. All of us were frightened and they didn’t want to continue investigating. I decided to continue alone, so I planned to go to the administration office and have a look at some strange papers and see if there was any of them with information about all the strange things happening.

The best way to get there was to get into the office at night, so I told my mum that I was going to sleep over at Arthur’s house. I managed to get into the school at night and I went through the corridor up to the office. I looked at lots of papers but nothing interesting appeared. As I was going to leave, I stumbled on a safe and when I broke into  it there was a very old sheet of paper with a list with names.

I started to read it. It was the names of all the children who had disappeared at the school. I was halfway through when I heard some steps behind me. I felt an arm on my shoulder that made me literally die of fear.

BELL- by I. Rufilanchas and A. Ibáñez

Here's another story in our Halloween series. This story is the result of a creative writing project in which our students were asked to write a horror story set at our school, transforming our safe surroundings into unsettling places where the creepiest, most dangerous things could happen. 

Will the students manage to run away from the monster who is threatening their lives? Read the following story to find out...

BELL

Once upon a time, there was a group of friends whose names were Emmet, Alice, Cobo, Africa, Miriam and Noah. They had known each other for ten years as they had been going to the same school- a very peaceful, well-known and strict school.

One day the six friends got locked inside their classroom after everyone else had left. The minutes felt like hours! It was unbearable for them. It was 3 in the morning when Alice woke the rest up, because she felt as if someone was watching them and she couldn’t sleep. She started to worry and shouted, “Wake up, wake up!!!”

The rest of the group told Alice to shut up when all of a sudden the lights went off.

One minute later, Alice wasn’t in the classroom anymore, and a message was written on the board. The message said: “If you want Alice back you’ll have to get a bat”. They didn’t understand what it could mean and started to panic, not knowing what to do.

Five minutes later, they heard the bell ring and the lights went off again. When the light came back, they found Alice’s dead body where she had been at the beginning. A note was written with blood on her jeans. It said: “This is just the beginning.”

They all started to run from one side of the classroom to another, thinking about what they could do. Time was passing, and they didn’t know what to do. Suddenly, the bell rang again and they all ran to the same corner. The door opened. They were all scared to death, and suddenly an enormous shadow was projected on the wall. In less than a minute, they all lost consciousness and when they woke up again Emmet wasn’t there, and another message was found. This time it said: “If you want Emmet again, you'll have to make a train”.

After a few minutes thinking, Cobo remembered that a month before they had made a train for art and fortunately the train was in the classroom, but then Cobo remembered that it was Emmet who had it in his locker. They all started to worry and suddenly Africa started to say numbers out loud, the same combination, constantly. Cobo tried the combination on Emmet’s locker and it worked! The locker opened. They all asked Africa why she hadn't told them before and she said the she didn’t know the right combination, but she remembered that someone had told her while they were all sleeping, before they took Emmet. They were all horrified because of the idea that someone had told Africa the combination while they were all sleeping, the same person that had taken Emmet and who was threatening them to save his friend’s life.

Cobo took the train and left it on Emmet’s desk. A few minutes later, the alarm rang again, and they all started screaming and running to a corner of the classroom. The alarm stopped ringing and Emmet appeared again. Another message had been left. This time it took the fiends’ breath away.

“One two three, you will come with me, don’t prank me out or you’ll see what I’m talking about.”

Emmet was despairing. He was so scared that he couldn’t even talk. The others tried to calm him down but he just stayed in a corner in silence. He couldn’t stop looking at the floor without blinking. The rest of the group were thinking about what they could do to get out of the classroom and save their lives, as the last message they had received was very worrying. Miriam decided to find a word to call the monster that was horrifying them. They all decided to call him Bell, as every time he did something the bell had rung. That way, if anyone could hear or see him, they would scream his name so that he wouldn’t know they were talking about him.

Nothing was heard in the next few hours later. The group of friends couldn’t stop thinking about the next movement of the monster and that her friend Alice wasn’t with them anymore and they couldn’t do anything to save her. They felt as if they were the worst friends in the entire world: so many hours in the same place without eating, sleeping for only two hours and watching Alice’s dead body was causing a lot of stress and a lot of arguments in the group. They had stopped talking to each other, and a few minutes later the bell rang again. They all were sick of that situation, they just wanted to get out of there without having any more dead bodies.

While the bell was ringing, lots of screams were heard and suddenly Africa, Cobo and Miriam disappeared. A new message was left by Bell. This time it said “I’m tired of this game, this time you can’t do anything to save your friends, you’ll have to fight each other to show me who deserves to get out of here alive.”

By this, the monster meant that Noah and Emmet had to fight until one of them killed the other one and won, so he could get out of there. Emmet and Noah refused to fight each other to death, as they were like brothers.

As they refused to fight, lots of screams were heard again and a video appeared on the board. The monster had recorded how he had killed the three friends while telling them that it was Noah’s and Emmet’s fault. They had died thinking their friends were the cause of their deaths, that cause Emmet’s and Noah’s craziness as they just wanted their friends back and the monster’s head.

There were only three hours left for the lessons to start in the morning. The bell rang for the last time. This time Noah was the one to disappear. Emmet started shouting at the monster and begging him to let Noah go and take him in his place, but no one answered.

A final message was on the board: “This time you’re going to die, but I won’t make you suffer. This wouldn’t have happened if your friends hadn’t helped you, as you were my target from the beginning”.

This time there was a live video of the monster killing Noah. Emmet couldn’t stop crying, screaming and punching everything he could, but the only answer he received was “You’re locked in and the only thing you’re going to get is watching how your friend dies and suffers as I suffer because of you!”

Emmet didn’t know who he was, the only thing Emmet could feel was loneliness, depression, anxiety and how his body was freezing. He closed his eyes and this time he never opened them again. He died without knowing who hated him so hard to take away the most important people in his life in front of his eyes and at the same time killing him.

What could he have done and to whom?

HALLOWEEN AT BASE- 2nd edition

Hi all!

Our 4º ESO students have written scary stories set in Colegio Base... do you have what it takes to read them?