Something Spooky: A Teenager's Cry

Not the actual classroom. Photo from Canva

I should have written this post last month. However, I got busy with my job. Narrating this eerie experience is timely as it is Halloween season. I am not celebrating this event, but I am fond of watching and reading horror-themed movies and stories. I have not seen a ghost nor felt the presence or power of a monstrous element until last September. I cannot say this is a 'legit' scenario, as I thought it could be a prank. I talked about it with my fellow teachers and other learners to confirm whether it was real. No one debunked it. You judge if it's a true horror story or not. 

It was a cloudy Wednesday afternoon on September 14. I was discussing classification as a pattern of development in writing. If my memory serves me right, it was ten past when I heard a whimpering for two to three seconds. I continued talking when I heard the sound again. I stopped and looked around the classroom. 

"Did you hear that?" I asked. 

"Someone is crying," I added. 

"No, sir," one of my learners replied. 

I walked near the jalousie windows to peek if there was someone at the back part of our school building crying. I saw only the trees and shrubs. No one was there. I went outside to check if a person was in the corridor. I decided to walk to the restrooms near our room. My heart was beating fast. There was a deafening silence. It was like I was in a horror movie, searching where a strange sound was coming. I knocked on the door of the ladies' room, but nobody answered. I did not bother to check if the door was locked as I was confident that what I heard was not the cry of a girl. I slowly walked to the right towards the gentlemen's room. 

It was like a moment of truth. I do not know my reaction if I see the source of the cry when I open the door. I held the doorknob using my right hand. At any second, I was expecting that somebody would grab my hand. With bravery, I moved the knob. It was locked. I tried twice. It did not open. I knocked on the door and asked if there was someone inside the room. There was no reply. 

I went back to the room, bewildered about this scary moment. I told my class that I had found no one. I asked again if they heard a cry. Someone said yes. However, many of them said that they felt an earthquake happen. I told them I did not feel any shaking. However, I prompted them to leave the room and go downstairs. We are on the second floor of our building. I went to the other room. I asked my co-teacher if his class felt the earthquake. He answered that maybe what my learners felt was the stomping of the feet of his class doing Zumba. I accepted it as when our learners require to move during classes, the movement would be felt in other rooms, particularly on the ground floor.

I told him about the cry I heard during classes. I mentioned that it was like a cry of a teenager. I asked him if he heard it. He said no. In our short conversation, I remember that one of our learners had a mother who passed away. I theorized that he was in a moment of desolation. My fellow teacher replied that that learner did not enter the school that afternoon. I was terrified about what I heard. I left his class and went to my learners for them to go back to our room. I was able to control my fear at that time. 

I made sure that my learners sat in their chairs before I told them what I figured out. I told them that the shaking they felt was caused by the Zumba dance drill in the other room. After that, I told them that I heard a cry of a male teenager. I asked them if they heard it too. Three of my learners heard it and they sat in different areas of our room. One was in front, another one was in the second or third row, and the other learner was sitting at the back. The class had mixed reactions to that event. Some were shocked, while others were worried. 

At that moment, they would like to flee. I told them to calm down, and focus as we were about to finish the lesson. I resumed my discussion and I prayed that we would not hear it again. We successfully finished our lesson and my learners rushed going back to their homes as it was about the rain. The sky was gloomy. It gave me the vibe of rain in a horror movie. 

As I left the room, I passed by learners from other sections, and I asked them if they saw or heard a male teenager crying. All of them answered no. After hearing my story, the learners left immediately saying that they would not want to see or experience that scary encounter. I also relayed my experience to my other fellow teachers. Two of them said that it was not surprising as they have experienced stranger things in our building. One of them said that she saw a ghost in the building in a broad daylight. We packed our things quickly as it was getting creepy. We went home with anxiety. 

The next day, I looked for our learner who was not around because of the sad fate that happened in his family. I verified if he was in the school yesterday afternoon. He said that he was in their house at that time. After our talk, I slowly accepted that the frightening event I experienced was 'real'. 

I wish this will not happen again in my life. I pray that what we had in our class will be the last one.