I'd been in the clubroom for, what an hour? Maybe more.
Cleaning, rearranging, wiping dust off books covered in webs thick as blankets.
The place was nasty, bro. Straight-up horror-movie attic vibes.
For a while, I forgot it was still lunch break.
Next thing I knew boom. I knocked out.
When I woke up, my neck hurt like crazy. I stretched, yawned, looked around
"Damn… it's already dark?"
Clock said 6PM.
Great. First day at school, and I already fell asleep in a haunted clubroom.
I grabbed my bag and booked it. My new crib's supposed to be my late grandma's old house way out on some quiet road. Even in the daytime, that place looks like it eats people.
So yeah, I started running.
Down the hallways dark, empty, all the doors locked.
Lights flickering on and off. Click. Click. Buzz.
I slowed down.
"Wait… where is everybody?"
No students. No teachers. Just me.
The whole school felt dead.
Now, I love ghost stories, right? I watch horror flicks like they're bedtime cartoons.
But walking that dark hallway alone? Nah. I was spooked, man.
Then outta nowhere I see a classroom door slightly open.
Light spilling out. Voices whispering.
I crept up, bent down, peeked through the gap
There's this boy, digging around a desk.
My heart froze.
"Yo, that's a ghost… right?"
I grabbed a paper from the floor, crumpled it, and chucked it at him.
Bap! It hit his shoulder.
He turned alive.
He smiled like a psycho. "Hey! Guess I'm not the only one still here!"
I stood up, relieved. "Oh, thank God. I thought you were never mind."
He walks over. "Name's Cairo."
I nod. "Renji."
He smirks. "So what are you doing in school this late, bro?"
I shoot back, "What are you doing here?"
He scratches his head. "Lost my phone. Been lookin' for it."
I sigh. "Alright, fine. You help me find the exit, and I won't judge your life choices."
Cairo laughs. "Bet. Let's dip."
We walked down the hall together, and that's when it got weird.
The air got heavy, fog started rolling in like we were inside a cloud.
The hallway felt longer… and longer…
Then we heard it.
Kak-kak-kak!
Footsteps.
Voices laughing.
But the school was empty.
Cairo didn't seem to notice. "You hear something?" he asked.
Before I could answer, he said, "Yo, I'm gonna run ahead call your name when I find the way out!"
And before I could even say "Wait !" dude snatched my phone and ran off.
"Bro! Come on! Not my phone!"
I chased after him, but the fog swallowed everything.
Couldn't see. Couldn't breathe. Just heard my heart pounding.
Cairo's POV:
"Where the hell is Renji?" he muttered, fumbling with the phone.
He turned on the flashlight, but it flickered like crazy.
"C'mon, man…"
Finally, the light stayed steady
and he froze.
Right behind him… a shadow.
Tiny. Wobbly. Human-shaped.
He swallowed hard. "Heh… Renji? You tryna prank me?"
The thing giggled.
"Gugu… gaga…"
Cairo dropped the phone.
"OH HELL NO!"
He sprinted. Feet pounding the floor, lungs on fire.
But the hallway just stretched on forever.
The baby ghost laughed behind him, voice echoing through the halls.
Then he passed me, running like a bullet.
"RUN, DUDE! RUN!"
I blinked. "What the hell is he"
Then I felt it.
Cold breath on my neck.
I turned.
That same ghost baby black eyes, pale skin crawling on the wall upside down.
"GUGU… GAGA…"
"NOPE!"
I ran like my life depended on it.
"Yo! Renji! Why'd you pass me?!" Cairo yelled, sprinting beside me.
"You think I'm dying first?! You go be the hero, bro!"
"Hell no! You take the L this time!"
We ran side by side, both screaming, both sweating.
Every step felt like running through a nightmare.
When we finally stopped, gasping for air, Cairo laughed nervously.
"Ha… yo… tell me you saw that. Please tell me you saw that."
I nodded, breathing hard.
"Ghost… giant baby."
He swallowed. "Yeah. Exactly that."
I tightened my grip on my bag. "Ghosts aren't real," I said, half to him, half to myself.
Then footsteps.
We turned.
Got ready to swing me with my bag, him with his fist.
The shadow got closer… closer…
And then
"Yo! What are you two idiots doing?"
It was Nami.
Short hair, lollipop in her mouth, completely unbothered.
Cairo panicked. "No time! We gotta run!"
I yelled, "We'll explain later MOVE!"
We took off again.
Nami blinked, confused. "Huh? What's chasing you guys?"
Then she heard it.
"Gugu… gaga…"
The fog swirled around her.
Her eyes widened.
Next thing we knew Nami sprinted past us like she was in the Olympics.
"OKAY YEAH NEVER MIND YOU'RE RIGHT RUN!!!"
We all ran screaming through the hallway, three idiots getting chased by a ghost baby.
We crashed into a random classroom and slammed the door shut BAM!
Cairo grabbed every chair and desk in sight, piling them against the door like he was prepping for a zombie apocalypse.
Nami darted to the windows, snapped them shut, then dragged a chalkboard over to us. She scribbled something fast and bold, then turned around, eyes wide.
"Okay. Tell me I'm not trippin'. You guys saw that thing too, right?"
Cairo was still breathing hard. "Why'd you draw it on the board?! We just saw it, girl! Don't summon it back!"
I yelled, "Yo, we need to do something before that big-ass baby finds us!"
Nami slammed the chalk down. "Then we fight it."
She grinned. "I got a plan."
Me and Cairo froze. "...Bring what? What plan?"
She jabbed her finger at me. "You picked up my book, right? When we bumped earlier?"
I blinked. "Wait you mean that book? What's a book gonna do? That's a ghost baby, not a pop quiz!"
Cairo sighed. "Bro, just give her the damn book. If it works, great. If not, we run for our lives."
I dug into my bag and pulled it out.
The cover read in creepy bold letters: "How to Hunt Ghosts."
She snatched it from me. "Finally. I've had this thing forever, but this is my first real ghost encounter."
I stared. "Wait you've never seen a ghost before, but you collect ghost-hunting books?!"
Cairo shrugged. "Man, arguing ain't gonna help. Let her cook."
Before we could even open the book, the floor started rumbling.
Water seeped through the cracks slow at first, then rising fast.
"Oh, hell no!" Cairo shouted.
Chairs floated, books soaked, the whole room filling up. We scrambled to climb onto desks, but the current shoved us backward SMASH! the door burst open, and we were swept into the hallway.
Out there it was chaos.
Figures in the fog. Shadows crawling on walls. Eyes blinking from the ceiling.
Every ghost in this damn school came to say hello.
"Run!" Nami screamed. She slipped and fell.
I turned back, grabbed her by the arm, and threw her on my back. "Don't you dare slow down now!"
Cairo was ahead of us, shouting, "Down the stairs! Third floor!"
We thundered down, dripping wet, hearts pounding.
Then light.
A whole section of the hallway glowed bright white.
The second we stepped into it everything stopped.
The fog. The whispers. The ghosts.
Gone.
Cairo fell to his knees, gasping. "Bro… they're gone. We're free. Oh my god, we're actually free."
Nami slid off my back, panting. "But why didn't they chase us down here?"
"Maybe the light scares 'em," I said.
Cairo waved it off. "Man, I don't care why. I'm outta here."
We stumbled out the exit doors, dripping wet and exhausted.
Outside, the night air hit like ice.
Street lamps flickered. The whole town silent, like it was holding its breath.
Nami groaned, wringing out her uniform. "I am not walking home soaked like this. I'm gonna catch pneumonia."
She pulled off her jacket and skirt, leaving her top and shorts, and hung the wet clothes on a fence.
Me and Cairo both turned away immediately.
"Yo we didn't see nothin'," Cairo said.
"Yeah, eyes closed, bro," I muttered.
We started walking again three survivors of ghost hell.
The streets were weirdly quiet. Lights glowing in empty houses. No cars, no people.
Just the sound of our shoes squelching.
Around seven, Cairo suddenly dropped to the ground.
"I'm done. I'm dead. Bro, carry me."
I groaned. "For real?"
But I ended up hauling him on my back anyway.
Nami laughed softly. "You two are pretty close, huh?"
"Close? We literally met today. He was looking for his phone."
She smiled. "Could've fooled me."
We kept walking until we reached Cairo's place.
The dude jumped off my back like his energy just respawned, grabbed his clothes, and sprinted through his gate.
He even kissed the ground. "Home sweet home!"
I stared after him. "Bruh. You made me carry you for miles, and now you sprint?"
Nami chuckled. "Boys are weird."
We walked together for a bit longer.
The streetlights buzzed overhead. The air smelled like rain.
When we reached the crossroads, she pointed left. "That's me."
"Yeah," I said. "Mine's straight ahead."
We looked at each other for a second just two strangers who'd fought a nightmare together.
"See you tomorrow?" she asked.
"Yeah… tomorrow," I said.
She smiled and walked off.
I watched her fade into the night, then turned toward my grandma's old house.
When I stepped inside, the place was quiet too quiet.
I dropped my soaked bag, flopped onto the dusty couch, and passed out cold.