#destination fear

The RV stopped and I stood up from the black bench that I sat on waiting for this exact moment. It took a few moment before the door opened and my high school sweetheart and current boyfriend, Dakota Laden stepped down with a grin on his face as he shot the camera at me and waved a hand. I waved back the sleeve of his my sweater fell slightly so it no longer covered part of my hand. He turned around and helped his blindfolded friends and sister from the RV. I covered my mouth to prevent from laughing as the four made a train to walk over. As he parted from them, letting them sit on the bench I previously occupied he came to my side and silently kissed my temple in greeting. After that I went onto the RV with my bag for the night to wait for my que to come out. The production member who had picked me up from the airport had told me about the mystery box that Dakota had set up, in fact I had helped set up the table and box for the event. Now I sat in the passenger side front seat holding a camera that I was given with a tape label over the handle that read my name, given that would be the camera I used for my visit.

I got to observe Chelsea, and Chelsea alone got up behind the box. The first mystery animal was a hedgehog, well four or them. The next was an armadillo, which is such a strange looking animal. The last was a snake. As a handler came to remove the snake Dakota placed a hand on his sister’s shoulder, he glanced to the RV at the same time a crew member opened the door and waved me over.

As I stepped down, out of the RV I could hear Dakota, “Okay but on a brighter note I do have one last surprise for you all. We will not be alone tonight because I have convinced a very special person to join us for her first ever investigation. (Y/N).” As Dakota turned towards me the other three turned as well, their faces lighting up. I waved with a grin as I pointed my camera at them to help capture their reactions to seeing me. They all ran over to greet me and it wasn’t long until rain interrupted us and chased us all back onto the RV to travel the rest of the way to the location, which I only knew to be a high school.

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“So, right now we are going to park and read the packet. To make it clear, (Y/n), you have no idea where we are going correct?” Dakota explains his camera panning over to where I sat next to Chelsea.

I look up from the LCD screen on the camera sitting on the table aimed at Tanner and Alex to face him. “I was told it’s a high school? Which is creepy by the way.” I tried to smile at him but it didn’t quite get past the nerves already brewing from the anxiety of my first investigation.

“Don’t worry little duck, we’ve got your back.” Tanner reached over patting my head which I quickly laughed at and pushed his arm away.

We all got out of the RV and entered this fancy park gazebo area with a fireplace. Alex sat off to the end getting the long shot of the table we sat at, Tanner and Chelsea on one side across from Dakota and myself. A light setup above shined down giving us enough light to read in.

“Alright. I know you guys already know that it’s at a school.” Dakota began glancing between all of us the packet him his hand. “But , trust me, this is going to be a very bizarre one for us.”

Tanner took the packet and opened it up for him and Chelsea to read the front page, the location of the next investigation, “Old Defiance Junior High School.”

“Positioned directly between two winding rivers in Northwestern Ohio can be found the imposing facade of former Defiance Junior High School.” Chelsea read from the packet. “Standing for over a hundred years this three story building shaped the lives of thousands of students. But the school was not the first structure to be built on this land.”

Chelsea passed the packet and flashlight for easier read over to Tanner who took over reading. “In the mid-eighteen hundreds, the town established a high school. The institution operated without incident until 1891, when a scandal shook the town of Defiance to its core. Janitor John Mall was a hardened man who was arrested for helping a teacher bring a 12-year-old student down to the school’s basement. Mall held him tight as the teacher whipped the boy mercilessly, drawing blood.”

I couldn’t stop the look of disgust and scrunch of discomfort in my shoulders at the mentioned incident. Dakota took hold of my hand, running a thumb across my knuckles to soothe my discomfort. “It’s horrible. That poor child.” I muttered.

“That’s disgusting.” Tanner comments looking over to us. He took a deep breath before lowering his head to read on. “The two were turned in to the police by the school’s superintendent. Mall was so angered by the arrest that he launched a complaint of his own against the superintendent. After a lengthy investigation, Butler and the teachers in question were cleared of all accusations. But that did not stop the fall out for janitor Mall.”

Tanner went on to read how Mall was found bludgeoned to death, lying on the railroad tracks with his legs amputated. The railroad tracks in question are no more than 100 yards behind the school. Some believe that he was placed there against his will. The most scandalous things to ever happen in Defiance with no answer as to who did it.

“The truth about what happened that fateful night out by the tracks, is still unknown to this day.” Chelsea reads and looks up.

“Now that is a very bizarre story.” Alex comments and Dak looks at him and agrees.

“Sounds like there’s a lot of sketchy things happening within the walls of this school.” Chels concludes as she turns a page to read more. “Unfortunately, the tragedy at the high school did not end there. In 1902, two young football stars collided head-first on the field. Due to the poor protection of their leather helmets, both boys were badly injured. The boy from the rival school suffered from a fractured skull over his eye and died from his injuries. In 1918, a modernized building was created on top of the same foundation, but the new building did not keep misfortune from its doors. In 1921, the class valedictorian drowned while swimming in nearby Powell Lake. And just eight years later a junior drowned in the nearby river when he fell off his raft.”

Tanner adjusted his hat before he took over the next part of the packet read. Since its shut down in 2018,” - “That wasn’t that long ago” I muttered lowly not wanting to interrupt.- “There have been very few individuals who have dared to venture inside the building. But the few who have strongly believe that there are many spirits that chose to remain long after the final bell tolls. The most active areas include the second floor, home to many different classrooms and the library. And there are numerous shadow figures that dart in and out of classrooms.”

Dakota took the packet next to read. His hand left mine as he took hold of the packet. “The gym, a separate building accessed through the basement..”

“Yeah really creepy dude thanks for bringing us to this place. I’m sure your girlfriend just loves the sound of this place.” Alex sarcastically says, making me nod.

“This place sounds awful. Shadow figures pulling you out of rooms, creepy basements connecting buildings.” I add on as I take the packet from Dak. I licked my lips before I began to read from where he left off. “The third floor, home to classrooms and the study hall. Loud tapping and lockers slamming shut have been heard. The area with the most intense energy is room 312. EVPs of a woman urgently screaming, ‘Get out!’ have been captured, as well as references to fire and burning. The basement, this is where janitor Mall brought a student down to be punished. Mall is a very angry, hostile entity and becomes increasingly agitated when asked about his death.” I look up to the group, “Let’s not do that then, shall we?”

“Screw that!” Chelsea objects.

“We’re going to deal with something that wants to hurt us?” Tanner asks, looking right at Dakota.

“We’ve never really dealt with any sort of spirit like this before.” Dakota explains. “Whoever ends up sleeping alone in that basement is screwed.

I huff running a hand through my hair feeling a spike in anxiety for what this investigation might bring.

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“Class is now in session.” Alex announces as the RV parked out front of the huge high school.

The five of us got out of the RV with our cameras and a flashlight. Dakota walked in the lead to open the door for the rest of us, I stayed right behind him, as the other three commented on the size of the school we were about to spend the night in.

“Welcome to school!” Dak announces as he opens the doors.

Chelsea and I entered first with Tanner right behind us. He looked around at the hallway we had entered into. “This is so weird. All the desks, lockers, papers are still everywhere.”

“Definitely has the creep factor.”

A loud slam behind us caused me to yelp and spin around. “Alex!” Dakota called out his friend who had a small smile on his face. “Just a little test to see if we’re on edge.”

I let out a nervous laugh. “Well I think it’s safe to say we’re on edge.”

With our first look done we set up the gear room on the first floor. From the first floor we headed down into the basement. Dakota once again took the lead but this time I stayed more in the middle with the Laden siblings in front of me with Tanner and Alex behind me. The first look at the basement was unsettling.

“The basement is where Janitor Moll lived and where he, reportedly, abused a student down here.” Dakota reminded as we stopped walking. Everyone was looking around. “When asked, ‘How did your die?’ Someone got the response, ‘I’ll show you.’” On my left, in one of the entrance ways I thought I seen a tall dark figure. Turning my camera towards where I was looking the dark figure was gone and it seemed simply to be possibly Alex’s shadow. I turned back to Dakota as he pulled a device out of his pocket. “I’m gonna have the ovilus on the entire time we’re down here. If janitor Moll is down here he will be able to choose one word at a time and talk to us.” He turns to his sister, “All right Chels, you wanna hold the ovilus while we’re down here?” He passes the devise over and I leaned over towards Chelsea to get a look at the devise now in her hand.

As a group we walked farther into the basement in the direction of the possible shadow figure I had seen earlier. Alex behind me muttered about how creepy the basement was and Dakota prompted for Moll to talk to us using the ovilus. With no response Chelsea directed Kota to lead us to the area where the janitor would have stayed. The room was a bit of a mess but the inspection lead to discovering a crawl space. The moment someone pointed out the crawl space the electronic voice of the ovilus spoke for the first time, “Here.”

“What?” Dakota turned towards Chelsea. She confirmed that the ovilus said ‘here’.

“A lot of people think you’re a bad man. Is there anything you’d like to say?” Tanner comments, my attention was still drawn to the crawl space, this time with my camera facing the same area.

It was silent as they waited for a possible answer. When there wasn’t one Dakota asked another question, “Where you actually as bad as people say? Or was the superintendent trying to frame you?”

Again nothing.

“Who killed you?”

That question got an answer. “Teacher.” The ovilus had answered.

The main four shared their excitement and shock of the answer. “That paints a different picture in my head of what went down.” Dakota admits.

“I don’t think I have ever heard ‘teacher’ come out of the ovilus.” Al comments.

“I have a gut feeling that the janitor knew something that someone didn’t want him to know.” Chelsea says.

“Maybe he did see too much. Maybe he did know too much.” Dak agreed.

“Yeah there is two sides to every story.” I nod turning to face them. “Maybe the janitor wasn’t the bad guy in the first place.” Chelsea adds.

Dakota restates the question if a teacher did this to the entity they were talking with. Although it wasn’t the ovilus that answered. Instead there was a loud thud that came from another room. Alex, being the closest to the doorway quickly went to look. He turned to look at us from over his shoulder, “Dude, I think that came from up the stairs.”

“Let’s go over there.” Dak instructs setting the team into movement heading to investigate the thud we all heard.

Entering the room where the stairs are off of we looked around. Dakota asked for another noise. It was quiet for a few seconds before another thud was heard. This time Tanner stepped into the hall shining his flashlight up the stairs. “That came from upstairs.”

“That sounded like a locker slamming.” Tanner says almost uncertain.

“That did sound like a locker!” Dakota and Alex agreed.

The group went back up stairs and entered the gear room. From there Tanner went over and slammed a locker shut to have a noise to compare what we heard to. It was pretty much confirmed that the noise was from the lockers weather it was slammed or banged on it was definitely from the lockers near the stairwell.

“I just don’t like the fact that it lead us out of the basement.” Tanner comments and I quickly look over to him. “I totally agree.” Tanner nods glancing over at me, “Like, after we were getting some good responses.”

“I mean, it’s said that he doesn’t like to talk about his death.” Alex reminds us softly.

“Or we were getting such good answers that something else didn’t want us hearing them.” Chelsea counters.

“Janitor Moll, was that you up here? Or was that something else, someone else?” Dakota prompts in a louder tone than what we had been talking among our self in.

No answer.

“Were you trying to lead us out of the basement?” Al asked.

The ovilus spoke. Return.

“Like go back down to the basement?” Chelsea questions.

“Why would it lead us back up only to go back down?” Tanner was confused.

As we stood there trying to understand what was happening another jingle like noise could be heard. “Is that coming from the basement?” Dakota asks.

Alex walked over to the top of the stairs and Tanner followed, as did I. As the three of us stood at the top of the stairs listening we once again heard the jingling sound.

“What is that?” Dak wrapped an arm around me as he leaned forward. “It was like metal.”

I let out a soft gasp. “Like keys!”

Once again we descended the stairs into the basement. “I think (Y/n) was right, it sounded like keys.” Chelsea agreed her camera pointed at me. Dakota also agreeing. Tanner even pointing out how a janitor carries a ring of keys.

As we confirm that activity keeps happening where we aren’t Dakota decides to set up a static camera in the basement, first floor, and third floor with a REM pod in front of each camera. With those ‘traps’ set up we walked up to the second floor to continue our investigation.

The second floor was just a creepy as the first. Chairs and desks lined against the lockers in the hallways, books and paper littered around. Stopping about halfway down the hallway once again Dakota lead the charge on trying to make contact. With no answer we enter one of the classrooms. The guys commenting on how untouched everything looks for a school that has been abandoned since 2018. With art still hanging on the wall, piles of books, all the chairs and desks still around.

It wasn’t long before we moved up to the third floor. The floor looked just as abandoned as the previous floors but with less desks and chairs in the hall. Yet is was still so easy to picture the halls still in use teenagers loitering around lockers, rushing to an from classes, lockers jamming or being slammed shut- a noise they may have already heard. Chelsea even commented on it, “You can just imagine all these halls packed with students.” It was something we could all agree with as we strolled down the hallway.

A REM pod was set up as we settled on a spot in the hall. Dakota opened up the line of communication. Alex was stood a bit farther back to get a wide shot of the group, always the camera man. I was somewhere between Alex and Dakota against the locker deciding to film behind Alex since it wasn’t being caught by the other three.

If only we knew the evidence being caught in the basement at that same moment. Buzzing. Running water. The light turning on by itself. All while we were floors above and no one else was in the building.. living that is.

With a seemingly uneventful third floor hallway investigation we headed into room 312, which is said to be where most the paranormal activity is centered around. Everyone seemed to enter the last room on the left, I ended up staying in the doorway, my back to the hallway.

“What exactly happens here?” Alex inquired to document the claims for their footage.

Dakota began to list that people have received EVPs saying ‘Get out’. Or EVPs relating to fire and burning that didn’t quite make sense. Chelsea pulled out the Ovilus by request of her younger brother. As she turned the device on I turned with my camera to peer down the dark hallway towards the stairs feeling uneasy, like someone was watching me. With multiple unanswered questions Dakota asked if the spirit would rather go into the hallway, behind me, where the REM pod was still set up and use that instead.

“If that REM pod goes off I’m getting out of this doorway,” I joked although very serious.

A REM pod did go off but it also happened to be down in the basement. Continuing to beep as the guys ask for a sign of activity. Including when Dakota asked for a sign to leave, but we wouldn’t know.

The ovilus finally went off drawing our attention to the devise. Chelsea looked down at the screen and repeated the word that it had said, “Observe.”

Dakota once again asked if the spirit could interact with the REM pod in the hall but the ovilus spoke. “Rewind.” I gasped softly. To look through all the floors worth of footage would take a long time. Something we wouldn’t be able to do until after the trip.

The group left the third floor, collecting all the equipment, before preparing to split up to sleep alone. It was when Dakota and Alex went to retrieve the basement camera and REM pod that they notice that the light was on. Dakota called for the rest of us. We all traveled down to the basement together to investigate the light being on.

“All of the lights are on down here,” Dakota mentions as he looked around the basement. He looked to the camera and seen the blinking red light signifying that it was still recording. “The camera is still on so we should have caught it on camera.”

Alex went over to the camera to verify that it indeed was still recording as we all fully entered the lightened up basement. Dakota admitted to not even knowing how to turn the lights on and we looked for a light switch. The group tried 3 different switches before finding the fourth, at the top of some utility stares that Tanner tried and successfully returned the basement to darkness. The bad news with the location was that the camera was pointed in the opposite direction and wouldn’t have been able to capture anything on the stairs that would flip the switch.

I feel bad for whoever has to sleep down here.” Dakota comments before we returned to the gear room to decide where everyone is sleeping for the night.

The four scary locations chosen were;

The gym, which we didn’t investigate and was a building all on its own.

The third floor.

The second floor.

And probably the worst being the basement.

Tanner wrote the four locations on paper for the random draw. Tanner drew the second floor. Dakota had me choose for the two of us. Sadly my luck was not there as I pulled out the basement. Alex pulled the gym leaving Chelsea with the third floor. With the locations selected we headed to our sleeping arrangements. Dakota and I headed down to the basement. Dakota set up the cot for me and him to some how share but he also had a sleeping bag just incase.

“How are you doing with all of this so far?” He asked in a soft voice as we both sat down on the cot.

“Good I think. I mean I have this constant feeling like someone is watching me and I have since we were on the third floor but I think its just nerves.” I admitted pushing a strand of hair out of my face.

“Well you’re doing great for your first investigation.” Dak leaned over and kissed my forehead before he pulled and pulled out two masks. Due to the condition of the basement we agreed that masks would be best for our health.

My restlessness lead to me sitting on the floor in front of Dakota and the cot. But still in frame of the set up cameras. My eyes were starting to play tricks on me, or so I thought, as a dark shadow would appear behind Dak occasionally but by the time I had blinked a few times it was gone, so I never mentioned it to my boyfriend.

“I’m really, really regretting taking away everyone’s flashlights.” Dakota admits before getting up and showing the darkness of the room by turning off the night vision. “Ow Dak!” I mumbled feeling something tug at my hair, thinking it was the zipper of his jacket getting caught in the dark. “Sorry, (Y/n).” Dakota quickly turned the night vision back on and sat back on the cot, making it creek.

“Janitor Moll, if you can hear me, in the nicest way possible, I really don’t wanna see you or hear you.

Dak and I made small conversation to pass the time, or pointing out possible noises both too nervous to sleep. I had stood and was now walking with one of the cameras so I didn’t walk into anything. “We’ve been down here for a while now. And it sucks.” Dakota spoke to the camera. “We keep feeling like we’re hearing things. In all directions. (Y/n) is somewhere behind me actually looking for anything.”

With nothing seen I went back to the cot to join Dak. Resting my head on his shoulder I closed my eyes. That was until we both jumped hearing the jingling, the same kind as earlier in the night. We both were not standing facing the direction the jingling had come from. Dak quickly moved for the camera. “Oh my god, I just heard keys!” He spoke to the camera about the jingling being the same as earlier but louder, do to the closer location.

“Hello?” Dak called out. He left my side to walk around the room we were in to investigate but I stayed near the cot. “That was keys right?” He asked.

“Uh huh. Clear as day.” I replied nodding my heart racing in my chest.

“Something is down here and I don’t like it. It came from close to this door or over here.” Dak was still looking around with the camera, no where near me when I heard a breathy sound next to me.

“Dak?” I called unsure of how far away he was to me.

“Yeah?” He replied sounding father away than the breath was.

“Something just breathed in my ear.” I bit my lip hesitating to look in the direction of the breath. I could hear Dakota’s hurried footsteps as he made his way back over to me. “There’s nothing there.” Dak tells me.

I let out a small nervous laugh. “Is..is now a good time to tell you I think I’ve been seeing something in the darkness?” I look up at him barely making out his face in the darkness. Dak took that seriously and instantly talked about getting out of there. As we went to leave I heard a loud knock right behind me causing me to let out a short panicked scream and grab onto Dakota’s jacket. I turned behind me to see a tall looming shadow causing me to stumble into Dakota’s back making him stumble as well. He was able to catch himself and quickly turn around.

Even in the darkness I could tell my peripheral vision was blurring as my breath quickened, my heartbeat pounding in my ears. Dakota called my names sounding miles away. His arm wrapped tightly around my shoulders urging, leading me up the stairs out of the basement.

“Yo!” Dakota called as we entered the gear room his voice sounding as if I was stuck underwater.

Someone replied but I couldn’t hear it over the heartbeat in my ears. My hands felt numb as I gripped onto Dakota’s jacket.

“We’re done!” His voice was so far away as he tried to unfold my hands from his jacket. “Breathe, sweetheart.” As strangled, gasp was choked in and seemed to burn as it forced itself passed the lump that formed in my throat.

“Dude I am so done! (Y/n) having a panic attack.” His voice sounded crisper. He kneeled to the ground in front of me cupping my face.

“Sweetheart look at me, focus to my voice okay?”

My eyes blinked a few times before focusing on his face.

“Can you list five things you see?”

I licked my lips and looked around. “Camera. Desk. Chair. Books. You.”

“Good. Four things you can touch.”

“Notebook. Locker. My jacket. My watch.” I slowly acknowledged the notebook by my foot. The locker behind the chair that my head would occasionally touch. The jacket that felt too warm at the moment. And the watch that vibrated with the reminder to drink water.

Dakota smiled at me. “Three things you can hear?”

“Tanner and Chelsea in the hall. Alex over a walkie. My heart beat.” My breathing had calmed considerably and it no longer felt like a struggle.

“Two things you can smell.”

“Your body spray. Musty books.”

“Very good. And one thing you can taste?”

My brows furrowed at that one. I didn’t really taste anything at the moment. “I think there is a bit of strawberry left from my chap stick.”

Dakota let out a soft laugh as his thumb brushed over my cheek.

“That counts. Are you okay?”

“As long as we leave, sure.”

“I can take her outside while you guys pack up.” Chelsea offered softly as she stepped up next to her brother.

Dakota looked between her and his sister before nodding. “Get her some water too please.”

“I got it.” Tanner spoke up and passed the water bottle forward.