Listener Tales 114: Back to School Tales

Morbid

In this episode of Morbid, the hosts present a collection of listener-submitted horror stories centered around the theme of back-to-school.

Key takeaways

• Shelby describes a haunting in rural Tennessee where a stuffed bear made sounds as if it were being crushed.
• An anonymous listener shares how the Morbid podcast served as a vital mental health tool during postpartum depression.

Main topics

• Back-to-school listener tales
• Haunted educational institutions

Notable quotes

The Chokey in the Magic School Bus.

Conclusion

A spooky and often humorous collection of personal hauntings that high

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Hey, weirdos. I'm Miss Trunchbull. And I'm Miss Frizzle. And this is the Chokey and the Magic School Bus brought to you by Morbid. Speaker 1 (0:24) That is a wild combination. The Chokey in the Magic School Bus. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it could be, like, good. You Speaker 2 (0:33) know? How? I don't know. Speaker 2 (0:41) I was just like, I was going to say something and then it just never came to fruition. But I said to Elena, I was thinking about it this morning because I knew I was going to be dressing up like Miss Trenchpole. I said, isn't life just kind of like the chokie right now? Yeah. Like, aren't we all just kind of stuck in the chokie? Yeah. It doesn't belong Speaker 1 (0:57) on the magic school bus. I know. Speaker 2 (0:59) No way. That's Speaker 1 (1:00) absolutely Speaker 2 (1:00) correct. That's Speaker 1 (1:01) for kindness and love and happiness. I don't know what I meant. I don't know what I meant or where I am. I loved it because you were just like, that would be cool. I said good. Good. It would be great. Yeah. I don't know. Let's put a chokie on the magic scope. Speaker 2 (1:16) It's not even real. Okay. Speaker 1 (1:17) You said let's torture them kids. Who cares? Speaker 2 (1:21) Don't put that out there. AI is going to be like, let's take her voice and make it that she tortures people. Yeah. Oh, Speaker 1 (1:30) God. So today is back to school listener tales. Yeah, it's September. So we were like, Deb Speaker 2 (1:37) picked these and she said, it's back to school. So you guys get back to school. And we're back to school. Speaker 1 (1:43) Obviously. It's Proctober. Back to school. Speaker 2 (1:45) Let's go. Proctober. Speaking of Proctober, that means it's almost October. And that means you need to send us your Halloween listener tales, please. Halloween themed. Like an experience that you had on Halloween that is downright fucking scary. Or like if Speaker 1 (2:02) it's like leading up to Halloween. That works. Speaker 2 (2:05) Like the lead Speaker 1 (2:05) up to Halloween. Try to keep them around. A Halloween party. Speaker 2 (2:09) A Speaker 1 (2:09) Halloween party, Speaker 2 (2:10) even if it's not on Halloween. A haunted house. Yes. Speaker 1 (2:13) That you went to. Speaker 2 (2:14) Yeah, but like, you know. Halloween coded scary in nature, please. Yes. Speaker 1 (2:19) If at all possible. That would be great. Please. And just put Halloween listener tale. Speaker 2 (2:23) Yeah. Speaker 1 (2:23) In the title. Speaker 2 (2:25) Period. Speaker 1 (2:25) We'll put you in the fucking jokey. Well, I guess she's Speaker 2 (2:29) pro Speaker 1 (2:29) -chokey now. Speaker 2 (2:31) You went from very anti-chokey to very pro-chokey. For adults. Okay. Speaker 1 (2:36) That's what it is. I think we have some kid listeners. Well, it's not for you kids. That's okay. Not for you. Miss Frizzle would never. Yeah, it would never. Speaker 2 (2:43) Isn't it like a weird thing for your brain and your eyes to like realize that she's Miss Frizzle, but you know she's going to say some Elena shit during this episode? Isn't that weird? It's a little Speaker 1 (2:54) weird. Speaker 2 (2:54) It's hard to like rationalize. My kids loved this outfit. Speaker 1 (2:57) I Speaker 2 (2:57) came downstairs and they were like, Mrs. Trunchbull! And then they were like, they said it to me like I didn't know. They were like, Mama's Miss Frizzle! Did you know? And I was like, I literally work with her. Yeah, we are literally about to record. Are you going to read first? Speaker 1 (3:09) Yeah, I'm going to read first. Cool. So this one's called Haunted Schools. A school so haunted it continues to constantly recur in my dreams 17 years after it was torn down. Yeet. I love that people are still putting the yeet. It's special to me. It has such a place in my heart now. Simsies. I love it. So it says, hey, weirdos, my name is Shelby. And please use my name because if I hear this on the pod, I will 110 % have to change my pants from shitting them. You just shitted. Please excuse my writing as I am not a writer in the least. I would normally apologize for the length, but you repeatedly say never. So I won't. Thank you. I went to a small private school in rural Tennessee. I'm scared. It was situated off a small two-lane road surrounded by cotton fields and no streetlights. I'm terrified. Did I mention that there hasn't been a graduating class larger than 65? Wow. 65 people? That's not a lot. Speaker 1 (4:08) That's but a handful. Speaker 2 (4:10) I think actually Speaker 1 (4:11) Drew's might have been around there. Drew had a really Speaker 2 (4:13) small graduating class. That's wild. Yeah, that's wild. I'm going to text him and see how many kids graduated in his class. Speaker 1 (4:19) He's going to be like, why are you asking me this? He probably will. When I say this was a small school, I mean small. My graduating class was only 46 people. I'm Speaker 2 (4:28) going to see if Drew beats you. Let's see if Speaker 1 (4:29) Drew can beat this. 46 is crazy. 46 is nuts. Let's diabetes. So. What? Speaker 1 (4:39) diabetes get through the chat beat Speaker 2 (4:41) this Speaker 1 (4:42) diabetes Speaker 1 (4:44) Fair. You're silly. Thank you. The building I am about to describe to you and the setting for today's tales no longer exists. However, on some spiritual level, the structure embedded itself deep into the core of my memory. There are a few pictures of the building left, a few pictures I can find attached below. Feel free to share any that don't have the school name on it. We Speaker 2 (5:07) will do that. But I Speaker 1 (5:08) can describe this building in vast detail. I will abstain for the sake of the story. I have the update. 84. 84? He Speaker 2 (5:14) didn't diabetes Speaker 1 (5:15) that. Speaker 2 (5:15) And I just asked him, he answered, and then I said period, and now my phone's on do not disturb. Speaker 1 (5:22) Period. He's going to be like, what? Honestly, though, probably not. He's just going to move about his day. Probably. So the beautiful schoolhouse had real hardwood floors, two opposing staircases, 20-foot ceilings, long hallways hung with graduating class portraits from years past. Small ones. This sounds like Chilton from Gilmore Girls. Speaker 2 (5:42) I pictured, because we were talking about it recently, the school in Monster High. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Make the... third Monster High movie. If we can just go off on a quick tangent, please. Who fucked that Speaker 1 (5:54) up? Who fucked that up? Truly? Fuck you for canceling the third Monster High Speaker 2 (6:01) movie. Fuck you. You Speaker 1 (6:02) left it on a cliffhanger too? And now we just don't get Frankie's story? Exactly. Fake as fuck. Who was that Grim Reaper guy? Yeah. We'll never know. No. We better Speaker 2 (6:12) find out because somebody out there is going to make it. Let's make the third movie. Come on, everybody. Okay. Sorry. That's really pissed me off lately. Speaker 1 (6:20) Same. Back to the story. The building was two stories. The building was two stories tall. Had huge panel windows, was wrapped in dark red brick with a sandy colored stone as an accent color. That sounds pretty. The building was massive, beautiful, and old. Why was it so massive if there was only four of you? Don't worry about it. They just want lots of room to breathe. I think lots of room for hauntings. That's true. They needed to fit the ghosts in there too. They were thinking about them when they built it. Probably. The building was built in 1912, though some sources say it was the 20s. These sources lie. I remember this building vividly, and on the face of it was 1912 etched in the stone. It even had engraved in stone above the doors, a girl's entrance and a boy's entrance. Damn. And throughout the years, oh boy, has the small, unassuming school seen some dark stuff. Many student deaths, including multiple motor vehicle accidents, as well as illness like cancer and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Damn. I've never heard of that. Me neither. To be quite frank, for a school like this size, the amount of student deaths just doesn't seem normal. I'm counting seven in the span of 20 years. Off the top of my head. There were also other dark events that took place involving inappropriate behavior of staff, but those are not what these stories are about. Thank goodness. Speaker 2 (7:39) So this happened back when I was a kid in fourth or fifth Speaker 1 (7:42) grade. I was in the school alone. LOL, the times when kids were just free to roam about a big empty school in the gym waiting for my mom to get off work. The gym was a basketball court with built-in wooden bleachers to one side, a locker room under the bleachers, and a stage at one end. That's wild. Side note, the gym portion of the building was added in the 40s. Above the stage was a wraparound U-shaped closet that housed all the theater department costumes, props, as well as other things from past homecomings, proms, and whatnot. There were only two ways to get to the upper closet slash hallway area. Offstage right, you could go up the built-in bleachers to a door that had a rather large step to enter. Or offstage left, you could climb a ladder made of two-by-fours to a small square-shaped opening. Those all sound... Yeah, Speaker 2 (8:31) they don't sound like the best entrances. No. Why were these the Speaker 1 (8:35) only two options? My guess is to confuse or trip whatever hell demon lived up there. I agree. Like Winchester Mystery House labs. There you go. The narrow hallway was cramped and filled to the brim with years of production materials. Fire code violation? Probably. I was squeezing my way towards the back part of the hall around the corner to pull the small chain to turn the singular light bulb on when I heard a muffled voice from the part of the hallway. where I just came. Ew. I knew right away that it wasn't human. Ew times two. I froze, waited a few seconds, then kept moving. The muffled voice sounded again, identical to the one I had just heard moments ago. I turned, expecting to see someone behind me. I thought, someone has to be playing a joke on me. So I went back down the narrow hallway and turned the corner. No one. Silence. At this point, I'm not sure what convinced my fourth grade brain to think, Uh, eh, better keep going down this hallway. But I sure did. I turned back down the hallway and pulled the light chain. I finagled my way over the princess dresses when thud, a huge bang followed by a muffled voice came from the front hallway. The muffled voice kept sounding rhythmically. I ran towards the sound. Was this bravery or naivety? Naivete? Naivete. Isn't it Speaker 2 (9:50) naivete? Speaker 1 (9:51) Yeah. I think it was spelled different. So I was like, what does that mean? Speaker 2 (9:54) Naivete. Speaker 1 (9:55) Naivete. You have to say it like pretentiously Speaker 2 (9:57) to be honest. You Speaker 1 (9:58) do. Yeah, you absolutely do. You have to say it like a Moirose. Yeah. Hell Speaker 2 (10:02) yeah. Speaker 1 (10:02) She's not pretentious. No. Rip. Most likely the latter. The voice said naivete. The voice got louder and louder. I love you. I love you. What? At least it's saying nice things. That would stress me out. I finally could make out what it was saying. My heart was racing so hard I could hear it in my ears and I could feel my face tingle red. It kept repeating until I found a small stuffed bear holding a heart, making the sound that was being crushed by a Greek-styled bust. Ew. I picked it up and the sound stopped. As I tried to get my heart rate back down, it wasn't working. I looked around to see where this bust could have fallen and couldn't find anywhere. Granted, it was packed to the brim with props, so it could have come from anywhere. But what made the stuffed bear go off two times before? Needless to say, I yeeted my tiny fourth grade self out of that area ASAP. Did I continue to go back up into the prop room while I was at that school? Absolutely. Your girl always had a proclivity for the paranormal. Hell yeah, sister. Now, that reminds me of in The Sixth Sense when he gets locked in that cabinet. Oh, that's so much creepier. And it's like the voice or when they're just listening to the voice from the cabinet. That part haunts my dreams until this day. I fucking hate Speaker 2 (11:13) that part. Speaker 1 (11:13) At the birthday party? I hate Speaker 2 (11:15) it. That one is the scariest part of the entire movie, I think. Oh my God. Maybe not. And you don't even Speaker 1 (11:19) see anything. Yeah. Speaker 2 (11:20) That's just that part. fucked me up. I honestly can't even rewatch that movie because it scares the shit out of me. It scares the shit out of me and they're so mean to him. I don't Speaker 1 (11:28) think I can watch it as a parent anymore. That's the Speaker 2 (11:30) thing. And then, you know, you've had plenty of time to figure this out. When you find out that the guy's actually dead, it's just really sad. Spoiler alert. Yeah, you've had plenty. I think that movie came out the year I was born. Holy shit. Yeah, you've had 30 years still. Speaker 1 (11:42) But you know what I mean? Yeah. I Speaker 2 (11:44) mean, it's just Speaker 1 (11:44) sad. It is really sad. It's a good movie. It is fun, though, when you find that out to go back and watch it. Because then you can watch it and be like, Speaker 2 (11:51) oh, shit, Speaker 1 (11:52) yeah, Speaker 2 (11:52) he was. And Speaker 1 (11:53) then there's also like all the red. Yeah. Speaker 2 (11:54) That tells you when. Speaker 1 (11:55) Yeah. Yeah. Now I have so many more stories about this building that I can save for another time. But I won't. The time is now. The girls that get it, get it. Yeah. Thank you for doing that. Because usually people are like, I have so many more stories. Maybe I'll send Speaker 2 (12:12) them Speaker 1 (12:12) later. And I'm like, no, give Speaker 2 (12:14) it to me. It's like Speaker 1 (12:14) dangling a carrot. Yeah, I just want them. This story takes place in the gym and is much shorter. One day after school, I was in the gym alone shooting basketball when suddenly nature called. I Speaker 2 (12:24) had Speaker 1 (12:24) to pee. I sat the basketball down on the bench on the side of the court and left for the restroom. The restrooms in this building have their own stories in the saga. Stay tuned. Oh, man. On my way back, I heard someone dribbling the ball. Oh, someone must have come in while I was gone, I thought. So I made my way to the gym to find no one. Not a single soul. And the ball that I specifically remember placing on the bench was now perfectly in the center of the court. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Now the restrooms. Speaker 2 (12:51) It's like the Speaker 1 (12:51) Meow Meow song. No, no, no, no, no, no. Now the restrooms. There were two restrooms in this massive building. That's it? I mean, they don't have a lot of people in there. Goddamn. One next to the gym and another down one of the main hallways, practically under the staircase. Both haunted as f***. Fuck. Oh, every school bathroom is haunted as fuck. Absolutely. Even brand new ones. Yeah. Yeah. Haunted. It could be built yesterday. And guess what? Bloody Mary Speaker 2 (13:17) lives there. Yeah, Speaker 1 (13:17) it's true. Now, anyone who's ever been in those restrooms will tell you, you always felt uneasy in there, especially if you were alone. Because even if you were alone, you never felt like it. There would be times I would go into the restroom and literally start to panic. I could never stay in there for too long. The restroom at the end of the hall next to the stairs was the worst of the two. That one made me so uneasy that after only two times being in there, I straight up refused to go in there ever again. That's valid. I remember not taking but a few steps in and not being able to breathe. My head would start to spin and my brain would cloud up. Not fun. Yeah. Speaker 2 (13:53) The Speaker 1 (13:54) other place I couldn't take more than a few steps without feeling the weight of get the fuck out was the locker room