A Halloween Tale: The Night He Disappeared

By Dorian Ahumada and Genesis Mora

Disclaimer: This story is purely fictional. Any similarities to real people or events is purely coincidental.

Illustration by Ryan Verdusco

Every October, students and teachers at South Gate High mysteriously disappear–and this year, it’s happening again. Rumors spread throughout the school that students are going missing. The Journalism team digs deep into these rumors, they find that people have reported the sounds of lightly treaded horse hooves in the hallways during class time. When people go out to check, there are no signs of a horse, anyone, or anything at all. They are only met by the distinct smell of moldy cheese. It would be all but strange to find a horse, especially in school right? 

Well, as October continues, more and more reports of missing people continue. Nobody really seems to notice, but the journalists notice a pattern. The people who have gone missing were last seen heading to the basement of the school. Ramsey, a student at South Gate High, likes to read the newspapers the journalist put out. He also enjoys scary stories, so he really looks forward to the October issues. As he reads the papers, he recognizes the pattern of missing students as well, which leads him to want to conduct his very own investigation. He wants to know why they are reported to be last seen on the way to the basement. There's a Halloween dance taking place in the school. Ramsey was planning to just go with his friends and have fun, but this discovery leads him to follow different plans. He begins to create an idea where he and his friends go to the dance, but find a way to leave and go to the basement. 

As Halloween arrives, he starts to inform his friends about his eccentric idea. All his friends are pumped and excited to go explore the basement with Ramsey. They begin to arrive at the party, wearing all black cloaks with clown masks to hide their identities. The dark and dim lighting of the decorated gym gave them an ominous feeling. They expected Ramsey to think this was a bad idea as well, but he was too intrigued.

 Samuel whispers, “Hey, do you really think we should do this? I mean what if we get caught, get in trouble, and get banned from any other events at the school?! That's super risky man.”  

“Cmon,” Ramsey said, “We could literally solve a mystery! We’re not getting caught as long as we don’t make any stupid decisions or make any loud noises.” 

Samuel: “I guess..” 

The others, Max, Liam, and Cade, all are unsure of this but don’t back down because they wanna know what's really down there. They break off from the dancing crowd, and slither off into the dull, ill-lit hallways, continuing to travel to the basement. They arrive, and as soon as the moment comes where they’re about to head into the basement, Ramsey’s friends lose courage and curiosity, leaving Ramsey all on his own to explore. 

Liam: “Ramsey, we know how much you wanna do this but sorry bro, we just aren’t willing to put future experiences on the line for a measly exploration that’ll probably lead to nothing.” 

Ramsey turns back and looks at them in disappointment, feeling betrayed, and says, “Are you guys really that scared? You know what, I'm fine with doing it myself.” 

Ramsey, being the curious ram he is, decides to follow through with his plan. What Ramsey doesn’t know is that the school's basement hides a dark piece of its past. About a hundred years ago, when the school was originally founded, the principal was a descendant from a family of wise wizards. He left behind a bunch of mysterious books containing different spells after he suddenly disappeared 2 years after. A student found a book while looking through his office, which had dark spells and did a ritual with candles in the basement. They summoned the spirit known as the headless horseman. The entity consumed him, haunted the hallways of South Gate High and terrorized the students. The current principal then, who liked to study these books, found out about this spirit, conjured a spell to lock away the spirit forever in the basement. But unfortunately, it wasn’t kept that way for long due to Ramsey’s unwavering curiosity. 

 As Ramsey goes down the stairs, he gets this feeling of terrifying uncertainty. He still pushes through even while being met with these terrorizing feelings.

He reaches the bottom, looks up, and takes a deep breath, “Okay.. let's see what's down here.” Ramsey whispers, “Gosh, it's so..dark in here.. I'll use my flashlight to look around.” 

Ramsey walks down the unpromising hallway, and gets closer and closer to the room where the headless horseman's spirit is. He opens the doors left and right, scuffling through them, trying to find something that will help him solve the mystery, but can not find anything. He looks back as if something is behind him but it's just the echoes of his footsteps which gives Ramsey intense paranoia. Looking back frantically, the echoes don't stop, and it feels like someone else is in the room. He looks back one more time and  sees nothing, only sensing a strong presence.

Illustration by Ryan Verdusco

At last, the final room at the end of the hallway is boarded up and the entry is blocked. Ramsey: “What the.. why is it all boarded up? There has to be something here.” Ramsey rushes to a previous room where he had seen a hammer as he's worried someone might catch him. He grabs the hammer, runs back, pulls off the nails, and once it’s opened, the room envelopes Ramsey in this sinister feeling while a force of wind pushes him a bit back. He feels drawn in, the door shuts behind him, his eyes focus into the dark room, and what he finds leaves him horrified. 

As Ramsey enters, he sees about 8 candles in a circle with a horse skull in the middle, previously lit, dust and cobwebs all around. Ramsey: “Woah… candles.. In a circle.? And is that-is that a horse skull!? Why is this all in the school basement? What happened here?” The candles flicker violently as Ramsey takes a step closer, his eyes widen in disbelief. The air turns icy, and a whisper echoes through the room, a voice that isn’t his own. 

A low, menacing voice growls, “Ramsey…you are mine. Destiny has brought you to me, and it, or I, have no intention of letting you go.” 

The ground beneath him trembles, and in that moment, the headless horseman found his next host. The screams that follow are muffled by the heavy basement door. The next morning, the janitor finds nothing but a trail of horse hoofprints leading into the darkness and the smell of moldy cheese. No one ever saw Ramsey again. 

Like they always say, curiosity killed the cat, but in this tale, it got the Ram.