As I interviewed the victims of the haunted basement rooms underneath the stage here at Hawthorne High School, an image began to take shape. Could it be a coincidence that all of the people I’ve spoken to said they will never go down there alone? Let me tell you about the room that can give you chills by just taking a step inside, and the one that no one will enter alone, and the long narrow hall behind the stage that stores spirits as well as props.  

I think I’ll start with the worst of them all: the hall that sucks you in and swallows you whole. Once you take a step into this hall you immediately get chills.  Promise me one thing, as I lead you into this journey, do not tell a soul about what I found in these haunted rooms.

As I walked in by myself to get my clothes and other items after the play The Big Bad Wolf, I felt a presence.  Every time I shut my eyes I felt like something would pop out.  I remember saying out loud “Okay, this isn’t funny anymore.” Things only got more weird; as I was about to walk out I heard something fall.  So I did what anyone would do. I walked towards the room where I heard the mysterious noise.  To my surprise no one was in the room. This wasn’t the first time members of the cast had heard creepy or frightening noises. 

At the start of practice everyone gathered on the front of the stage to begin our dress rehearsal.  Then we got quiet enough to here a pin drop.  A few moments later we heard a loud thud.  We all looked around, but we were already nervous since our performance was about to start.  These strange occurrences continued.

When we turned on the music it skipped, played the wrong songs, or turned off.  This made us anxious because that was our only way to do our performance. We then decided to go without music for the rest of the practice.  However, we still heard faint music in the background… could it be spirits that were playing the music or was it all in our head?

Did we hear music and people walking around when it was dead silent?  Could it be that we were imagining it?  I guess you’ll have to wait until the second part, but don’t forget.. don’t tell a soul about your findings in the haunted HHS rooms….