Gothic Story

A Frigid Resolution  

It was a numbing winter day in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. A light dusting of snow had recently glazed the city in a light shade of gray. No cars were commuting on the slick roads. The neighborhood stood inactive. In the shroud of snow stood the intimidating structure of Grosse Pointe South High School. It’s soaring bell tower, bulky pillars, and chapped stonewalls pleaded attention from all. This school holds most of the community’s history being one of the oldest buildings in the area. Today it was empty due to winter break but tonight the school would be accepting some mischievous students early.

            A small group of South students were brainstorming ideas of what to do with the first night off from school. Sitting around would not suffice for these energized Sophomores. They wanted to participate in a dim-witted act to please their naïve souls. The group finally made their decision. As a prank they would sneak out and ransack one of their teacher’s rooms. The plan was daring but perfect. The group then set out.

            Avoiding attention the teens darted in and out of the shrubs and hid behind broad tree trunks on their path to the school. The snow began to pick up and soon the students became concealed from sight. They finally arrived at the menacing walls of the school and frantically searched for an un-locked window. With a strong nudge one lashed open and the school was at the mercy of it’s students. The school was dark and quite bitter considering the lack of electricity and heat. The school in this state was vastly unfamiliar to the kids and struck fear into most of them. They had a job to accomplish though; the spray paint and silly string were going to be used at all costs. With a lecture from the leader figure in the group the fear of the dark and empty school was erased. In search of the disliked teacher’s room the teens began to play some minor pranks on one another. As the group approached the center of the building they ganged up and forcefully threw the leader figure into the library ”Cleminson Hall” and barricaded the set of bulky doors behind him. Thinking nothing of it he pulled up a chair and observed the beautiful sight of the snowstorm brewing outside through the glass doors and windows of Cleminson. With trust in his friends he soon dozed off.

            When he awoke something didn’t seem right, it wasn’t snowing anymore and there was not a sound to be heard throughout the school. Panicking, he started to yell for help. To which there was no reply. Dumbfounded he ran to the glass doors of Cleminson and viewed the schools front lawn. After some scanning something caught his eye, a few sets of footsteps were pressed into the deep snow, leading away from the window that him and his friends had broken into. They had left and forgotten him. The boy was speechless as he clasped to the handles of the set of glass exterior doors that would not budge as he shook them recklessly. Without motion the teen remained staring out the window. Finally he thought up a means of escape. He would break a glass window or door and run back to his home. But as he turned to look for a suitable tool to break the glass he found himself unable to move. His grasp on the door handles would not break like the glass he sought to destroy. His hands were frozen to the chilled brass handles and would remain there.

        

His icy body was found the next week and his hands had not moved an inch. A pane of glass on the door had been slightly fractured, resulting in a bloody scar upon the student’s head and a chilled pool of blood upon the floor. Next to the crack in the glass was the word HELP, written in large font with silly string. The students that discovered his body could only stop and stare at each other with extreme regret.