Whispers in My Ear

I met through a friend, a lady who owned a Education Center in Mexico City. She got the lot and built from scratch. It is a nice building you can find near the downtown area. I was living in Mexico back then and reached out to her, as I needed a job. I had previous experience in business administration and so I got hired to be the administrative assistant. 

I heard from some of the teachers and maintenance staff, that strange things happened in the property, never payed much attention nor I got engaged in any kind of gossip. The Administrative Manager, was an old lady, who had worked at other Educational Centers before and was very experienced. I learned a lot from her, but soon after I got hired, she decided to retire, so this was a great moment for me. I got the promotion and this not only meant a rise, but more responsibility, I was eager. The owner said that because of budget trouble, she decided not to hire an administrative assistant to fill my former position. I made the commitment to make it work. 

I had my own office and now I could be able to implement the archive system I had learned and keep things organized my way. This was the 90's, so there were some computer use, but mostly everything was done the old fashion way. My office was a good size space, right at the entrance of the Center, and a small storage space, where I kept the archives. This space was the gap under the staircase, which was a good 2 by 2 ft. My first week was tough, but I knew that I could catch up soon and demonstrate I could handle the job. I had sort of a big mess, as I was putting together and organizing things my way. So I guess, I never noticed the weirdness until later. 

About 2 weeks after my promotion, I lost one of the files, and inside that file were two checks that I was supposed to deposit on our bank account. I looked everywhere, searched every drawer, cabinet, under the furniture, until I realized it was time to tell the Principal what happened. I was terrified. I was walking to he office, when I see one of the maintenance ladies come towards me, she asked me to come with her, that it was important. So I followed her, she took me to the storage room they had where the cleaning supplies where kept. I entered and saw my file sitting between two bottles of Clorox. I took the file and opened it, everything was there. I looked at Irma, the cleaning lady and asked if she knew who took it. She stared at me and calmly said "no one took it, things move around, you'll see", she turned and left. I went back to my office and sent those checks immediately to the bank. I kept her words on my head, I didn't want to sound disrespectful, but I seriously don't believe things "move" on their own. I know someone took my file and I was upset. 

After that incident, it was not easy for me to deal with the ladies from the cleaning staff. I was still upset, so I was very careful to never leave my office open, whenever I needed to take a restroom break or lunch break, I would lock my office. However, one way or the other, things went missing. One day I went to the restroom and found my all my files on the floor, papers everywhere. I was furious. I talked to the Principal, she sad some teachers were complaining as well; they would find the student files all messed up and missing materials. We all thought it was the cleaning staff. 

One day, I was in my office, door closed, the phone rang and I answered. I was giving information on our next cycle, when my stapler flew right across my head, just like that. I continued my call, and once I was done, got up and picked up the stapler, there was no one there, no one outside my office, no one near. I went back to work. 

Over the next weeks, I experienced, many times, that things moved from one place to another, in fact even when I was inside my office alone, I would turn to find files or notes on the floor whenever I wasn't looking. This theory that "someone" moved things around didn't sound so crazy now. I never told anyone, I didn't want them to believe I was crazy. 

One afternoon, I was working on filing and sorting every child's file, the school cycle was almost over and we needed to make sure their files were complete in order to give them to every parent at the closing ceremony. I was pulling out all the archives from the storage space under the stairs, when a voice whispered on my ear, very loud and clear "GET OUT". I dropped everything and turned. There was no one there. I went out my office and looked around. Everything looked calm. there was no one even near my office. I went back to work, but this time, I left the door open. 

During summer vacation, we had to work, and here is where it got really scary. The school was empty, and it was only the administrative and maintenance staff, who had to work. I must say, every single day was torture. This is when I realized that this place was haunted, and who ever was there wanted us gone. One of the cleaning ladies got pushed down the stairs, another one said she saw three small shadows running from one of the classrooms to the infirmary and just disappear. I heard constant whispering on my ear, I always had the feeling someone was standing right behind me. Once I felt a cold hand over my shoulder. There was something else, I could hear whipping noises, they came from the storage space under the stairs. I was not the only one who heard them, they were loud and it was disturbing. Things would fly across the room for no apparent reason. I learned that 5 teachers and 2 of the maintenance ladies quitted and left that very same day.

After a couple of weeks I decided to talk to the Principal. I was not sure, what to tell her, but I had to say something, I was considering on leaving my job. So I went in and told her that I was very grateful for the opportunity, I enjoyed my job very much, but there is something not right with this property and I didn't want her to have the wrong impression about me, but I needed to know if you was aware of the things that happen on a daily basis. 

She took a deep breath and said, in a weary voice, that she did, she was aware of what was going on. She told me that it was the property. 

There was a terrible earthquake in Mexico City in 1985, this building was completely destroyed. It was a school as well and at least a 100 people died in this property. Some died instantly, others were trapped and died of asphyxiation and thirst. Many of them were children between 4 and 12 years. She purchased the property in 1989 and demolished what was left, and started building the School. She said that back then, workers also said they heard whipping and crying most of the time, and a couple of times in the mornings would find the work done the day before, destroyed. 

I was speechless, I was not ready to hear this, I cried. I was not able to contain my self. I felt heartbroken. 

The Principal told me they had performed many blessings and religious services in the property to honor those who passed away. But nothing changed. Every year she has to deal with this situation and personnel rotates every year. Also she noticed that some children never went back or changed schools over summer. I could feel this affected her not only financially, but emotionally. I sensed she was heartbroken as well, for what happened in this place, but also because she spent her life savings and sweat on this School, it was her pride and joy, and it was not going as she dreamed. I left that day in silence, and decided I could not be in this place anymore, it was too sad and depressing. 

I went by a few years ago, the property is abandoned and in terrible shape. I don't know what happened to the Principal. I didn't keep in touch with anyone. To be honest, you can still feel the sadness of this place, even from outside.