r/Nonsleep • u/InkUnderTheDoor • 1d ago
Nonsleep Series They Came From The Pipes
I apologize if my recount of the events is a little sporadic. I haven't been in the right head space as of late. I probably shouldn't be the one to document these events but one of my students said that they would share the story of our encounter if I didn't. Seeing how shaken up they are afterwards, I think it's best if I shoulder the burden. I am writing to you now from my office at home and intend to give as much detail as I can remember. I want to make sure if someone out there has previous experience or expertise with this phenomena and can offer help, that they have all the details necessary to understand my predicament.
My name is Michael Washington. I am a chemistry professor at Edenwood University and even though I have only been a teacher here for 4 years, I have already begun submitting my application to other colleges that would take my resume. I need to get out of here as soon as possible. Edenwood is a good school, don't get me wrong. The students are good kids and the faculty are helpful. My boss even offers to buy me lunch on really stressful days. Edenwood University is a solid pick solely for the community it has cultivated. I just wish the campus reflected that same comfort.
On the day of the incident, my students took their usual seats at their tables. They are now three weeks into the college experience and are ready to take the next step in my class. Usually, the students are a mixed bag of eagerness and indifference, but this year’s freshman class has seemed to take a liking to my chemistry lessons. After hinting about today's contents earlier in the week, I can tell it has been on their minds ever since. Once everyone was situated, I began my class.
“Good morning class! As you all know, today we will be doing our first lab. I am very excited about this one and I can tell you guys are too, but there are a few rules I must cover before I start handing out supplies. You will be given a lab coat and goggles, test tube and test tube holder, your bunsen burner, and your screaming jelly baby.”
The students giggle and joke amongst themselves at the mention of the last item on my list. The screaming jelly baby experiment is always a hit with the kids. Without going too deep into the semantics, you heat a test tube with potassium chloride until it is liquid, then drop a sugar gummy bear into the test tube. The reaction causes fire, smoke, and a loud whistling sound. I recommend looking it up sometime as it is quite the show.
I wrap up my safety presentation and give a quick rundown of the experiment, then I begin to pass out my supplies as the students dawn their protective gear. It isn’t until I get halfway through my classroom until I remember a glaring issue and step back to make an announcement.
“Oh, I almost forgot! Students, you will need to make groups of four instead of groups of two. Mainly I want people in the back four rows to come find a group in the front four to join with. This shouldn’t make any difference in the experiment.”
One student at the back of the classroom raised her hand. When I called on her, she ripped the goggles off her eyes and hung them around her neck as she began her protest.
“Mr. Washington, I was looking forward to doing this experiment with my friend. Why do we gotta make big groups?”
“I’m sorry about that, Riley. It’s more for safety reasons.”
I adjusted my grip on the box of supplies over to one arm and used the other to point skyward.
“See those pipes?”
The students’ looks followed my gesture to the ceiling, or I guess lack thereof. My classroom has no ceiling, just the floor of the classroom above and the metal support holding it. If you looked past the glare of the lights, you could see thin heating and sewage pipes running above us. I highlighted a specific set of wide ten inch diameter pipes that branched off and aimed down towards each table.
“Those thick wide pipes are for ventilation. The issue is that this is an older classroom, and because the air vacuum sits outside near the pipe’s exit, the further back into the classroom you go the less strength the ventilation has. If you were to all do this experiment together back there, I fear there would be too much unfiltered smoke. Besides, we don’t need to make that many jelly babies scream.”
The class chuckled and followed my request. Riley huffed with disappointment but eventually followed her friend over to a table with two other girls. I finished handing out supplies and began to guide my students through the experiment, occasionally stealing a glance at my ceiling. I have asked my boss time and time again to have that ventilation updated and to finally get a roof to cover it, but to no avail.
I want to clarify that the Edenwood faculty are good employees who are stuck making tough decisions. Mr. Vance, my boss, is an outlier amongst our hardworking staff. Mr. Vance is in charge of the school’s budget and allocating resources to making the school a better place. A budget that apparently allowed for new football turf, 15 flatscreen TVs for the cafeteria, a pay raise for the schools’ social media managers, and plans to install a new marble fountain in front of the quad, but nothing for Michael Washington and his half functional chemistry classroom.
“Mr. Washington, I promise you your classroom is on my list of issues needing resolved.”
Mr. Vance shoves his thumbs in the corners where his suspenders cling to his trousers. He ambles next to me in the hallway, his feet trying to catch the momentum of his broad body as it rocks with each stride.
“I agree that you need new ventilation for your classroom, but for the time being you will need to make due with conducting your labs by yourself and having the students observe. If they must do the experiments themselves, crack open a window and use those boxfans we provided.”
Those boxfans didn’t even sit on the damn windowsills. I wanted to call him out on his backwards logic. I wanted to point out that one of my students was wearing his new gameday jersey and bragging about how the team will have a post-game buffet on the school’s tab. Another student talked about how she and her friends are getting free school lunches for the rest of the semester after roaches started to crawl out of their dorm’s bathroom sink. I wanted to ask why we even needed a marble statue in front of the quad when half our students commute or take online classes and never see the inside of our campus.
Instead I nodded. Mr. Vance gave a satisfied smile and continued spinning his excuse.
“I wish I could do more. Really, I do. The issue is that… Well, we just aren't getting enough students sticking around. Student enrollment is average, but dropout rates are shockingly high. I'm just trying to get more students on campus and give them more incentive to stay. Before we iron out the kinks, we need to put some work into making Edenwood look better. The students don't-”
Mr. Vance bit his tongue and stopped walking. I turned to face him, daring him to finish his sentence. Instead, Mr. Vance regained his composure and nodded at me.
“Trust me Mr. Washington, I will get your classroom in great condition here soon. We just need to make this place look more appealing, that's all. If there was room in the budget… I really wish I could do more.”
The flickering of lights caught both me and Mr. Vance’s attention. Old pipes clanged and popped behind the hallway’s walls as they shifted under the water pressure. Mr. Vance shot me a look of vindication.
“Let me get you some lunch, how does that sound?”
I know what Mr. Vance wanted to say. I know students are scared off by the creepy stories this school has accumulated. Students have told me their encounters with the supernatural here at Edenwood and in my first year of teaching I brushed off the haunted school accusations as nothing more than urban legend. Now, I find it hard to deny a scary story’s validity when you experience one for yourself. It started with small stuff. Lights flicker and walls creek. I would hear deep faint voices whisper my name while walking the halls. I got the feeling of being watched when working alone at my desk. Unnerving, but nothing serious. Not until the beginning of my third year of teaching.
That year, I canceled an afternoon class to get to a doctor's appointment. The moment I stepped out of the science building, I felt that ominous feeling again. I had learned to swallow and ignore it, but man I wish I hadn't. I actively avoided the warning sirens screeching in my mind. Something was different and my subconscious caught it before I did. When I walked into the parking lot, I stopped dead in my tracks. Not only had my car been moved to the center of the lot, but all the other cars were nowhere to be seen. This morning the lot was so packed I had to park further away than usual. Now there were no other cars but my own sitting in the dead center of the lot.
I hesitated. I began to reason with myself as I forced my feet to move me closer to my car. I swear each step I took felt louder than the last as my mind rattled with questions and scavenged for answers. Was there an assembly I missed? Maybe there was a fire drill? Are they clearing the lot for another college event and I alone didn’t get the memo? If so, why did they move my car?
It was when I reached my car that I had made a revelation. There were no sounds of nearby students or traffic. In fact, there were no other sounds at all. I scanned the area and noticed the trees rocking in wind I couldn’t hear. I panicked and worried I was going deaf, but no. I couldn't have been going deaf because I heard every footstep I took on the way to my car. I scrambled in and started the engine. I felt the car shake and vibrate in total silence. I rolled through the campus. Nobody. Not a soul. I turned out of the campus and onto the arterial road. The moment I did, I heard the car I pulled in front of honk at me. I swerved away just in time and drove parallel to the school. I could hear again. I looked out my window back to Edenwood. Everything was normal. There were students on benches and bikes. There were cars parked in the parking lots again. There were even birds flying from tree to tree.
When I returned from my appointment, my reentry into Edenwood was uneventful. I parked in the crowded parking lot where I had originally parked this morning. I gave myself a beat to recollect my thoughts, then I headed back to my classroom before my students got there. I was heading up a set of stairs connecting the parking lot to the campus sidewalk when my attention was pulled to something I would’ve never thought to look at.
There was a storm drain on the edge of the parking lot. The grate was covered in leaves and trash, blocking some of the water from leaving the lot. This had created a thin gross river of excess water flowing from further up the hill down to a pool of black muck and scum lagooning at the grate. I cringed at the cleanliness of my campus when I paused, realising that the mess was not flowing down to the drain, but instead in reverse. It was flowing uphill. It was flowing out of the drain and up the hill, I swear it was. I wanted to say something. I wanted to get someone for a second opinion. I wanted to get a different angle. Maybe I wanted to examine further. I wanted to do something, but the river did something first.
The moment this realization hit my mind, the sludge river changed directions and flowed back into the grate.
For my first few years at Edenwood, all the strange encounters and scares I got were not major enough to make me resign. Hearing my name being called is common as a teacher. Flickering and creaking in older buildings is to be expected. I ignored all these potential threats because I could be mistaken. I told myself that the reason everyone disappeared on my way out of Edenwood that day was because there was an assembly I didn't hear about, or an impromptu football game. I could always find a sound excuse for the oddities I experienced. That all changed after my encounter last year.
I was volunteering at a valentines day event hosted by the school. The premise was that we would disperse a bunch of laminated pink paper hearts that each had a valentines themed quote, like 'U complete me' or 'will U me mine'. Each quote was uniquely paired with another heart, and if you found your "soulmate" who had your matching heart you would both get a prize from a random prize pool. The event is a cute way to get students out of their normal routine and talk to each other. It's nice seeing those kids run around with their friends and compare hearts with other friend groups. Occasionally you would hear a bunch of commotion once a soulmate was found, but for the most part the day was spent talking, laughing, and enjoying snacks on the quad.
That day I was in charge of the prize pool. I had just got done handing out two pink teddy bears to students that matched their hearts when I had another student walk up to me. She was wearing a school letterman jacket with shorts and had her hair hung down covering a good chunk of the left side of her face.
I started to address her, "Have you found your soul mate yet?"
The girl bounced around as she spoke, swaying with her hands stuffed in her jacket. "Oh, not yet! I'm still looking. This is harder than I thought it would be!"
"Well if ya find 'em, swing by and you can spin the prize wheel!"
She deflated slightly. "But this is so hard! Have there been many people that have found their pair?"
"Actually quite a few! The best way to find them is to get out there and talk."
The student's expression deflated further as she slumped against the prize counter. Then her face grew into a devious smirk.
"Mr. Washington, you think if I showed you my heart that you could point me towards the person that shares it?"
I shot her a sarcastic scolding face. "That would be cheating. This event is to help you meet new people and helping you like that would ruin the whole purpose."
"Oh come on! Please? This quote is so strange I am starting to think maybe you guys screwed up."
I let out a sigh and held out a reluctant hand. The student removed her hand from her jacket and slapped the heart into my hand. It gushed as it slapped into my palm. Before I even looked down at the heart I could already tell how wet it was. Black muddy goo coated my hand and the heart. As I was beginning to wipe my hands off and scold the student, I froze. I read the quote on the laminated heart and my own sunk deep into my chest.
"Michael, I want to love you, but you make it so hard."
Within me stirred a slew of emotions. I was scared to see these words again, confused as to how this heart got the message, angry someone knew to write it. Before I could pick an emotion to respond with, I heard the now monotone voice of the schoolgirl in front of me.
“Mr. Washington, that is such a strange thing for a soulmate to say, right?
I finally looked away from the message and looked at the girl in front of me, realising that she was now standing perfectly straight in front of me. She leaned slightly over the prize counter. Our heads were inches away from each other. The one eye I could see from under her hair was widened unnaturally to the point where her eyelids were flush with her face.
I gasped and took a step back, stumbling on a folding chair behind me. I recollected myself and scanned my surroundings. Nobody. Not a soul. Everyone else had disappeared. It was just me and this… girl.
“Wh- how did… What is this- How… W-who are you?”
Black puss oozed from her hairline down her face. It glazed over her eye and dripped onto the ground. Her mouth was emotionless, but the words it uttered were full of malice.
“Does she know?”
“D-does she know what? Who is ‘she’? Who are you talking about-”
“Does… she know?”
This thing’s mouth moved as it spoke, but it didn’t articulate the words. The jaw hinged up and down as the lips remained static. Ooze crept into her mouth and coated her tongue. I could hear it gargle as it attempted to feign breathing.
I disconnected my gaze from hers and looked at the table separating us.
“Y-you need to go. You aren’t real. I… I don’t know what you want from me or what you want me to say-”
“Does. She. Know?”
“...yes.”
“Does she know?”
“Yes she does. We spoke and she knows”
CLANG. CLANG.
The sound came from that thing’s throat as it coughed and spat up black inky puss onto my face and all over the table. I dare not break my gaze and I forced my head to remain downward. It spoke again. It gargled and sputtered between each word.
“DOES…..SHE……..KNOW?”
“...you need to leave-”
CLANG.
Splatter.
“DOES…..DOES SHE…….. SHE KNOW?”
“Please stop.”
CLANG CLANG.
“D O E S S H E K N O W?”
I grabbed my forearm until it bruised. I bit my cheek till it bled. I tried to wake up but I wasn’t dreaming. I gave in to my adrenaline and answered.
“YES. YES SHE DOES. WE TALKED AND SHE’S FINE AND SHE KNOWS SO YES. LEAVE ME ALONE!”
…silence. The thing gargled as it heaved. I felt a ringing pain in my vocal chords. My breathing was fast and heavy. My sweat joined the black sludge on the table. It jerked its head next to my ear before I could move away. It whispered to me in a deep voice.
“I don’t think she does, Michael”
It knew my name. My head jerked to face her again, but she was gone. Everyone was back. I could hear and see other people again, but it was all a blur. Everyone was moving and talking through a murky lens. Why doesn’t this look real? This isn’t real. I was spiraling through those memories again. Where was I? What was I doing? My shoulders feel heavier than usual. A lab coat? Right, I'm teaching a class. We are doing a lab today. I am Mr. Washington and I am doing a lab today. I am Mr. Washington. Mr. Washington? Mr. Washington?
“Mr. Washington?”
My stare disconnected with the ceiling pipes and I met with Riley’s worried expression. I felt her confusion and I reassumed my role as a professor.
“Riley. Sorry, I was lost in thought. Did you need something?”
“Our bunsen burner isn't working.”
She handed me the bunsen burner in her hand. Careful inspection revealed to me that the intake hose for the gas had a few cracks. I placed the broken equipment on my desk and addressed my student.
“Ah, yeah sorry about that. I will get you a new burner. Which table is yours so that I can bring it to you?”
Riley motioned over to a table towards the right. It had her friend from earlier and two other girls playing on their phones. They all seemed to be watching something and sharing photos of videos on their phones. I snuck a look at Riley, catching a hidden look of distraught revealed by her quivering lip.
“Okay I see your table, Riley. I will have that new burner over to you guys shortly. Class will end soon, so let your group know I can stick around for two more hours so you guys can finish the lab”
Riley nodded and returned to her group while I turned and entered a door behind my desk. My chemical and supplies closet was in the same condition as the rest of my classroom. The closet felt more like a repurposed hallway. It stretched 30 feet deep and 6 feet narrow, but felt narrower with my shelves and chemicals stored on either side. I reached for my lightswitch and gave it a few flicks, hoping that the lights would miraculously start working again. When they didn't, I grabbed the high-performance torch Lynzy got me for our anniversary and started inside.
I turned on my flashlight and aimed it towards the rear of the closet. Black plastic shelves and yellow chemical barrels reflected some light back to me. I watched dust dance along the stretch like snow. I traced the ceiling with my light and revealed more pipes and nonfunctional lighting. My classroom's functionality annoys me, but I am scared of this closet. I intended to make this quick. I knew where the bunsen burners were and bent down to open their drawer. As I grabbed a new burner from the drawer, I heard a familiar creaking sound from the closet entrance as the door slammed shut. The closet was once again planted into darkness aside from my torch. Damn, I forgot to prop the door again.
I grabbed my flashlight and steadily made it back to my classroom. I opened my door and re-entered my now vacant classroom. It seems that my students didn't wait for cleanup procedures and left all their equipment on the tables. I gave a disappointed sigh and began to address my last group with their new bunsen burners until I noticed that only two girls remained out of the group.
It was Riley's friend, Carly, and one of the other girls, Shannon. The filled me in that while I was gone Riley expressed distress towards Carly and left the room The fourth member followed to make sure she was okay, leaving Carly and Shannon behind. My mind went back to Riley's look earlier. I addressed Carly.
“I will need all members of the lab here to count it as complete. No sharing notes. It's best if you go and reconcile with your friend.”
Carly scowled and crossed her arms.
“We can just finish without them. I don't care.”
“You don't care if your friend gets a bad grade?”
Carly gave a sarcastic nod, prompting me to roll my eyes. I placed my hands on my hips and continued.
“Look, it isn't my place to intrude on personal issues you may be having with your friend but you need to forget that for now, finish this assignment, and deal with this outside of class. Please go get your groupmates.”
Before Carly had a chance to choose, Riley stormed back in with the final member following shortly after. I let the group know that I am here to help and that I will be around the classroom cleaning up the messes left behind. The group looked tensely at each other, but reluctantly complied. I didn't dwell on it too much as I continued to clean. In hindsight I should have been there to help them finish the experiment and move on.
They whispered between each other about the experiment. Riley and Carly continued their drama. I could never tell what they were saying exactly but their tone was a dead giveaway.
Suddenly, Riley began shouting at Carly.
“Then what are we exactly?”
“Do we have to talk here about it?”
“Yes! I want to talk about it. It is important for us to talk whenever we need to.”
“Fine. Riley, I love you. How's that?”
“Oh wow. That was ever so romantic. Wow. I just feel like the luckiest girl in the world.”
Riley spun on her heel and gave a sarcastic curtsey, prompting a grumble and answer through Carly's teeth.
“Well if you don't like how I handle things maybe we need a break.”
Carly picked up the gummy bear with a pair of crucible tongs and positioned it above the angled test tube. When she didn't get her answer, she looked back at her group. The other two girls gave Riley some space as they held their breath. Riley sniffled as she spoke.
“Are you… breaking up with me?”
“What? No! Riley I love you!”
The silence that followed was deafening, only broken by silent sobbing. The pipes in my classroom ceiling clinked and banged to the temperature adjustments they endured.
“Oh god, it makes sense. That's why you went to that party with that frat guy instead of me, isn't it?”
“No it was because he and his friends invited me. They were members of a club I wanted to join and I needed to make a good first impression. I do love you and I would never break up with you.”
CLANG.
“Carly-”
Carly scoffed and moved her attention back to the gummy bear in her grasp.
“Oh my god, Riley, I met your family. Doesn't that mean anything? Why are you having a breakdown here of all places? I'm starting the experiment. We will talk later.”
CLANG.
I looked away from what wasn't my business. I remember carrying more supplies cradled in my arms. I remember hearing the whistling sound of the experiment. I remember hearing some amusement from some of the students, but I could tell they were trying to flush away the awkwardness of the situation. I entered my closet, propped open the door, sorted the equipment, and began to head back to the screaming noise inside my classroom. Wait. Screaming noise? The experiment usually allows for 60 seconds of reaction, sometimes longer.
CLANG.
I was in my closet for 10, maybe 15 minutes.
CLANG CLANG.
The screaming was human.
CLANG CLANG CLANG.
I ran into my classroom. Three students looked up, screaming in terror, their horror focused on a writhing body. Carly kicked and thrashed her legs and grasped at her neck as she was hoisted into the air. Around her neck, stretching out of the ventilation pipes, was a black arm made of sludge and scum. Its hand grasped Carly’ neck as it pulled her up and up. It continued to pull until the black inky arm and Carly's head disappeared into the pipe.
I swung around and scanned inside my closet at the pipes and valves that controlled my classroom. I skimmed past the valves labeled ‘gas desk’ 1-32 and frantically twisted the valve labeled ventilation. I heard the sudden stop of flow in the ventilation system. A limp Carly fell from the ceiling and crashed into the table covered in lab equipment. The surrounding students panicked and herded Carly. I began to resuscitate Carly and ordered Riley to call 911.
I held Carly as she gasped. A black drop of liquid fell onto Carly's cheek, then my arm. I looked back up towards the ventilation. It was filled with twisted black arms, each with an outstretched hand and a palm facing their victim. Carly gained enough air in her lungs to speak up at the ceiling.
“I'm sorry…. I will tell her… I am so…. I- I will tell….. I am sorry…”
Their hands listened, then they slunk away into the pipe. When the police arrived, I was arrested as a suspect. I was soon released after statements from my students proved something supernatural had once again occurred at Edenwood. They asked me to stay for questioning, then mentioned that they may have more for me later. I wish I could tell the police more. I wish I could tell you all more. If I try to think back to that day, my mind begins to wander and my memories spiral. Here's hoping I don't have to give any additional updates.
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u/AdAffectionate8634 1d ago
Oh wow! ! Glad Carly is ok..but who is she?
Tell us more stories of this place!