The Eternal Recurrence of Sue Schuester

I- The Ghost

It was nobody's business to be snooping around the ruins of East Litchfield High. Not because there was any real threat present there, but the state of the building was just too dangerous to explore anymore. The place had been condemned twenty years ago, after a failed series of charity drives dashed all hope for prospective classes going forward. Not that any alumni wanted to talk about it. You could scarcely find anyone sharing rose-tinted memories from their youth at Litchfield; it seems the sting had never cooled. So, the once noble institution was now rotting away in the woods off of Newberry Road, untouched since 1972, and for some odd reason never claimed by any developers. No one wanted to go near that school, but the promise of ghosts and specters was just all too enticing to the Bartley brothers.

Hopping the rusted fence, trekking down the cracked road through the woods, and then marching through the thick, unmanicured lawn up the hill, Simon, Lucas, and Micah Bartley finally arrived at the orange, paint-chipped doors of East Litchfield. They were locked, of course, with chains around the handles, but that didn't stop Lucas from busting open the adjacent office window and climbing in, much to Simon's prudence.

"This is a bad idea, Lucas," Simon warned, watching with arms crossed as his younger brother vaulted his legs one-by-one over the window sill. Lucas scoffed, turning around and looking back out the window at Simon.

"Quit being the doog, Si, you're spoiling the fun," Lucas retorted. He then disappeared back into the dark office and Simon begrudgingly climbed in after him, with Micah not far behind.

"Don't call me the doog," Simon called after his brother as he stepped into the room. "I'm the only legal adult here and I have a vested interest in making sure you don't die before mom kills you herself," He looked back at Micah, his eight year-old brother wandering behind him.

"And why did you even bother coming, Mike?"

"I was bored," He replied glibly, battling away space pirates on his gameboy copy of Metroid II. Simon sighed; after some maneuvering around the broken door in what used to be the old admin office, they finally made their way out to the main hallway and caught up with Lucas. Turning on their flashlights, Simon wrinkled his nose as they made their way down past the rusted out lockers, the air perfugated with a rotting, moldy stench. His foot splashed into a puddle of god-knew-what, causing his shoes to squeak against the tile. Meanwhile, Lucas was popping his head in and out of the old classrooms, hunting for the reportedly paranormal location he'd been ranting about for the past week. He came out of one of the classrooms with a smug grin on his face and shined his flashlight right in Simon's eyes.

"You're just mad because you didn't get to go out with Mila Parker tonight," Lucas teased.

"She has strep throat, I wasn't gonna force her to do that," Simon argued. "And I'm not looking to get sick, though honestly we couldn't have picked a worse place."

"You sure it's not mono?" Micah quipped sarcastically from behind.

"Mike!"

"Ah ha! Here we are! This is it!" Lucas exclaimed, pushing his brothers aside. He ran down a particularly disgusting hallway to a pair of crusty orange doors. At last, the auditorium. Even though Lucas tended to ignore his brother's advice, he did have the foresight to put on some gloves before aggressively pushing on the rickety doors, which screeched open with a horrible shreik. One door proceeded to fall off entirely, echoing with a loud CLANG throughout the vast room. Simon gave his brother a look, but Lucas was completely unbothered as he waltzed into the ruined theater, tracing his hands along the warped audience seats down towards the stage. Micah decided to park himself in the middle of the rows and fiddle away on his gameboy some more.

"Ugh, gag me. Luke, this place is toxic," Simon remarked, recoiling his nose. Lucas then proceeded to leap onto the stage and run over to a torn banner hanging from the rafters, ripping it down with childish delight.