Short Horror Stories

The Clown at Nazareth Hall

After Nazareth Hall closed down, my aunt and uncle and their three young children moved up into the 3rd floor of the old school. They were caretakers there, trying to keep thrill seekers out. The nuns had lived on the fourth floor, where their belongings remained, but they no longer stayed there. My family spent a lot of time visiting out there because Nazareth Hall sits on some of the most beautiful acerage! The school is massive, and looks like a haunted castle. It has a bell tower and a chapel on the second floor, and an oval dining room that is just huge, with a giant bay window which covers the entire left side of the first floor. It is very impressive.

My family threw a surprise 16th birthday party for one of my aunts who is now 33-34; that would put me at about ten years old at the time. The party was thrown in the dining room. Afterward, leftover guests moved up to the 3rd floor to continue visiting. Myself, my younger brother and cousins stayed in the huge dining room. It had marble floors and it was fun to take your shoes off and slide aroung in your socks. As I slid toward the open double doors that led in to a lond dark hallway lined with lockers, I saw something that still freaks me out.

At the time, I thought it was a clown, but now, I am not sure what it was. He was young, late teens-early 20s. He had curly blond hair that touched his shoulders. He was wearing a suit that was white and puffy with red polka dots, and a matching hat with a white ball at the end. He was also wearing wooden shoes that curled up at the toe. He TIPTOED from one side of the door to the other! I didn't know what to do, so I just watched until he was gone. I remember thinking: He is tiptoeing because he is wearing wooden shoes. If I scream, will he come after me? Will the other side of his face be ugly and scary? I could only stare.

When he was gone, I called my brother and cousins over to me and told them what I saw. We decided to join the adults upstairs.

After I enetered high school, Nazareth Hall was completly abandoned. No more caretakers, and so local kids would party out there, and look for ghosts. My sophmore year, a girl told me a story about how her and her friends were out there one night and saw the grim reapper in the bell tower, complete with a hooded cloak! I never believed her. Then, two years later, while working at the library, I stumbled upon the Haunted Ohio book. As I read the story about Nazareth Hall, I started to cry. She had told me the truth!

So, that night, one of my friends drove out to Nazareth Hall with me. It was still abandoned at the time. When we got there, we saw that on the very top floor, the very middle light was on, just like something you would see on the cover of a scary novel. We stared at the window, wondering how a light could be on. Then all of a sudden, this "thing" turned into the window, as though it had been waiting for us. Since it was dark outside, all we could see was a strong, dark silloette. It was a figure in a hooded robe.

Never in a million years, did I think that we would actually see what we went out there to see. I started to scream, but my friend said nothing, she just stared. I started to shake her, and she began to hyperventilate. We drove away. Still I cannot believe what I saw.

I have seen three things in my life, and two of those things were at Nazareth Hall, almost twenty years apart. 

(A/N I DIDN'T write this I found it online)