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Thank you. From the blackest corners of your mind, they call, pulling you deep into shadow, twisting your senses, keeping you from sleep.

It's time to face your darkest fears.

This is Tales to Terrify. Good evening, children of the night, and welcome to Ohio. This week, we're headed back to school. Well, to a school anyway, a school that's no stranger to drama,

mostly owing to its focus on the visual and performing arts,

but for other reasons too.

Stiver's School for the Arts in Dayton, Ohio,

has a long history of shaping young minds and fostering a lifelong love of the creative arts. Founded in 1908, and holding about 900 students, ranging from

grade 7 to grade 12, the schools touched the lives of thousands of students and staff during its century of operation.

And while most have moved on to build careers, families, and lives in the wide world outside,

not everyone who's entered through the doors has come back out again.

It was early morning, the gentle glow of sunrise, little more than a threat on the horizon.

The caretaker ambled up the front steps of Stiver School, fumbled with the ring of key as

as it is belt, and swung open the heavy wooden door. The hallways were silent,

and he relished those calm moments before the rush of teachers and students brought the

building alive in a crashing wave of noise and motion. He followed a well-practiced routine,

moving slowly through the halls, opening classroom doors and flicking on lights, relaxed, methodical, room by room, floor by floor.

But he liked to save the basement for last. That's where the school's swimming pool was,

and something about the way the early morning light leaked in through the small basement windows

...