You hear that screaming? Yup, you guessed it. Colton High’s annual haunted house is just around the corner. You might recall last year’s horror zombie extravaganza held in the music building. This year’s horror nights is being put together by three of our Colton High organizations: Pepperbough.com, the Crimson and Gold Yearbook, and the Drama club. The horrific event will take place the four nights prior to Halloween: Monday Oct. 27th through Thursday the 30th and will cost $5 to enter (exiting is optional). The event is called The Thirteenth Chair: a legend of Colton High. The story goes that a student was killed on the campus in 1937. This supposedly occurred in the room 506.
Just about every student that was asked about last years haunted house said that it was well worth it! Pepperbough.com adviser Dave Rainey says that last year’s outcome was great and that all the students who put it together did an excellent job. Last year they made a little over $300 for the clubs.
The legend goes like this: In the 1930s, a group of elite students formed a secret society on campus. This shadowy group, known only as “The Twelve,” was supposedly the twelve “best” or “top” students on campus. These students were NHS members, award winning scholars, the cream of the student body. The group was so secret that while administration heard rumors of its existence from time to time, they were never able to pinpoint anything about the group, its members, or its activities. The group was said to exist over several decades, with new members replacing ones who graduated, always in secret, and word was around the hallways and corridors of CHS was that you wouldn’t know who one of the “12” was unless you were one of them.
All that changed in October, 1937.
The story goes that the “12” was recruiting for new members. They had filled their society with the top twelve, but for some reason a thirteenth student found his way into the group. A mistake had been made, there were only supposed to be twelve, thirteen was unlucky. Unfortunately, the thirteenth member, who was informed he would NOT be joining, was asked to swear an oath of secrecy about the group and its initiation rites. He refused, unfortunately for him.
The group decided he had to be dealt with. One October evening, they lured him to room 506, the room you now occupy. They told him he would be allowed to join. But what they planned for that evening was anything but fun.
They set up thirteen chairs across the room and set the young hopeful in the thirteenth chair.
What happened after that is open to speculation. Most of it has been covered up over the years to protect certain reputations of high ranking administrators and teachers at the High School and district. What we do know is that the student never made it home from the Thirteenth Chair initiation meeting. His body was never found. Rumors swirled around campus that the Twelve had taken him. The Twelve were not talking, and no one was ever arrested or charged in the boy’s disappearance. Shortly after the incident, the members of the Twelve were quietly transferred to other schools and the whole affair hushed up.
Years passed by, and the Twelve, and their gruesome night of terror against the boy in the Thirteenth Chair, was slowly forgotten. Years later, a new teacher who was assigned to teach a class in room 506 quit after two weeks, mumbling about strange noises and apparitions appearing in the dark corners of the storage rooms. And it is said that you can still hear the student’s screams as he is tortured, night after night, in The Thirteenth Chair. Janitors don’t even like to go into the room to clean it, especially after dark.
Do you DARE enter Room 506, and discover the haunting secrets of the THIRTEENTH CHAIR? This year’s Haunted House will be the scariest ever! Show up at room 506 after dark Oct. 27-3oth, if you DARE!!
