Tat Tak School

A lot of places have the reputation as "the most haunted place ever in [insert location here]." Still, it's always fun when they manage to live up to that reputation. But also, like, what exactly qualifies something as 'the most haunted?' Are there tournaments or competitions? Like, America's Got Goblins, or something?

But every so often, there's that little place that people unanimously agree is one of the most haunted. And it's not from a show, or from a Life article that never existed, or even monopolizing on creepy islands. Sometimes, it's just word of mouth.

Of course, it's up to the beholder to determine if these words are true or not.

Take the Tat Tak School, for instance. Just the name is enough to scare the pants off of anyone.

Settled in Hong Kong's New Territories' district of Yuen Long, the Tat Tak school first opened up in 1931. First, it wasn't exactly in the current location. No, that's not ominous paranormal talk for it got up and walked away. At first, the school occupied an old ancestral hall, though now that place is listed as a monument. Which, I guess, is better than one of the most haunted locations in the world.

Anyways, the place moved to the current location in 1947, where it ran until 1998. It was an elementary school, if you're wondering. Already a particular kind of horror- yeah, ghosts can supposedly sense fear, but I think little kids are far better at it.

As rumors would have it, the school was the site of a huge massacre in 1941, where many local villagers died under the occupation of British and Japanese forces. Their bodies would end up being buried on the grounds where the old school stands today. Of course, no one really noticed anything paranormal until the school closed down.

Then of course, we get to 1998.

As the story goes, in 1998, one of the headmistresses of the school took her own life in one of the school's bathroom stalls. While this is already incredibly traumatic and unfortunate, it is also important to note one 'crucial' factor in the woman's death.

The headmistress was wearing red.

As Chinese folklore goes, if someone is to die wearing red, then they will come back as a vengeful and sinister hungry ghost. To wear red in death ultimately symbolizes revenge, and that the restless spirit will has an unfinished business to attend to.

Following the woman's demise, the school shut down shortly after. People also began to report that they would see a figure in red either inside or next to the school. Now, there are a few accounts of the revenant in red, and her relation to the school. Some say they have seen the form of a woman in a long red dress beside a graveyard built near the school. Others, however, say it's not uncommon to see her sobbing and roaming the halls of the school. Whatever the truth may be, she still lingers nearby the school.

There's very little on the Tat Tak school, but if you dig deep enough, you're sure to find some valuable information. One blog from 2015 argues that there are no police reports describing murders, suicides, or disputes. Now, if we wanted to get borderline insane, we could argue that the death was expertly concealed, either to preserve the nature of the school, or to avoid worrying the students with what had happened to the teacher. Interestingly, no one has come forward with knowledge about what the school was actually like when it was open, so we don't exactly have an idea of what could have led the woman to take her own life, or why it was never reported by police and/or the media.

There are other equally disturbing variations to this tale, as well. One story reports that a female teacher was attacked and murdered in the bathroom by her own students. Red is also, supposedly, symbolic of a violet death as well- heavily alluding to this tale. Now, proposedly, the toilets of the school are haunted and "inconvenienced" with unwanted sounds and other things.

Now, things would continually get weirder after the woman's demise. Some time later, in approximately 2011, a "Spiritual Exploration Team" would be formed by 12 students from a secondary school in Tin Shui Wai. Intrigued by the constant reports of hauntings, they wanted to explore and see what they could find.

The group met up at the entrance of the school around 3:30 PM- four girls, and eight boys. The grounds were pretty desolate, with weeds and debris and stray dogs wandering around. Two tombs sat on the hillside near a basketball court, and they supposedly heard footsteps walking down the hill, but the footsteps suddenly disappeared. One of the girls- Law- saw a female figure with long hair and a red dress by one of the tombs.

She asked her classmates if they also saw the woman. They said no.

Add in a brief moment of silence, and everyone immediately started screaming and running. Not in a comical way where everyone is skedaddling through the hallways with the Scooby-Doo theme blasting, but a more ominous and foreboding kind of screaming and running where your heart is pounding and you feel like you're going to die.

If you need a basic idea of what that's like, remember running the mile in middle school?

Once they stopped running, they had just about reached the light rail of Ping Shan. One of the other members cheerfully offered up the information that the ghost they saw was white, and not red, because that information definitely wouldn't have been helpful thirty minutes before.

When Law heard this, she went pale and started screaming. She also tried to strangle herself, wrapping her arms around her neck. It was absolute chaos, with everyone trying to stop her. Ah Cheung, the leader of the group, tried pouring water on her, but she started scratching and biting at him. Eventually they got her stop, you know, being possessed, she passed out. And then, in a wonderful display of mass hysteria, two of the other girls passed out. One also had to go to the hospital.

Supposedly, when Law come to, she said she had seen dead people in her dreams. Specifically, the spirits of those that had died during the Japanese occupation, back all those years ago.

It's hard to say for sure what truly happened, at the school. Most people still refuse to even go down the road, and it's, like many other haunted places, heavily guarded. Maybe that's the true mystery, here. If people want to go around and get possessed by freaky ghosts, perhaps we should just let them do that. It's not really hurting anyone.

….I mean, except for the people getting possessed.