The Windows

A Japanese classroom

(Translated from Japanese by Saya)
It happened last year -
After school, just before 7.00 in the evening.
We had just finished a meeting and I was just chilling out in the staff room.
I could have just gone straight back home, but instead decided to grade my students' tests. So I opened the drawer to get a red pen but there was none inside.

Oh, yes, I left it in the classroom.
The classroom was on the second floor, but to save electricity they only had the green light of the exit sign turned on.
It was getting dark, but the classroom was not far from the staff room, so I decided to go and fetch it.

I couldn't get lost in school even in the dark, and soon reached my classroom and turned on the lights.
The outside had become quite dark now, and in contrast the classroom was brightly lit, so all the things in the classroom were clearly reflected in the windows.
I didn't notice it at first, but after I had pulled out the drawer and retrieved the red pen and closed it again, I finally noticed that there was something quite wrong about the classroom.

As usual, we did our end-of-day class meeting, and all children had gone home.
And I remembered pulling the curtains shut and turning the lights off.
I was pretty sure that no one had been in the classroom since then.

But somehow all curtains were drawn back.
That was why the things in the classroom were reflected in the windows.
But that was not the real problem.
The real problem was what was reflected in the windows.

Each and every chair was occupied by a person -- every single one of them.

I quickly looked around me, but there was no one in the classroom.
Of course there was no one. But in the windows, there was the reflection of people.
I walked over to one of the windows and opened it.
The wind outside was unexpectedly cold. I made sure there was no one out there on the balcony, and closed the window again.

But the reflection of people was still there in the dark windows.
I had 31 students in my class, and a stranger was seated at each desk.
I didn't observe closely every one of them, so I can't say this for certain, but they were all men, and more over, old men.
They were all wearing suits and ties, with white hair, and could not be mistaken for students.
They all sat with their heads bent forward and stayed motionless.

What the hell is happening...?
I don't know much about ghosts or such spiritual matters. I am a fun of horror movies but that was just one of my hobbies.
So at the time, I only thought, "what is happening?" and wasn't all that scared.

Without doubt, the reflection was there, but in reality there was no one in the room.
The chairs were also tucked neatly under the desks.

So just for an experiment, I raised my hand which held the red pen, and pushed it down while looking at the reflection in the window at the same time.
The red pen sank deep into the head of an old man who sat in the front row.

The part of the red pen was buried deep inside his head but in reality I couldn't feel a thing.
I couldn't understand it at all, and I pushed the pen in and out several times. But there was no response and the old man kept looking downwards - that was what I thought, but suddenly, he looked up.

The red pen was still in the same place, so it now looked as if it were piercing the old man's eyeball.
Whoa! I thought, and looked at my hand again, but there was nothing there.

My heart suddenly started thumping hard.
Did I just make a bad move?
I looked at the window out of the corner of my eye, and froze.

Their faces were reflected in the windows.

All of them, without exception.
They were looking at the windows!

I didn't understand why they were all looking at the windows when I was not in the windows. 

But they were all turning towards the windows. 

My heart was beating even faster now.
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump....

It wasn't like they looked angry or anything.

They all looked blank-faced, but it was scary to think they had possibly noticed I was here. 

I slowly let my hand fall and turned towards the exit. I tried to casually walk out of the classroom.
I reached the door.
And then - I still don't know why I did that - I glanced back over my shoulder to see the classroom for one last time.

What I saw then were back of their heads reflected in the windows.

They are all looking at me!

When I saw it and understood what it meant, I couldn't take it anymore and dashed down the corridor and stairs at the speed of light to reach the staff room.

Inside the staff room there were other teachers having tea and chatting to one another, and I breathed a big sigh of relief.

One of the teachers came up to me.
I thought what? and he said,
"I'm going to go round the classrooms now to make sure every door is locked."

Oh..OK. But at the time all I could say to him was,
"I might have forgotten to lock my classroom."
"Really? I will go and have a look then."
Once he was gone I quickly packed up my belongings and said,
"Uh...I'm going home now. Good job today everyone, and have a nice evening."
Good night, bye.... I heard everyone say to me, but I ignored them all and ran straight home.

Next day, the teacher who went round the classrooms came up to me again and said,
"Uh...Mr.___(my name)?"
"Did you see them?"
"Huh?...uh...yes."
"Don't say anything. I don't know what they were too. Sorry about that."
"But....those old women....?"

What on earth do you mean by "old women"?