Congratulations on securing the position of night Custodian at the old Elmwood Middle School.Every custodian knows the routine: sweeping, mopping, and ensuring a building is presentable. At Elmwood, your duties are paradoxically simpler and far more complex. The place has an odd way of maintaining itself when unobserved.
Your real task is vigilant passage—to move through the night, complete minimal listed duties, and avoid engaging with the school’s… lingering echoes. This custodian guide is built on the hard-learned lessons of predecessors. Ignoring it compromises not just your job, but your peace of mind.
Rule No. 1: The Hallway Murals and the Weight of a Gaze.Custodian
Every floor of Elmwood is adorned with painted murals from decades of art classes—bright, youthful celebrations of creativity now faded under a layer of dust and time. During the day, they seem innocuous. After midnight, they become your first test.
The eyes in these murals shift. It’s a slow, almost imperceptible movement, like they’re tracking your progress down the corridor. A proficient custodian develops a soft focus, looking ahead without directly meeting those painted stares. The critical detail is this: if you notice the faces beginning to turn toward you, do not stop walking. Halting your pace seems to signal them. They adjust faster, their focus sharpening.
One former custodian reported that as he froze in panic, a mural of a children’s choir leaned forward, and one painted mouth parted to whisper his name—a dry, chalk-dust sound. He didn’t finish his shift. Keep a steady, calm pace. Your movement is your shield. Remember, you are the custodian, the active element. Their nature is to observe. Do not give them more to observe than your retreating back.
Rule No. 2: Lost, Found, and Deliberately Placed
The hallways and common areas now contain items that were not present at shift change. These include a neon-colored backpack, a worn letterman jacket, and an open spiral notebook. All objects appear recently abandoned but were confirmed absent during initial patrols.
A fundamental protocol for any custodian here is to never, under any circumstance, pick them up. Do not move them to a shelf.Do not turn this page. The moment your skin touches the paper, a sharp, echoing clang of an opening locker will tear through the quiet of the hallway. There will be no sound of approach. Instead, you will feel a presence materialize at your back, its slow, deliberate breaths already heating the nape of your neck.
The custodian’s response must be immediate forward motion. Do not turn around. Leave the object exactly where it lies. By morning, it will be gone. These are not lost items; they are invitations, or perhaps tests. Your role is to decline them gracefully.
Rule No. 3: The Choreography of Classroom Shadows
Some classrooms will appear perfectly normal through the door’s wired glass pane. Others will give you pause. Look past the desks and chairs.Pay close attention to the moonlit shadows. Your sign to leave is not a sound, but a sight: when those dark shapes cease to follow the rules of light and begin to behave as a living liquid, coiling and splitting in the silent gloom.
The instinct of any trained custodian might be to flood the room with light. This is a severe error. Throwing the light switch causes the shadows to freeze instantly, but not necessarily in the shapes they originally held.
They can freeze in distorted, impossible configurations that strain the eye and the mind, creating a permanent, unsettling tableau. Do not get closer. Do not investigate. Simply note the room number, step back quietly, and continue your rounds. The active custodian understands that some messes are not meant to be cleaned, only avoided.
The Psychology of the Night Custodian
Surviving and thriving in this role requires a specific mindset. The successful custodian here is part watchman, part ghost. You must be present enough to perform your duties but detached enough not to provoke the building’s dormant… personality. The $21 per hour is not just compensation for cleaning; it’s hazard pay for disciplined indifference. For a place that largely cleans itself, the pay could indeed be worse, but the emotional labor of constant, low-grade vigilance is the real workload.
Practical Custodian Tips for the Long Haul
Routine is Armor: Stick to a precise, repetitive route and schedule. Predictability bores the building. Surprise and curiosity attract attention—yours to it, and its to you.
Audio Sanctuary: A single earbud with low, instrumental music is permitted. It helps drown out ambiguous noises—distant scraping, faint whispers—that might otherwise compel you to investigate. However, keep one ear completely free to hear any immediate, unambiguous warnings, like that locker slam.
The Sunrise Deadline: Your shift has one clear, non-negotiable finish line: sunrise. The moment the first true rays of light break through the east-facing windows of the Main Lobby, the atmosphere lifts. The murals’ eyes glaze back into static paint. The shadows settle. This is your cue. Clock out and leave. Do not linger over paperwork. The transition between night custodian and daytime visitor is a fragile one.
Conclusion: Stewardship Over Curiosity
Your predecessor left notes that ended with a simple mantra: “Sweep the floors, ignore the doors, and earn your daily bread.” It’s apt. This is a job. You are the custodian, the steward of the night hours. You hold the position of custodian for the hours of darkness. You are expressly not a detective, archivist, or investigator of paranormal activity. The school’s prolonged twelve-year hush has enabled particular residual energies to subside; your primary responsibility is to traverse your rounds without disruption, carefully avoiding any disturbance to this settled equilibrium.
So, congratulations again. You have Steady Employment. You have clear, if unusual, instructions. Perform your duties with a respectful diligence, master the art of purposeful ignorance, and you will find this to be a manageable, if unique, custodian position. Clock in, complete your rounds, heed the rules, and walk out at dawn with your $21 per hour earned. The building will wait, quietly, for the next night’s custodian to arrive.
