Imagine, dear reader, coming home late one October night, done with your night class and ready for bed. Your block is quiet, but the streets are full, and you park away from your front door.
You grab your bag, having almost forgotten, wearily reaching over the middle console to grab it when the space between two houses catches your eye. It somehow seems blacker than usual, the shadows pooling even deeper.
Suddenly, as if they noticed too, the crickets have stopped chirping. You grab your bag and slam the door shut, walking quickly to your door.
You hear a crunch of dirt. Walking faster now. The rustle of leaves, something is moving very quickly. You run to your door, cold fingers fumbling with your keys-
Even at CSUMB, terror can feel like it lurks around every corner. Today we rank the top five spookiest places at CSUMB.
The Road to Prom from Inter-Garrison
An easy shortcut for students heading back to Promontory can be the part of 5th Avenue that cuts the woods, across the road from the Dining Commons. But while it can reduce transit times significantly, it can be an unnerving walk for the unprepared. Once you round the hill the road quickly drops into pitch black, with woods on either side and only the other walkers (you hope) to keep you company.
The Road to East Campus at Night
In the day East Campus can be downright idyllic, but at night the woods that surround many of the houses take on a dark and menacing aura. Worse is the road there, with light only meant for cars leaving long stretches of shadow in-between. Whether you fear cars, coyotes or something more supernatural, it’s always a longer walk than you hope. Thankfully the warm lights of houses are there to greet you at the end.
The Main Quad
In the Stephen King short story “Strawberry Spring” a killer named Springheel Jack stalks a college campus each night when the fog rolls across the quad. Springheel Jack’s hunting ground of choice is in New England, but he would find himself just as at home at CSUMB when the sea breeze brings in fog and snuffs out the meagre streetlights lining the Main Quad. Lighting upgrades are on the docket for the student fee increase next year, but for now the Main Quad can be surprisingly creepy on quiet nights.
The Trail to the Music Hall
This unnamed trail is the second on the list with real lighting, but unfortunately that only makes it creepier. The trail dips down the middle before rising back up to the music hall, flanked with an unusually high number of lights. The long straight path and symmetrical lighting combined with its distance from campus make it feel like the perfect place to get chased in a slasher movie. Light isn’t always so comforting.
The Trail from Lot 71 to Prom
Although it is not the longest, the darkest or the emptiest place on this list the foot trail from Lot 71 to Prom takes the fifth spot for how many people it has creeped out. As the shortest way home from class, even in dark nights, this trail has been braved by many frightened students.
– you throw open your door, slipping through the crack before slamming it shut and flipping the deadbolt. Pensively, you peek through your living room window at the terror waiting beyond. Only a deer, it too braving the lights to graze on your front lawn. You breathe a deep sigh of relief. Nothing to be scared of after all.