If You Count 13 on the Old Building Stairs After 10 P.M., Do Not Count Again

There is a staircase in our school’s old building that students rarely use.

Not the main central staircase, but the narrow one at the end of the hallway between the art room and the music room. During the day, it is just a path students take when moving between classes. Late students run down it, mop marks are left there after cleaning time, and sometimes teachers carry boxes of materials up and down.

But the seniors had another name for it.

The Thirteenth Stair.

At first, I thought it was a common ghost story. A staircase that gains one extra step at night. Staircase rumors have been around in school ghost stories for a long time. Whispering Corridors 3: Wishing Stairs also uses a similar idea: a staircase that normally has 28 steps, but a 29th step appears and grants a wish. Our school’s version was different, though. It was not about making a wish. It was about counting.  

The stairs from the second floor to the third floor of our old building have twelve steps if you count them during the day.

But after 10 p.m. during exam season, if you count them alone, they say a thirteenth step appears.

I first found the story properly in a literature club notebook. Near the back, there was a rough pe