Ghost of the Week: Jericho Kersey (a.k.a. the Unhappy Girl)

Here’s a story that you wouldn’t expect to see on here, something a bit more grounded in reality instead of the typical “ooo a woman dropped her baby in the river and now there’s a ghost baby under the bridge!!!1!11” I know, I know, a lot of the time my articles tend to go for more of a spooky vibe rather than something actually chilling, but I have a good reason to be writing about this. Mainly, I feel the need to publish an article on this because this is a local story of mine.

No, I don’t live in Kadeville. Yes, I do live in Missouri. Please don’t doxx me.

Okay, okay, onto the actual story already. Take what I say with a grain of salt, since a lot of this is based on speculation.

Jericho Kersey is a difficult girl to talk about. Born in a small town inside of her mother’s apartment room, her life was marred with constant struggle. Not only was she raised in a low-income household, but it was also thought that she was abused as well. Those who knew her never saw her smile, much less did they hear her laugh. In fact, it was widely believed that nothing could make her happy, no matter what. (Hence, the name, of course...)

Jericho was bullied for many aspects of her thought of as idiosyncratic. She was quiet, and spoke only when she had to. If someone tried to initiate a casual conversation with her, she’d attempt to ignore them for as long as she could before just...walking away. She didn’t really follow instructions or rules, and was prone to being physically violent at times. Jericho was thought of by her teachers and such as incredibly disobedient and disrespectful. This eventually culminated in her getting an oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) diagnosis, which many think of as inaccurate in retrospect.

Because of her diagnosis, she was basically immediately put into a special education classroom. This resulted in her being bullied even further by her peers. Not only was she weird, she was apparently disabled as well, and back in the 80’s that made her an easy target.

Oh, and when I tell you this bullying got bad, I mean it got bad. According to many accounts from bystanders, Jericho got the R word hurled at her nearly daily. None of her harassers really knew what her alleged disorder entailed, but they knew it made her act out, and that was enough for them to conclude that the word would apply to her. She would be shoved around and hit, people would deliberately try to nag her despite how clear it was that she wasn’t comfortable with social interaction...it was genuinely pretty awful.

This would then result in the fateful day that would soon lead to her death. Nobody knows who started it, or why it started, but one day in the school cafeteria, Jericho ended up getting into a physical fight with one of her bullies and won. In response, a few kids began throwing food at her, which gave other students the idea to do the same. In the end, she was basically covered in wasted school lunches, with no one willing to provide support for her.

As stated by someone who witnessed the incident back in the day, “She tried to fight back against the whole thing, shouting at people as if she were trying to tell them to stop, but she just couldn’t get any words out. It was the first time I ever saw her cry.”

Needless to say, Jericho didn’t go back to school the next day, or the day after that. In fact, she was gone for a whole week. When she came back, the first and last thing she’d do at her school was attack her harassers. Legend has it she tore out the hair of one of her bullies, and tried to punch another one in the throat. Her brief victory against them wouldn’t last, though; she was on the top floor of the building, on one of the balconies that led to the main room of the school.

With this in mind, the only one of her bullies that could manage to rise up ran over to her and pushed her off the side.

Jericho died instantly on impact. Those who witnessed her hit the ground were traumatized for life. She was buried four days after the incident. There was never a recorded funeral for her. She died when she was only 12.

It is said that she still haunts the school that she died in (which has now been abandoned), trapped in the fury she felt all those years ago. Sightings of her have recorded her flesh being made of a thick and shadowy fog-like substance, meanwhile her eyes have been said to be a pair of blinding orbs akin to headlights in the night. Her hands are apparently very claw-like, whereas her mouth is said to be full of rows of razor-sharp teeth. Y’know, that’s actually a really cheesy description...but if you witnessed something like that, how else would you describe it?

WARNING SIGNS OF THIS GHOST:

I wrote this article not only for the reason listed at the beginning, but also because I’ve been meaning to change things up a bit lately. I don’t know, tell me what you think on the comment wall. Do you find this a nice change of pace? Or do you think it sucks?

For further reading, check this article out!