Article 1: Something in the Mirror?

“It just sort of crawled through it,” Diego Gutierrez*, a senior at Porterville High School said. “That’s the best way to describe it.”

“Where did you see it?” I asked him.

“At my school.” He answered.

“Of course, we already established that: but where at your school.”

“You know those old buildings that are like outside the gates where the football team practices?” I nodded, “It was in there.” His hands were making exaggerated motions.

“What time did you see it?”

“Like almost midnight. I was walking home from my friend’s place.”

“Can you describe it and what it was doing?” I asked, curious to see if it matched up with the details I have gotten from other interviews.

“As I was saying just a little while ago. It was just crawling through the glass.”

“Through the glass?” I asked, feigning incredulously.

“I know it sounds weird but that’s the truth.” He shot back.

“It’s just hard to believe is all. Go on. What did it look like?”

“Like a turtle--well not a turtle, like a turtle-person if that makes sense?” He looked at me curiously, as if I were to know.

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“Well yeah, it was green and small, like kid size. It was crawling...or swimming...through the window.”

“Do you mean it was coming through  the window?”

“No. It was in the window, like a reflection, you know? But it was moving. Nothing was around me. It looked at me and sort of...vanished.”

“Alright, that’s all I needed to know, thank you, Diego.” I dismissed him.

What Diego was describing matched up with the descriptions I’ve gotten from various people who either have gone to the High School or have worked at the high school for many years. A janitor, a local business owner and a couple of students claimed to have seen the same thing, always in different locations in the school and always the same description: a human with turtle like qualities and extremely short, and always, “swimming,” through glass surfaces: be they bathroom mirrors or windows, and always in older parts of the school.  

What they’re describing almost perfectly matches the details of a Japanese Water Spirit known as the Kappa:

  (Pictured above: a Kappa according to Japanese Folklore) Source: Wikipedia.

Is it a Kappa, however? This writer says no. Why not? Because these spirits are usually associated with rivers and lakes and other large bodies of water.

What could the people be seeing, then? Are they hallucinating due to stress or are they simply seeing things? These questions cannot be answered. The only thing that can be certain is that people have reported seeing it for a long time and will, more than likely, continue to see it.

*Name changed to protect identity.