All my life I've been very sensitive to all things
supernatural. I supposed it has to do with my father
never discouraging me to believe what my senses tell me.
He has also had quite a few memorable encounters with
those things that not everyone can see. Needless to say,
I have many many ghost stories that I could share, but I
thought I would share the one that scared me the most.
Normally I'm nervous, tense, whatever you want to call it
when I run into something that "shouldn't be there." Very
rarely do I honestly feel unsafe. It was this one time
that I felt so unbelievably afraid that I refused to ever
return to the place where it occured if I was by myself.
(The fact that I returned at all will be made clear later)
After College, I was trying to find one of
those "temporary jobs until I can start my career," when I
decided to apply to a security company. I impressed my
boss enough in the interview that he decided to keep me as
a beat security guard for a few weeks only. After a
little experience in the field, he wanted me to go to work
at the dispatch center. I would be the graveyard
dispatcher.
"There is just one catch," he told me. He had me sit down
in his office and asked me if I believed in ghosts. I
told him that I did. He asked if I would be willing to
work in a building that was haunted. I told him that I
could do that because, although I believe in ghosts, they
don't really scare me. They just make me nervous.
He then explained that I would be the graveyard dispatcher
at our dispatch center. I would work five nights a week
from the hours of 11 pm to 7 am. The dispatch center was
a hundred year old hotel that had been converted into an
office building. Since it was a historical landmark, none
of the original architecture could be taken out, the
builders could only add on to it. I told him that I would
be okay with that. He wanted to make sure so he told me
about a dispatcher who had quit a year earlier. She had
been riding in the elevator when "something" grabbed her
elbow. She left the post and called them from home to say
that she quit and would never go back. I told my boss
that I could handle it.
A couple weeks later I started the new position as
graveyard dispatcher. My first night there, I could see
why anyone would find the place creepy. It still looked
like a hotel. In fact, I felt like i was on the set of
some b-rated scary movie. To get into the building, I
walked through one door of 2 sets of huge double doors.
They were ornate wood and glass. I walked in and the
first thing I noticed was the huge glass chandeliers
hanging over my head. The other light source in this
front entry was were the wall sconces.
To my left were two elevators and to my right was a front
desk. The front desk was the type that used to be in old
hotels where they would greet guests and check them into
the hotel. Directly in front of me was another double set
of double wood and glass doors. Beyond those doors was a
huge ballroom that appeared to now be used as a foyer of
some sort. There was even a fountain in the foyer.
The dispatcher I would be relieving gave me a tour of the
place. And with that tour came another kind of warning
about it. There were eight floors to the building.
Janitorial would be in the building until about midnight
or 1 am. After that, I would be the only person in the
building. All the doors would be locked so no one could
get in but I would have to be careful about the "ones who
were already there."
After Janitorial leaves, I was supposed to check all eight
floors. I would have to make sure that all the doors to
the offices were locked and then turn off all the lights.
I was pretty sure that this responsibility was going to
suck but I figured it couldn't be that bad. That is until
the tour continued upstairs. I then discovered how much
of a "movie set" i was in. The wall sconces continued
upstairs as well. When I got out of the elevator on the
upper floors, I saw that there were a couple of offices to
my right and a long hallway to my left where the rest of
the offices were. This was the same on every floor.
The only problem is, as I stated earlier, nothing in this
historical monument could be removed. There were windows
that had been bricked up because they no longer faced
out. There were doors with no handles because they didn't
go anywhere anymore. There was even a hallway that had
been sealed off with a wall of bricks. You could see
where everything had been originally because they had
bricked it with the thought that it should be seen rather
than to have it blend in. The worst part was the
location of the light switch that would turn off the power
for the floor. The light switch was in a closet directly
across from the elevator going past that long hallway.
Let's just say it's not much fun to kill the lights for
the floor (except for the saftey lights and the glowing
green exit sign at the end of the hallway) and then have
to walk past that darkened hallway to get back into the
elevator.
Let me further explain the set of the story by telling you
about the ballroom downstairs. In the ballroom were the
old elevator shafts. They had been the original elevators
in the building. They were still there but had been
converted into storage closets. On that side of the
building, there wasn't really a second floor because the
architects had wanted an exceptionally high ceiling.
There was only a balcony that ran the perimeter of the
room on what would have been the second floor. In order
to get to the restroom, the dispatcher would have to leave
the front desk and walk the length of the ballroom (under
the balcony) to the opposite side of the room.
Now that I have laid the groundwork for the setting, let
me tell you what I was told that first night about "the
ones already in the building." I was told to watch out
for the sixth floor. A ghost of a scorned lover inhabited
that floor. She had killed her self in the hotel after
her fiance married another woman. I was told that she
made her presence known with the smell of perfume or
roses. I was also told that there were children that
liked to play with the elevators. They would make the
elevators run by themselves at strange hours of the
night. There is a lady in white and a man in a bowler hat
who like to walk the balcony in the ballroom. And there
were many more reports that I could tell but are not
necessary.
One final caveat, I was told that the property managers
knew that the place was haunted and that as employees, we
were not allowed to talk about it to anyone who came in
the building.
That first night, nothing happened. But in the months
that followed, I would see the elevators move by
themselves. At which point I would tell the "children" to
knock it off because I was too tired to deal with them.
They were kind enough to oblige when I asked. I would
hear footsteps and pants/skirts rustling in the ballroom
at 2 am. To me, it sounded like I was hearing a ghostly
party going on in the ballroom. I would hear a phantom
front desk bell (the kind used to ring for service) at 2
or 3 am. I learned to say that there were no vacancies to
get the bell to stop. I also heard more and more stories
from people who worked in the building when they would
come in in the morning. Apparently very few people were
willing to stay in the building past normal working hours.
All of this was creepy but I could deal with it. That is,
until the night of the incident on the fourth floor. I
was doing my normal lock ups at about 1 am. (Janitorial
had been late leaving that night.) I started on the
eighth floor and worked my way down. I could smell roses
on the 6th floor and said hi to the ghost. I asked her to
be kind to me that night as I was tired and had a lot of
work to do. Despite letting me know she was there with
her perfume, she did not make an appearance. I saw the
elevator operator who guards the elevators on several of
the floors. BTW, you can never see him if you're looking
directly at him. He's only visible in peripheral vision.
I was a little nervous because the paranormal activity
seemed to be more noticable than usual but I brushed it
off as I was tired and being more emotional than usual.
That is, until I reached the fourth floor. I walked out
of the elevator on the fourth floor and walked down the
hallway to make sure all the doors were locked. I didn't
find anything unusual but did notice that I felt like I
was being watched as I walked back toward the elevators.
I figured one of the "children" might be playing on that
floor. I went to my left and entered the closet with the
light switches and turned off the lights for the floor.
I then started to walk past the now darkened hallway to
the elevators. I don't know what made me look to my
right, down that hallway, but look I did. I looked down
the hallway and it took a few moments to understand what
had grabbed my attention. I got that feeling you get when
you're looking at something, and you know something is
wrong, but it takes a few seconds for you to pinpoint what
that thing is. There is a green electric exit sign at the
end of every hallway. When the lights are turned off,
there are two safety lights on in the elevator bay and
that green exit sign at the end. My point is, when
standing in the elevator bay, I can see to the end of
every hallway even when the lights are turned off.
I realized, after a few seconds, that I COULDN'T see to
the end of the hallway. About half way down was a dark
shape. It appeared to be crouching down on the floor of
the hallway. I could see around it, but I couldn't see
through it so I knew that it was not a shadow. Foolish
person that I am, I took a few steps into the hallway
trying to better see what was in the hallway. Two
thoughts occured to me at once. One; I had just been down
that hallway and nothing was there. Two; it looked like
person and there was NO ONE else in the building. I
continued to stare at the crouching figure and I suddenly
felt this overwhelming sense of dread and danger. I was
getting this "vibe" that this was this "creature's" domain
and I was not welcome there. I felt that if I stayed, it
was going to try to do some sort of mortal damage to me.
Needless to say, I ran to the elevators and went
downstairs. I never went back upstairs that night and so
did not finish checking all the doors. Unfortunately, I
could not afford to leave that job. I told my boss the
next morning what had happened. Sadly, he did not seem
surprised. From that moment on, I continued to do my job
like I was supposed to, but I would never return to the
fourth floor after dark if I was alone. The supernatural
activity continued in the months that followed that night.
However, nothing ever made me feel as if I was in mortal
danger like that thing in the hallway on the fourth floor
had that one fateful night.
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