The first experience I had was when I was cleaning a theater room, after the movie had finished and before the next one started, I was going up and down the aisles when I noticed a man that was still sitting in his seat. As common practice, you aren't supposed to pick up in front of customers, its bad practice, so I was going to ask the guy to step out for a second. As I was walking up to this man I did get a good look at him. He wore a hooded sweatshirt that is mainly associated with gangbangers, baggy low jeans, and his hands were in his pockets. What struck me as funny was when I was walking up to him, he looked at me with eyes that could turn the sun to stone. It wasn't the usual customer look of disgruntlement, but rather resentment and possibly curiosity. Not trying to let the look bother me, I've had looks like the before, I went over to him. This is about the time I noticed he didn't move, and that the light was playing an interesting thing with his clothes. In fact the light was going through his clothes and bouncing off the wall back at me. In other words this guy was not solid, and as I went to touch him, my hand went through him. I had hoped my eyes were playing tricks on me, but then he looked up and disappeared. Raising my eyebrows, I still was thinking my eyes had played tricks on me, so I went on to finish. Finally finished I was walking up, when I felt the same cold stare behind me. Now I know when someone wants to intimidate you, and that was what this stare was doing. Trying to intimidate me into running. I looked over my shoulder quickly, doing so as I went to pick up the a napkin I had missed. I caught a glimpse of the same sweatshirt, but no one was behind me when I turned around. This time I knew whatever it was giving me the stare was definitely trying to scare me. Keeping a close hold on my emotions, knowing that if I let whoever was doing this see me run, it'd continue to haunt me. I've had a few experiences with paranormal experiences before, some threatening, most not. This though was totally different, the entity, or whatever it was, wasn't trying to hurt me, but rather scare me out of my wits. Like I was having to pass its test. Anyway, I managed to get out of the theater room without running, but walking a wee bit faster then usual. Then I waited for someone to come out, even ran back in to see if anyone had gone out the exit doors. Nothing. Absolutely nada, zilch, zero, no one was there. When I asked the other employees, they hadn't seen anyone go in after me, or out before or after me. I then told them about my story, and they laughed nervously, and walked off. I would find out later after these next two encounters.

My next was while I was with the manager before opening. We were talking in her office, which sits right off of concessions and the lobby, and we had done our usual check of exit doors and theaters. So we sat in the little-more-than-a-closet office talking about different things, when we heard hitting or rather pounding on the walls of the lobby. Both the manager and I went to go see who was pounding, and making sure it was the roofers for the Electronics store next door. The manager wished that it had been in fact them, because when we came out of her office and checked doors again, we notice first the roofers were out to lunch, second the pounding was coming from the lower walls, not the upper walls or the roof. The electronics store was empty we quickly found out. That is when the manager asked me to go look in the auditoriums, making sure that absolutely no one was there. This is where the third encounter of strong magnitude happened.

She handed me a flashlight, and off I was, really joyous at this point. If it was someone breaking in, I had no intentions of being their target. As I climbed the stairs that led to all the theater rooms, I was struck with the feeling of complete hostility. The feeling that hundreds of eyes were on me, warning me to keep my distance, or pay the consequences. You know the feeling, when you go up to someone that would rather smash your head in, than to look at you. Then I heard this chanting, in a low, almost whispery tone as voices upon voices joined in the chant, becoming a unified voice of hostility and contempt. Feeling that, and hearing the chanting along with the beating of the walls, I decided to heed the warning. Which as I left, some of the hostile feelings I had felt from whatever entities were projecting them, seemed to dwindle, not much, but a little. I told the manager my story, and she confessed she had had the same feeling I did when I was up there. So once again we went to the employees, how in complete embarrassment admitted to seeing, hearing, and feeling the same things that I have written here, and more.

More sightings of different types of entities, different sounds, movement of objects, even sabotage of movies the spirits seemed not to like. As for their stories I am still collecting them, and trying to get them right, then verify that in no way could what happened have been a practical joke, or other humanly explanations. When I get through I plan on sharing them. So till then I will keep on gathering and relating stories that happened to others in and around the theater, the town, and anyone else I talk to, as well as some of my experiences. Thanks for listening, and I enjoy writing down all the weird stuff that happens.

THEATRE MAYHEM part II

Sorry for the long absence, its been a while since I've come across anything worthwhile to tell. My original experiences seem to have been washed away with time, at least on sites I've put them on, but not in my mind.

Though from time to time remembering exact details is sketchy. Like my previous postings, I seem unable to keep from asking people about weird things, or staying out of theaters. So I will recount my tales, and add in ones that can't be explained. The first one happened about five to six years ago.

In an effort to have fun and relax I'd skipped a year from high school to college, more than anything I wanted to know what I would want with my life. While on this supposed to be vacation, I worked at a movie theater. Granted this theater wasn't a big one you might find in bigger cities, but with nine screens it suited us fine. At this time I had been with them for many months, working my way from concession worker to the projectionist. My best friend at the time also worked here. He, the managers at the time and another projectionist are all essential to this story. Since the other projectionist doesn't like his or her name to be used we'll call them Alex. It would take several months to get everything I tell you collected, but it is all true.

Shortly after starting up in the booth, projection room actually, I was awe inspired by the quiet. Except for the projectors steady clicking and clacking, there was little sound in the booth. The booth is a long corridor, the door leading outside is at the far end of the corridor, a good run from one side to the other, or ride if you knew how to push the chairs fast enough. Being able to do this you see how straight it was too. Another door midway down led to the outside parking garage, easy in and out for those of us with keys. So basically what you have is a very long, slightly dark, and quiet area. This would probably have driven us crazy, but we settled into a routine to break up any effect. We had scheduled runs on equipment, checking the film, and even preparing new film for viewing while the old ones played. So we did have things to do to keep our sanity in check, otherwise everything that happened would be easily explained.

Not more than a few days after I was left alone up in this booth to run things by myself, I started to hear my name called in a whisper. So, thinking this to be my friends, I ran to the opposite side, only nothing was there. I could still see the desk I had been sitting at, and even though it was a good run, the door to the down stairs is slow to close, even if you push on it. So I checked this door, seeing it tightly closed. Putting it off for later thinking I preceded to go back to work. Again the whisper called my name, and again no one was there. I could still see the door to the parking garage, and once again the door was securely closed. This time I waited in trap for the person messing around. The manager's office sits in between the two doors I've mentioned. To get there is a very short hall with a door at the end. I hid in that hallway waiting, and sure enough I didn't have to wait long, the whisper was back. Coming from the same door leading down to the theaters. I jumped from my hiding place and nearly jumped down the stairs, luckily there were rails there, for if I had continued down the stairs the closed door would have met my face. Since there weren't any speaker systems installed for paging I knew that wasn't it, so I checked to make sure the movie volume was turned off on all the projectors. Sure enough they were.

Really curious now, I went to the manager's door, he and the assistant were supposed to be off to lunch. I knocked on their door for several minutes, then went back to work. The whisper didn't come back for at least another day. Half an hour later the manager and the assistant stroll up to the booth heading to their office. With the manager being open minded about ghost stories I queried him about my experience. The assistant closed the door behind me, almost like they were going to lash my hide for daydreaming on the job, but instead related events that play into this.

The manager was a superstitious man, he had related to me how this theater stood on a old soda bottling plant. How some of the people had died there. Sorry but he wasn't specific. Then I asked him to explain the medicine bag he had tied to the ventilation shaft, if this was a soda bottling plant in the past, then when that particularly powerful tool. In the native area before the Europeans the tribes had used these bags to ward off major spirits to what we might call demons, or other tribe's ghosts. That is when I found out that the Soda bottling plant had been built and dug out on a native burial site. At this point I believed him, but also thought he might be seeing how much I'd be willing to believe, or scare me, he'd tried that with others before. He could be a mean guy if you let him, but that is how he chalked up the medicine bag to me. My curiosity had been satiated for the moment, so I went back to work.

When my shift ended, and my friend came in, I stuck around long enough to ask him about it. He told me he was relieved someone else to talk to about it, what he had been seeing and hearing played on his nerves. That is when he asked me if I'd see anything else yet, he wouldn't explain just left it at that. I pressured him to talk, but he wouldn't. I had to wait almost a week later to find out.

During the day it happened, I had kept the voices at the back of my mind, and for once I was having the closest thing to a perfect day anyone is allowed to have. Everything ran right, my lunch was an excellent burger, cooked by a very beautiful young lady. So the voices were the last things on my mind. I'd taken my seat at the desk they allotted us, and was going over the previews for next weeks movies, getting them in order. This makes it easier to put them on when we get the film. I'd taken a slight step or two to get some blue leader, the stuff we thread the films by, and check to make sure it is in frame.

As I went to sit again I noticed several lights dancing about. Not uncommon for when a movie is running they almsot didn't hold my interest, Until they moved out of pattern for a running movie. My first thought was that one of the movies had wrapped, and the film was being burned through. I raced as fast as my legs could carry me, which wasn't exactly slow. The lights though as I learned weren't coming from any projector, all of them ran fine, what didn't were the lights. They'd dance from wall to ceiling, and from ceiling to air. I watched them do this, because when they took on that spherical light emanating shape, they were not reflections, but objects themselves. I've seen someone make a hologram that almost looked like them, but they had mirrors to do that. Here I only had a window to the auditoriums and a wall. Plus holograms don't move position, at least without help, and this spherical ball of light danced around till it was at the far end, then it jumped into a storage closet.

I was alone again, except this time the manager's office was occupied, by the assistant and a his business. So he was too busy to bother with me. The only other people there were a box and concession person, both unable to come up the door without the key I had. The lights appeared again, and I watched the show, not scared but intrigued.

For several days they would appear and I'd watch, and just like that first day they appeared, the whisper would come back towards the end of my shift, whispering my name. None of these that I saw were frightening or scary, just unusual, but as I draw ramblings to a close I leave you with the part that was.

The door to the parking garage I told you about led to a hallway which ended to another door out to the parking garage, not a very long walk and quite nice when escaping on a Friday night, or Saturday for that matter. Yet we hated to use it. The general closed in space about it was livable, or the fact it was cold and hot from time to time. What made it unbearable is when it would get really cold no matter the temperature outside. And of course it always did this right when you walked through it, not running but walking. That difference is key here. You walk through, either way it didn't matter, it would get cold, very cold. It was bad enough we almost carried jackets just for that area. As if that didn't get you moving, you would get this sense that someone was behind you. I'd look behind myself all the time, the others did not, my curiosity is sometimes absolute. I of course would see nothing, and start walking again, just to get the same feeling. That is when the hairs on the neck sprang to life, in that eerie, half danger sense we have. Combined with this was this feeling of not just being watched but followed, though a better word would be stalked. Sometimes I'd try to see how I'd react to walking slower, but whatever gave me the hair raising experiences, seemed displeased by this, making the experiences more and more brutal.

It got so bad that my rational mind, and irrational mind would battle it out. The fear so great the only thought in my head would be to run as if my last breaths were imminent. By this time usually I'd be at the door to my booth, and inside was myself before anything could happen. As the months went by, the feeling never went away, and as we each began to run through, it quieted down, enjoying it seemed our discomfort and terror. Those like myself that still tried to walk from time to time were treated to intense feelings of fright.

Eventually I left for other reasons. The assistant I have written about became manager, and turned really nasty. My friend and I left at the same time. Several years past, and during this absence from this theater the events from my previous postings happened, but I did return. Though my return was as a customer, and a friend to one of the assistants there, after the new management had taken over. This also was another haunting of this theater, none of the management ever lasted more than a couple of years. The new management had taken down my old manager's medicine bag, and none of the employees or my friend had seen or heard anything. To this day they still haven't, or they won't talk. Either way it seems that whatever was there either moved on, became dormant, or really dislike those people who worked around me. Of course the though that did occur is, what was in that medicine bag?

Thanks for reading, good night

Kris

Contact me here: Wildtaz4@hotmail.com