Ghost Imitator In The Library

Lisa from Kansas posted a story in December that reminded me of a very similar experience I had in my workplace, so I thought I would repost. Unlike Lisa, though, I don't think that my encounter was in any way connected to using a Ouija board. I just think that there are spirits hanging around that building, and sometimes they like to show themselves in one form or another.

So I work in a library, and one evening I was doing a busy shift at the reference desk. As it got later I realized that I had left my keys on my desk in the staff area, and that all my colleagues had left for the day. I walked across the library which was brightly lit and crowded with students to the staff door to see if it was locked. It was, but looking in the window I could see one of my co-workers sitting at her desk. All the lights were turned off except the one over her desk, and I could see her clearly, typing away with the light from her computer monitor shining on her face. I was surprised because I had seen her leave hours before, but I thought she must have returned while I was busy with a student.

Well, she was sitting only about three meters away from where I stood, so I knocked on the door to get her attention, so that she would unlock it and let me in. I was somewhat surprised when she did not look up or react in any way, and I knocked again, watching her through the window the entire time. Again she did not react in any way.

Giving up I turned and went around the corner ?" there was another, rarely-used door there, but I thought I might get lucky and find it unlocked. Well I did, and I walked into the office ?" to find that my colleague was not at her desk and the whole area was in complete darkness. The light over her desk and her computer were both turned off, and I saw that her coat and bags were gone. It had taken me just seconds to go from the window, around the corner, and through that other door ?" not even enough time for her to get up and leave the office without my noticing, let alone turn things off, gather her things, and leave. I don't know exactly what it was that I saw through the window that night, but it was clear to me that it wasn't her. I worried all that night that it was a premonition and that something bad had happened to her, but she was there the next day, and all was normal. I never told her about what I saw that night, for fear that it might disturb her.

But that's not the end of the story. About a month later I was working late one Friday evening. It was about 7 pm and the library had closed at 5, so I was alone in the building ?" but that's not an unusual occurrence for me, and I was not thinking about ghosties or feeling anxious in any way. Well, finally I gathered up my things to leave, and headed out through the library and toward the front door. Directly before the exit there is a security gate, which beeps when someone tries to walk through with an item that has not been signed out. Directly behind me, about five meters back, is that information desk that I mentioned before. Well, as I passed through the gate it made a peculiar noise ?" not the usual three distinct beeps, but one long, slow, wavery beep. I stopped and turned around to look at the gate, thinking with annoyance that I would have to call in the next day to report that it was malfunctioning. As I turned, I happened to look up and see someone standing in my usual spot at the information desk. Surprised, it took me a moment to recognize who it was standing there. It was me.

Needless to say, I fled ?" I just did not want to know what was going to happen next! Well, those were certainly not the last eerie encounters I had at the library, although that year did seem to be more active than usual. But of all of those encounters, seeing myself? That was by far the scariest!