Imagination or Real?

Ok, to start off, I live in a small town in Illinois. My husband and I have our own business, a collectibles store, we have people come in every weekend and play a game called L.A.R.P. (Live action role playing) in which they run around in our basement and play vampires. :) The story I am giving you, is about the basement and back room of our business.

The building that our business is in, is very old, I'd say, maybe, turn of the century, to Mid-Nineteen Hundreds. A drop ceiling has been added to it, but if you go to the back room, you can see the original ceiling up way above it. While in this back room, if you are alone, you can hear crying from above the drop ceiling where it is dark. It sounds like a woman or small child crying. I don't have a ladder or I would venture up there to look. When you first walk in there, you can feel a cold draft above you, as you walk farther into the room, the cold turns to heat, then cold again along the edges of the heat. The room is this way, no matter what the weather is like outside, summer, winter, rain, doesn't ever change it. Some of our L.A.R.P.ers, have seen a glow from up there but it's very faint, like it's just out of site if you are up against the far wall. At the same time they can hear the crying. There is also a growl that seems to almost come from the ground right under the hot spot, it is very faint but if you listen close you can hear it.

Now keep in mind that these are people who like to pretend that they are vampires. Most of them are self- proclaimed pagans,and Wiccans. Most of them are also a part of an American Medieval Reenactment group called Daggerheir. They dress in medieval garb, and make medieval weapons out of foam and hit each other with them. :) They have big gatherings nation wide from Michigan, to Ohio, to Illinois, and some as far as Missouri. Most of them like the paranormal anyway. The basement is a different story.

The basement runs the full length of the building, and is very dark even with 100 watt light bulbs. There are air wholes in the far wall by the street, we haven't figured out what they are for. you can see in from the outside, but when you are down there it's like the light from outside won't penetrate. They have made the basement into four rooms and a hallway using ply-wood.

Other then the darkness I have had some people come up to me and tell me that, in the back room, closest to the air wholes they can hear breathing and whispering. It only happens when they are alone in the room. The room is always the coldest. It's like when they built the rooms what ever is in there got pined in or something. The main room has whispers, but no cold spots, and no heavy breathing ( this is the room right next to the one I just told you about). The other two rooms are just really dark. It has also been mentioned that when we use candles down there we have more light then when we use light bulbs.

The circuit breaker in the building was so old it had to be replaced recently, we thought this would fix the lighting problem in the basement but it didn't. we don't know what is causing it. No one ever gets really scared or feels threatened in the basement, but we are very curious what is going on here. Did we wake something up that has been dormant for years? It's getting spooky to me at least but they seem to enjoy it.

One more thing, there is also a sound almost like a hiss, but not from a snake more of a hiss that a vampire might give when it bares it's fangs. :) This is also in the back room above the drop ceiling. Are vampires real?