Nightmare Watch

My story happened approx. a year ago, when I took a job as a night watchman at the local factory.

It was only my 2nd week, and the first night I was to work alone after training. It seemed if I would have a normal boring night in the old factory, boy was I wrong! It was a Saturday night and I was on the graveyard shift, I really hated that shift. It was 11:48pm and everyone was leaving for the weekend off 2nd shift. No one would be working on my shift and sometimes the place got kinda creepy. It was a huge place with oily machines and dark walkways everywhere. You could get lost if you didn't know the place. It had its normal ghost stories of men getting trapped inside machines and their ghosts haunting the place.

Well I just took it at as rumors until this night I'm about to explain in detail. The last of the workers clocked out and I was alone, I was getting ready to turn on the radios as I always do when I heard something knock on the door, I went to answer but no one was there. I figured someone was late getting out so before I locked up I went to see how long they would be. I couldn't find anyone, I looked for half an hour, so I locked up. Then it started, outside the office down the dark hall I heard machine kick on then kick off. I thought someone left a machine on that I was unaware of, I looked out the door and it was pitch black, no lights from any place. That was pretty creepy, because if a machine were in use they were bright and you could see from my office. I walked back to my desk and again the machines kicked on making loud rackets, again I went to the hall; no lights, no sounds, but I heard the sounds of men talking. I walked out in the hall and the voices stopped, no one was there, I wondered if my overactive mind might be playing tricks on me. Then as I started to calm down someone knocked on the side entrance door, I stared at it for a second knowing no one can get into the plant without me letting them in, then they knocked again louder and harder, I checked my pistol and started for the door, kinda scared and kinda mad that someone was playing tricks on me. When I opened the door I got the most horrible feeling that I wasn't alone, there was no one in sight.

I looked down the long dark hall, it seemed to have mist in the air. Now I want to tell you I don't believe in ghosts, but something wasn't natural about this. I walked down the hall slowly watching both sides of the building. To my left was the old boiler room which hadn't been in use in years. They had installed a new one. As I walked past the door it was open, which is unusual because it was always locked, I had never been inside before. I heard a rubbing sound in there, so I walked in the dark damp room.

There was cobwebs and the smell of mold and mildew everywhere. There looked like something glowing by the boiler, as I walked towards it the machine appeared new and working. Then the room took on a yellow glow as if lights were on, I heard the sound of men talking as if it were a normal day for work. The room that had previously appeared dark and damp, was now bright and clean, again I started toward the boiler, I was in kind of a daze, this moment didn't make any sense. Then as I reached the boiler I saw a man on top of it cleaning something from the opening, I tried to move closer toward him but It was as if someone was holding me, I couldn't move. The man on top of the boiler began to get unbalanced, and fell down the center of the boiler, I screamed and broke free of whatever held me and ran to open the front of it, not knowing how I could help. As I opened the door, it felt cold, the lights now gone and no sounds from anywhere. The dead silence had replaced the room. My skin was cold and sweat was pouring down my forehead, I thought I would pass out from being so scared. Instead I froze, I couldn't tell you how long it was before I backed out of the room. I didn't know what to believe was real or not real. As I almost reached the door the furnace lit up a bright orange and a mans voice was screaming from inside the furnace for help, I stood frozen once again. The room again went dark, I ran, not walked, down the dark hall to my office, when I reached there I wondered how I would make it through the rest of the night, so terrified from the experience, I looked back at the clock it was 5:30am, had I been gone that long?

I didn't understand the time thing. When the next watchman came on duty, I explained what happened to him and he said the door has been locked for years because a man supposedly fell in the furnace and died. They had gotten a new boiler and locked up that part of the factory. We went down the hall, the door was locked and none of us had keys. There were cobwebs on the outside where it seems impossible for anyone to have gone in.

Shortly after my experience I talked to the other Watchman, they explained that they also heard things from that room but never attempted to check it out, because they had heard about the man burning alive and no one helped him. So he haunts that room, that's why the other was built.

Needless to say I quit that job and have since moved on to a day job.