Spirited Pub

My story takes place back in Jun '98 - I'd left college to pursue an illustrious career in pub work... or should I say I was sick of being in college and not having money. I started working in my local pub to get some money in my pocket and I quickly went from bar staff to assistant manager, and when reaching that position is when I realized there was something not quite right where I was working.

My first telltale sign was when I started storing the freshly delivered cases of beer in the flat upstairs because it was colder up there than in the air-conditioned cellar (even on the hottest days of the year). After storing the cases up there for about 2 weeks things started getting weird ? when cashing up of a night there was movement upstairs ? I don't mean shuffles and taps. Heavy footsteps could be heard walking around the entire of the upstairs and it was always above where I was walking as if someone was looking down and mimicking my movements. After the initial eeriness of this I got quite used to it and found it strangely comforting that I was not on my own. Then I met my girlfriend and introduced her to the "residents". This is when things became livelier!!!!!

Of a night, after everyone was kicked out, my girlfriend would stay with me as I counted the cash and prepared for the next day ? the usual footsteps could be heard and then came the bangs, thumps and crashes. Cases of beer would be smashed on the floor and individual bottles of beer would be rolled down the stairs slowly only to be stood up at the bottom when checked on. Again, this was freaky ? but we got used to it. Then I had the dumbest idea possible ? I brought in a psychic/druid. I thought it would be good to communicate with the spirits? I was wrong.

The psychic arrived at 2pm and started walking around the bar room to get a "feel" for the place. Claiming he could feel no negative energies he decided to proceed upstairs to the flat. I was the only person who held keys for the flat ? so you can imagine my shock when as I tried to open the door it was lodged tightly shut. It took me, my girlfriend, Halum (the psychic) and a member of staff to pull the flat door open. When it was eventually prized open we discovered it had been nailed shut from the inside with a length of floorboard which had been ripped up from the flat upstairs. Funny thing was that I had been up their earlier that morning to grab cases to restock the fridges and I had heard no commotion.
As we walked up the stairs there was an icy cold wind whistling around us (pretty much like your typical horror movie) ? Halum informed us this was a spirit who was trapped between realms and that was the spirits way of communicating with us. It was not a malevolent spirit, it just wanted to make itself known every now and again.

We proceeded upstairs, and as we were walking around Halum informed us he was picking up on the spirit of a young boy who was a lost spirit, as he mentioned this my girlfriend started to feel her fingertips tingling and her face ? we were told not to be alarmed, this it was just the small boy looking for a playmate. The eerie part of the story is when we tried to enter the kitchen, Halum could not actually place a foot inside the room ? he said he saw a young woman bleeding from the wrists running at him screaming to get out. The worst part for me is that I had to enter this room daily to fetch ice from the freezer!!!!

We left the flat straight after his experience and I didn't go back up there for the rest of the day. As we were downstairs at the bar Halum was asking about "Old Bill" ? now this was strange because as far as I was aware no one else had spoken to him since arriving.
Let me explain why, we had an elderly customer who used to come in at 3pm daily and have a couple of pints and sit in his usual spot in the corner ? he had died about a month earlier and none of the regulars would sit in his place as it just didn't feel right? Halum explained that he still came in daily and sat in his seat enjoying everyone's company? this was quite saddening because we all knew that Bill never really had any family around him?

I have had more experiences in different jobs and I will probably post them on here some other time.

Thanks for reading my story.